FactChecking Biden-Palin Debate
October 3, 2008
The candidates were not 100 percent accurate. To say the least.
Summary
Biden and Palin debated, and both mangled some facts.
a.. Palin mistakenly claimed that troop levels in Iraq had returned to
“pre-surge” levels. Levels are gradually coming down but current plans would
have levels higher than pre-surge numbers through early next year, at least.
a.. Biden incorrectly said “John McCain voted the exact same way” as Obama on
a controversial troop funding bill. The two were actually on opposite sides.
b.. Palin repeated a false claim that Obama once voted in favor of higher
taxes on “families” making as little as $42,000 a year. He did not. The budget
bill in question called for an increase only on singles making that amount, but
a family of four would not have been affected unless they made at least $90,000
a year.
a.. Biden wrongly claimed that McCain “voted the exact same way” as Obama on
the budget bill that contained an increase on singles making as little as
$42,000 a year. McCain voted against it. Biden was referring to an amendment
that didn't address taxes at that income level.
a.. Palin claimed McCain’s health care plan would be “budget neutral,”
costing the government nothing. Independent budget experts estimate McCain's
plan would cost tens of billions each year, though details are too fuzzy to
allow for exact estimates.
b.. Biden wrongly claimed that McCain had said "he wouldn't even sit down"
with the president of Spain. Actually, McCain didn't reject a meeting, but
simply refused to commit himself one way or the other during an interview.
a.. Palin wrongly claimed that “millions of small businesses” would see tax
increases under Obama’s tax proposals. At most, several hundred thousand
business owners would see increases.
b..
c.. A few other misleads of note:
d..
a.. Palin said, "We're circulating about $700 billion a year into foreign
countries" for imported oil, repeating an outdated figure often used by McCain.
At oil prices current as of Sept. 30, imports are running at a rate of about
$493 billion per year.
b.. Biden claimed that McCain said in a magazine article that he wanted to
deregulate the health care industry as the banking industry had been. That’s
taking McCain’s words out of context. As we’ve said before, he was talking
specifically about his proposal to allow the sale of health insurance across
state lines.
c.. Biden said five times that McCain's tax plan would give oil companies a
"$4 billion tax cut." As we’ve noted previously, McCain’s plan would cut the
corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent — for ALL corporations, not
just oil companies. Biden uses a Democratic think tank's estimate for what the
rate change is worth to the five largest U.S. oil companies.
d.. Palin threw out an old canard when she criticized Obama for voting for
the 2005 energy bill and said, “that’s what gave those oil companies those big
tax breaks.” It’s a false attack Sen. Hillary Clinton used against Obama in the
primary, and McCain himself has hurled. It’s true that the bill gave some tax
breaks to oil companies, but it also took away others. And according to the
Congressional Research Service, the bill created a slight net increase in taxes
for the oil industry.
e.. Biden said that Iraq had an "$80 billion surplus." The country was once
projected to have as much as a $79 billion surplus, but no more. The Iraqis
have $29 billion in the bank, and could have $47 billion to $59 billion by the
end of the year, as we noted when Obama used the incorrect figure. A $21
billion supplemental spending bill, passed by the Iraqi legislature in August,
knocked down the old projection.
f.. Biden said four times that McCain had voted 20 times against funding
alternative energy. However, in analyzing the Obama campaign's list of votes
after the first presidential debate, we found the number was actually 11. In
the other instances the Obama-Biden campaign cites, McCain voted not against
alternative energy but against mandatory use of alternative energy, or he voted
in favor of allowing exemptions from these mandates.
-by Brooks Jackson, Viveca Novak, Lori Robertson, Joe Miller, Jessica Henig
and Justin Bank
For full details on these misstatements, and on additional factual disputes and
dubious claims, please read on to the Analysis section.
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/print_factchecking_biden-palin_debate.html
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