I-Team Report: Truth Squad

October 3, 2012 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- The Truth Squad has been all over the 90-minute presidential debate, fact-checking the claims and counterclaims.

Early in the debate centered on taxes, jobs and the economy came this from Republican candidate Mitt Romney: President Obama, he said, added nearly as much to the federal debt as all US presidents combined.

The I-Team found that is false.

According to US Treasury figures, when Mr. Obama took over the federal debt was $10 trillion. It is now $16 trillion, not the sum of all previous presidents.

Next the Truth Squad looked at Mr. Obama's claim during the debate that under his affordable health care plan so far, six million young Americans under age 26 have been able to stay on their parent's health care plans.

That too is false. According to the most recent figures by Obama's own health and human services department, the number is only half of what the president claimed.

Mr. Romney charged during the debate that President Obama has doubled the deficit.

The I-Team found that is false-the deficit isn't double what it was when Obama took over, according to the congressional budget office. Measured as a share of economic output, the standard most economists use, the deficit actually fell slightly between 2009 and this year.

Finally, back to the president: he stated that the administration created five million private sector jobs in last 30 months. That is true and false.

Five million private sector jobs were created in the last 30 months but he neglected to mention that nearly 700,000 public sector jobs were lost since the start of his presidency.

The Twitter world was abuzz with comments and fact-checking of debate statements by viewers and by organizations. One of the most repeated comments about the end of the debate was that the president lied when he said debate moderator Jim Lehrer did a good job. Fact-checking can be a cruel business.

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i-team, chuck goudie

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