Thursday, September 4, 2008

Fact Checking Palin's Speech

The Associated Press wrote a piece fact-checking Palin's speech. Enjoy!

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.


There's plenty more fact-checking on other quotes about Palin in the article.

6 comments:

  1. Worst veep pick ever. What little respect I had for John McCain is gone with that pick.

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  2. two names:
    ADMIRAL JAMES STOCKDALE
    Geraldine Ferraro

    And who are u lyin to, you been listening to KO too long to have any respect for JM

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  3. Obama's plan to raise Capital Gaines taxes is reason alone not to vote for the man. At 40 percent, it would likely kill the stock market, and make investing not that popular for many middle class families that choose to do so for retirement (as I do). I dont count on SS to be there when I retire, so investing is my only choice, and if Obama is elected that may very well be out of the window as an option. Plus, when I retire I want to live comfortably and have money to travel, golf, and do as I please, not be on some fixed income where I live from paycheck to paycheck.

    As Mike Huckabee said last night, "Im not a Republican because I was born rich, Im a Republican because I want to make money on my own and not look to the government to help me out."

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  4. Fact check: Obama plans to raiase the capital gains tax to 25% not 40%.

    The stock market won't mean a tinkers damn if the value of the dollar continues to fall with our increasing debt.

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  5. The stock market won't mean a tinkers damn if the value of the dollar continues to fall with our increasing debt.......
    So Obama has a plan to balance the budget in his first term? I didn't hear that part of his speech.

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  6. Balancing the budget will be part of his second term agenda if I understand correctly. he plans on major expenditures in infrastructure, green technology, education etc... to get our economy back working for the people.

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