WILMINGTON, N.C. – A North Carolina panel exploring energy available off the state’s coast hears from the public about the choices ahead.

The Offshore Energy Exploration Study Committee meets on Tuesday in Wilmington. The panel created by the General Assembly earlier this year holds a public comment session on the University of North Carolina at Wilmington campus.

The committee’s interim report filed in May said there may be a significant amount of oil and gas deposits in federal waters under the Outer Continental Shelf off North Carolina.

The panel said North Carolina also could produce a signficant part of its energy by harnassing offshore wind, especially north of Cape Hatteras.

The committee’s final recommendations are due next May.

WASHINGTON  – President Barack Obama wants to end $26 billion in oil and gas industry tax breaks, calling them “unjustifiable loopholes” in the tax system that other companies do not get.

Obama’s proposed fiscal 2010 budget, details of which were released Thursday, also more clearly spells out his intention to shut down a proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada and calls for ending a government subsidy that helps utilities license and plan for new nuclear power plants.

The oil and gas industry tax breaks have often been targeted by congressional Democrats in recent years, but they have not been able to muster enough votes to rescind them. Most Republicans and the Bush administration vigorously defended the tax benefits, saying they’re needed to boost domestic oil and gas development.

In the budget statement, Obama said the tax breaks, which are expected to save the oil and gas industry more than $26 billion over the next 10 years, are “unjustifiable loopholes … costly to the American taxpayer and do little to incentivize production or reduce energy prices.”

The White House last February outlined in general terms its proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning in October. But the documents released Thursday provided details including specific numbers.

The budget would provide $197 million for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project in Nevada, but directs that the money be spent to “explore alternatives” to the Nevada site and ongoing licensing activities that have yet to be terminated. It provides no money for site access, new engineering or land purchases.

Closing down the Yucca project 90 miles from Las Vegas has long been a relentless ambition of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Obama, during his presidential campaign, promised Nevada voters that he would look for other ways to address the disposal of highly radioactive waste from commercial power plants.

Obama also wants to end a research program for using nuclear power plants to develop hydrogen fuel for transportation and cancel further subsidies to the nuclear industry to help license and plan for new nuclear power reactors. The budget eliminates $168 million that had been earmarked for the reactor program next fiscal year.

A program to develop a more reliable nuclear warhead that the Bush administration had touted as necessary for easier maintenance of the country’s aging nuclear stockpile also was singled out for elimination. The budget cuts $60 million that had been earmarked for design work for the replacement warhead.

A majority of North Carolinians favor laws to ban cell phone use while driving, even though more than half of mobile phone users report doing this regularly, according to the latest Elon University Poll. Respondents to the poll also supported a statewide ban on smoking in public places. The poll, conducted Feb. 22-26, surveyed 758 North Carolina residents and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points. 

Driving and cell phones
Cell phones are ubiquitous; 88 percent of the people surveyed own one. Eighty percent of residents believe the use of cell phones while driving decreases highway safety, but at the same time 54 percent of those cell phone users use a phone while they’re behind the wheel. Of the people who drive while on the phone, 56 percent do not use a hands-free device. Two out of three (65 percent) people say driving while on the phone should be illegal except in the case of an emergency.

“Though they recognize that it is dangerous and confess to doing it, citizens apparently won’t stop driving and talking unless a change in the law forces them to do so,” said Hunter Bacot, director of the Elon University Poll.

Anti-smoking laws
The poll asked respondents a series of questions related to laws that limit smoking in public places and the workplace. Eighty-seven percent agreed that employees have the right to work in a smoke-free environment and 82 percent believe that second-hand smoke is a health threat. A strong majority support local or state laws that ban smoking in all public places, including public buildings, offices, restaurants and bars. Seventy percent support local laws and 67 percent support state laws.

But when asked specifically whether all restaurants and bars should ban smoking, only 51 percent were in favor. And for all places of business, respondents expressed a preference for business action, over government regulation. Sixty-one percent said it should be the individual business owner, not the government, who decides whether smoking should be allowed in a place of business. But 63 percent of those people also believed that business owners have a responsibility to provide a smoke-free workplace.

