Frienemies? Bachmann Hopes to Team with Ellison on Medicare Reform

Less than two weeks after she questioned her fellow Minnesota U.S. Representative's , Rep. Michele Bachmann (GOP—Stillwater) announced Monday in St. Michael, MN, that she's hoping to team up with Rep. Keith Ellison (DFL-Minneapolis) on Medicare reform. 

In a meeting with St. Michael business owners, Bachmann said she was looking to do bipartisan work to end Medicare fraud.

"Minnesota is the poster child for Medicare fraud," Bachmann said. "If we're going to have a system, we need a system that works for the poor. Right now, it's not working. I've been in communication with Rep. Ellison and hope to work with him on this issue."

Bachmann added that the reform would largely help more people in Ellison's district, but would also assist people in hers. 

"If it helps him more, who cares? It's broken and it needs to be fixed," she said. 

Earlier in July, Bachmann questioned Ellison's ties with various Muslim groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, on the Glenn Beck Show. She said the Inspectors General of the National Intelligence Committee had every right to investigate people "like" Ellison and their ties to various groups. 

"Well, he (Ellison) has a long record of being associated with CAIR and with the Muslim Brotherhoodm," Bachmann said. "CAIR is an unindicted co‑conspirator, as stated in the large terrorist financing case that we’ve had in the United States of America and so he came out and essentially wanted to shut down the inspectors general from even looking into any of the questions that we were asking." 

Ellison , and said Bachmann should apologize for the allegations, not to him, but to others. At the center of the controversy was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's deputy chief of staff, Huma Abedin.  

"It's the worst of 'guilt by association,'" Ellison told CNN's Anderson Cooper on July 20. 

Bachmann said she has "high respect" for Ellison, and enjoys a "working relationship" with Congress' only elected Muslim. 

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