The Hill News

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) decried the specter of defense cuts hanging over the congressional supercommittee, accusing President Obama of turning the military into a "political pawn."

Bachmann, speaking at an American Legion Convention in her native Minnesota, said the administration has engaged in an "assault on the national security apparatus" by seeking defense cuts.

About $500 billion in automatic defense cuts would be triggered into effect if the supercommittee established by the most recent debt-ceiling compromise fails to reach a comprehensive debt reduction agreement.

"As president of the United States, I want to assure you completely and wholly that our armed serves will never again be political pawns in political dealmaking in Washington, D.C.," Bachmann said.

"As commander in chief I will commit the necessary resources to the first constitutional duty of government, which is to keep the country safe," she said.!

Bachmann additionally talked of the need to discover a new Margaret Thatcher â€" the iconic conservative prime minister of the United Kingdom during the 1980s. The Minnesota congresswoman didn't explicitly mention herself as the heiress to Thatcher, though.