“As the health implications of tobacco become more salient among citizens, support for anti-smoking policies continues to intensify,” noted Bacot. “I suspect this may be the year that we see North Carolina go smokeless,” Bacot said.

Other issues: Transportation
While 51 percent of North Carolinians oppose collecting tolls to fund statewide transportation projects, 77 percent would like to see commuter railways developed in urban areas and 69 percent of citizens support regional rail systems. Sixty-seven percent of respondents support a state-wide bond referendum to raise money for transportation projects, while 57 percent of residents support giving local governments the option of using a half-cent sales tax to finance local projects. Residents oppose a fee based on the number of miles they drive annually (74%) and increasing the cost of the driver’s license renewal fee (55%).

Other issues: Death penalty
When surveyed about their opinions on the death penalty, residents gravitated toward options other than execution. In an open-ended question about the most appropriate punishment for first-degree murder, 48 percent of respondents identified the death penalty as the most appropriate punishment, while 39 percent reported life in prison a more fitting punishment. Across two questions asking about punishments for people found guilty of first-degree murder, 72 percent of North Carolinians supported life in prison without the possibility of parole and, in a separate question, 58 percent of respondents indicated that they supported the death penalty. When queried about the current moratorium on executions in North Carolina, residents were mixed in their evaluations as 45 percent disagreed with the death penalty moratorium, while 47 percent of North Carolinians agreed with the moratorium.

Other issues: Annexation
Though 41 percent of residents opposed the issue of annexation, indicating they disagreed or strongly disagreed with city councils expanding their city limits by bringing in nearby areas or residents, a similar number (40%) had not given the annexation process much consideration. On questions about whether there should be a waiting period for annexation and to gauge support for citizen initiation of the annexation process, there was similar lack of familiarity as nearly 40 percent of people had not given the process much consideration.
In regard to other statewide issues:
Healthcare:
56 percent support a national health insurance plan
52 percent are satisfied with their current healthcare
50 percent prefer a universal health insurance program
 
Oil Drilling:
66 percent support drilling for oil off the North Carolina coast

RALEIGH, N.C. — Offshore drilling spilled into the national vocabulary in 2008, as political candidates and voters searched for concrete solutions to gas prices that hovered at $4 a gallon earlier this year.

It was a top issue in all of the major campaigns in North Carolina. But now that the election is over, state leaders want to sort out the myths from the facts.

They are already finding out how much they don’t know.

“The big push for offshore drilling was almost entirely political – based on politics, not on substance,” said Molly Diggins, the state director of the N.C. Sierra Club, which opposes drilling off the state’s coast.

“So I think a kind of top-to-bottom review of what the issues are would be a benefit to everyone.”

Marc Basnight, the president pro tem of the N.C. Senate, said he is planning just such a review. He and Joe Hackney, the speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives, will appoint a committee as early as this week to study the implications of offshore drilling.

Even though drilling is mainly a federal decision, the state needs to be prepared in case areas off North Carolina’s coast are opened up for oil and natural-gas exploration, said Basnight and other experts on the issue.

“I believe we should be on a fact-finding mission, one that will provide the information that is now lacking,” Basnight said. “I believe we lack a lot of information.”

Because drilling has been seldom seriously proposed in North Carolina until recently, the state lacks a broad base of structural expertise. There is no state board specifically set up to regulate oil and gas drilling, and the state universities don’t have major departments studying petroleum science, as one might find in other states that have a history of oil drilling.

“To be informed about it would be wise,” said Lou Bartek, a professor of geology at UNC Chapel Hill who studies oil and gas exploration. “If it is something that potentially is inevitable, you would want to be as knowledgeable as possible so you can take advantage of the opportunities that are there and not be taken advantage of.”

Drilling off the coast of North Carolina is a growing possibility, though far from a reality. In September, Congress lifted a 27-year-old ban on drilling in the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Earlier this month, the federal government took initial steps toward drilling off the coast of Virginia, just north of the Outer Banks.
North Carolina has not undertaken a formal study of offshore drilling in decades. The fact that Basnight – a Democrat from coastal Dare County who strongly opposes drilling – is now promoting a study indicates the amount of political momentum behind the issue.

