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Sate of the Union Fact Check


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2013 Feb 13, 1:45am   2,049 views  11 comments

by zzyzzx   ➕follow (5)   💰tip   ignore  

http://news.yahoo.com/fact-check-overreaching-state-union-speech-032654575--politics.html

OBAMA: "After years of grueling recession, our businesses have created over 6 million new jobs."

THE FACTS: That's in the ballpark, as far as it goes. But Obama starts his count not when he took office, but from the point in his first term when job losses were the highest. In doing so, he ignores the 5 million or so jobs that were lost on his watch, up to that point.

Private sector jobs have grown by 6.1 million since February 2010. But since he became president, the gain is a more modest 1.9 million.

And when losses in public sector employment are added to the mix, his overall jobs record is a gain of 1.2 million.

___

OBAMA: "We have doubled the distance our cars will go on a gallon of gas."

THE FACTS: Not so fast.

That's expected to happen in 12 more years.

___

OBAMA: "Already the Affordable Care Act is helping to reduce the growth of health care costs."

THE FACTS: The jury is still out on whether Obama's health care overhaul will reduce the growth of health care costs. It's true that cost increases have eased, but many experts say that's due to the sluggish economy, not to the health care law, whose main provisions are not yet fully in effect.

Growth in costs will spike upwards in 2014, as the law's big coverage expansion gets under way. After that, the government's nonpartisan experts project that health care spending will return to the pattern of the last few decades, growing more rapidly than the economy, which poses problems for government programs and workplace health plans alike.

___

OBAMA: "Study after study shows that the sooner a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road. ... And for poor kids who need help the most, this lack of access to preschool education can shadow them for the rest of their lives. ... Every dollar we invest in high-quality early education can save more than $7 later on — by boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, even reducing violent crime."

THE FACTS: Dozens of studies have shown Head Start graduates are more likely to complete high school than their at-risk peers who don't participate in the program. But a study last year by the Department of Health and Human Services that found big vocabulary and social development gains for at-risk students in pre-kindergarten programs also found those effects largely faded by the time pupils reached third grade. The report didn't explain why the kids saw a drop-off in performance or predict how they would fare as they aged.

___

OBAMA: "I urge this Congress to pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change, like the one John McCain and Joe Lieberman worked on together a few years ago. But if Congress won't act soon to protect future generations, I will. I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy."

THE FACTS: Obama failed to get a global warming bill through Congress when both Houses were controlled by Democrats in 2010. With Republicans in control of the House, the chances of a bill to limit the gases blamed for global warming and to create a market for businesses to trade pollution credits are close to zero. The Obama administration has already acted to control greenhouse gases through existing law. It has boosted fuel-efficiency standards and proposed rules to control heat-trapping emissions from new power plants. And while there are still other ways to address climate change without Congress, it's questionable regulation alone can achieve the reductions needed to start curbing global warming.

#politics

Comments 1 - 11 of 11        Search these comments

1   🎂 Tenpoundbass   2013 Feb 13, 3:21am  

Give 'em one of these...

2   zzyzzx   2013 Feb 13, 3:29am  

I think you meant to post this:

3   zzyzzx   2013 Feb 13, 3:30am  

I actually posted most of the text of the article. I am sure that he say way more than what was in the article.

4   FortWayne   2013 Feb 13, 4:03am  

Healthcare costs are up. This law wasn't about reducing costs, which ironically was how they sold it to the public. Costs are up because of new requirements on insurance providers who have to price in new risks and new benefits.

This law was about starting to push people off from employer sponsored insurance into an individual market by forcing it through the government. So it is a national healthcare government take over. And it will eventually lead to sluggish problematic healthcare as every other government does where incentive to innovate disappears and gets replaced by lobbyists asking for bigger pay for certain procedures.

That's where we are heading, in next ten or twenty years you'll see employer insurance disappear.

5   Homeboy   2013 Feb 13, 4:22am  

The article seems awfully nitpicky to me.

zzyzzx says

THE FACTS: That's in the ballpark, as far as it goes. But Obama starts his count not when he took office, but from the point in his first term when job losses were the highest. In doing so, he ignores the 5 million or so jobs that were lost on his watch, up to that point.

How exactly would it be fair to count job losses from day one of Obama's presidency? Bush royally fucked up the economy; did anyone really think it could be instantly fixed?

zzyzzx says

OBAMA: "We have doubled the distance our cars will go on a gallon of gas."

THE FACTS: Not so fast.

That's expected to happen in 12 more years.

And without the Obama administration, it would NOT be expected to happen in 12 years. They made this deal; why shouldn't they be allowed to take credit for it?

zzyzzx says

THE FACTS: The jury is still out on whether Obama's health care overhaul will reduce the growth of health care costs. It's true that cost increases have eased, but many experts say that's due to the sluggish economy, not to the health care law, whose main provisions are not yet fully in effect.

The fact here is that cost increases have slowed. Some people don't want to give Obama credit for that. That's a disagreement, not a lie.

I think there are a lot of legitimate things to criticize Obama for, but this shit is just plain weak.

6   edvard2   2013 Feb 13, 4:31am  

Here's another fact:
Obama won and will be the President for the next 4 years.
So whine away. We don't care.

7   🎂 Tenpoundbass   2013 Feb 13, 4:34am  

Kevin says

zzyzzx says

I think you meant to post this:

Replying to yourself? Did you forget to switch the sock puppet you were logged in as?

Perhaps you missed it, but that was the original pic I posted.
But the "jpeg" extension instead of the "jpg" I thought wasn't the right mime content. So I found another pic I posted instead.
I'm just puzzled how you guys got it to display when it only posted as a hyperlink for me.

And the "Give me one of these..." was a Rodney Dangerfield quote.

8   bob2356   2013 Feb 13, 5:16am  

FortWayne says

r. And it will eventually lead to sluggish problematic healthcare as every other government does where incentive to innovate disappears and gets replaced by lobbyists asking for bigger pay for certain procedures.

I hate to confuse you with facts, but in other countries doctors are on salary and don't care what procedures cost. Lobbyists American style don't exist anywhere else.

9   FortWayne   2013 Feb 13, 5:46am  

bob2356 says

I hate to confuse you with facts, but in other countries doctors are on salary and don't care what procedures cost. Lobbyists American style don't exist anywhere else.

So you are saying that we are not going to have lobbyists asking for bigger payout for procedures they perform? We haven't moved from fee for service model, which rewards overdoing tests and doing expensive procedures instead of doing the right procedures.

10   zzyzzx   2013 Feb 13, 10:37pm  

bob2356 says

I hate to confuse you with facts, but in other countries doctors are on salary

I'm pretty sure that the Kaiser Permente doctors are on a salary, but other than that, not so much.

11   lostand confused   2013 Feb 13, 10:41pm  

bob2356 says

I hate to confuse you with facts, but in other countries doctors are on salary
and don't care what procedures cost. Lobbyists American style don't exist
anywhere else

Yeah in other countries they pay cash under the table. Here it is legal and one can just strart a SuperPAC in support of your favorite candidate.

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