Vice Presidential Debate: Who Got Their Facts Straight?

by The Associated Press Oct 11th 2012 10:25PM
Updated Oct 12th 2012 1:03PM
vp debateWASHINGTON (AP) - Vice President Joe Biden has mangled a heaping helping of facts over the years. Despite being newer to presidential-campaign politics, Republican Paul Ryan has already earned something of a reputation for taking flying leaps past reality.

How'd they do Thursday night?

Here's a look at some of their claims:

BIDEN, on whether U.S. should have beefed up security at the U.S. Consulate in Libya before the deadly terrorist attack there: "We weren't told they wanted more security there."

RYAN: "There were requests for more security."

THE FACTS: Ryan is right, judging by testimony from Obama administration officials at a congressional hearing this week.

Charlene R. Lamb, a deputy assistant secretary for diplomatic security, told lawmakers she refused requests for more security in Benghazi, saying the department wanted to train Libyans to protect the consulate. "Yes, sir, I said personally I would not support it," she said.

Eric Nordstrom, who was the top security official in Libya earlier this year, testified he was criticized for seeking more security. He said conversations he had with people in Washington led him to believe that it was "abundantly clear we were not going to get resources until the aftermath of an incident. How thin does the ice have to get before someone falls through?"

___

RYAN: "We should have spoken out right away when the green revolution was up and starting, when the mullahs in Iran were attacking their people. We should not have called Bashar Assad a reformer when he was turning his Russian-provided guns on his own people.

THE FACTS: Neither President Barack Obama nor anyone else in his administration ever considered the Syrian leader a "reformer." The oft-repeated charge stems from an interview Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gave in March 2011 noting that "many of the members of Congress of both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe he's a reformer." She did not endorse that view. The comment was widely perceived to be a knock at senators such as John Kerry of Massachusetts who maintained cordial relations with Assad in the months leading up to his crackdown on protesters.

___

BIDEN: "We went out and rescued General Motors."

THE FACTS: Actually, the auto bailout of General Motors and Chrysler began under President George W. Bush. The Obama administration continued and expanded it.
___

RYAN: "And then they put this new Obamacare board in charge of cutting Medicare each and every year in ways that will lead to denied care for current seniors. This board, by the way, it's 15 people, the president's supposed to appoint them next year. And not one of them even has to have medical training."

THE FACTS: Ryan is referring to the Independent Payment Advisory Board, created under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law. It has the power to force cuts in Medicare payments to service providers if costs rise above certain levels and Congress fails to act. But it doesn't look like the board will be cutting Medicare "each and every year," as Ryan asserts. Medicare costs are currently rising modestly and the government's own experts project the board's intervention will not be needed until 2018 and 2019 at the earliest - after Obama leaves office if re-elected to a second term.

___

BIDEN, when asked who would pay more taxes in Obama's second term: "People making a million dollars or more."

THE FACTS: Obama's proposed tax increase reaches farther down the income ladder than millionaires. He wants to roll back Bush-era tax cuts for individuals making over $200,000 and couples making more than $250,000.




Paul Ryan Fails to Give Any Specifics on His Tax Plan

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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1701 Comments

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Ronald

I also watched the vice president and hopeful vice president debate and what it reminded me of was a debate between an experienced veteran, who has been there and done that with a lot of knowledge and a rookie who has not been there and has done nothing, with limited knowledge.

October 16 2012 at 5:07 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
catskil17

THE GREAT INSOLT BY ROMNEY
THE 47%
So who are these 47 percent of Americans that Romney is not going to \"worry\" about winning over? In 2011 those 76 million people, about 46 percent of the people who filed taxes, did not pay a penny in income taxes, according to an analysis of IRS data by the bipartisan Tax Policy Center. But that does not mean nearly half of America skirted their federal tax burden. Nearly two-thirds of the households that did not pay income tax in 2011 were on the hook for payroll taxes, a 4.2 percent tax that is automatically deducted from workers\' paychecks to fund Social Security and Medicare. Only 18 percent of tax filers did not have to pay either income tax or payroll taxes.
Nearly all of the people who did not pay either type of tax were elderly – 10.3 percent of total tax filers - or had incomes less than $20,000 – 6.9 percent.

But it\'s not just low-income people who get out of paying income taxes. About 1 percent of the top 1 percent of income earners, those making about $533,000 or more, did not pay income taxes. That\'s roughly 13,000 tax filers.

And 4,000 millionaires are also escaping that burden, according to a Tax Policy Center analysis.

October 16 2012 at 4:54 PM Report abuse +2 rate up rate down Reply
Sarah Hoogendyk

Biadin acted like a laughing babone

October 16 2012 at 4:49 PM Report abuse -2 rate up rate down Reply
kretz278

i believe that joe biden out did ryan .i would love 2 knock that smerk off his face.
OBANMA has done a very good job 4 us. IF THEY HAD ANYTHING BAD ON HIM THEN THEY SHOULD HAVE INPEACH HIM. THE republican is all talk n no action.

October 16 2012 at 4:17 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
Hi RON

I have never seen anyone in Gov't act as stupid as Biden did. He has to be labeled as "Bozo the Clown" after that stupid, rude, juvenile, an demeaning appearance during the "so called debate" ! His actions were so distasteful, I was embarrased to admit he is our vice pres. !!!! What a joke he has turned out to be !!! Can you imagine if he had to take the reins of the Presidency ----------- his stupidity caused me to change my vote immediately !!!!

