Michele Bachmann: “I thank Mr. Latham for offering this bill. It's high time that the FAA, Mr. Speaker, have the flexibility that they need…”

“I thank Mr. Latham for offering this bill. It's high time that the FAA, Mr. Speaker, have the flexibility that they need to have on closures of any air traffic control towers. It is my hope that St. Cloud, Minnesota, and Anoka-Blaine airports do remain open. They're vital and they're much needed. We're looking at approximately 189 airports. But I want to speak to something else. We were listening to Representative Hoyer and Representative Pelosi be extremely passionate about the loss that we'll see for children through Head Start, for senior citizens on Meals on Wheels, for children who will be dealing with various other food nutrition programs. That breaks everyone's hearts. But I want to remind the people of this country that it was former- Speaker Pelosi, Representative Hoyer, Senator Reid, and President Obama who signed the sequestration bill, and it was Press Secretary Jay Carney who admitted that the sequestration was President Obama's idea. There are numerous Republicans that voted against the sequestration because we knew all of these calamities were in the future. So it reminds me of the Shakespeare line: Thou doth protest too much. Didn't you know this was going to happen? We knew it. That's why we voted against this bill. And it seems like the higher the level of passion, it equals the conscience that we are seeing of those who voted the wrong way on this bill for the first time.”