It’s almost time for the vice presidential debate in Danville, Kentucky—Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan will meet on stage at 9:00 p.m. ET. Check out barackobama.com/debate, where we’ll be live streaming the whole thing and bringing you updates as the action unfolds.

Debate coverage

Vice President Joe Biden sent this note ahead of tonight’s vice presidential debate:

I told Barack I have one mission tonight: tell the truth and stand up for what we believe in. Our side is always going to win when we do that.

But take a look at what we're up against this week:

• It's one of the last four weeks we have remaining.

• This week alone, the other side is spending nearly $37 million on Mitt Romney's behalf in eight battleground states.

• The resources we have in the bank at midnight tomorrow will determine how big we can go for our final push.

It's urgent that everyone dig deep—and fast. That means you.

I can't predict if Paul Ryan will follow Mitt Romney's lead tonight, hiding and flat-out denying their unpopular ideas, or if he'll come prepared to have a real debate about where this country should go.

Trust me, I'm ready for anything, but I can't do this alone. Your donation will put us in the strongest position possible tomorrow, ahead of a major budget-decisions deadline.

Please make a donation today.

Thanks for your support tonight.

Joe

Donate

Over the course of his career, Joe Biden has always said exactly what he means, and people know they can count on the Vice President to be straight with them.

You can't say the same about Paul Ryan.

Out on the campaign trail, Ryan has followed Mitt Romney's lead—making a habit of misrepresenting or flat-out denying his unpopular, extreme positions, while distorting President Obama's record. Both Romney and Ryan know that if they're honest with the American people about their proposals and their records, it'll hurt their chances to win the election.

Be sure to check out this post that breaks down Ryan's favorite false attacks. Some examples include (but most certainly are not limited to):

• Attacking President Obama for the Medicare savings that actually extend the life of the program.

• Blaming President Obama for the closure of an auto manufacturing plant in Wisconsin that happened during the Bush administration.

• Accusing President Obama of not taking the recommendations of the debt reduction committee—the same recommendations that Ryan himself voted against.

• Calling Obamacare a government "health care takeover."

• Telling reporters that he hadn't sought stimulus funds for his district, when in fact he had.

After all this dishonesty, Ryan actually complained earlier this week that people are calling him dishonest. But until he proves otherwise, we will continue to say that water is wet, the sky is blue, and Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney are willing to say anything—even if that means wildly distorting known facts—to win this election.

So before, during, and after tonight's debate, stay on barackobama.com/debate and get the facts to respond to Ryan's distortions. And be sure to show your support for Vice President Biden on Facebook and Twitter, too.

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are running on an extreme platform that fundamentally undermines the economic security of the middle class. But rather than telling voters the truth, Romney and Ryan are attempting to cover up their real positions with falsehoods and distortions.

In the first debate, Romney proved that he'd say anything to win--even if it isn't true. He pretended some of his most radical positions don't even exist—like his long-standing plan that pays for $5 trillion in tax cuts weighted towards the wealthy by hiking taxes on middle-class families with kids by more than $2,000. Romney even tried to claim that anti-choice legislation was not on his agenda—and got factchecked by his own campaign.

Now, it's Paul Ryan's turn—and he's well-versed in making false claims that are easily debunked by fact-checkers. So will Ryan adopt the same dishonest strategy as his running mate? If the past is any guide, here are the four of Ryan's favorite falsehoods that he might revive at the vice presidential debate in Danville, Kentucky:

1. Medicare

   The false line: No matter what the fact checkers say, Ryan cannot resist any opportunity to falsely claim that Obamacare cut benefits for seniors by $716 billion. That's "flat out wrong." Obamacare strengthens Medicare by cutting unnecessary payments to insurance companies and health care providers and uses those savings to expand prescription drug coverage for seniors and extend Medicare's solvency by eight years. That's why factcheckers have rated Romney and Ryan's "repeatedly debunked" $716 billion-line as "highly misleading" and "mostly false."

   The real Romney-Ryan plan: Ryan's distortion of Obamacare is more than dishonest, it's deeply hypocritical: Ryan's own budget included the identical policy. So why is he resorting to false attacks instead of explaining his plan? Because the Romney-Ryan plan would end Medicare's guaranteed benefits for seniors and turn the program into a voucher system that could raise costs for seniors by more than $6,000 a year.

   Reality: The AARP has endorsed Obamacare because it strengthens Medicare in crucial ways—including free preventive services for seniors, coverage for annual wellness visits, extended solvency, and expanded prescription coverage by closing the doughnut hole. By making Medicare more efficient, Obamacare is lowering seniors' premiums and out of pocket costs by $5,000 by 2022.

2. $5 trillion tax plan

   The false line: Romney and Ryan are trying to insist that their plan to cut taxes weighted towards the wealthy won’t cost $5 trillion. When asked to prove that their plan actually adds up, Ryan said, "It would take me too long to go through all of that." But it doesn't take long to explain the math behind the plan because it doesn't add up. By cutting tax rates by 20% and taking steps like eliminating the estate tax and the Alternative Minimum Tax, Romney is promising $5 trillion in tax cuts. Even if he eliminated every tax benefit for high-income taxpayers as he claims he'll do, he'd still give high-income taxpayers a tax cut of $1 trillion that they have yet to explain how they'd cover. This is why factcheckers say Romney's plan is "long on promises and short on details."

