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Michele Bachmann: Spoke of "the unconstitutional individual mandate," a reference to a requirement for people to carry health insurance, a central element of the 2010 federal health care law.

The facts: Nothing is unconstitutional until courts declare it to be so. The constitutionality of the individual mandate has been challenged in lawsuits in a number of states, and federal judges have found in favor and against. The Supreme Court will probably have the final word. But for now, the individual mandate is ahead in the count.

Tim Pawlenty: "To correct you, I have not questioned Congresswoman Bachmann's headaches."

The facts: He was hardly dismissive of it initially. "All of the candidates, I think, are going to have to be able to demonstrate they can do all of the job all of the time," he said. "There's no real time off in that job." He later tried to clarify, saying the flap was merely a "sideshow."

Bachmann to Pawlenty: "You said the era of small government was over. That sounds an awful lot like Barack Obama."

The facts: Pawlenty did not declare the era of small government over. (Neither has Obama.) Bachmann's jab was drawn from a Star Tribune interview in which Pawlenty referred to a New York Times column as part of his argument that "there are certain circumstances where you've got to have government put up the guardrails or bust up entrenched interests before they become too powerful." The next day, the Star Tribune clarified that he was relaying another writer's thoughts.

Mitt Romney: On the deal to avert a debt default: "I'm not going to eat Barack Obama's dog food, all right? What he served up was not what I would have done."

The facts: He was defending himself against criticism that he took a pass when leadership was most needed in the talks to raise the debt ceiling. In fact, he was largely missing in the crux of the debate. He backed a Republican "cut, cap and balance" proposal that would have combined deep spending cuts with a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. But that plan had no chance of becoming law and settling the crisis, and leaders in both parties knew it.

Rick Santorum: "The problem is that we have spending that has exploded. The government's averaged 18 percent of GDP as the percentage of the overall economy. ... And we're now at almost 25 percent."

The facts: The White House budget office has estimated that federal spending this year will equal about 25 percent of the country's $15 trillion economy -- the highest proportion since World War II. But federal spending has averaged nearly 22 percent since 1970. It has not been as low as 18 percent since 1966.

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