Rep. Bachmann Decries "Bailout" For Teachers

Yesterday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced that the House will reconvene next week to vote on a state aid package designed to, among other things, save up to 140,000 teachers' jobs.  Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) responded to the news with a petulant statement, calling the bill a "payoff to union bosses and liberal special interests." This afternoon, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) followed suit in a blog post at BigGovernment.com, decrying the "government worker bailout" and promoting an online effort to defeat the bill:

Speaker Pelosi is calling the 435 House members to DC next week for the purpose of spending another $26 billion we don't have. We were on a six week hiatus, and members had scattered to the four corners of the Earth. [...]

Spending is the least popular item on the public's mind right now, but it looks to me like this $26 billion has more to do with fully funding the union political action coffers and making sure the left's political "volunteers" get the message to get out the Democrat vote.

I've invited my colleagues in the House to join on what I think will be the largest tele-townhall Congress has ever held, this Monday evening at 7pm in Washington, DC, at the exact moment Speaker Pelosi is opening her session.

We will call 1,000,000 households, tell them what the Speaker is doing, and ask the peoples' opinion on the "Cash for Democrat re-election Program".

Nevermind that the bill is fully paid for, and could save 2,300 school jobs in Bachmann's home state of Minnesota.  Jonathan Alter spelled out the impact of failing to act: "Republicans in both chambers were happy to let all those teachers lose their jobs. The results would have been devastating not just for schools but for the country. Just what we need when we're trying to compete with China and India — four-day school weeks and teachers with 35 kids in a class."