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Reality Check: The Debate Breakdown

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Sep 27, 2008 11:21 am US/Central

Reality Check: The Debate Breakdown

Reporting
Pat Kessler
(WCCO) Overall, it was a spirited, but generally civil debate. No major gaffes -- no memorable lines.

That doesn't mean it was free of distortions and misleading claims large and small.

Sen. Barack Obama jumped in when Sen. John McCain distorted his tax plan -- falsely claiming Obama will raise taxes on most Americans.

"Here's what I can tell the American people -- 95 percent of you will get a tax cut," said Obama.

This is ACCURATE.

The non-partisan tax policy center said the Obama tax plan will cut taxes more than McCain's -- 95 percent of taxpayers get a cut, four percent of taxpayers stay the same and one percent of taxpayers earning $250,000 or more, lose their Bush tax breaks.

There was a lot of talk about government spending and one of McCain's favorite topics: pork barrel spending called earmarks.

He claimed Obama sought $1 million in earmarks for every working day in the Senate.

"He has asked for $932 million in earmarked pork barrel spending. Nearly $1million for every day he has been the US Senate," said McCain.

This is TRUE.

Obama has made public every earmark he has ever requested, about $931 million. He's received only about a third of his requests.

Since taking office in 2005, Obama's been a senator for about 930 working days, defined as Monday through Friday. So that's about $1 million a day.

There were tough, edgy comments on Iraq.

Obama made the misleading claim that McCain was the leading supporter of the war early on. That's NOT TRUE.

He was highly critical of the Bush strategy as early as 2003, although his assessments got increasingly rosier.

That's Reality Check.


(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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