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RNC speeches fact-checked
By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer Wed Sep 3, 11:48 PM ET
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held
back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and
flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the
reproach and the praise stretched the truth.
Some examples:
PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and
championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told
the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."
THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to
Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In
her
two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special
federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While
Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan
to
an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after
the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."
PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to
him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two
memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate."
THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does
have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass
legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of
mass
destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The
legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to
also
demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected
foreign
policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big,
contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and
requiring
recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also
successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.
PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income
taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death
tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people
by hundreds of billions of dollars."
THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings
Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would
increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by
2012,
or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income
levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent,
the center concluded.
Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and
the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage
workers and higher credits for larger families.
He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the
wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above
$250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more
than
$250,000 a year would see taxes rise.
MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent
of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the
nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can
keep
making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable
to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an
interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.
THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a
state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no
more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was
governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is
the
ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And
where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have
called it the 47th largest state — by population.
MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. ... She has been
in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary
responsibilities," he said on ABC.
THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that
authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service.
When
guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume
those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense
Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of
about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.
FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor
of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United
States."
THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and
got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out
of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23
states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008
presidential primaries.
FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right — change
from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription
for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the
big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."
THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative
Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year,
Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have
been
in charge of the House and Senate.
_http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080904/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_fact_check_
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080904/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_fact_check)
**************It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your travel
deal here.
(http://information.travel.aol.com/deals?ncid=aoltrv00050000000047)
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