President Biden delivered his first speech to Congress Wednesday eveining. I have posted a list of claims President Biden mad and how our fact checkers have rated them. We’ll get to Timmeh later. What a major yawn that guy was.
- Claim: President Biden stated that “the economy created more than 1.3 million new jobs” in his first 100 days.
- Fact: This appears to be true. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 916,000 in March and by 486,0000 in February. That’s a total of 1.4 million.
- Claim: Biden said he’s proposing raising “the top tax bracket for the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, those making $400,000 or more, back up to 39.6 percent.”
- “That’s where it was when George W. Bush became president,” Biden said.
- Fact: This is technically true, but it changed early in Bush’s presidency.
- Claim: “When I was sworn in, less than 1 percent of seniors were fully vaccinated against Covid-19,” Biden said during his address. “One hundred days later, nearly 70 percent of seniors are fully protected. Senior deaths from Covid-19 are down 80 percent since January. Down 80 percent. And more than half of all adults in America have gotten at least one shot.”
- Fact: It’s technically true that very few seniors were fully vaccinated when he took office — vaccinations began only in mid-December in the U.S. — but about 34 million seniors are now fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s 64.5 percent of the nation’s estimated 54 million seniors. It’s also true that more than half of all adults in the U.S. have gotten one shot.
- Claim: “Nearly 90 percent of the infrastructure jobs created in the American Jobs Plan don’t require a college degree. Seventy-five percent don’t require an associate’s degree,” he said.
- Fact: The 75 percent figure is accurate, according to at least one study — a research paper published this year by a pair of academics at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.
- Claiim: “Talk to most responsible gun owners, most hunters — they’ll tell you there’s no possible justification for having 100 rounds — 100 bullets — in a weapon. They will tell you that there are too many people today who are able to buy a gun, but who shouldn’t be able to.”
- Fact: This is exaggerated. Mr. Biden is correct that most gun owners support expanding background checks, but they are more divided on the issue of high-capacity magazines. In a 2019 NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll, 47 percent of gun owners supported such a ban while 50 percent were against it. That was in line with results from a 2019 Washington Post/ABC News poll (48 percent support and 48 percent against) and a 2017 poll from Pew Research (44 percent support).
Senator Tim Scott:
- Claim: “It will be easier to vote in Georgia than in Democrat-run New York.”
- Fact: Misleading
- Mr. Scott is correct in some ways, but the opposite is true in others.
- Georgia’s new voting law, for example, requires at least 17 days of early voting while New York offers nine. But early voting may not take place before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m. in Georgia, and the state does not require counties to allow for early voting on Sundays.
- Claim: “Just before Covid, we had the most inclusive economy in my lifetime, the lowest unemployment ever recorded for African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians, the lowest for women in nearly 70 years. Wages were growing faster for the bottom than the top. That happened because Republicans focused on expanding opportunity for all Americans.”
- Fact: This is exaggerated. Trump inherited a thriving economy from President Obama and VP BIDEN. Trump pissed it away.
NYT: See above
Please feel free to add your own Fact Checking finds. I look forward to reading them.
