Is the State of the Union Strong?

President Joe Biden followed the U.S. Constitution and gave his annual report on the state of the union. I did not listen to all of it, but I did listen for a while. It seemed to me that he did a lot of yelling, but he had a good delivery. He made numerous claims, but he seemed to be speaking about life that is different than the reality of the normal people. With his history of lies, it is difficult to discern truth from lies.

Fred Lucas, Tony Kinnett, Jarrett Stepman, Virginia Allen, and Mary Margaret Olohan at The Daily Signal fact checked seven of Biden’s claims. They checked to see if the facts added up or if there was some crucial context missing. 

1. Inflation Reduction Act and Health Care Costs

Biden touted the $740 billion spending bill Democrats dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act….

“With the Inflation Reduction Act that I signed into law, we’re taking on powerful interests to bring your health care costs down so you can sleep better at night,” the president said. “You know, we pay more for prescription drugs than any major country on Earth.” …

However, the president left out potential increases that could result from the legislation. The so-called Inflation Reduction Act would likely increase taxpayer costs by $248 billion over the next decade, and contribute to higher insurance prices, all at your expense through more Obamacare subsidies….

2. ‘Extreme Abortion Bans’

President Joe Biden painted lifesaving legislation restricting abortion as “extreme” during his State of the Union remarks on Tuesday.

“Congress must restore the right the Supreme Court took away last year and codify Roe v. Wade to protect every woman’s constitutional right to choose.” ….

The president’s reference to “extreme abortion bans” refers to laws that protect unborn babies from being killed. Almost 70% of Americans support limiting abortions to the first three months of a pregnancy….

About 14 states have passed near total bans on aborting unborn babies… and six more states have passed near total abortion bans dependent on legal action. One state (Florida) bans abortions after 15 weeks. Twenty-six states have few or no laws restricting abortion….

3. Border Success?

“We now have a record number of personnel working to secure the border, arresting 8,000 human smugglers and seizing over 23,000 pounds of fentanyl in just the last several months,” Biden said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports that it seized just over 14,000 pounds of fentanyl in fiscal year 2022, which ended Sept. 30, and more than 7,000 pounds between October and the end of December….

The increase in the amount of fentanyl flooding into America is accompanied by a record number of illegal migrants crossing the southern border. Fiscal 2022 saw 2.76 million illegal immigrant border crossings….

4. Greatest Threat to Democracy Since Civil War?

Biden celebrated how far the country has come since the COVID-19 pandemic-induced recession, but he also referenced the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, repeating his claim that it was the “greatest threat” to American democracy since the Civil War….

It’s not clear what he meant in comparing the Capitol riot … to a war in which several slave-holding Southern states attempted to form a new Confederate States of America, raised their own military in an armed rebellion that wore on for four years, and took the lives of more than 600,000 troops….

Biden didn’t explain why this riot supposedly represented a larger threat to democracy than when Japan attacked the United States on Dec. 7, 1941, which pulled the U.S into World War II in opposition to the Axis powers.

Further, the Capitol was attacked at least four times before Jan. 6, 2021, three of those times after the Civil War.

In 1814, British soldiers burned the Capitol during the War of 1812. It took about five years to rebuild the House chamber.

In 1954, four Puerto Rican terrorists … attacked the Capitol. Unlike those who got inside the Capitol building in 2021, these terrorists were armed with guns. The four opened fire from the House gallery, wounding five lawmakers: ….

In 1971, a domestic terrorist group called the Weather Underground bombed the Capitol, causing $300,000 worth of damage. No one was harmed. The so-called Weathermen returned in 1983 and set off another bomb that “tore through the second floor of the Capitol’s north wing,” according to the Senate’s history site. No fatalities occurred in this case either.

During the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, several rioters were carrying pepper spray or bear spray, and wielding flagpoles as clubs in attacking law enforcement officers….

5. Police reform

Biden introduced the parents of Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old man who was fatally beaten by Memphis police officers, as he called for police reform Tuesday night during his State of the Union address.

Biden left out the fact that Senate Democrats blocked a police reform bill in 2020….

In 2020, after the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota by a police officer, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., proposed a police reform bill that would create a national policing commission to review the criminal justice system; collect data on use of force by police officers; ban the use of chokeholds by federal officers; and withhold federal funds from state and local law enforcement agencies that don’t ban chokeholds.

Scott’s bill also would withhold federal money from police departments that fail to report no-knock warrants to the Justice Department.

However, Senate Democrats – then in the minority – blocked Scott’s legislation from coming to a vote….

6. Schools and COVID-19

Biden opened his address with, “Two years ago, COVID had shut down our businesses, closed our schools, and robbed us of so much. Today, COVID no longer controls our lives.”

While Biden now celebrates victory over COVID-19 and the ending of pandemic school closures, his appointees and poor leadership kept classrooms closed far longer than necessary….

Biden may claim that he fought to reopen schools, but does so omitting the timeline and manner in which he advocated. Biden was well over a year behind Republicans in reopening schools – while appointing staff who directly opposed and obstructed the process of putting students back in classrooms.

7. Inflation

“Inflation has been a global problem because of the pandemic that disrupted supply chains and Putin’s war that disrupted energy and food supplies,” Biden said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

Although it’s true that inflation has hit other nation’s economies, it did not start in the U.S. at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, nor did it begin during Russia’s war on Ukraine. The president’s description of the inflation problem is misleading at best.

When Biden was sworn into office Jan. 20, 2021, inflation stood at 1.4%. As it began to rise in 2021, Biden called high inflation a “transitory” issue. By June of the next year, inflation hit 9.1, a 40-year high.

The rate of inflation increase has slowed, but it remains a significant problem that is eroding the savings of Americans….

The Inflation Reduction Act, signed by Biden in 2022, has done little to reduce inflation. In fact, it mostly added to the government spending.