The Hill News

Tea Party favorite Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) advocated trimming the Department of Education's budget during a Saturday appearance on CNN.

When pressed by host Wolf Blitzer for specifically what programs she would cut to help bring federal spending back to 2008 levels, Bachmann pointed to large increases in federal funding for the Department of Education under President George W. Bush and Obama.

"I'll give you one example going back to when President Bush was in office. I disagreed with President Bush on no child left behind," Bachmann said. "I thought it was a failure, and it failed, a failed opportunity. In that bill the federal government ramped up spending more than we had ever seen."

"So you would cut that?" Blitzer asked.

"You could start there," Bachmann responded.

Bachmann also said she doesn't foresee the Tea Party eventually breaking off from the Republican party.

"I really doubt it. I think you'll s! ee the two-party system intact," Bachmann said, pointing out time has already started ticking on the 2012 presidential campaign.

"I don't think we'll see -- you'd have to have a rise of an entire political party in infrastructure. There's so much that goes along with that. I just don't think that we're going to see that happen."