Both candidates took liberties with truth

Facts occasionally went adrift Thursday in the vice-presidential debate. Some examples:

TAXES

Palin: Said of Obama: "94 times he voted to increase taxes or not support a tax reduction."

The facts: Obama has proposed extending President Bush's tax cuts for workers earning less than $200,000 a year, or $250,000 a year for couples. The vast majority of small businesses earn far less than that. Of the 94 votes, 11 were in opposition to proposed tax cuts for people making more than $1 million a year; most of the rest were procedural, according to factcheck.org, a nonpartisan research group. Taken together, the Tax Policy Center calculates that Obama's tax cuts would amount to $2.7 trillion over 10 years — a 7 percent cut.

Palin: "Barack Obama even supported increasing taxes as late as last year for those families making only $42,000 a year."

Biden: "The charge is absolutely not true. Barack Obama did not vote to raise taxes. The vote she's referring to, John McCain voted the exact same way."

The facts: The vote was on a nonbinding budget resolution that assumed that Bush's tax cuts would expire, as scheduled, in 2011. If that happened, it could mean higher taxes for people making as little as about $42,000. But Obama is proposing tax increases only on the wealthy, and would reduce taxes for most others. In the March 14 budget resolution supported by Obama and Biden, McCain did not vote.

ECONOMY

Biden: Complained about "economic policies of the last eight years" that led to "excessive deregulation."

The facts: Biden voted for 1999 deregulation that allowed Wall Street investment banks to create the kind of mortgage-related securities at the core of the crisis today. The law was widely backed by Republicans as well as by former President Clinton, who argues it has stopped the crisis today from being worse.

Palin: "Two years ago, remember, it was John McCain who pushed so hard with the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reform measures. He sounded that warning bell."

The facts: Palin was referring to McCain's 2006 decision to sign on as a co-sponsor of a Senate bill that would have overhauled regulations governing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But the legislation had been introduced more than 16 months earlier, and debate over the issue had been going on for some time. He also added his name only after an oversight agency issued a report condemning practices at Fannie Mae.

HEALTH CARE

Palin: Castigated Obama's health-care plan as one that would mandate a "universal government-run" system in which health care is "taken over" by the federal government.

The facts: This is inaccurate on several levels. Obama's proposal includes an option for people to choose a new public plan with benefits similar to those that members of Congress and other federal employees have. It also includes an expansion of Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, but it is not at all exclusively government-run. His plan also mandates only that children, not adults, have coverage.

Biden: "As a matter of fact, [McCain] recently wrote an article in a major magazine saying that he wants to do for the health-care industry — deregulate it and let the free market move — like he did for the banking industry."

The facts: Biden and Obama have been perpetuating this distortion of what McCain wrote in an article for the American Academy of Actuaries. McCain only referred to deregulation when saying people should be allowed to buy health insurance across state lines. In that context, he wrote: "Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."

ENERGY

Biden: Said McCain supports tax breaks for oil companies and "wants to give them another $4 billion tax cut."

The facts: Biden is repeating a favorite saw of the Obama campaign, and it's misleading. McCain supports a cut in income taxes for all corporations.

Palin: Claimed she has taken on the oil industry as Alaska governor.

The facts: Palin pushed to impose a windfall-profits tax on oil companies and distributed the proceeds to residents to offset rising energy costs. However, she also has sided with the industry on several issues. She sued the Interior Department over its designation of polar bears as an endangered species. That puts her on the same side as the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry's chief trade association. She also supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — a position at odds with McCain.

Palin: Said Alaska is "building a nearly $40 billion natural-gas pipeline, which is North America's largest and most expensive infrastructure project ever to flow those sources of energy into hungry markets."

The facts: Not quite. Construction is at least six years away.

IRAQ

Palin: Said the United States has fewer troops in Iraq than before Bush increased the U.S. presence in early 2007.

The facts: Not correct. The Pentagon says there are 152,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, about 17,000 more than before the 2007 military buildup began.

THE MAVERICKS

Palin: "John McCain has been the consummate maverick" in the Senate, and Obama votes with Democrats 96 percent of the time.

The facts: McCain has voted with Bush 90 percent of the time and has broken with his party 19 percent of the time, according to a 7 ½-year analysis by Congressional Quarterly. Obama has voted with Bush 40 percent of the time and with his Democratic colleagues 96 percent of the time.

Compiled from The Associated Press, The New York Times and Cox News Service