"If you go to a financial adviser and, you know, you're in trouble. . They'll ask: What do you own, and what do you owe? Well, we owe a lot. It's not just the $18 trillion; it's the $211 trillion of unfunded mandates as well."

That's what Republican Ben Carson said in announcing his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination on May 4, 2015.

Carson's general point holds, that the government has unfunded liabilities beyond the reported federal debt. The gap exists, and it is projected to grow by all counts, but the specific dollar figure varies depending on the economist and the accounting method used. In his speech, Carson used a specific figure arrived through a particular method - by calculating unfunded liabilities through infinity. He also managed to incorrectly describe the concept as "unfunded mandates." But none of that is clear in Carson's his speech. Without providing context or an explanation to this jaw-dropping figure, he creates a misleading impression. It does the public a disservice, especially in a high-profile setting such as an announcement of a run for the presidency.

Clinton on thin ICE

"I also think that we have to reform our detention system. . I'm not sure a lot of Americans know that a lot of the detention facilities for immigrants are run by private companies and that they have a built-in incentive to fill them up, that there is actually a legal requirement that so many beds be filled. So people go out and round up people in order to get paid on a per-bed basis." - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, May 5, 2015.

But the law does not require every bed to be filled. The Government Accountability Office found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had inconsistent oversight of its detention facilities. Some privately run facilities do have guaranteed minimum populations as a part of their contract. So field officers were directed to send detainees there, since ICE pays for the beds regardless of whether they are used. ICE agents must detain high-priority migrants - i.e., those who are a flight risk, have violent criminal records , and are repeat offenders - but have discretion over other, lower-risk categories. The bed mandate was affecting the agency's ability to efficiently use and expand its alternative program for lower-risk offenders. The average cost of the alternative program was $10.55 per day, compared with the average daily cost of detention: $158. Clinton's statement may conflate the role of ICE and the facility operators, but it highlights a genuine problem that ICE has congressional pressure and contractual incentives to fill detention beds.

Christie on part-time workers

Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie claims "We've had a huge shift from full-time work to part-time work" under President Obama.

That's false. There was indeed a "huge shift" in the percentage of all employees who work part-time - but the shift began under George W. Bush, coinciding with the Great Recession of 2007-2009. Since then, the part-timer ratio has been trending downward. As of April, it was within one-tenth of one percentage point of where it was when Obama first took office. Under Obama, nearly half the effects of the recession on part-time work have been reversed. Christie did not mention that most part-timers seek out such work. They do so because of childcare problems, family or personal obligations, school or training, retirement or Social Security limits on earnings, and other reasons having nothing to do with the state of the economy. More than 20 million worked part-time for reasons not related to the economy.

Chip Tuthill lives in Mancos. Websites used: www.factcheck.org www.washingtonpost.com.