POLITIFACT, August 12, 2011--PolitFact staffers are watching the Republican debate from Iowa. We'll be updating this story throughout the night. When the candidates say something we've checked before, we'll post links to the previous Truth-O-Meter items.
Mitt Romney complained about the growth of government. "Back in the days of John F. Kennedy, the federal government took up, along with the state and local governments, 27 percent of the economy. Today, government consumes 37 percent of the economy. We're inches away from no longer having a free economy," he said. He made the same "inches away" claim in his announcement speech. We rated that PANTS ON FIRE.
Tim Pawlenty attacked Rep. Michele Bachmann's record of accomplishments in Congress. "Look, she has done wonderful things in her life, absolutely wonderful things, but it is an undisputable fact that in congress her record of accomplishment and results is nonexistent," he said. We fact-checked a very similar claim when Pawlenty said her record was "offering failed amendments." We rated that MOSTLY TRUE.
Bachmann replied by saying that Pawlenty had supported cap and trade when he was Minnesota governor. Indeed, we found that was true when we put his cap and trade position to the Flip-O-Meter. She also accused him of saying that "the era of small government is over." We rated that MOSTLY TRUE.
Newt Gingrich likened his campaign's problems to Ronald Reagan's. PolitiFact Georgia checked that a few weeks ago and rated it MOSTLY FALSE.
Pawlenty attacked Romney saying that "ObamaCare" was patterned after "RomneyCare." We rated that MOSTLY TRUE.
Gingrich was asked about his position on military action against Libya. He claimed that was a "gotcha" question. We explored whether he flip-flopped and rated it FULL FLOP.
Bachmann said raising the debt ceiling gave Obama a "blank check." PolitiFact Virginia checked that when Eric Cantor said it about a debt ceiling plan from Harry Reid and found it FALSE.
Posted By: Richard Kigel
Friday, August 12th 2011 at 8:34AM
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