“It was during the elections that my interest grew,” Basnight said. “This study would allow us to look and spend a legitimate amount of time to see how this would change our coastline.”

An Elon University poll in September found that 69 percent of North Carolinians surveyed favored offshore drilling. Republican candidates jumped on the issue during the campaign, and chants of “Drill, baby, drill!” were common at Republican rallies this year.

In response, some Democratic candidates softened their prior opposition to offshore drilling. One notable example was Gov.-elect Bev Perdue, who had for years been staunchly opposed to drilling.

But at times during her run for governor, she expressed enthusiasm for offshore drilling, while adding the caveat that it must be done safely and without harming the state’s coastal tourism industry.
Perdue said that, as governor, she would appoint a committee of scientists to study the issue. It’s unclear if she will move forward with that plan now that legislative leaders are appointing their own study committee.

Basnight did not consult with Perdue about the legislative committee.

Perdue was on vacation last week. A spokeswoman said that Perdue remains concerned about the environmental impact, and also wants to make sure that North Carolina would get a share of royalties generated by drilling for oil and natural gas off its coast.

Complicating any discussion of offshore drilling is the problem that much of it is based on speculation. For instance, no one knows the quantity of oil or natural-gas reserves buried deep under the ocean off North Carolina. Most experts agree that there is more natural gas than oil, and not enough oil to have any significant impact on the nation’s gas prices, even in the long term.

According to estimates by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, drilling in the mid-Atlantic could produce 1.56 billion barrels of oil and 15 trillion cubic feet of natural gas – between 1 and 2 percent of the undiscovered U.S. oil and natural gas.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Gov. Sarah Palin, heralded by some conservatives as the future of the Republican Party, faces some cold political realities in present-day Alaska.

Within days of the McCain-Palin ticket’s defeat earlier this month, the unsuccessful GOP vice presidential nominee capped her tumultuous two months on the campaign trail with a whirlwind series of national media interviews and a headline-grabbing appearance at the Republican Governors Association meeting in Florida.

Now it’s back to her day job at the state capital in Juneau.
 
Palin’s state budget proposal is due in a month, with plummeting oil prices slashing Alaska’s revenues by billions of dollars.

The 1,700-mile natural gas pipeline she bragged about on the campaign trail – “We began a nearly $40 billion-dollar natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence,” she said at the Republican National Convention – is nowhere near being built.

Some hard feelings linger over her administration’s initial decision to ignore subpoenas in the investigation of whether she abused her power in firing the public safety commissioner who wouldn’t oust her ex-brother-in-law from his job as a state trooper.

“The main focus is going to be on the gas line and on the long-term financial issues,” said Democratic state Sen. Bill Wielechowski. “You’re going to see really a clampdown on government services.”

Uncertain is whether the bipartisanship that existed during Palin’s 20 months as governor can survive the heated rhetoric from the presidential campaign and her own political ambitions, with the 44-year-old clearly signaling that she’s open to a bid for president in 2012.

The difficult task at hand “provides the governor with a great opportunity to roll up her sleeves and get back to her job,” said Kenneth Khachigian, a former adviser to President Ronald Reagan.
 
“She’s got four or five election cycles ahead of her where she can do things. She doesn’t have to comment on 2012 or 2016. Being a good governor is the best thing she can do right now.”

Among the challenges she faces:
      -THE BUDGET:
      Alaska has no income or sales tax, and a huge chunk of its annual revenue – as much as 90 percent – comes from taxes and fees on oil companies. When oil prices soar, as they did this summer, so do the state’s coffers: Alaska in the past two years has socked away billions in its already massive savings accounts.

But one of those accounts, the $28 billion Alaska Permanent Fund, sends every Alaskan a dividend each year – this year it was $2,069. So tapping its income to pay for government is considered political suicide, and falling oil prices can put big pressure on state spending.

The governor’s chief economist is working on a new revenue forecast, and many lawmakers expect the state to drastically reduce spending on such things as road projects.
     
