Michele Bachmann: Look To China On Social Program Cuts

Michele Bachmann made a curious suggestion during Saturday night's Republican debate.

Fielding a question about which social programs she would cut if president, the Minnesota Congresswoman said that China provided a good example of a society without a social safety net. The fact that China's government is resolutely socialist appeared to be lost on her.

Bachmann said that Lyndon Johnson's Great Society has "not worked, and it's put us into the modern welfare state...If you look at China, they don't have food stamps."

She continued, "They save for their own retirement security, they don't have AFDC (Aid to Families With Dependent Children), they don't have the modern welfare state, and China's growing...and so what I would do is look at the programs that LBJ gave us, with the Great Society, and they'd be gone."

Above video courtesy of Talking Points Memo.

Comments

[Raymond R Reines]

11:46 PM on 11/18/2011

Congress IS the new welfare state...THE LEACHES...HYPOCRITES...LIARS...THIEVES...MURDERERS..!

[eeslansingfr]

11:47 AM on 11/16/2011

In China, adults are REQUIRED to support their parents by law. The US does not have such laws.

[flaconoire]

05:11 PM on 11/15/2011

Communist! Communist!!

[Dorothy Moody]

12:12 PM on 11/15/2011

My question for Bachmann is this: if she loves China's policies so much, which of her children would she have aborted under the One Child law?

[slatkin97]

12:15 AM on 11/16/2011

Well I assume she could have just paid a fee to the government if she wanted to have more than one child, just like most Chinese families who can afford it do. But keep on acting like an expert.

[alaskabeads]

10:59 AM on 11/15/2011

As she BEEN to China? And that's her vision for the U.S.?

[Raymond R Reines]

11:48 PM on 11/18/2011

No, but she can see it from her house..!

[tman418]

08:58 PM on 11/14/2011

Uh...isn't AFDC eliminated? Replaced by TANF, and welfare is not permanent anymore.

[The Night Watch]

07:17 PM on 11/14/2011

Well, when you are polling at 4 percent, I guess it's time to shake things a bit.

[Caze Oliveira]

02:02 PM on 11/14/2011

rofl.. sounds like she is BETTER than PALIN rofl

[amluvinit2]

01:38 PM on 11/14/2011

Dear Michelle Bachman,

The desparity between rich and poor in China is astounding. They are a socialist country, which completely escapes you. It's cheap to do business in China because they regulate nothing, and people are wearing rags, is that what you want for this country? Then just say so.

[Raymond R Reines]

11:51 PM on 11/18/2011

And we ship our jobs there, and we buy lead-tainted toys for our children from them, and poison-infused sheetrock for our homes...and...yet they are the enemy...and we must protect ourselves from them..!

[amluvinit2]

01:36 PM on 11/14/2011

Any facts seem to have always escaped this woman. So tell me Teapublicans, how did this less than bright woman get to run for President? She's your monster, how are you going to control her?

[wlcd]

12:26 PM on 11/14/2011

They also do not have tight regulations on polution; are lax on trademark and patent infringements; they do support the death penalty. Guess China has embareced the core GOP values-Sure they approve of waterboarding. Hmm mabye Ms. Bachmann wants us to be more like CHINA-oh, after all but they do believe in freeunregulated enterprise and capitalism. Lead us on Chairwoman Bachmman.

[TAMPA M]

09:23 AM on 11/14/2011

If aliens came down and abducted Michele Bachmann and did a scientific probe on her, they would think this planet was void of intelligent life. This woman is a spastic case and deserves no attention.

[thejazz]

09:10 AM on 11/14/2011

I think she has a point. Not about emulating china on their socal programs, but that between the water bording and her penchant for getting rid of the social safety net, that she would make a great dictator.

[Reiner-von-Sinn]

09:00 AM on 11/14/2011

Where's Marcus?

[MyDawg1967]

08:47 AM on 11/14/2011

"Socialism bad, communism good" - Michelle Bachmann