Ryan's speech was short on facts

Rep. Paul Ryan used his convention speech to fault President Obama for failing to act on a deficit-reduction plan that he himself helped kill. He chided Democrats for seeking $716 billion in Medicare cuts that he too had sought. And he lamented the nation's credit rating -- which was downgraded after a debt-ceiling standoff that he and other House Republicans helped instigate. His speech -- peppered with statements that were incorrect, incomplete or incompatible with his own record -- seemed to signal the arrival of a new kind of campaign, one in which concerns about fact-checking have been largely set aside. Here's a look at some of the issues:

Ryan's claim: Obama "created a new bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanks them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing."

Left unsaid: Ryan served on that commission, and his opposition to its final proposals helped to seal its fate. The panel made a number of recommendations that Ryan opposed on the grounds that they would have raised some taxes while failing to cut enough from health programs. His dismissal of the plan was seen as an important blow to its chances of success, since it soured other House Republicans on it.

Ryan's claim: The president's time in office "began with a perfect AAA credit rating for the United States. It ends with the downgraded America."

The facts: When Standard & Poor's lowered the nation's credit rating, it was in large part because of the standoff last year over the debt ceiling -- which needed to be raised so the government could borrow money to pay for spending that Congress had already approved. The White House asked Congress to raise the debt ceiling, but Ryan and House Republicans balked at doing so without a deal on spending cuts, leading to a prolonged standoff. In explaining the downgrade, Standard & Poor's wrote that "the political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America's governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed. The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy."

Ryan spoke out forcefully against the "$716 billion funneled out of Medicare by President Obama."

Left unsaid: He did not note that his own past budget plans had counted on the same savings, and pledged to protect Medicare without explaining how the Romney-Ryan plan would change it. Nor did he note that the $716 billion cut to Medicare that Obama made would reduce payments to HMOs, hospitals and many other health care providers and would save recipients out-of-pocket costs. Democrats say that the Romney-Ryan plan to reshape Medicare would force future beneficiaries to pay more for their health care, while Republicans fault Obama for the $716 billion cut in future growth.

The facts: The decision was made under President George W. Bush -- long before Obama's bailout of the auto industry, which was credited with saving a number of other auto plants. The Ryan campaign said the issue was not when the plant stopped production, but the fact that it has not restarted -- and that the Janesville plant did not benefit from Obama's stimulus for "green" energy jobs.