-THE PIPELINE:
      With overwhelming support from Democrats, Palin awarded a license to TransCanada in August to pursue building a pipeline that would carry natural gas from Alaska’s North Slope to an existing pipeline network in Alberta.

Although the state granted TransCanada $500 million to plan the pipeline, there’s no guarantee it will be built. TransCanada says it won’t get financing for the massive project until it has guarantees from oil companies to ship the gas through the pipeline; the oil companies say they won’t give such guarantees unless Alaska sets a fixed tax rate on production of the gas, and Palin says she won’t approve the rates the oil companies want.

Solving that problem will require not only cooperation from the Legislature, but probably from the oil companies Palin has battled. And her claim to being a national leader on energy issues depends on it.

-TROOPERGATE AND THE CAMPAIGN:
      The episode – and the media spotlight that resulted from Palin’s vice presidential nomination – drew attention to practices that simply can’t be ignored.

Palin’s administration routinely used private e-mail accounts for state business, circumventing public disclosure laws. “We will undoubtedly address that in some form of legislation,” said Democratic Sen. Hollis French, who oversaw the Troopergate investigation.

Lawmakers also said they could hold hearings on, and possibly restrict, Palin’s practice of charging the state for her children’s travel and taking per diem payments for nights spent in her Wasilla home.

Democratic Rep. Les Gara has – without luck – asked the Alaska State Troopers and the Palin’s appointed attorney general to investigate whether the McCain-Palin campaign urged anyone to ignore their subpoenas. Under state law, to “induce a witness to be absent” from an official proceeding to which they’ve been summoned is second-degree witness tampering.

But even Gara, a recently outspoken critic of Palin, said he doesn’t want such matters preoccupying the government.

“There are much more important things in this state than rehashing Troopergate,” Gara said. “We all have to sit down and let bygones be bygones, but it’s going to take some conversations.”

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, a stalwart of Alaska politics who was convicted of felony charges last month, trails his Democratic rival by more than 800 votes and many of the outstanding ballots come from parts of the state that have favored the challenger.

Even a Republican pollster and Stevens’ friend said his chances for re-election to a seventh term were slim.

“When he came back from the trial and began to campaign personally, it really made a difference,” said David Dittman.

“That doesn’t change anything for all those votes that were cast earlier.”

Mark Begich, the two-term mayor of Anchorage, holds an 814-vote lead with ballot counting resuming on Friday. State election officials said they planned to count 10,000 votes, and the bulk of the rest – about 25,000 – on Tuesday.

Neither candidate was claiming victory nor conceding defeat. Begich said he was “very pleased we’re ahead of the game,” but added, “I can’t predict anything at this point.”

Roughly 15,000 of the remaining ballots come from Anchorage and the surrounding region where Begich is leading. Nearly 9,000 more are from the state’s southeastern panhandle, which Begich is winning handily. Votes from both areas won’t be counted until Tuesday.

Of the votes to be counted Friday, about 5,000 come from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough north of Anchorage, a conservative area home to Gov. Sarah Palin. Stevens has been leading in that area by a margin of 2-to-1. Also to be counted were votes from the interior city of Fairbanks and surrounding areas, where Stevens has a slight lead; and the vast Alaska Bush, where Begich is winning easily Dittman said most of the ballots being counted now were cast in the weeks before the election.

Absentee ballots went out Oct. 14; Stevens was convicted Oct. 27 of lying on Senate disclosure forms to conceal more than $250,000 in gifts and home renovations from an oil field services company.

Statewide, about 15,000 of the remaining votes are questioned ballots, known elsewhere as provisional ballots. They are most commonly cast by people who are voting away from their home polling places. Ivan Moore, an Anchorage pollster who has worked for Democrats, said voters out of the area tend to be younger, single and more likely to vote Democratic.

“I just don’t see a significant bloc of votes that’s remaining for Ted to get him back into this,” Moore said. Begich was winning votes in military installations and the state’s remotest areas, both historical strongholds for Stevens.

The Democrat contends that Stevens’ return wasn’t enough to win over those who supported him in the past.

