Fact-checking the vice presidential debate

Updated on Friday, October 12th, 2012 at 1:15 a.m.

PolitiFact researchers in Washington, Florida, Wisconsin and Georgia dug into factual claims by the dueling nominees for vice president.

Check PolitiFact’s evolving recap of the claims by Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan here.

From Milwaukee, PolitiFact Wisconsin noted that Biden repeated a claim he made in Green Bay this summer: that if the Bush-era tax cuts are extended for the very wealthy, the tax savings total $500 billion for just 120,000 families over 10 years.PolitiFact Wisconsin rated that Mostly True. Romney and Ryan want to extend those expiring tax cuts for all, while Obama would do so only for income below $250,000.

When the debate turned to the economy and the Obama bailout of the auto industry, Biden repeated an Obama campaign charge that “Romney said, ‘let Detroit go bankrupt.’”

PolitiFact has rated a similar claim Half True, noting that Romney used those words but he emphasized he was not referring to liquidation of the industry.

On Medicare and Social Security, Ryan said Obama’s federal health care law “takes $716 billion from Medicare to spend on ObamaCare” — a “piggy bank” for ObamaCare, he called it. Previously, PolitiFact National has rated Mostly False a Ryan statement that Obama “funneled” $716 billion out of Medicare “at the expense of the elderly.”

See PolitiFact Wisconsin’s full write-up here.

Kudos to our colleagues around the country.