Paulsen is Bachmann
Congressman Erik Paulsen talks like moderate Jim Ramstad but votes lockstep with Michele Bachmann. The voters deserve the truth. This website is intended to communicate exactly where Congressman Paulsen stands – despite his moderate rhetoric.
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Barnes
Says: "There is only one way to create jobs. Companies hire staff in response to increased demand for their products and services."

Does: Manages global marketing and sales for a company that manufactures generators here in Minnesota and sells them all around the world.
Bachmann
Says: "If we took away the minimum wage, we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level."

Does: Voted against jobs in our district. (HR1 1-28-09)
Paulsen
Says: "I'm moderate and bipartisan."

Does:
Voted against jobs in our district (HR1 1-28-09)
Brian Barnes
Says: "We need to eliminate the deficit, lower our debt to GDP, and start paying as we go."

Does: Runs a profitable global business unit for a Fortune 200 company.
Bachmann
Says: "I think if we give Glenn Beck the numbers, he can solve this."

Does: Played politics with debt ceiling and caused Standard & Poor's to lower our nation's credit rating. (HR1954 1-28-09)
Paulsen
Says: "I'm moderate and bipartisan."

Does:
Played politics with debt ceiling and caused Standard & Poor's to lower our nation's credit rating. (HR1954 1-28-09)
Brian Barnes
Says: "We need a comprehensive energy policy focused on national security, economic growth and environmental protection.”

Does: Brian departs from his party on his support of nuclear energy – as a former Naval officer, he knows it to be a safe and efficient energy source, like it is on our aircraft carriers and subs – and he supports investment in clean renewables.
Bachmann
Says: “The big thing we are working on now is the global warming hoax. It’s all voodoo, nonsense, hokum, a hoax.”

Does: Voted to “stop the war on coal” and block the EPA from monitoring greenhouse gas emissions. (HR3409 9-21-12)
Paulsen
Says: "I'm moderate and bipartisan."

Does:
Voted to “stop the war on coal” and block the EPA from monitoring greenhouse gas emissions. (HR3409 9-21-12)
Brian Barnes
Says: “Equal pay for equal work is a universal concept. Pay disparity hurts families. When women are underpaid, families are underpaid.”

Does: Brian and his wife Jennifer are each business professionals that earned their MBAs together. They have an 11-week old daughter. Of course he supports equal pay for women.
Bachmann
Says: “Why should I go and do something like that? But the Lord says, 'Be submissive wives; you are to be submissive to your husbands."

Does: Despite the fact that she is a woman, voted against equal pay for women. (S181 1-27-09)
Paulsen
Says: "I'm moderate and bipartisan."

Does:
Despite the fact that he has a wife and four daughters, voted against equal pay for women. (S181 1-27-09)
Brian Barnes
Says: "I’ve served in the military, so has my brother, my father, going back 5 generations. To protect our national security and our troops, we need to listen to the generals, and that means not wasting billions of dollars of taxpayer money on unnecessary weapons systems.”

Does: Brian will bring his military experience to bear in making wise spending decisions.
Bachmann
Says: “Iran is the troublemaker trying to tip over apple carts all over Baghdad right now … they’re going to partition Iraq and half of Iraq, the western northern portion of Iraq is going to be called, the Iraq State of Islam, something like that.”

Does: Voted to force the pentagon to build an east coast missile defense system that they haven’t asked for and the country doesn’t need. (HR4310 5-18-12)
Paulsen
Says: "I'm moderate and bipartisan."

Does:
Voted to force the pentagon to build an east coast missile defense system that they haven’t asked for and the country doesn’t need. (HR4310 5-18-12)
Brian Barnes
Says: "Affordable and expanded healthcare coverage is good for people and good for business.”

Does: Brian will work to improve the Affordable Care Act to dramatically decrease costs in our healthcare system, and to protect and preserve Medicare.
Bachmann
Says: Healthcare reform) “… cannot pass. What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing. We will do whatever it takes to make sure this doesn’t pass.”

Does: Voted to deny healthcare to children with pre-existing conditions, insurance to young adults on their parent’s policies, prescription discounts to seniors, healthcare tax credits for small businesses, and to turn Medicare into a voucher system. (multiple)
Paulsen
Says: "I'm moderate and bipartisan."

Does:
Voted to deny healthcare to children with pre-existing conditions, insurance to young adults on their parent’s policies, prescription discounts to seniors, healthcare tax credits for small businesses, and to turn Medicare into a voucher system. (multiple)
Brian Barnes
Says: "This is a civil rights issue. My wife and I wouldn’t deny our daughter the right to marry the person she loves."

Does: He stands on his morals despite political lines and is a committed advocate for equality for all.
Bachmann
Says: “It isn’t that some gay will get some rights. It’s that everyone else in our state will lose rights … that will occur immediately, that all schools will begin teaching homosexuality.”

Does: Voted to enshrine discrimination into our state constitution. (SF2715 3-22-04)
Paulsen
Says: "I'm moderate and bipartisan."

Does:
Voted to enshrine discrimination into our state constitution. (SF2715 3-22-04)
Brian Barnes
Says: "Women fought these battles and won. We need to focus our efforts on preventing unplanned pregnancies and caring for the children we have."

Does: Brian is pro-choice.
Bachmann
Says: Rape, incest, or when the mother's life is at stake? “I am 100 percent pro-life. I've given birth to five babies and I've raised 23 foster children.”

Does: Sponsored a bill to redefine and delegitimize rape and incest to be considered just other forms of conception (HR5939 7-29-10)
Paulsen
Says: "I'm moderate and bipartisan."

Does:
Sponsored a bill to redefine and delegitimize rape and incest to be considered just other forms of conception (HR5939 7-29-10)