“His base of support – during the trial, prior to the conviction, and now – didn’t stay with him,” he said of Stevens.

“His core vote areas, those guys said no. They changed votes.” Stevens’ campaign didn’t return calls seeking comment.

DEFIANCE, Ohio – Republican presidential candidate John McCain seized on reports of record oil company profits Thursday to criticize Democratic rival Barack Obama for favoring tax breaks for the oil industry. Obama’s latest TV ads tied McCain to President

Bush and contended that the Democrat was the candidate who could bring people together.

Spending their time and money trying to win over the same voters in those few states still too close to call, McCain was campaigning in Ohio while Obama planned visits to a trio of other swing states – Florida, Virginia and Missouri. Their sense of urgency was growing as the clock ran down to the election next week.

McCain told supporters at a chilly rally in Defiance, Ohio, that Obama’s rhetoric masks votes backing new tax breaks for the industry.

“I voted against it,” the Arizona Republican said during his latest pitch for Ohio’s 20 electoral votes. “When I’m president, we’re not going to let that happen.”

Exxon Mobil Corp. said it earned $14.83 billion in the third quarter, shattering its own record for the biggest profit from operations by a U.S. corporation.

Obama campaign aides cast the Democrat’s newest TV ads, two 30-second spots, as their “closing argument” for an Obama presidency.

One ad shows a man adjusting the rearview mirror in his car only to see Bush – and the unpopular president pops up again in a side mirror. The ad goes on to use highway signs to point to various

McCain policies and ends with both McCain and Bush in the rear mirror amid the warning: “Look behind you. We can’t afford more of the same.”

McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds countered that “Barack Obama’s economic proposals are driven by job-killing tax increases and out-of-control spending.” He added, “Barack Obama would drive this sputtering economy off a cliff.”

The other ad focuses on Obama himself and his pledge to bring Americans together. The spot features pictures of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican, and billionaire investor Warren Buffett, both Obama supporters.

The candidates also sparred over a new Commerce Department report showing that the economy went backward in the third quarter of the year, as consumers cut back on their spending by the biggest amount in 28 years. It was the strongest signal yet the country has hurtled into recession. The gross domestic product shrank at a 0.3 percent annual rate in last quarter.

Obama called the setback “a direct result of the Bush administration’s trickle down, Wall Street first, Main Street last policies that John McCain has embraced for the last eight years and plans to continue for the next four.”

A senior McCain policy adviser, Doug Holtz-Eakin, said the Illinois senator would only accelerate the economy’s decline with “ideologically-driven plans to redistribute income.”

Obama holds leads in polls nationally and in most of the states still in competition. McCain has tried to erode Obama’s advantage by raising doubts about his tax plan and his ability to protect the nation.

McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, says there is nothing wrong with calling out Obama on his past associations or other controversial elements of his record. Besides Obama’s association with ’60s-era radical Bill Ayers – Palin has accused

Obama of “palling around with terrorists” – both McCain and Palin have now brought up Obama’s friendship with a Palestinian-American professor, Rashid Khalidi, who has been critical of Israel.

In an interview aired Thursday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Palin was asked if she was suggesting in any of her criticism that Obama is un-American. Palin relied: “No, not at all. Not calling him un-American.” She added, “I am sure that Sen. Obama cares as much for this country as McCain does.”

WASHINGTON – Although Congress let a ban on offshore drilling expire at the end of last month, don’t expect to see oil rigs along the coast anytime soon.

Even without the ban, another federal law prevents oil companies from leasing Atlantic drilling sites from the government for at least two years. And after the leases are sold, it likely will take another five to 10 years before oil production begins.

“The good news, from our perspective, is there won’t be rigs out there in a week,” said Nat Mund, legislative director of the Washington office of the Southern Environmental Law Center, one of dozens of environmental groups that oppose offshore drilling.

“There’s a multi-step process they have to go through – both the oil companies and the government – before drilling can begin,” he said.

And long before that process ends, both industry and environmental groups say they expect the Democratic-controlled Congress to revisit the drilling ban decision. Early next year, Congress could reinstate the ban or, more likely, allow some drilling while restricting most oil production within sight of the shore.

