WASHINGTON – A claim from the second presidential debate and how it stacks up with the facts:

DONALD TRUMP: “We have found over the last seven years, we have found tremendous wealth right under our feet. I will bring our energy companies back. … They’ll make money. They’ll pay off our national debt. They’ll pay off our tremendous budget deficits, which are tremendous.”

THE FACTS: Trump did not specify how this would happen, but it’s highly unlikely U.S. energy resources alone could somehow pay off the $19 trillion gross national debt. Among other challenges, oil prices have fallen by half in the past two years, from about $100 a barrel to roughly $50, forcing many energy companies to cut back sharply on drilling and lay off thousands of workers.

Trump is also proposing a steep cut in the corporate income tax rate, from 35 per cent to 15 per cent, which would lower tax revenue from energy company profits. Finally, Trump is also proposing large cuts in individual income tax rates that the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget found would increase the debt by $4.3 trillion over 10 years.

___

Contributed by Associated Press writer Christopher Rugaber.

EDITOR’S NOTE _ A look at the veracity of claims by political figures