CNN fact-checks Biden’s State of the Union speech

CNN's Daniel Dale fact-checks President Joe Biden's second State of the Union address. Then, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) joins "CNN This Morning" to discuss the takeaways from the speech. #CNN #News

55 comments

  1. Look at all these comments that are angry this guy told the truth. Biden boasted that the 12.1 million jobs created in his first two years were more than the number of jobs added in four years under any president. But that job growth was fueled by a post-pandemic recovery that started under his predecessor, and his comparison doesn’t account for population growth.

    The president said “take-home pay has gone up,” which is true, but the rise is not as fast as inflation. “Real” weekly earnings, which are adjusted for inflation, have gone down.

    Biden said he has cut the deficit by a record $1.7 trillion, but most of that was due to expiring emergency pandemic spending.

    He said “no president added more to the national debt in any four years” than his predecessor, Donald Trump, and that “nearly 25% of the entire national debt” was added by Trump. It’s accurate, but trillions of dollars of the accumulated debt under Trump were due to bipartisan coronavirus relief packages.

    Biden said “for too many decades, we imported projects and exported jobs,” but now “we’re exporting American products and creating American jobs.” In fact, U.S. imports of goods and services have continued to exceed exports under Biden.

    The president repeated a claim popular among Democrats during the midterms, suggesting that some Republicans would “sunset” Medicare and Social Security. The claim exaggerates the support for a proposal from Sen. Rick Scott that would have brought up all federal legislation for a vote every five years.

    With the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the U.S. is “replacing poisonous lead pipes that go into 10 million homes in America, 400,000 schools and childcare centers,” he said. But the law didn’t provide enough funding to replace all lead pipes.

    As he did last year, Biden said U.S. infrastructure had “sunk to 13th in the world.” But some have questioned the report behind that statistic.

    1. lol there are tons more lies, heck did you know his wife is a full time teacher? Neither did the rest of the world. Biden opens his mouth and all that comes out is misrepresentation, fairy tails and bold face lies. Do 30 seconds of fact checking on his statements and you will see, they are blatant.

    2. @B Ropes The conservative Wall Street Journal counted 39 blatant lies in Trump’s last SOTU. They said he averaged a lie every minute, 39 seconds. 😅

  2. So in conclusion, uncle Sam can’t control it’s addiction to spending regardless of party and uncle Sam needs an intervention

    1. @vin Lennox I agree. But one party has fallen down the rabbit hole. Aided by fox news. Just last year they were falling over themselves about how “strong” putin was. It’s literally a one sided problem.

      It’s like they just gave up trying to make america better and are now squabbling over the scraps of the country.

    2. @alex tierney Sheep here. A big part of the problem is the population aging. Not enough young people to keep the system funded for all the retirees. So yes, there will need to be changes.

      An “intervention” in SS from Republicans most likely means there will be cuts somewhere. You can’t fix a problem that big by getting rid of some fraud (which is already illegal by the way).

      A step you could take without cuts would be to get rid of the salary cap on the SS tax. For some ridiculous reason, income over a certain level is not subject to social security tax. That’s a drain on the system by the rich.

    3. @Unconventional Ideas A Congressman replied to Biden’s comments about SS in the SOTU address. He went through many different ideas on making SS last past 2035 and MOST of them failed. DO YOU UNDERSTAND what I said. PAST 2035. I am a citizen – not a politician – and I have known for over a decade that SS was going to go bust very shortly. If we do NOTHING to it you will not get SS money. You are right though if the government offered a new program for people they would want it even if we had to BORROW another 30 trillion dollars from CHINA. Stupid, lazy, greedy people.

  3. Do Daniel Dale’s numbers on the deficit take account of the off-sets from making big corporations pay taxes, etc.?

    1. @Tyran Mathurin Fox and CNN are two sides of the same coin. Problem is the public is too willfully ignorant to realize this.

  4. “The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) proposed a new rule this week that would crack down on taxing the service industry’s tips.

    The Service Industry Tip Compliance Agreement (SITCA) proposal would be a voluntary program between the IRS and employers that the IRS says would ‘decrease taxpayer and IRS administrative burdens and provide more transparency and certainty to taxpayers.’ ”

    Looks like Democrats got conned by Lyin’ Joe once again. You get what you vote for.

  5. When the one yelling “liar” is herself a known liar who’s only mission is to appease Trump, also a Liar.

    1. Democrats scoffed, booed and groaned at Trump’s repeated lies, but they were not heckling!
      As you are undoubtedly one of those MAGA deplorables, please allow me to provide you the definition of the word to heckle:
      > to interrupt (a public speaker) with derisive or aggressive comments or abuse.
      I hope this information helps you, in some small way, to recognize reality.

  6. It will be great if CNN focuses on news without being biased left or right. This is what we actually need.

  7. “It’s my objective to phase out social security, pull it up by the roots, to get rid of it” – Senator Mike Lee

    1. It was the idiot in chief as a member of Congress who had the objective of cutting social security and Medicare not once not twice not three times but 4 TIME’S.. you seemed to have left that part out didn’t ya there dipstick?

    2. And the rest of his speech saying what he would do. I guess you left that out. Do you know when the funding for SS will run out.

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