From last night's debate:
Obama: The only involvement I've had with ACORN is, I represented them alongside the U.S. Justice Department in making Illinois implement a motor voter law that helped people get registered at DMVs.
Factcheck.org:
He did, but that wasn't his only involvement. He also worked closely with ACORN's Chicago office when he ran a Project Vote registration drive after law school, and Obama did some leadership training for Chicago ACORN. The Woods Fund, where Obama served as a board member, gave grants to ACORN's Chicago branch; both organizations are concerned with disadvantaged populations in that city. And during the primaries of this election, Obama's campaign paid upwards of $800,000 to the ACORN-affiliated Campaign Services Inc. for get-out-the-vote efforts (not voter registration). Those services were initially misrepresented on the campaign's Federal Election Commission reports, an error that some find suspicious and others say is par for the course. ACORN's Chicago office and CSI have not been under investigation.
Barry Hussein Obama also lied about his relationship with Bill Ayers and his stance on Abortion.
AP Fact Check:
OBAMA: Said that if families get a $5,000 tax credit for buying health insurance and the insurance then costs $12,000, that’s a loss for them.
THE FACTS: The tax credit offered by McCain is more generous for the vast majority of people than the current tax break, which they would lose, according to the Tax Policy Center. Now, people don’t pay taxes on the health benefits they get from work. Obama’s statement gives the impression that $5,000 is all that workers will be getting to help them pay for a health plan, but that’s just what the federal government will provide. Economists say most employers would still contribute to their workers’ health insurance. The Lewin Group, a health care consulting firm, found that by taxing health benefits but providing a tax credit, the average family would come out $1,411 ahead.
OBAMA: “We can cut the average family’s premium by $2,500 a year.”
THE FACTS: If that sounds like a straight-ahead promise to lower health insurance premiums, it isn’t. Obama hopes that by spending $50 billion over five years on electronic medical records and by improving access to proven disease management programs, among other steps, consumers will end up saving money. He uses an optimistic analysis to suggest cost reductions in national health care spending could amount to the equivalent of $2,500 for a family of four. Many economists are skeptical those savings can be achieved, but even if they are, it’s not a certainty that every dollar would be passed on to consumers in the form of lower premiums.
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