Cox News Service

Posted: 6:32 AM- WASHINGTON - Both vice presidential candidates - Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. Joe Biden - made statements in Thursday night's debate that strayed from the record. A few examples by each follow.

BIDEN:

HEALTH CARE:

The claim: Biden said McCain wants to deregulate health care "like he did for the banking industry."

The record: The charge draws from an article under McCain's byline. In it, however, McCain made the comparison only in the context of allowing citizens to purchase health insurance across state lines.

TAXES:

The claim: John McCain wants to give corporations $300 billion in tax breaks, including $4 billion in special breaks for oil companies, "while giving virtually nothing for the middle class."

The record: McCain backs extending the Bush-era tax cuts, including cuts for middle-class workers. He would also cut the top corporate rate to 25 percent, from the current rate of 35 percent. He has proposed closing tax loopholes for oil and gas companies. Taken together, McCain's tax cuts would amount to $3.6 trillion over ten years - a 10 percent cut - according to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center.

POLICE OFFICERS:

The claim: Biden took credit for putting 100,000 more police officers on the streets.

The record: Biden was a leading advocate of legislation in 1994 to put 100,000 new officers on the street. There is disagreement on whether that was accomplished. The Justice Department's Office of Inspector General has concluded that the bill actually resulted in only about 60,000 additional officers. The Justice Department insists it was, indeed, 100,000. In the past, Biden has claimed that the new officers resulted in a drop in major crimes. But the U.S. Government Accountability Office - the investigative arm of Congress - found that the increase in officers was "not the major cause of the decline in crime from 1994 through 2001."

PALIN:

TAXES:

The claim: Obama has backed tax hikes for middle-class families, voted 94 times to raise taxes or oppose tax cuts and calls for tax hikes that would hit "millions of small businesses."

The record: Obama has proposed extending Bush-era tax cuts for workers earning less than $200,000 a year, or $250,000 a year for couples. The vast majority of small businesses earn far less than that. Of the 94 votes, 11 were in opposition to proposed tax cuts for people making more than $1 million a year; most of the rest were procedural, according to Factcheck.org, a non-partisan research outfit. Taken together, Obama's tax cuts would amount to $2.7 trillion over ten years - a 7 percent cut - according to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center

THE MAVERICKS:

The claim: "John McCain has been the consummate maverick" in the Senate and Obama votes with his fellow Democrats 96 percent of the time.

The record: McCain has voted with Bush 90 percent of the time, and has broken with his party 19 percent of the time, according to a 7.5-year analysis by Congressional Quarterly. Obama has voted with Bush 40 percent of the time and has voted with his Democratic colleagues 96 percent of the time. Biden has voted with Bush 52 percent of the time and has broken ranks with Democrats 7 percent of the time.

IRAQ:

The claim: Bush has brought down U.S. troop levels in Iraq to pre-surge levels. Obama has voted against funding for the troops and his plan amounts to "a white flag of surrender in Iraq."

The record: There are now about 152,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, about 17,000 more than the pre-surge levels. Bush has committed to leaving 138,000 troops in Iraq for the duration of his term in office, still 3,000 more than then pre-surge levels. Obama has been a consistent critic of the war, opposing it in a speech as early as Oct. 2002. In May, 2007, he voted against $124 billion in Iraq war funding, largely to pay for the troop surge. And last November he voted against an additional $70 billion in Iraq war spending this year. He opposed both bills because they lacked a specific withdrawal plan.

CLEAN COAL:

The claim: Palin charged that during a campaign appearance, Biden said there is no such thing as clean coal.

The record: Palin was referring to an exchange between Biden and a voter last month in Ohio. Biden told the voter he does not favor building new "clean coal" plants to burn coal in the United States. Biden has supported so-called "carbon capture and sequestration" technologies that burn clean coal. And Obama, in his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in August, said: "As president, I will take our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power."