Sarah Palin on D.C. suburbs, Michele Bachmann on 'food stamp' overhead: PolitiFact Roundup

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. speaks at the 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Two rock stars of the Republican Party addressed the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. One rated a True, the other ended up with a Pants on Fire.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who ran on the presidential ticket with Sen. John McCain in 2008, told attendees that they needed to work on rebuilding the country with an anti-Washington focus.

"The permanent political class is in permanent campaign mode. So where do we go from here?" Palin said. "... At a time when Washington is so powerful that seven of the 10 highest-income counties in the country ring the city, allow yourself to imagine leadership that deigns to understand us little people, us clinging to our God, our guns, our Constitution and the grass roots!"

Is it true that seven of the 10 highest-income counties in the country ring the nation's Capitol? Yes, she is correct.

Brief presidential contender in 2012 and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., wondered aloud how the federal government was helping the poor, when "of every dollar that you hold in your hands, 70 cents of that dollar that's supposed to go to the poor doesn't. It actually goes to benefit the bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. Seventy cents on the dollar. That's how the president's caring works in practice. So three dollars in food stamps for the needy, seven dollars in salaries and pensions for the bureaucrats who are supposed to be taking care of the poor. So with all due respect, I ask you, how does this show that our president cares about the poor?"

Seventy percent? That sounded high to PolitiFact, who checked it out and found the statement "ridiculously off-base." The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, has overhead costs that top out at 5 percent.

PolitiFact's Bill Adair has also summarized the checks out of CPAC.

And while we're not on the national stage, PolitiFact Oregon checks out a claim by local and active commenter Gene McIntyre that the university system's chancellor is living it up on the public dime. We review her contract to find the ! claim Hal! f True.