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Viral Spiral
FactCheck Mailbag
FactCheck Mailbag, Week of May 7-13.
See letters from previous weeks“ Why is that worth noting? Does it change the facts? ” -
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2012 Players Guide
Tag Archives: vice presidential debate
Will Romney Increase Defense Spending By $2 Trillion?
Paul Ryan insisted in the Oct. 11 debate that Mitt Romney will not increase defense spending. Joe Biden interrupted Ryan twice to say Romney will increase it by $2 trillion. Who’s right? The answer depends on another question: compared with what? Romney would spend $2 trillion more than Obama over …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged defense, Joe Biden, Paul Ryan, vice presidential debate
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Biden on Hezbollah, and other late debate goodies
In today’s Washington Post, Michael Dobbs, a.k.a. The Fact Checker, writes about a few more stumbles from the debate, including a couple items that we didn’t have in our story on Friday. Dobbs, a former diplomatic reporter, says Sen. Joe Biden was wrong when he said the U.S. and France …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged Alaska, Hezbollah, Joe Biden, Sarah Palin, vice presidential debate
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McCain in the vanguard of mortgage reform?
Sarah Palin says that McCain sounded the alarm on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years ago. Our colleagues at PolitiFact questioned that claim, calling it “barely true.” Palin’s referring to a bill that would have increased oversight on Fannie and Freddie. McCain signed onto that bill as a cosponsor, …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Sarah Palin, vice presidential debate
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Health Care Deregulation?
Biden said that McCain wrote in a magazine article that he wanted to do for the health care industry what deregulation had done for Wall Street. That’s taking McCain’s words out of context, as we’ve written before. Biden is referring to a phrase from a journal article under McCain’s name …
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Socialized Medicine?
Palin said that Obama’s plan would be “government run” and would mandate health care. The first claim is false, as we’ve said before. Obama’s plan would increase the offerings of publicly funded health care, but would not replace or remove private insurance, or require people to enroll in a public …
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Tax Cuts for Oil Companies?
McCain isn’t proposing a special tax break for oil companies, despite Joe Biden’s mention (more than once) of the $4 billion cut they’d get. As we’ve noted previously, McCain’s plan would cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 25 percent — for ALL corporations, not just oil companies. It …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged Joe Biden, oil companies, taxes, vice presidential debate
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Tax Distortions
Palin repeated several false claims about Obama’s tax policies. Obama did not in fact vote to increase taxes on “families” making as little as $42,000 per year. What Obama actually voted for was a budget resolution that called for returning the 25 percent tax bracket to its pre-Bush tax cut …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged Sarah Palin, tax increases, tax policy, vice presidential debate
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Obama Voted Against Troop Funding?
Palin repeated the claim that Obama “voted against funding our troops.” The claim refers to a single 2007 vote against a war funding bill. Obama voted for a version of the bill that included language calling for withdrawing troops from Iraq. President Bush vetoed it. (McCain supported that veto, but …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged military, Sarah Palin, troop funding, vice presidential debate
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The Iraqi Surplus
Biden said that Iraq had an “$80 billion surplus.” Obama said the same — $79 billion — in the last debate, and we called him on it then. Seventy-nine billion is an out-of-date projection. The Iraqis currently have $29 billion in the bank, and could have $47 billion to $59 …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged Iraq, Iraqi surplus, Joe Biden, vice presidential debate
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2005 Energy Bill Deja Vu
Palin threw out an old canard when she criticized Obama for voting for the 2005 Energy bill, saying, “that’s what gave those oil companies those big tax breaks.” It’s a false attack Clinton used against Obama in the primary and McCain himself has hurled. It’s true that the bill gave …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged energy bill, oil, oil companies, Sarah Palin, tax breaks, vice presidential debate
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