DID THE CANDIDATES GET IT RIGHT?

<p>McCAIN: Declared Obama's health-care plan sets "mandates or fines for small businesses."</p><p>THE FACTS: Obama's plan does not impose mandates or fines on small business. He would provide small businesses with a refundable tax credit of up to 50 percent on health premiums paid on behalf of their employees. Also, large employers that do not offer meaningful coverage or contribute to the cost of coverage would be required to pay a percentage of payroll toward the costs of a public insurance plan. Small businesses would be exempt from that requirement.</p><p>OBAMA: Said McCain's proposal to give people a tax credit in exchange for treating employers' health insurance contributions as taxable wages amounts to "what one hand giveth, the other hand taketh away."</p><p>THE FACTS: Obama's suggestion that McCain's plan is a wash for families is misleading. McCain offers families a $5,000 tax credit to help them buy health insurance. The corresponding increase in taxable wages would result in a much smaller cost than the value of the tax credit, at least at first. Over time, the value of the tax credit may diminish as premiums rise. However, the Tax Policy Center estimates McCain's plan would increase the federal deficit by $1.3 trillion over 10 years -- mainly because it would lead to less tax revenue, meaning it is a true tax break overall.</p><p>McCAIN: Said Obama had voted for tax increases "94 times."</p><p>THE FACTS: This inflated count includes repetitive votes as well as votes to cut taxes for the middle class while raising them on the rich.</p><p>An analysis by Factcheck.org found 23 votes were for measures that would have produced no tax increase at all, seven were in favor of measures that would have lowered taxes for many, 11 would have increased taxes on only those making more than $1 million a year.</p><p>OBAMA: "Actually I'm cutting more than I'm spending so that it will be a net spending cut."</p><p>THE FACTS: Obama has many ambitious plans to spend more taxpayer dollars on a variety of federal programs, including clean energy technologies and job training. He's said he'll cut pork-barrel programs and the costs of the Iraq War to pay for it, as well as raise taxes on the wealthy, but the specifics of his spending plans greatly outweigh the few cuts he's identified.</p><p>McCAIN: Said the last president to raise taxes during a recession was Herbert Hoover.</p><p>THE FACTS: In fact, President George H.W. Bush signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 on Nov. 5, 1990 that increased taxes as part of a budget deal with the Democratic controlled Congress, reneging on his 1988 campaign pledge of "no new taxes."</p><p>The nation was in a recession at the time, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.</p><p>OBAMA: Repeated a claim that the Iraqi government had a $79 billion budget surplus.</p><p>THE FACTS: According to an August report by the General Accountability Office, the Iraqi government had an approximately $29 billion surplus between 2005 and 2007. The GAO estimated that this year, the budget surplus would would end up being $38.2 billion to $50.3 billion.</p><p>McCAIN: Claimed that Obama's proposals "tax increases "will increase taxes on 50 percent of small-business revenue."</p><p>THE FACTS: According to data from the nonpartisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, a joint effort by two Washington think tanks, McCain seems to have gotten his numbers garbled. According to the center, less than 3 percent of small businesses pay taxes in the top two brackets and could therefore see higher taxes under Obama's plan. And for most of those small businesses, business revenue represents less than half of their income.</p><p>McCAIN: As he did in the first debate, McCain misstated his vote against the deployment of Marines in Lebanon during the Reagan presidency.</p><p>He said he voted against deploying them in Beirut.</p><p>THE FACTS: The Marines already were in Beirut when McCain entered the House in 1983. He voted against a measure that would have authorized their deployment for 18 more months.</p><p>This article was compiled from reports by the Associated Press and Los Angeles Times.</p>