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Lucylastic -> RE: We should be more like China (11/13/2011 12:59:08 PM)
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Bachmann made long-outdated comparisons to argue for lower spending on social welfare programs. She said she would cut Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” programs.
Bachmann: If you look at China, they don’t have food stamps. … They don’t have AFDC. They don’t have the modern welfare state.
“AFDC” is a reference to the old Aid to Families With Dependent Children program, but it no longer exists. AFDC and several other federal aid programs were replaced by the 1996 legislation commonly known as “welfare reform.” Taking their place is the current Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program of block grants to states.
And technically, “food stamps” don’t exist anymore either. Although that term is still in common use, the program is now formally known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and no longer uses the paper coupons. Legislation enacted in 2008 only allows electronic debit cards to be used.
And in any case, while China may not have programs exactly comparable to food stamps, SNAP, AFDC or TANF, it does have programs for both social insurance and medical insurance.
Been There, Done That
The candidates also repeated claims we’ve heard at least once before:
Bachmann said that it was “quite likely” under President Obama that Medicare and the military’s Tricare program “will collapse,” and “everyone will be put into Obamacare.” That’s a softer version of the claim she made at the Oct. 11 New Hampshire debate, where she said unequivocally that Obama “plans for Medicare to collapse.” There’s no evidence for this bewildering claim. Medicare is a government-run program. If seniors were forced off of it, would they end up with subsidized private insurance, something Republicans have often espoused?
Romney said it in the last debate, and tonight he said it again: “We should not pay government workers” more than those in the private sector. The average government worker does make more in salary and benefits than the average worker in the private sector. But the comparison is misleading. The average federal worker has more education and more experience, too. For details, see our Dec. 1 item, “Are Federal Workers Overpaid?”
Gingrich once again claimed credit for balanced budgets that happened after he left Congress, saying: “I helped balance the budget for four consecutive years.” But as we pointed out back in March when he made this often-repeated boast, he was in Congress for only two of those four years.
http://factcheck.org/2011/11/south-carolina-debate/
eidted to add link
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