The final debate before the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses contained old and new claims alike:
• Sen. Ted Cruz , who was born in Canada, said the law was “quite clear” that the “child of a U.S. citizen born abroad is a natural-born citizen” and therefore eligible to be president. Legal consensus is on his side, but the issue isn’t settled and could require a Supreme Court ruling.
• Sen. Marco Rubio and Cruz disagreed over whether Cruz’s tax plan, which relies on a 16% tax on businesses, was a “value-added tax” or VAT, as Rubio said. Rubio is correct.
• New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie repeated his claim that he “didn’t support” Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor . But in 2009 he said, “I support her appointment,” and he urged the Senate to confirm her, while saying he wouldn’t have nominated her.
• Businessman Donald Trump described the Syrian refugees as mostly “strong, powerful men.” But most of the more than 4.6 million refugees registered with the United Nations are women and children.
• Cruz repeated his claim that the Senate immigration bill that Rubio cosponsored would have given the president power to admit Syrian refugees “without mandating meaningful background checks.” The bill would have made it easier for members of certain groups to qualify as refugees, but they would still be subject to background checks.
• Sen. Marco Rubio claimed that Cruz flipped positions on his support for legalization of immigrants currently living in the U.S. illegally. But that depends on whether or not Cruz was bluffing back in 2013 when he proposed an amendment that would have allowed legalization.
• Christie also repeated his claim that “we double tax” U.S. companies with overseas operations. The U.S. tax code provides a foreign tax credit to avoid that.
• Christie, Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich all said that the U.S. has the highest corporate tax rate in the world. It’s the highest statutory tax rate among industrialized nations, but not the highest marginal effective tax rate, according to one analysis.
• In the earlier debate, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum claimed 2 million manufacturing jobs had been lost under Obama. The number is actually 230,000 jobs lost.
• Businesswoman Carly Fiorina said of the September 2012 Benghazi attacks: “[W]hen you do not say the United States of America will retaliate for that attack, terrorists assume it’s open season.” The president repeatedly vowed to bring the killers to justice.
Seven GOP candidates met on the main stage on Jan. 14: businessman Donald Trump, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson , Sen. Marco Rubio, former Florida governor Jeb Bush , Sen. Ted Cruz, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. The earlier undercard debate included former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, businesswoman Carly Fiorina and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee . The debate aired on Fox Business Network and was held in North Charleston, S.C.
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