Under President George W. Bush, the U.S. "spent $1.3 trillion on tax cuts for the wealthy" and "trillions" each on a war and on Medicare drug benefits.
In Iraq, "civilian deaths, incidents of bombings, etc., remain very low relative to what was going on last year."
"The president's plan, even after the end of its withdrawal timeline is reached, will leave in place up to 50,000 U.S. troops."
"John McCain voted against funding the troops because of . . . a timeline in it to draw down American troops."
"You had supported John McCain's military strategies pretty adamantly until this race."
Obama voted "to cut off funding for our American troops on the battlefield."
Joe Biden "voted against the first Gulf War. He opposed the surge. He wanted to partition Iraq."
(McCain) says "we can't have ... timelines to draw down our troops from Iraq."
The Bush administration's latest plans for troop withdrawal from Iraq by 2011 are "more or less the same time frame I announced two years ago."
"Sen. McCain was already turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, and he became a leading supporter of an invasion and occupation of (Iraq)."
"First, he (Obama) opposed the surge. Then he confidently predicted that it would fail. Then he tried to prevent funding for the troops who carried out the surge."
"Sen. McCain would occupy Iraq indefinitely, against their wishes."
Says Obama flip-flopped on withdrawing troops from Iraq.
John McCain has given erratic and inconsistent answers on when troops should return from Iraq.
Barack Obama has "reversed" on his commitment "to begin withdrawing American troops from Iraq immediately."
"Our National Guard, as we saw in the Midwest flooding, can't function as effectively as it could. I was talking to National Guard representatives. Fifteen of their 17 helicopters in this region were overseas during the flooding."
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PolitiFact is a project of the St. Petersburg Times to help you find the truth in American politics. Reporters and editors from the Times fact-check statements by members of Congress, the White House, lobbyists and interest groups and rate them on our Truth-O-Meter. We’re also tracking more than 500 of Barack Obama’s campaign promises and are rating their progress on our new Obameter. >> More
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