Debate over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known commonly as "Obamacare," only seemed to intensify once the Supreme Court settled the question of its constitutionality.

The soundbite machines on both sides of the issue went to work. One from opponents of the law took aim at it as a tax. Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, the Republican challenging Sen. Sherrod Brown, chimed in on that point.

You can read that column and others from last week at PolitiFactOhio. Here's a quick look at items that appeared in The Plain Dealer:

Taxing accuracy: Mandel joined other Republicans in calling for repeal of the Affordable Care Act, saying the decision "sets the stage for the November election."

The day of the court's ruling, Mandel said that Brown had voted "for what will likely go down as the biggest tax increase in history."

PolifiFact Ohio rated Mandel's claim Pants on Fire.

There are a number of taxes in the law that take effect over several years. There also are credits that send money the other way.

The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that the health law will bring in more than $437.8 billion by 2019, the year all taxes are in place. The government's nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the additional revenues coming in to the government to be $525 billion between now and 2019.

A report by the Office of Tax Analysis with the U.S. Department of the Treasury compared major tax laws from 1940 to 2006, estimating their impact as percentages of gross domestic product. Comparing that way adjusts for inflation.

The largest increase was the Revenue Act of 1942, equal to 5.04 percent of GDP. The rest of the Top 5: the Revenue Act of 1961 (2.2 percent), the Current Tax Payment Act of 1943 (1.13 percent), the Revenue and Expenditure Control Act of 1968 (1.09 percent) and the Excess Profits Tax of 1950 (0.97 percent).

Using the same method, PolitiFact calculated the impact of the Affordable Care Act would amount to 0.49 percent of total GDP. That's about the same size as tax increases made under Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

The health care law's impact would have to grow more than tenfold to match the 1942 wartime tax increase. It would have to nearly double to match a 1982 increase under President Ronald Reagan. At 0.49 percent, it barely cracks the Top 10 since 1940.

Labored claim: Rep. Bill Johnson often raises jobs as an issue when he meets with voters in the 6th Congressional District, which stretches along the state's southeast border from Youngstown to the southernmost counties in Appalachia.

The Republican mentioned it in one of the telephone town halls he uses to keep in touch with his sprawling district.

"I don't know if you realize this or not," he told a caller, "but the state of Ohio has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation right now and is leading the pack in terms of job creation."

PolitiFact Ohio rated his claim Mostly False.

Johnson cited PolitiFact Ohio's fact check of April 5, on Gov. John Kasich's statement that Ohio was "the No. 1 job creator in America in February, and we are now the No. 4 job creator in the last year." We rated that statement as True.

But statistics are volatile. In March, Ohio went from first to worst by losing 5,200 jobs. And 2,000 more jobs were lost in April.

Unemployment figures for April, which were the latest available when Johnson spoke, had Ohio and Pennsylvania tied for 28th place with unemployment rates of 7.4 percent.

Hey, big spenders!: Spending on television ads in the U.S. Senate race has grabbed the attention of both campaigns, with each side blasting the other for the millions that special-interest groups are contributing.

The focus is on "outside spending" -- money poured into elections by groups that are not directly tied to a candidate. These groups often are unbound by campaign finance restrictions and can accept contributions from anonymous donors.

After Democrats claimed that $10.5 million in outside money had been spent against Brown, the Ohio Republican Party fought back, saying "Sherrod Brown and his special-interest allies in Washington are plotting to spend over $13 million [against Mandel], with no end in sight."

PolitiFact Ohio rated that claim Half True.

The claim is literally true because it includes both Brown and his allies. But the context in which it was made is important, too. The dispute between the campaigns revolved around outside money, and the full statement, contained in an email, focused on outside money.

But of the $13 million, which the Brown campaign confirmed, Brown's campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which both must disclose their donors, accounted for about $11 million.

Economic engine: Monthly employment reports from the U.S. Department of Labor are a regular source for campaign rhetoric.

After June's numbers were released earlier this month, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a congresswoman from Florida, tried to give them a positive spin, talking about the importance of the auto industry for Ohio.

"In Ohio," Wasserman Schultz said, "80 out of 82 counties in Ohio actually have an auto manufacturing facility.

PolitiFact Ohio rated her claim Mostly True.

While she misstated the total number of counties in the state (Ohio has 88), she got right the number of counties that have at least one business related to production of motor vehicles, bodies, trailers and parts. A 2011 report from the Ohio Department of Development backs that figure.