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Viral Spiral
FactCheck Mailbag
FactCheck Mailbag, Week of March 19-25.
See letters from previous weeks“ Criticizing the Democrats for citing the only available study on gun purchases for its age seems wide of the target. ” -
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2012 Players Guide
Tag Archives: Sarah Palin
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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FactChecking Biden-Palin Debate
Summary Biden and Palin debated, and both mangled some facts. 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. Palin repeated a false claim that …
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Posted in Articles
Tagged health care, Iraq, Joe Biden, Sarah Palin, small business, VP 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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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 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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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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Killing Afghan Civilians?
Obama did say that troops in Afghanistan were killing civilians, a claim that Palin calls “untrue.” Here’s the whole quote, from a campaign stop in New Hampshire: Obama, August 2007: We’ve got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we’re not …
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Troop Levels Off
Palin got her numbers wrong on troop levels when she said that troops were now down to “pre-surge” levels. The surge was announced in January 2007, at which point there were 132,000 troops in Iraq according to the Brookings Institute Iraq Index. As of September 2008, that number was 146,000. …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged Iraq, Sarah Palin, troop levels, troop surge, vice presidential debate
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