October 15 2012 at 2:34 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Hi RON's comment
rhobbel

The liberals loved it! Just goes to show how out of touch they are when rude, obnoxious, and demeaning behavior is the rule of the day!

October 16 2012 at 8:17 AM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down Reply
boehnerisababy

William Koch, Billionaire Koch Brother, Accused Of Imprisoning Executive
=============================================================================
Billionaire William Koch is facing a lawsuit in federal court from a former top-level employee who claims the energy mogul lured him to a secluded property, where he was imprisoned and interrogated for a period of time, according to a report in Courthouse News.

John Houston Scott, an attorney for Kirby Martenson, a former executive for a number of Koch subsidiaries, confirmed the story to HuffPost, adding that he guessed the case could go to trial in a year.

The case was filed in San Francisco, where the Republican-backing Kochs are not deeply popular.

Martensen alleges that the multiple-day-long incident was set off by an anonymous letter accusing Martensen of mismanaging and stealing from Oxbow Carbon & Minerals International while serving as the company's vice president. That accusation prompted the company's leadership to read Martensen's letters and emails without his knowledge, the suit charges, which led the company to discover that Martensen had deep reservations about the legality of the company's tax avoidance strategies.

Martensen alleges he was told by his superiors that he was transferred overseas to Asia so that the Koch company could avoid paying U.S. taxes on some $200,000,000 in profits.

“Kirby Martensen states in a lawsuit that we investigated him for participating in a wide-ranging scheme to defraud, accepting bribes and diverting business from our company," Brad Goldstein, director of corporate affairs for Oxbow, a Bill Koch company, said in a statement. "He is right. We absolutely investigated Martensen and determined that he did participate in the fraud against the company. We identified who was defrauding us and are pursuing appropriate action to hold them accountable. In fact, several of the wrongdoers have admitted their involvement and one has directly implicated Mr. Martensen in the scheme. ”

Koch, who is David Koch's twin brother, is estimated to be worth $4 billion. He previously made news by reconstructing a replica of an Old West ghost town on the isolated ranch where Martensen and his co-workers were allegedly held.

Martensen had a flight booked from Aspen, but was not permitted to travel to the airport, he claims, as a local sheriff worked with Koch's employees to "make sure you don't wander off," according to the complaint. He says he was subjected to a several-hour interrogation, fired, held against his will on the property, then forced to fly in a private plane to San Francisco, accompanied by a man he believed to be armed.

Through his privately held companies -- Oxbow Carbon and Huron Carbon -- Bill Koch has given $3 million to the pro-Mitt Romney super PAC Restore Our Future. His more well-known brothers have given substantially more to the effort to elect the Republican presidential candidate.

"Any allegations of misconduct by Mr. Koch simply are untrue and stem from Martensen’s attempts to divert attention from his own wrongdoing," said Goldstein

October 13 2012 at 10:50 AM Report abuse +5 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to boehnerisababy's comment
t_trevor1

It must be excruciating being as dumb as pitiful Evan.

October 13 2012 at 9:27 PM Report abuse -2 rate up rate down Reply
jaf2626janice

associated press you are so stupid Do yo u not realize that under Obama Care the MayAnn who has medicare probably will change her opinion when the Death panel decides that she is not worth spending dollars to keep her alive. This is called euthanasia because she is aging and helpless.
MaryAnn Think about it You have health care and our country will always take care of its own with a free democracy so that we can make our own choices. There is no one that is turned away in our hospitals who can not pay That is why pour premiums are so high So wake up Let's take care of all the needy that need the help and the the spongers who are sitting on their butts expecting the government to take care of them instead of trying to improve their lives
I think that I have said enough By the way I am also on Medicare and I have always paid my own way.

October 12 2012 at 10:09 PM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down Reply
MaryAnn

Mary Ann

I am a senior citizen and have medicare. I have the good fortune to be able to purchase excellent secondary insurance. I realize however, that all my fellow Americans are not as lucky as I am. I want them all, to have access to health care. I have faith that our government, under President Obama's leadership, will see to it that all Americans will be considered to be worthy of help from their brothers and sisters. I am a passionate person, and would have responded in just the same fashion as Vice President Biden did when showing his dismay about many of the ideas of Paul Ryan.

October 12 2012 at 8:05 PM Report abuse +3 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to MaryAnn's comment
t_trevor1

Help is voluntary, not forced.

I'm always appalled to see hateful Americans like MaryAnn who despise their fellow citizens so deeply that in the absence of the force of a government goon their fellow citizens cannot be "considered to be worthy of help from their brothers and sisters"

Selfish. Greedy. Despicable.

October 13 2012 at 9:07 PM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to t_trevor1's comment
rhobbel

Haven't you ever heard "God helps those who help themselves"?

Lazy, Live off the system, Expect others to support them

October 16 2012 at 8:17 AM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down
MaryAnn

I am a senior citizen and have medicare. I have the good fortune to be able to purchase excellent secondary insurance. I realize however, that all my fellow Americans are not as lucky as I am. I want them all, to have access to health care. I have faith that our government, under President Obama's leadership, will see to it that all Americans will be considered to be worthy of help from their brothers and sisters. I am a passionate person, and would have responded in just the same fashion as Vice President Biden did when showing his dismay about many of the ideas of Paul Ryan.
Ryan, I can't belie

October 12 2012 at 8:04 PM Report abuse +2 rate up rate down Reply
danmuggs

Biden !!!! What an IDIOT............

October 12 2012 at 7:44 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to danmuggs's comment
Sarah Hoogendyk

he acted a 2 year older, a child

October 16 2012 at 4:51 PM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down Reply