FACT CHECK: When Chris Christie tells it like it isn't

In a Republican presidential kickoff speech centered on a pledge to talk straight, the New Jersey governor sometimes exaggerated his record and skipped over more troublesome realities in a state with a struggling economy, a chronically underfunded state pension system and an increasingly gridlocked government.

During his first term, Christie cut the earned income tax credit, which largely benefits low-income workers, from 25 percent of the federal credit to 20 percent.

Christie also repeatedly delayed implementing the Homestead credit program, which grants property tax relief, angering elderly and low-income homeowners, even as he capped property tax increases overall.

The governor indeed overhauled the pension and health benefits system for public employees, with the help of unions and Democratic lawmakers.

Christie's political action committee even sent a fundraising pitch saying the court's ruling means taxpayers won't shoulder "an impossible tax burden from a union agreement that never even met the standards of the New Jersey Constitution."

More automation and low-wage competition overseas are contributing to meager income growth, which has restrained the consumer spending that drives the majority of economic activity.

Only four of the 16 presidential terms since World War II have experienced annual economic growth averaging more than 4 percent after inflation, according to economists at Princeton University.

EDITOR'S NOTE _ An occasional look at political claims that take shortcuts with the facts or don't tell the full story