Michele Bachmann Compares Financial Reform To Mussolini-Style Fascism

Speaking at an online town hall event this week, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R- Minn.) compared the financial reform bill currently in congress to Italy under the rule of fascist leader Benito Mussolini.

Via the Minnesota Independent:

"Let's remember really what this is. This has a lot in common with Italy in the 1930s and they way Italy dealt with economics," she said. "It still continues private ownership of business but government is in control."

She continued, "So government control of the private business, while it's private ownership, that's still at the end of the day the federal government virtually having a say over private business. We lose freedoms; we lose economic competitiveness."

Chalk this up as another outlandish statement on Bachmann's part. Recall that the Minnesota congresswoman warned that the health care reform bill would lead to "gangster government" and said that before Obama's election, "100% of our economy was private."

Her controversial items have been documented in a website created by her re-election challenger, Tarryl Clark.