Factcheck: A few went astray

Facts went astray on tax cuts, negative campaign advertising and oil imports when Barack Obama and John McCain engaged in their third and final presidential debate Some examples: Obama: "Every dollar that I've proposed, I've proposed an additional cut, so that it matches."

The facts: The bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that his programs would add $281 billion to the deficit at the end of his first term. The analysis includes Obama's proposals for saving money.

McCain: "We have to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don't like us very much."

The facts: This is a reference to U.S. spending on oil imports. McCain has repeatedly made this claim. But the figure is highly inflated and misleading. According to government agencies, the United States spent $246 billion in 2007 for all imported crude oil, a majority of it coming from friendly nations including Canada and Mexico. An additional $82 billion was spent on imported refined petroleum products. A majority of the refined products come from refineries in such friendly countries as the Netherlands.

Obama: "One hundred percent, John, of your ads -- 100 percent of them -- have been negative."

The facts: The statement is true when it comes to McCain's current commercial spots. But by saying McCain's ads "have been" 100 percent negative, Obama ventures into misleading territory. McCain is currently running all negative ads, according to a study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But he has run a number of positive ads during the campaign.

McCain: "Senator Obama is spending unprecedented amounts of money in negative attack ads on me."

Obama: "I want to provide a tax cut for 95 percent of working Americans, 95 percent."

The facts: Obama constantly says this. But the independent Tax Policy Center says his plan cuts taxes for 81.3 percent of all households in 2009.

McCain: Said of Obama's running mate Sen. Joe Biden: "He had this cockamamie idea of dividing Iraq into three countries."

The facts: Biden actually proposed dividing Iraq into three semi-autonomous regions, not separate countries. He was a prime sponsor of a nonbinding Senate resolution that called for Iraq to have federal regions under the control of Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis in a power-sharing agreement similar to the one that ended the 1990s war in Bosnia.

Obama: Said he would be "completely supportive" of late-term abortion restrictions "as long as there's an exception for the mother's health and life."

McCain: "Senator Obama talks about voting for budgets. He voted twice for a budget resolution that increases the taxes on individuals making $42,000 a year."

The facts: The vote was on a nonbinding resolution and did not increase taxes. The resolution assumed that President Bush's tax cuts would expire, as scheduled, in 2011. If that actually happened, it could mean higher taxes for people making as little as about $42,000.