Fact Check - Biden Palin Misstatements

Biden's Misstatements:

(1) Article one of the Constitution deals with the Legislative branch, not the Executive Branch.
Section 3:"The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided."

(2) Biden said McCain voted “the exact same way” as Obama to increase taxes on Americans (singles) earning just $42,000, but McCain did not. "Biden was referring to an amendment that didn't address taxes at that income level."

(3) Biden said that Obama never said that he would sit down unconditionally with Mahmoud Ahmedinijad of Iran. Obama did say specifically, and Biden attacked him for it.

(4) Biden has opposed offshore drilling and even compared offshore drilling to “raping” the Outer Continental Shelf.”

(5) Biden indicated that John McCain and Barack Obama voted the same way against funding the troops in the field. McCain opposed a bill that included a timeline, that the President of the United States had already said he would veto regardless of it’s passage. When the final vote for funding came, Obama voted against it.

(6) Biden says he’s always been for clean coal, but he just told a voter that he is against clean coal and any new coal plants in America and has a record of voting against clean coal and coal in the U.S. Senate.

(7) Biden mischaracterized McCain's health insurance proposal. McCain will raise taxes on people's health insurance coverage but they get a tax credit to offset any tax hike. Those without company supplied health insurance can use the tax credit to purchase insurance. At 40% marginal tax rate, your company plan would have to be over $12,000 to be a net negative.

(8) Biden falsely said Palin supported a windfall profits tax in Alaska -- she reformed the state tax and revenue system, it's not a windfall profits tax.

(9) Biden said that top military commander in Iraq said the principles of the surge could not be applied to Afghanistan, but the commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force Gen. David D. McKiernan said that there were principles of the surge strategy, including working with tribes, that could be applied in Afghanistan.

(10) Biden falsely said McCain weakened regulation -- he actually called for more regulation on Fannie and Freddie. McCain call for deregulation in health insurance was a call to allow insurance to be sold across state lines for greater competition.

(11) Biden is wrong in saying that under Obama, Americans won't pay any more in taxes then they did under Reagan. Reagan had a top tax rate of 28%.

(12) Biden said the economic rescue legislation matches the four principles that Obama laid out, but in reality it doesn’t meet two of the four principles that Obama outlined on Sept. 19, which were that it include an emergency economic stimulus package, and that it be part of “part of a globally coordinated effort with our partners in the G-20.”

(13) Biden said Americans earning less than $250,000 wouldn’t see higher taxes, but the Obama-Biden tax plan would raise taxes on individuals making $200,000 or more.

(14) Biden wrongly claimed that McCain had said "he wouldn't even sit down" with the government of Spain. Actually, McCain didn't reject a meeting, but simply refused to commit himself one way or the other during an interview.

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Palin mistatements:

(1) 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

"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. President Bush recently announced that another 8,000 would be coming home by February of next year. But even then, there still would be 6,000 more troops in Iraq than there were when the surge began."

(2) Palin repeated a false claim that Obama once voted in favor of higher taxes on “families” making as little as $42,000 a year. He did not. The budget bill in question called for an increase only on singles making that amount, but a family of four would not have been affected unless they made at least $90,000 a year.

(3) Palin claimed McCain’s health care plan would be “budget neutral,” costing the government nothing. Independent budget experts estimate McCain's plan would cost tens of billions each year, though details are too fuzzy to allow for exact estimates.

(4) Palin wrongly claimed that “millions of small businesses” would see tax increases under Obama’s tax proposals. At most, several hundred thousand business owners would see increases.