Bachmann talks debt limit at the National Press Club

Hours before a critical vote to raise the debt ceiling in the House of Representatives, Rep. Michele Bachmann said the White House is using "scare tactics" to build support for a plan to borrow more.

"We have to stop making raising the debt limit routine," the Minnesota Republican told a crowd at the National Press Club.

It's time for Washington to "end the illusion" that it knows how to spend taxpayer dollars correctly, Bachmann said. As a legislator and, if elected president, she said she will put her foot down.

"I have the titanium spine to see it through," she said.

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Bachmann's signed a pledge to vote against raising the debt ceiling unless it's paired with deep spending cuts. She's already rejected a GOP plan because it didn't cut enough or defund the federal health care overhaul passed in 2010.

The bill did "not go far enough in fundamentally restructuring the way Washington spends taxpayer dollars," she said in a press statement the day she voted against the legislation.

The lower chamber is expected to vote on a second GOP plan to raise the debt limit later Thursday, and Bachmann's said she'll also vote against that plan.

Bachmann said that Obama's argument that Congress must raise the debt ceiling or face economic catastrophe is a "flawed assumption." Poligraph examined this argument from Bachmann when she mentioned it last month, and found that the nation does have enough cash to pay interest on the debt, but it would likely come at the cost of paying other financial obligations.

The Minnesota congresswoman also used her hour at the podium to burnish her conservative credentials, praising former President Ronald Reagan and retelling the story of how she voted for Jimmy Carter in college, but became a Republican after being disappointed by his policies.

She also deflected questions about recent news reports that her husband's counseling clinic urges prayer to rid patients of homosexuality.

"I am extremely proud of my husband," she said. "I am running for the presidency of the United States. My husband is not running for the presidency... Neither is our business."

Bachmann also talked about her experiences so far on the campaign trail. She said she hears over and over that people "fear they may have lived through pinnacle of American greatness."

"They want progress," she said. "And they certainly want that for their kids."