Bachmann to miss vote on spending bill that funds Obama’s healthcare law

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) won’t be returning to Congress on Friday to vote against a $1 trillion spending package that preserves funding for President Obama’s healthcare reform law, her office told The Hill.

The presidential candidate is campaigning in Iowa on Friday, according to her campaign schedule.

The omnibus is expected to sail through Congress after both parties signed off on it Thursday night. Still, Bachmann has made opposition to the healthcare law a focal point of her campaign and has taken to calling the two front-runners for the GOP nomination “Newt Romney” because of their past support for an individual mandate.

“I won’t rest until we repeal ObamaCare. You can take it to the bank,” Bachmann said during last week’s GOP debate in Des Moines, Iowa. “This is such an important issue. We have one shot to get rid of ObamaCare, that’s it. It is 2012.”

Despite her pledge to fight the law every step of the way, Bachmann has amassed the 10th-worst attendance record in Congress. She has missed 501 votes — or 11 percent of the total — since entering the House in 2007, according to GovTrack.

That’s just behind Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), who has missed 1,181 votes — also 11 percent — since he rejoined the House in 1997. His office did not respond to a query about whether he would attend Friday’s vote on the spending bill.

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