SOTU Fact Check

There's whole big bunches of nit-picky shit in this breakdown at WaPo by Glenn Kessler - some, admittedly, a bit more than that - but the main takeaway is that Biden was mostly on the nose.

Fact-checking President Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address

“I stand here tonight after we’ve created — with the help of many people in this room — 12 million new jobs, more jobs created in two years than any president has ever created in four years.”

“We’ve already created 800,000 good-paying manufacturing jobs, the fastest growth in 40 years.”

“For too many decades, we imported products and exported jobs. Now, thanks to all we’ve done, we’re exporting American products and creating American jobs.”

“America used to make nearly 40 percent of the world’s chips. But in the last few decades, we lost our edge and we’re down to producing only 10 percent.”

“We used to be number one in the world in infrastructure. We’ve sunk to 13th in the world.

“It’s not fair the idea that in 2020, 55 of the biggest companies in America, the Fortune 500, made $40 billion in profits and paid zero in federal income taxes? Zero.”

“Because of the law I signed, billion-dollar companies have to pay a minimum of 15 percent.”

“Pass my proposal for a billionaire minimum tax. … Because no billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a schoolteacher or a firefighter.”

“In the last two years, my administration cut the deficit by more than $1.7 trillion — the largest deficit reduction in American history.”

“Under the previous administration, America’s deficit went up four years in a row. Because of those record deficits, no president added more to the national debt in any four years than my predecessor. Nearly 25 percent of the entire national debt, a debt that took 200 years to accumulate, was added by that administration alone.”

“Some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset. I’m not saying it’s a majority. … Anybody who doubts it, contact my office. I’ll give you a copy.”

“While the virus is not gone, thanks to the resilience of the American people and the ingenuity of medicine, we have broken covid’s grip on us. Covid deaths are down nearly 90 percent.”

“Ban assault weapons once and for all. We did it before. I led the fight to ban them in 1994. In the 10 years the ban was law, mass shootings went down. After we let it expire in a Republican administration, mass shootings tripled.”