President Barack Obama largely stuck to the facts in his State of the Union address, but spun his accomplishments.
Obama made the inflated claim, "More than half of manufacturing executives have said they're actively looking to bring jobs back from China."
A survey showed most "expressed interest" in it, but are not "actively looking" at doing it. While 54 percent of those surveyed "expressed interest in reshoring," only 16 percent said they are "already bringing production back from China to the United States."
Obama also said that since 2010, "Our manufacturers have added almost 800,000 new jobs." That's true enough, but there's been a net loss of manufacturing jobs under Obama. The U.S. has seen a net decline of 321,000 manufacturing jobs since January 2009. The White House has pointed to a preliminary figure of 2.95 million jobs gained in 2014, which is the best since 1999 if it holds up when the BLS completes its revisions of job figures.
Obama exaggerated when he said the U.S. is "the only advanced country on Earth that doesn't guarantee paid sick leave." Canada and Japan also don't mandate paid short-term sick leave, which is what Obama is seeking for the U.S. Obama also said that the U.S. was the "only advanced country on Earth that doesn't guarantee . paid maternity leave to our workers." Only the U.S. and Papua New Guinea do not provide workers paid maternity leave.
The president boasted that the U.S. has gained 11 million private sector jobs in five years. Yes, but that ignores his first 13 months in office and a net loss of public sector jobs. Overall, since Obama took office, the net gain in private sector employment is just over 7 million. And the gain in total employment under Obama is lower - just under 6.4 million. That's because of a net loss in government jobs, particularly in local school systems.
In listing his accomplishments, he said: "Our deficits cut by two-thirds." That's true, but deficits have fallen from high levels and are on pace to return to high levels. The U.S. finished the most recent fiscal year with a deficit of $483 billion - roughly down two-thirds from what it was in fiscal 2009. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects annual deficits will rise again if Congress doesn't act. In a report it issued in August, CBO projected that under current law the deficit will rise above $500 billion in fiscal 2016 and hit nearly $950 billion by 2022.
In a section of his speech dealing with efforts to address climate change, Obama touted a recent commitment with China. The U.S. and China said they "intend to achieve" emissions targets. For its part, the U.S. said it "intends to achieve an economy-wide target of reducing its emissions by 26-28 percent below its 2005 level in 2025 and to make best efforts to reduce its emissions by 28 percent." China, said it "intends to achieve the peaking of CO2 emissions about 2030 and to make best efforts to peak early and intends to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 20 percent by 2030." The countries said they "intend to achieve" targets, but that's not a commitment.
Chip Tuthill lives in Mancos. Website used: www.factcheck.org