Bachmann uses Holocaust to illustrate tax point

By HOLLY RAMER, Associated Press

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann on Saturday described the loss of "economic liberty" that young Americans face today as a "flash point of history" in which the younger generation will ask what their elders did to stop it.

In a speech to New Hampshire Republicans, Bachmann recounted learning about a horrific time in history as a child -- the Holocaust -- and wondering if her mother did anything to stop it. She said she was shocked to hear that many Americans weren't aware that millions of Jews had died until after World War II ended.

Bachmann said the next generation will ask similar questions about what their elders did to prevent them from facing a huge tax burden.

"I tell you this story because I think in our day and time, there is no analogy to that horrific action," she said, referring to the Holocaust. "But only to say, we are seeing eclipsed in front of our eyes a similar death and a similar taking away. It is this disenfranchisement that I think we have to answer to."

Bachmann said that the generation of Americans just entering the work force now could eventually see 75 percent of their earnings sucked up by income taxes, Social Security and Medicare. Those young workers are going to wonder what people were doing while "watching quite literally our economic liberty pulled out from under us."

"The question comes down to this: What will you say to that next generation about what you did to make sure that wouldn't be their fate?" she said.

Bachmann, along with fellow potential presidential hopefuls Rick Santorum and Tim Pawlenty, spoke at a forum organized by "We the People," a conservative organization created by former congressional candidate Jennifer Horn.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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