Summary
We checked the accuracy of Obama’s speech accepting the Democratic nomination, and noted the following:
Obama said he could “pay for every dime” of his spending and tax cut proposals “by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens.” That’s wrong – his proposed tax increases on upper-income individuals are key components of paying for his program, as well. And his plan, like McCain’s, would leave the U.S. facing big budget deficits, according to independent experts.
Q: Did Obama snub U.S. troops in Afghanistan to shoot baskets for publicity pictures?
A: This is another viral e-mail falsehood. The author now says it’s not true; the Army says it’s not true; and video and photos show Obama shaking hands with troops and eating breakfast with them as well.
Q: Does Obama chair a Senate subcommittee that oversees the war in Afghanistan?
A: He chairs the Senate’s Subcommittee on European Affairs, which has some oversight in Afghanistan through NATO.
The President burnishes the State of the Union through selective facts and strategic omissions.
President Bush has declared repeatedly, “we do not torture.” But claims of prisoner abuse continue to surface, Amnesty International has declared the US detention center in Cuba to be “a gulag,” and the administration has yet to deny a news report that it holds scores of suspects in secret CIA prisons overseas.
Yes, along with $87 billion worth of other things. But Bush didn’t send enough in the first place.