As the acrimony grew in Sunday’s U.S. Senate debate, half-truths and untruths frequently were tossed around by Republican Jim DeMint and Democrat Inez Tenenbaum.

Here is a closer look at some of the accusations and charges made by both sides:

SOCIAL SECURITY

• DeMint said: “It is shameful to go into a senior’s home and say, ‘DeMint is going to take your Social Security.’”

• Analysis: Tenenbaum has been critical of DeMint’s plan to allow workers to invest a portion of their Social Security taxes in the stock market. But she has not — publicly, at least — told seniors that DeMint wants to end the entitlement program’s payouts.

• Tenenbaum said: “Jim wants to privatize Social Security. Put it in the stock market. Estimates alone are that this will be $1 trillion a year for 10 years, just to do this.”

• Analysis: DeMint wants only to partially privatize Social Security. But independent analysts have said it will cost trillions of dollars over several years to change Social Security into a partially privatized system.

23 PERCENT NATIONAL SALES TAX

• Tenenbaum said: “You introduced a bill called H.R. 25,” the national sales tax bill.

• Analysis: Tenenbaum said this several times Sunday. But DeMint did not introduce the bill; U.S. Rep. John Linder, R-Ga., did. DeMint is a co-sponsor of the bill.

• Tenenbaum said: “Every economist who looked at this bill said it would raise taxes on 95 percent of South Carolina citizens.”

• Analysis: Not every economist has said that, although some have. There are economists who believe the plan would be a net tax decrease for most Americans. When asked about her statement after the debate, Tenenbaum said she should have qualified her remark.

• DeMint said: “But I never introduced, voted for or promoted any plan like she’s talking about.”

• Analysis: DeMint did not introduce the bill, and he has not voted for it. The bill has yet to come up for a vote. But he has most definitely promoted the bill. He put his name on it as a co-sponsor and has promoted the idea on the campaign trail. In a September radio debate with Tenenbaum, DeMint said if the 23 percent plan were enacted, “America will become the best place in the world to do business. People would benefit, every income level will benefit.”

FEDERAL EDUCATION SPENDING

• DeMint said: “She’s even left money on the table,” allowing millions in federal education dollars to be returned to Washington because Tenenbaum, the state superintendent of education, did not act in time to spend it.

• Analysis: The state Education Department serves as a “pass-through” for local school districts, meaning it is the local officials’ responsibility to request the money from the federal government. State officials work to help the local districts, Tenenbaum said, but any money left “on the table” is because districts were not able to use it all. And the amount unused is much smaller than DeMint claims, Tenenbaum said.

Officials with the U.S. Department of Education were having computer problems Monday and were unable to say how much money the state has not spent that it was entitled to. They will provide that figure soon.

STEM CELL RESEARCH

• DeMint said: “The most promising is coming from adult stem cells. There’s no indication we need to do” embryonic stem cell research.

• Analysis: Adult stem cells are not as versatile for research, according to the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. But new studies from the University of Minnesota and a report in The New England Journal of Medicine show adult stem cells from bone marrow can develop into heart and brain cells, according to a recent story in USA Today.

Reach Gould Sheinin at (803) 771-8658 or asheinin@thestate.com.