Fact-checking the Hofstra presidential debate

JOB CREATION

Obama said, "We've created 5 million jobs" during his administration.

The best numbers the Obama campaign provides count only private-sector jobs, and measure them from the low point of employment -- February 2010 -- rather than from when Obama took office or the official end of the recession in June 2009.

Source: PolitiFact.org

Romney once again claimed that his economic plan would produce 12 million jobs.

Only two presidents -- Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton -- created more than 12 million jobs and each served two terms. Romney says he can reach this same goal in just four years, though the policy paper issued by his campaign contains few details.

Source: Washington Post

AUTO INDUSTRY BAILOUT

Obama said Romney "wanted to take them into bankruptcy without providing them any way to stay open, and we would have lost a million jobs."

Romney opposed the bailout, but advocated a managed bankruptcy that would produce carmakers with lower labor costs and products that could compete better in the marketplace.

Source: PolitiFact.org

GAS PRICES

Romney said, "When the president took office, the price of gasoline here in Nassau County was about a buck eighty-six a gallon. Now it's four bucks a gallon."

Experts say the president and his policies have little effect on the prices. Demand is skyrocketing in China, and that pushes up prices. There's been ongoing turmoil in the Mideast. And locally, there have been supply disruptions that have all pushed prices higher. None of these were tied to Obama's policies. (And gas prices in Nassau-Suffolk averaged $1.875 on Dec. 26, 2008, less than a month before Obama's inauguration.)

Source: PolitiFact.org

OIL PRODUCTION

Obama said, "We're actually drilling more on public lands than in the previous administration."

Domestic oil production is at its highest level in eight years, but Obama can't claim full credit for that. Much of the increase in production under Obama has come from state and private lands that the president does not control.

Source: PolitiFact.org

COAL

Obama said to Romney: "Governor, when you were governor of Massachusetts, you stood in front of a coal plant and pointed at it and said, 'This plant kills,' and took great pride in shutting it down. And now suddenly you're a big champion of coal."

Romney as Massachusetts governor did say that coal- and oil-fired plants contribute significantly more air pollution than their gas-fired counterparts. His strongest comments back then, however, concerned a particular plant at Salem Harbor.

Source: Washington Post

TAXES

Obama said, "Four years ago . . . I said I would cut taxes for middle-class families, and that's what I've done, by $3,600."

The president makes it sound like it is one big tax cut. The $3,600 figure is reached by adding the sum of tax cuts over four years -- $800 in each of 2009 and 2010 due to the Making Work Pay tax credit and $1,000 in each of 2011 and 2012 due to a Social Security payroll tax cut. The Making Work Pay tax credit has expired and Obama has not promised to extend the payroll tax cut, meaning that people's taxes will go up next year even if he succeeds in his effort to extend Bush-era tax cuts for those earning less than $250,000 a year.

Source: Washington Post

TAXES ON SMALL BUSINESS

Obama has raised some taxes during his presidency, but he's also pursued broad-based tax cuts for the middle class and small businesses. We particularly give weight here to the tax cuts that were part of the stimulus and the payroll tax holiday, which reduced taxes for broad swaths of the workforce. Some small businesses may have been hit by new taxes that were part of Obama's health law, but these would depend on the particular circumstances of each business. Also, there were new taxes on cigarettes and indoor tanning.

Obama said he has "cut taxes for those who need it -- middle-class families, small businesses." He has, but he also has raised some taxes. So while his statement is accurate, it lacks that additional context. We rate his claim Mostly True.

Source: PolitiFact.org

TAXES ON

MIDDLE CLASS

Romney said studies show "that people in the middle class will see $4,000 a year higher taxes as a result of the spending and borrowing of this administration."

The study is from a conservative group, but even the group itself doesn't say Obama will raise taxes on middle-income taxpayers. It says his budget could result in a "potentially higher tax burden" over the next 10 years. The group's study also considered two other budget scenarios -- current law (allowing the Bush-era tax cuts to expire as scheduled at the end of this year) and current policy (extending current policies into 2013, including extending the Bush-era tax cuts) -- and determined that Obama's budget "provides a middle ground between these two extremes."

Source: FactCheck.org