Taking Liberties in Philadelphia

Recently, at an April 15 rally in Washington, Pa., he accepted a lapel pin given to him by Philip Fiumara, a disabled Vietnam veteran. "It means a lot coming from you," Obama said.

We take no stand on whether wearing a pin or not says anything about anybody's patriotism. And Obama is within his rights to characterize discussion of the matter as a "distraction." Those are matters of opinion. But as a matter of fact, Obama went too far when he denied ever saying, "I don't wear flag pins."

High-Paid School Teachers?
Clinton exaggerated when she said that lifting the cap on wages that are subject to the Social Security tax "would impose additional taxes on people who are, you know, educators here in the Philadelphia area or in the suburbs, police officers, firefighters and the like." In fact, only individuals earning more than $102,000 a year would be affected, and few cops or teachers earn that much.

Wythe Keever, spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, a union representing public school teachers and support staff, tells FactCheck.org, "You would not find many teachers earning over 100k." He adds that "in the surrounding area, there are some very affluent suburban districts where only the most senior educators with a master's degree and plus and you know probably 25 or more years of experience whose salaries might approach 100k or actually exceed it. … However, I think that's a very small number overall."

The Asbury Park Press has posted data of Pennsylvania state educators' salaries. A look through the earnings in Philadelphia County shows that the vast majority of teachers earn salaries in the $30,000 to $60,000 range. In fact, just 188 people out of 14,749 employees in the database have salaries of more than $102,000.

Philadelphia police officers who graduate from the academy start off making $41,151, according to the department's Web site, and earn a maximum of $53,444 a year. Officers can earn overtime pay of time and a half, but at the maximum pay grade, that works out to be $38.55 an hour based on a 40-hour work week. That means an officer would have to work more than 1,200 hours of overtime in a year to push his or her base salary above $102,000. Corporals and detectives make about 10 percent more than officers, and sergeants earn about 14 percent more than officers, pay increases that still don't come anywhere close to the payroll tax cap.

As for Philadelphia firefighters, the department's press office and payroll department told us that no rank-and-file firefighter makes more than $100,000 and in fact no one's base salary in the department exceeds that amount. When we asked for more specifics, we were told that even though fire department salaries are public information, the request would have to be cleared by the law department. We have yet to hear back from the fire department.

When we asked the Clinton campaign for examples of firefighters, police and educators who would be affected, aides pointed to budget figures showing that principals of Philadelphia's large high schools earn $111,500 on average and large middle school principals earn an average of $107,100. They also cited a news article about the highest paid public officials in Pittsburgh (not Philadelphia), which included a paramedic who topped the list at $145,849.06 last year, a figure that included more than $87,000 in overtime.

In the debate, Obama said "most firefighters, most teachers, you know, they're not making over $100,000 a year. In fact, only 6 percent of the population does." And sure enough, 6.5 percent of U.S. workers overall earn more than $100,000, according to Citizens for Tax Justice. So we score this one for Obama.

Footnote: Both Obama and moderator Charlie Gibson used an outdated figure for the cap on income subject to Social Security taxes. They both described the cap on taxable wages as $97,000. Actually, it was $97,500 last year but went up to $102,000 in January. Obama has said he's open to taxing income above the current cap to help shore up Social Security's finances. During the debate, he said he would also consider exempting income between the cap and $200,000 or $250,000 per year.

Gun Control
Obama was being misleading when he denied that his handwriting had been on a document endorsing a state ban on the sale and possession of handguns in Illinois.