During intense, pre-election debate over energy policy last month, Democratic leaders in the House dropped their longstanding opposition to offshore drilling.

They approved an energy package that would have allowed oil companies to drill for oil and natural gas on the Outer Continental Shelf more than 50 miles from the coast, as long as adjacent states approved.

That bill – and other similar drilling proposals – stalled in the Senate, after lawmakers said that intense pre-election partisanship made it impossible to reach a compromise.

For decades, several federal laws have banned oil drilling in the Atlantic.

In spending bills since 1981, Congress has prohibited the government from spending any money to lease offshore sites to oil companies – effectively banning the practice. And in 1990, President George H.W. Bush issued an executive order that more explicitly blocked Atlantic drilling, a move upheld by President Clinton.

This summer, President Bush overturned the executive ban passed by his father. And late last month, Congress passed a spending bill that, for the first time in decades, did not include the ban on spending money to lease offshore sites in the Atlantic.

Republicans have pushed to end the ban, suggesting that doing so would provide an immediate cure for high gas prices. But federal officials who oversee oil production say two roadblocks make that unlikely, at least in the near term.

Even with the congressional and executive bans gone, another federal rule prevents the government from leasing areas not included in a five-year leasing plan produced by the Minerals Management Service. That federal agency oversees oil leases.

The current five-year plan does not include sites off the coast of North Carolina. Though the agency is currently drafting a new plan that could open up waters off the state’s coast, it will not be finished until mid-2010 at the earliest.

Another roadblock: Atlantic states still lack most of the necessary infrastructure to support oil production.

“The pipelines and receiving facilities on shore – none of which exist as this time – would need to be built,” said Nicholas Pardi, a spokesman for the Minerals Management Service.

It typically takes eight years for an oil company to begin production after acquiring a lease, Pardi said.

“There is a significant amount of environmental study that needs to be done,” before production can begin. “But there are so many variables involved, it’s hard to say how long it would actually take.”

WASHINGTON – Republican John McCain expressed incredulity in the presidential debate Tuesday that Democrat Barack Obama would tip off the enemy by saying publicly that he’d attack al-Qaida in Pakistan under certain conditions. “Remarkable,” McCain said during the presidential debate, meaning remarkably irresponsible.

Lost in his withering criticism: McCain took the same position as Obama, a year ago, when he said, “Sure. We have to,” when asked if he’d go after Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

Both candidates stretched facts, sometimes past the breaking point, as they addressed the financial crisis and misrepresented each other’s position on health care during their second presidential debate.

One of the night’s sharpest exchanges was over what should be done if the U.S. knew the whereabouts of bin Laden and his terrorists in sovereign Pakistan, and Pakistani officials were unable or unwilling to strike. Obama repeated that he’d attack across the border in that instance.

“Sen. Obama likes to talk loudly,’ McCain said in response. “In fact, he said he wants to announce that he’s going to attack Pakistan. Remarkable.”

McCain went on: “I’m not going to telegraph my punches, which is what Sen. Obama did. And I’m going to act responsibly, as I have acted responsibly throughout my military career and throughout my
career in the United States Senate.”

In an October 2007 interview with Military Times, however, McCain’s position was indistinguishable from Obama’s.

Asked if “you’d go get him” if U.S. forces had a fix on bin Laden in Pakistan, McCain said: “Sure. Sure. We have to, and I’m sure that after the initial flurry, that whoever our friends are, wherever he is, would be relieved because, as I mentioned to you before, he’s still very effective in the world, very, very effective.”

McCain broadened that threat to say he’d target the Taliban operating in Pakistan, too: “I think that if we knew of al-Qaida – more specifically Taliban, it’s mainly Taliban that are operating in these places – that we have to do what’s necessary. We don’t have to advertise it. We don’t have to embarrass or humiliate the Pakistani government.”

Also in the debate:

OBAMA: Said McCain’s proposal to give people a tax credit in exchange for treating employers’ health insurance contributions as taxable wages amounts to “what one hand giveth, the other hand taketh away.”

