October 9, 2004
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Here's a look at key assertions -- and a quick fact check -- from Friday's debate in St. Louis between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry:

BUSH ON . . .

WMD
President Bush asserted that U.N. sanctions weren't working in Iraq. But a report this week based on a 15-month inspection led by the CIA weapons inspector found that Saddam Hussein hadn't restarted his nuclear weapons program since the 1991 Persian Gulf War and had no chemical or biological weapon stockpiles or any concrete programs to make them.The inspector, Charles Duelfer, did find Hussein was manipulating the U.N. oil sales system in ways that enriched powerful individuals and groups he selected as a means to gain influence with countries that could help him lift sanctions. Duelfer concluded Hussein hoped eventually to redevelop weapons to deter Iran and enhance his regional power, not to attack the United States.

Small-business taxes
Bush said Kerry's plan to roll back the Bush tax cuts on taxpayers with incomes over $200,000 would raises taxes on 900,000 small businesses. That number includes all taxpayers who claim "business income." The nonpartisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center places the number of such businesses at 471,000. As Kerry said, that would include Bush, who in his 2001 tax return reported $84 in business income from a timber-growing business in which he held a small stake. "I own a timber company?" Bush said. "That's news to me." Then he paused and added, "Need some wood?"

Tax relief
The president said "everybody got tax relief" under his tax cut proposals. That's not exactly true. Only Americans who pay income taxes received relief under Bush's plan. Low-income workers who don't earn enough to pay income taxes but pay payroll taxes toward Medicare and Social Security didn't receive any relief.

Homeland security
Bush's claim that his administration has tripled spending on homeland security is an exaggeration. The budget for programs now administered by the Department of Homeland Security has more than doubled since 2001, to about $24 billion in fiscal year 2004, which just ended. Total domestic spending on homeland security is $41 billion a year, about double three years ago.

The U.S. military
"We don't need mass armies anymore," Bush said, arguing that modern weapons and moving troops out of Europe where they're no longer needed would give the United States the manpower it needs. Currently, nine of the U.S. Army's 10 divisions are or have been involved in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and 40 percent of the forces in Iraq are members of the U.S. National Guard and Reserves.

On Al-Qaida
Bush said of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization, "We've already (got) 75 percent of his people," a loose interpretation of intelligence findings that up to three-quarters of the group's leadership from before Sept. 11, 2001 -- not the rank and file -- has been run down.

The rest is here at Indy Star