HARD-HITTING CLAIMS SOUNDED GOOD BUT FAILED ACCURACY TEST.

Byline: Heather Dewar and R.A. Zaldivar Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

Republican challenger Robert Dole tried to keep President Clinton on the defensive in their debate Sunday with attacks on foreign policy and the economy. Some of Dole's attacks hit home, but many of them stretched the facts and strained the GOP candidate's credibility.

For example, at one point Dole said Clinton has ``deployed more troops than any president in history around the world. These are the facts,'' he said, without explaining how he arrived at that conclusion.

If Dole was referring to fighting troops overseas, the statement is incorrect. The number of American troops serving under George Bush in the Persian Gulf War peaked at 540,000; about the same number fought in Vietnam at its height in 1967, under Lyndon Johnson. By contrast, Clinton has deployed about 30,000 troops to Kuwait, 20,000 in Bosnia and 19,000 in Haiti, his administration's largest overseas operation.

Such misstatements defused the impact of some of Dole's more accurate criticisms, such as his assertion that Clinton's Sept. 3 and 4 missile attacks on Saddam Hussein had backfired.

``We shot, what, 44 cruise missiles at $1 million apiece. Did we do any damage? No,'' Dole said. ``Saddam is probably stronger than he ever was.''

It was the most telling of Dole's repeated attacks on what he called Clinton's ``ad hoc'' foreign policy. Most experts agree that Saddam Hussein did indeed strengthen his influence over the Kurdish regions of northern Iraq in spite of the U.S. missile strikes.

Other topics on which the candidates parted ways with each other and, at times, with the facts:

THE ECONOMY

The debate opened with an echo of Ronald Reagan's classic swipe at Jimmy Carter - ``Ask yourself, are you better off now than you were four years ago?'' Dole implied that the American people are worse off economically than they were four years ago.

Dole said economic growth was dramatically lower under Clinton. ``We have stagnation,'' he said.

The numbers don't bear him out.

In 1993 - when Clinton took office - median household income was $32,949, in inflation-adjusted 1995 dollars. By last year it stood at $34,076 - a gain of $1,127 for the typical household. The poverty rate dropped to 13.8 percent from 15.1 percent.

However, most households have not recovered their losses from the 1990-1991 recession, during former President Bush's term. Median household income was $35,526 in 1989, the year before the recession.

By most measures, the economy is doing well. Unemployment and inflation are low. The stock market is booming. Growth is not as robust as during the 1960s, but the economy itself has changed. Many economists believe the U.S. economy is operating at close to its peak.

``It is not midnight in America, senator,'' Clinton countered. ``We are better off than we were four years ago.''

But Dole was right to say that Clinton claimed too much credit for economic good news. The recovery was the result of millions of business decisions in a free economy. Many economists do not believe Dole can deliver a big increase in the rate of economic growth.

MEDICARE

Clinton accused Dole of trying to slash Medicare by $270 billion last year, ``more than was necessary to repair the Medicare trust fund.'' That's a distortion.

The Republican plan would not have spent fewer dollars on Medicare; instead it would have slowed the 9 percent-a-year increases in program costs.

Medicare's hospital trust fund is projected to go broke in 2001. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that it would take $300 billion in savings over six years to stabilize the program. That's not much different from the GOP target of $270 billion.

However, the CBO said this scenario would involve wrenching changes, with beneficiaries paying more, hospitals getting less and traditional Medicare giving way to managed care.

Dole has backed away from the $270 billion figure and is now calling for $168 billion in Medicare savings over six years. Clinton has proposed to slow program spending by $124 billion. He also would move some fast-growing Medicare services to other parts of the federal budget - an accounting change that would not address underlying problems.

TAX INCREASES

Dole repeated his charge that Clinton sponsored the largest tax increase in history as part of his 1993 deficit-reduction package. Not so, after inflation is taken into account.

The largest tax increase since World War II came in 1982, during Ronald Reagan's presidency. Dole, as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, played a leading role in getting it passed. According to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, the Reagan-era increase totaled $269.8 billion in inflation-adjusted 1995 dollars. Using the same scale, Clinton's came to $226.2 billion.

TAX CUTS

Clinton said Dole's $548 billion tax cut package isn't paid for and ``will blow a hole in the deficit.''

Dole insisted the tax cut would be fully offset with spending reductions. His campaign has issued a general description of where the cuts would come from. But most budget analysts are skeptical of the plan, since it shields more than half the budget from any cuts.

It's a pretty safe bet that Dole as president, working with a Republican Congress, would deliver a tax cut. But it may not be as large as Dole has promised. And if the deficit does race out of control, any tax cut may be temporary.