THE FACTS: Obama’s suggestion that McCain’s health care plan is a wash for families is misleading. McCain offers families a $5,000 tax credit to help them buy health insurance. The corresponding increase in taxable wages would result in a much smaller cost than the value of the tax credit, at least at first. Over time, the value of the tax credit may diminish as premiums rise. However, the Tax Policy Center estimates that McCain’s plan would increase the federal deficit by $1.3 trillion over 10 years – mainly because it would lead to less tax revenue coming in, meaning it is a true tax break overall.
      —

McCAIN: Said he would provide a $5,000 refundable tax credit for families to buy health insurance “rather than mandates or fines for small businesses as Sen. Obama’s plan calls for.”

THE FACTS: Obama’s health care plan does not impose mandates or fines on small business. He would provide small businesses with a refundable tax credit of up to 50 percent on health premiums paid on behalf of their employees. Also, large employers that do not offer meaningful coverage or contribute to the cost of coverage would be required to pay a percentage of payroll toward the costs of a public insurance plan. But small businesses would be exempt from that requirement.
      —

OBAMA: “Actually I’m cutting more than I’m spending so that it will be a net spending cut.”
 
THE FACTS: Obama has many ambitious plans to spend more taxpayer dollars on a variety of federal programs, including clean energy technologies and job training. He’s said he’ll cut pork-barrel programs and the costs of the war in Iraq to pay for it – as well as raise taxes on the wealthy – but the specifics of his new spending plans greatly outweigh the few spending cuts he’s identified.
      —
 
McCAIN: Said one way out of the financial crisis is to “stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don’t like us.”

THE FACTS: Although he didn’t spell it out, he was referring – as he has in the past – to purchases of oil from countries hostile to the U.S. The figure is inflated and misleading. The U.S. is not spending nearly that much on oil imports and roughly one-third of what it does spend goes to friendly countries such as Canada, Mexico and Britain.
      —

OBAMA: Blamed some of the problem of terrorism in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region on Bush administration policy in Pakistan, saying “We can’t coddle, as we did, a dictator, give him billions of dollars and then he’s making peace treaties with the Taliban and militants.”
 
THE FACTS: Obama oversimplifies ex-President Pervez Musharraf’s approach to making peace deals. In fact, the U.S.-backed Musharraf focused more heavily on military action, launching blistering attacks on the militants at times and negotiating peace deals with them at others. Obama also ignores the fact that Pakistan’s newly elected civilian government, also U.S.-supported, is seeking the same kind of peace deals and has stepped back from heavy-handed tactics that were pursued by the Musharraf government.
      —

McCAIN: Said Obama had voted for tax increases “94 times.”

THE FACTS: This inflated count, heard before, includes repetitive votes as well as votes to cut taxes for the middle class while raising them on the rich. An analysis by factcheck.org found that 23 of the votes were for measures that would have produced no tax increase at all, seven were in favor of measures that would have lowered taxes for many, 11 would have increased taxes on only those making more than $1 million a year.
      —

OBAMA: “I believe this is a final verdict on the failed economic policies of the last eight years, strongly promoted by President Bush and supported by Sen. McCain, that essentially said that we should strip away regulations, consumer protections, let the market run wild, and prosperity would rain down on all of us.”

THE FACTS: McCain has indeed favored less regulation over the years but supported tighter rules and accountability on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years before the start of a financial crisis prompted in part by those giant mortgage underwriters. Obama was not a leader in that unsuccessful effort. Some of the current problems can be traced to legislation passed in 1999 that lifted many regulations over the financial industry. That deregulation was championed by then-Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, a McCain supporter, but also by President Clinton, who signed the legislation, and by former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, now a top Obama economic adviser.
      —

MCAIN: “Oil drilling offshore now is vital so we can bridge the gap between imported oil … and it will reduce the price of a barrel of oil. … We’ve got to drill offshore and do it now.”

THE FACTS: The government estimates that opening the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and eastern Gulf of Mexico to drilling “will not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030.” Even then, it would only increase domestic oil production by 3 percent.