Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Some fact-checks on the final debate:

OBAMA: Repeatedly claimed that ending expensive wars meant the U.S. now has money to spend at home.

FACT: There is no such peace dividend because the wars were financed largely by borrowing.

------------------------------------------------------------

ROMNEY: Said that when he was Massachusetts governor, high-school students who graduated in the top quarter "got a four-year, tuition-free ride at any Massachusetts public institution of higher learning."

OBAMA: "That happened before you came into office." (an outright LIE on the spot, heatedly and convincingly repeated)

ROMNEY: "That was actually mine, actually, Mr. President. You got that fact wrong."

FACT: Romney was right: The John and Abigail Adams scholarship program began in 2004 when he was governor.

-------------------------------------------------------------

ROMNEY: "I said that we would provide guarantees, and that was what was able to allow these (auto) companies to go through bankruptcy, to come out of bankruptcy. Under no circumstance would I do anything other than to help this industry get on its feet. And the idea that has been suggested that I would liquidate the industry. Of course not. That's the height of silliness. I have never said I would liquidate the industry."

OBAMA: "Gov. Romney, you keep on trying to airbrush history here. You were very clear that you would not provide government assistance to the U.S. auto companies, even if they went through bankruptcy. You said that they could get it in the private marketplace. That wasn't true. They would have gone through a liquidation."

THE FACTS: It's true that Romney didn't preach liquidation of GM and Chrysler and that he saw his approach as a way to save the auto companies. Opposing a government bailout, Romney instead favored private loans to finance the automakers' restructuring in bankruptcy court.

----------------------------------------------------------

OBAMA: "What I would not have had done was left 10,000 troops in Iraq that would tie us down. And that certainly would not help us in the Middle East."

THE FACTS: Obama was suggesting that he had never favored keeping U.S. troops in Iraq beyond the December 2011 withdrawal deadline that the Bush administration had negotiated with the Iraqi government. Actually, the Obama administration tried for many months to win Iraqi agreement to keeping several thousand American troops there beyond 2011 to continue training and advising the Iraqi armed forces. The talks broke down over a disagreement on legal immunity for U.S. troops.

No comments: