Fact Checking Obama's SOTU Address

A look at some of the claims in his State of the Union speech, a
glance at the Republican counterargument and how they fit with the
facts:

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.

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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.

Under a deal the Obama administration reached with automakers in
2011, vehicles will have a corporate average fuel economy of 54.5 miles
per gallon by 2025, twice the 27 miles per gallon, on average, that cars
and trucks get today. Automobile manufacturers won't start making
changes to achieve the new fuel economy standards until model year 2017.
Not all cars will double their gas mileage, since the standard is based
on an average of a manufacturers' fleet.

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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.

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OBAMA: "Real reform means establishing a responsible pathway to
earned citizenship -- a path that includes passing a background check,
paying taxes and a meaningful penalty, learning English and going to the
back of the line behind the folks trying to come here legally."

THE FACTS: The seemingly stern admonition that illegal immigrants
must go to the back of the line, often heard from the president, doesn't
appear to have much practical effect except in the most obvious sense.
Everyone who joins a line, whether for a movie, a coffee or citizenship,
starts at the back of that particular line. It's not clear he is saying
anything more than that illegal immigrants won't get to cut in line for
citizenship once they've obtained provisional legal status.

Like those living abroad who have applied to come to the U.S.
legally, illegal immigrants who qualify for Obama's proposed path to
citizenship will surely face long waits to be processed. But during that
time, they are already in the U.S. and will get to stay, work and
travel in the country under their new status as provisional immigrants,
while those outside the U.S. simply have to wait.

Sending illegal immigrants to the "back of the line" is something of a
distinction without a difference for some legal immigrants who
dutifully followed all the rules before coming to the United States.

For instance, some legal immigrants who are in the U.S. on an
employer-sponsored visa can't easily change jobs, or in some cases take a
promotion, without jeopardizing their place in line to get a green
card. In other cases, would-be legal immigrants in other countries wait
for years to be able to settle in the U.S.

Obama is using "back of the line" somewhat figuratively, because
there are multiple lines depending on the applicant's relationship with
family already in the U.S. or with an employer. Generally, a
foreign-born spouse of a U.S. citizen or someone with needed skills and a
job offer will be accepted more quickly than many others.

But even as a figurative point, his assertion may cloak the fact that
people who came to the U.S. illegally and win provisional status have
the great advantage over applicants abroad of already being where they
all want to go.

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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.

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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.