Michele Bachmann received rave reviews from conservatives for her speech at an Iowa political conference last week, but it appears key portions of the congresswoman’s remarks were based on faulty – even phony – information.
The fact-checkers at Politifact.com pointed out several questionable assertions made by Bachmann, who now appears on the verge of declaring herself a 2012 presidential candidate.
One particular claim by the Minnesota Republican drew Politifact’s infamous “Pants on Fire” rating – meaning an outright lie.
The issue at hand is Bachmann’s claim that the Obama administration has issued just one oil drilling permit since coming into office.
 “You cannot create jobs when you have a president that is unwilling to use American energy resources to solve our problems here in the United States,” said Bachmann, in a bow to the “drill, baby, drill” crowd.
Politifact took a look at Bachmann’s claim and found it doesn’t hold water – or oil.
In fact, the Obama administration has issued dozens of offshore drilling permits since the Gulf of Mexico moratorium was put into place – and after the October 2010 lifting of the moratorium. The newest permits were gobbled up by oil companies despite the new safety and environmental regulations put into place by the White House following the BP oil spill disaster, according to Politifact.

“There’s a lot of ways to slice the data,” the researchers concluded, “and you can see our full analysis, here but our conclusion was easy; Bachmann’s figure wasn’t even close. We rated her claim Pants on Fire.”

Recent Posts: