ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- So how do you know what the candidates are saying is true? We're keeping them honest.
10 News reporter Allison Kropff teams up with PolitiFact Florida to
fact-check the VP hopefuls' statements from Thursday night's debate.
We also talked to Aaron Sharockman with PolitiFact Florida about why
we're seeing so many "half true," "mostly false" or "mostly true"
statements rather than a hard "true" or "false."
While arguing whether the stimulus was worth the hundreds of billions
that it cost the government, Paul Ryan said, "Was it a good idea to
spend taxpayer dollars on electric cars in Finland, or on windmills in China?"
PolitiFact Florida rates this claim, MOSTLY FALSE.
While discussing Medicare, Vice President Joe Biden attacked the
Republican ticket's proposal for Medicare, saying Romney and Ryan would
"eliminate the guarantee of Medicare."
PolitiFact Florida rates this claim, HALF TRUE.
Paul Ryan said this about unemployment: "They passed the stimulus.
The idea that we could borrow $831 billion, spend it on all of these
special interest groups, and that it would work
out just fine, that unemployment would never get to 8%-- it went up
above 8 percent for 43 months. They said that, right now, if we just
passed this stimulus, the economy would grow at 4 percent. It's growing
at 1.3."
PolitiFact Florida checked the claim that Obama promised that unemployment would never go under 8%. That rates MOSTLY FALSE.
On national security and the war in Iraq, Biden said this, "On Iraq,
the President said he would end the war. Gov. Romney said that was a
tragic mistake, we should have left 30,000 -- he ended it. Gov. Romney
said that was a tragic mistake, we should have left 30,000 troops
there."
PolitiFact Florida rates this claim HALF TRUE.
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WTSP