(CNN) - The statement: "The federal government is such a bad manager of money that somewhere between 70 and $120 billion a year in Medicare and Medicaid is paid to crooks ... I would start to balance the budget by stop paying the crooks, not by cheating honest Americans."
– former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Monday night's CNN-Tea Party Republican debate
The facts: The federal government estimates that in 2010, about 5.5% of its spending - about $125 billion - involved "improper payments" to businesses or individuals.
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(CNN) - The Statement: Texas Gov. Rick Perry said at Monday's CNN/Tea Party Debate that President Obama "had $800 billion worth of stimulus in the first round of stimulus. It created zero jobs. Four-hundred-plus billion in this package, and I can do the math on that one. Half of zero jobs is going to be zero jobs."
The Facts: A more accurate jobs count may come from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which estimates the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the stimulus bill, "increased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million" in the second quarter of 2010 alone. The budget office also states that well over half a million jobs were funded in each of the other three quarters of 2010.
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(CNN) - The Statement: Texas Gov. Rick Perry said at a September 7 MSNBC presidential debate that "it is a Ponzi scheme to tell our kids that are 25 or 30 years old today, you're paying into a program that's going to be there. Anybody that's for the status quo with Social Security today is involved with a monstrous lie to our kids, and it's not right." The "Ponzi scheme" label was also discussed during Monday night's CNN/Tea Party Republican presidential debate.
The Facts: According to the most recent report from the Social Security Board of Trustees, "projected long-run program costs for ... Social Security are not sustainable under currently scheduled financing, and will require legislative corrections if disruptive consequences for beneficiaries and taxpayers are to be avoided."
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(CNN) - During Monday's CNN/Tea Party debate, Rep. Michele Bachmann criticized Texas Gov. Rick Perry's short-lived 2007 executive order requiring girls to get a vaccination for human papillomavirus, claiming in part that his former chief of staff lobbied for the drug maker, and that the company made millions of dollars because of the order.
"I just wanted to add that we cannot forget that in the midst of this executive order there is a big drug company that made millions of dollars because of this mandate. We can't deny that ... What I'm saying is that it's wrong for a drug company, because the governor's former chief of staff was the chief lobbyist for this drug company," Bachmann said. "The drug company gave thousands of dollars in political donations to the governor, and this is just flat-out wrong. The question is, is it about life, or was it about millions of dollars and potentially billions for a drug company?"
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Tampa, Florida (CNN) – Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has a message for Republican presidential candidates taking aim at Rick Perry’s positions on Social Security: lay off.
Jindal endorsed the Texas governor’s presidential bid on Monday ahead of the CNN/Tea Party Debate in Florida.
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(CNN) - Texas Gov. Rick Perry found himself standing apart from his GOP rivals on a pair of immigration issues during a CNN/Tea Party Debate in Tampa, Florida, Monday night.
Sounding more like a previous Texas governor who brought "compassionate conservatism" to the White House, Perry staunchly defended legislation he signed that aids the children of illegal immigrants even as the audience at the debate roundly disagreed.
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Washington (CNN) - While she wasn't on stage at Monday night's debate, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin jumped in on the attacks against Texas Gov. Rick Perry for signing a state law that required inoculation against a sexually-transmitted disease for sixth-grade girls.
"You have to go up against the big guns," Palin said on FOX News Monday, praising GOP candidate Michele Bachmann for bringing up the issue at the debate. "And they will try to destroy you, when you call them out on the mistakes that they have made."
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-1 minutes. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer amps up the crowd while standing on an empty stage in Tampa, Fla. “All of us will always remember this night,” he says. “Stand by. We are about to begin. The whole world will be watching.” This last part is an overstatement. This fifth Republican presidential debate is going head-to-head with the season premier of Monday Night Football, a game between the Patriots and the Dolphins in nearby Miami. But that is nothing compared to the other live television event, the Miss Universe pageant, which is set to begin in an hour.
0 minutes. Instead of starting with the debate, CNN cuts away to a fancy montage of the eight candidates, giving each a nickname. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann is called “The Firebrand.” Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has held elected office since 1985, is called “The Newcomer.” Ominous military music plays as a voice over builds the tension. “Eight candidates,” he says. “One stage.” It’s still not football.
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New York (CNNMoney) - Social Security is still the third rail of American politics.
Yes, the electric rail. Just ask Rick Perry, who got a taste of high-voltage current Monday as he was forced to defend his characterization of Social Security as a "Ponzi scheme" at CNN's latest Republican debate.
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