   The real Romney-Ryan plan: Romney and Ryan are refusing to offer details because they know the math says they’d have to raise taxes on the middle class if they want to pay for their tax plan. According to the Tax Policy Center, that would require forcing middle-class families with children to pay an average of more than $2,000 a year. So Romney has a choice: He can either increase middle class taxes or explode the deficit.

   Reality: While Romney and Ryan would hike middle class taxes, President Obama has cut taxes by $3,600 for the typical middle-class family over his first term and plans to eliminate tax breaks for companies that send jobs and profits overseas. He's proposed asking millionaires and billionaires to pay the same tax rate they paid under President Clinton, and has a plan to responsibly reduce the deficit by more than $4 trillion. Those are the kind of details that Romney and Ryan refuse to offer.

3. A plan to reduce the deficit

   The false line: Rep. Ryan has accused President Obama of doing "exactly nothing" with the Simpson-Bowles Commission's budget proposal. That's false. The President has proposed a deficit reduction plan that reflects Simpson-Bowles’ balanced approach. In fact, what Ryan fails to mention is that he was a member of that bipartisan commission and voted against the proposal he is falsely and hypocritically attacking the President for ignoring. In fact, the plan won five Republican votes and only needed an additional three votes to be sent to Congress--one of those votes could have been Ryan's. Instead, his opposition helped "seal its fate". The AEI's Norman Ornstein called this line of attack "utterly hypocritical."

   The real Romney-Ryan plan: Ryan is falsely pointing a finger at the President when the Romney-Ryan plan doesn't even resemble what Simpsons-Bowles proposed. It doesn't include a penny of new revenues, which Simpson-Bowles outlined as a necessary part of a balanced solution. Romney and Ryan also call for $2 trillion more in defense spending that the Pentagon has not asked for.

   Reality: As factcheckers and analysts have noted, President Obama's plan reflects the Simpson-Bowles commission's balanced framework, with a combination of spending cuts and increased revenues from the wealthiest Americans. The President will enact more than $4 trillion in deficit reduction, including the $1 trillion in savings he's already signed into law, through specific cuts and the increased revenue derived from asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share. This plan protects key investments in the middle class while responsibly reducing the deficit.

4. The auto rescue

   The false line: In his convention speech, Ryan blamed President Obama for letting an auto plant close in Ryan's hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin. There’s only one problem: That plant closed in December of 2008, before the President even took office. That’s why factcheckers panned Ryan's attack as "dishonest," "wrong," and "one of the biggest whoppers" he's told.

   The real Romney-Ryan plan: What Ryan doesn't mention is that Romney would've let the entire auto industry "go bankrupt," leaving Wisconsin's auto workers out to dry.

   Reality: The fact is that President Obama's decision to rescue the American auto industry saved more than 1 million jobs in an industry that helps support more than 1 in 20 jobs in Wisconsin. Since GM and Chrysler retooled in June 2009, the economy has added more than 245,000 auto jobs.

Ryan has clearly been practicing these fact-free attacks. Make sure your friends and family have all the facts so they know what's fact and what's fiction before the first vice presidential debate.

Read More…

From the casual fib to the flat-out falsehood, Paul Ryan has earned reviews like “false” and “four pinocchios” from independent fact-checkers. Before tonight’s debate, share this video with your friends and get ready to watch.

Share

Whatever happens at the vice presidential debate tonight, we need to respond quickly and forcefully. With 26 days to go, we can't just sit and wait for someone else to set the record straight. That's how elections are lost.

The number one thing we won't be able to control in tonight's debate is whether Congressman Ryan tells the truth—about himself, his record, or his and Mitt Romney's actual plans for where they'd take our country.

If the past is any indicator, he won't.

For his whole career, Paul Ryan has made an art of obscuring the facts. He's done it on big things—like the fact that the Ryan budget that he championed in Congress, later adopted by the Romney-Ryan campaign, would actually end Medicare as we know it for our seniors and turn it into a voucher program.

He's misrepresented even the smallest things, too—like his own personal marathon time.

If he's not going to be bound by the facts tonight, it's something that every voter needs to know.

One big thing our side can control in this debate is how strongly we respond. As soon as Vice President Biden walks off that stage, we need to be ready to fire all cylinders to make sure our message—and the truth about the choice in this election—gets out there.

Before he gets up on that stage to fight for us tonight, please make a donation, no matter how large or small.

Donate

The first and only vice presidential debate between Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan takes place tomorrow, October 11th, at 9:00 p.m. ET at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. We’ll be live streaming the whole thing and bringing you the latest as it happens on barackobama.com/debate. Also, be sure to follow @JoeBiden, @truthteam2012, and @Obama2012 for all the action on Twitter.

Follow @JoeBiden
Follow @TruthTeam2012
Follow @Obama2012