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ROMNEY: "And let me make this very clear — unlike President Obama, I will not raise taxes on the middle class."
THE FACTS: Obama has enacted several laws that could raise taxes for some middle-class families. Other Obama laws, however, have reduced taxes for many more such families.
A 2009 law increased the federal cigarette tax to pay for expanding a health insurance program for low-income children. Also, Obama's massive new health care law imposes fines for not getting health insurance. The Supreme Court called the fines taxes in the ruling that found the law constitutional.
However, Obama's 2009 economic stimulus package included a series of tax cuts for middle- and low-income families. One, the Making Work Pay tax credit, provided millions of working families up to $800 a year in 2009 and 2010.
Obama also signed a temporary reduction in the Social Security payroll tax for 2011 and 2012. The payroll tax cut provides $1,000 a year to a worker making $50,000 in wages.
Romney says he wouldn't raise taxes on anyone. However, his tax plan would let the temporary tax cuts in Obama's stimulus package expire, resulting in higher taxes for some low- and middle-income families.
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ROMNEY: "I have a plan to create 12 million new jobs. It has five steps."
THE FACTS: No one says he can't, but economic forecasters are divided on his ability to deliver. He'd have to nearly double the anemic pace of job growth lately.
That's conceivable in a healthy economy. Moody's Analytics, one financial research operation, expects nearly that many jobs to return over the next four years no matter who occupies the White House, provided there are no further economic bumps. Other analysts have questioned Romney's rosy job promises.
Romney's steps include deficit cuts that he has not spelled out, and a march toward energy independence that past presidents have promised but not delivered. Unlike Obama, he does not support curbs on demand; namely the much higher mileage standards that are coming into effect. Romney proposes boosting supplies, with freer access to development of oil, gas, coal and more. Independent energy analysts say supply and demand both have to be in the equation for energy independence to be achieved.
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ROMNEY: "His $716 billion cut to Medicare to finance Obamacare will both hurt today's seniors, and depress innovation - and jobs - in medicine."
THE FACTS: The cuts in Obama's health care law hit hospitals, insurance companies and other service providers — not seniors directly. Those cuts are being phased in over several years, and as yet they do not appear to have harmed the program. However, Medicare's Office of the Actuary, a nonpartisan unit responsible for long-range cost estimates, has warned that over time the cuts would bite too deeply, pushing some hospitals and nursing homes into the red.
The health care law also improved some Medicare benefits, for example, providing assistance to seniors with high prescription costs. And it has launched dozens of experiments to improve the quality of care while keeping costs under control.
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ROMNEY: "I will begin my presidency with a jobs tour. President Obama began with an apology tour. America, he said, had dictated to other nations. No, Mr. President, America has freed other nations from dictators."
THE FACTS: The "apology tour" has been a recurring GOP criticism since Obama's first months in office, after visits to Europe, Latin America and the Muslim world. But Obama never apologized or said he was sorry to anyone on those trips.
Obama has said in some world travels that the U.S. acted "contrary to our traditions and ideals" in its treatment of terrorist suspects, that "America has too often been selective in its promotion of democracy," that the U.S. "certainly shares blame" for international economic turmoil and has sometimes shown arrogance toward allies. Obama's statements that America is not beyond reproach in its history usually come balanced with praise, and he is hardly alone among presidents in acknowledging the nation's past imperfections. But these were not apologies, formal or informal.
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