'You can look it up': OK, then, here goes

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Iraq, Afghanistan

McCain assailed Obama's plan to withdraw troops from Iraq on a timetable and send them to Afghanistan. McCain said that Adm. Michael G. Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has suggested that Obama's plan "is dangerous for America."

"That is not the case," Obama said. "What he said was a precipitous withdrawal would be dangerous."

Both were correct. Mullen said on Fox News in March that a "precipitous withdrawal . . . would concern me greatly." But Mullen also favors more troops for Afghanistan.

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Oil profits

"If we want to talk about oil company profits, under your tax plan, John -- this is undeniable -- oil companies would get an additional $4 billion in tax breaks," Obama said.

In April, McCain proposed $195 billion in annual tax cuts, including a reduction in the corporate income tax rate from 35% to 25%.

Obama did not mention that the corporate tax cut would apply to all businesses, not just oil companies.

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Corporate taxes

The two candidates offered different views of corporate taxation during the debate.

McCain, who wants to cut corporate taxes, said that U.S. businesses currently pay the second-highest tax rates in the world. Obama countered that loopholes allow businesses to pay "one of the lowest tax rates in the world."

Both claims are substantially correct. Only Japan imposes a higher corporate tax rate than the United States. At the same time, companies are often able to escape U.S. taxes altogether. Two-thirds of U.S. corporations pay no federal income taxes, a government report found last month.

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Healthcare

McCain said: "I want to make sure that we're not handing the healthcare system over to the federal government, which is basically what would ultimately happen with Sen. Obama's healthcare plan."

Though Obama does call for an expanded role for government in regulating healthcare, he would maintain the existing private insurance system. McCain's charge is probably based on Obama's proposal to create a National Health Insurance Exchange, a watchdog group that would regulate the private insurance market and publicize plan details and costs.

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Times staff writers Michael Finnegan, Peter Spiegel, Noam N. Levey, Michael Hiltzik and Kate Linthicum contributed to this report.

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'This is a final verdict on eight years of failed economic policies -- promoted by George Bush, supported by Sen. McCain -- a theory that basically says that we can shred regulations and consumer protections and give more and more to the most, and somehow prosperity will trickle down.' -- Sen. Barack Obama