Fact Checking the State of the Union

President Joe Biden gave his State of the Union address Tuesday night and made a number of misleading and false claims. Here’s a breakdown of what was wrong:

Biden claimed in his speech that the tax cut passed under President Donald Trump was geared towards helping only the wealthiest Americans. “Unlike the $2 trillion tax cut passed in the previous administration that benefitted the top 1 percent of Americans, the American Rescue Plan helped working people and left no one behind,” he said.

While the top 1 percent of Americans did benefit from the tax cuts, Biden errs in suggesting that working class Americans were left out of those benefits. This claim has been widely fact checked after Biden made the claim in his speech to a joint session of Congress in May 2021. From our fact check then: 

The Tax Policy Center—a non-partisan think tank—found that while the tax cuts did benefit the wealthy, it ‘would reduce taxes on average for all income groups.’ In fact, according to their analysis 80.4 percent of taxpayers experienced a tax cut thanks to the bill, with those in the lower quintile—with an income of less than $25,000—receiving an average cut of $60 (0.4 percent of after-tax income), in the middle quintile—$49,000 to $86,000—receiving an average cut of $900 (1.6 percent of after-tax income), and in the upper quintile—$308,000 to $733,000—receiving an average cut of $13,500 (4.1 percent of after-tax income). The Tax Policy Center’s report on the matter estimated that, ‘Taxpayers in the top 1 percent of the income distribution (those with income more than $733,000) would receive an average cut of $51,000,or 3.4 percent of after-tax income.’ As Manhattan Institute senior fellow Brian Riedl has noted, this isn’t very surprising: Any broad tax reform is going to disproportionately affect the highest earners as they pay a larger share of their income in taxes and, consequently, a large percentage of tax revenue. Even as the rich benefited, so too did most other Americans. As the New York Times reported in 2019, these projections bore out. “The vast majority of people did get a tax cut,” said Nathan Rigney, an analyst at H&R Block’s Tax Institute, told the Times.

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Comments (79)
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  • Thanks for the fact check. That speech needed it. Biden can do better - it was a bad speech.

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  • Caption: Geezer at retirement home tries to use hand dryer, as orderlies are nervous to inform him there isn't one in the room.

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  • Cato has provided an accurate critique of the Dispatch’s analysis. Yes, the President could have been more exact in his comments, but the thrust is true: Trump’s tax cuts disproportionally benefitted the rich, the US economy rebounded quickly and continues to expand at a faster rate than expected, and gun manufacturers have liability protections far stronger than other consumer goods—especially for a product that is designed to kill and maim. Also, to echo several other comments, compared to Trump’s blatant disregard for facts (“The tax cut will pay for itself!”) President Biden’s claims are on the mark.

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  • In a nod to Romney who again is, and was, right. Corporations are people. I know this as I worked in one that was private then became public. It didn’t matter, the DNA of corporation was same prior and afterwards. A group of people in higher positions making decisions.
    Another Fact the anti-corporation progressives forget is that stockholders are the owners.

    Corporations have singular mission, profits which are to sustain the business and enrich the stockholders. Stockholders like my 97 yr old mother who owns a few and pay her some dividends to sustain her and like my wife Union, whose pension is heavily invested in stocks for their retirement.

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  • Nice job. Real fact checking. Biden and Democrats in general are getting super sloppy in their lies as the press never calls them on them.

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    1. Oh piss off. Good Lord. The GOP and it's media are the most dishonest force in the western world and dogs know it.

      Biden was honest, substantive and Presidential. He's doing a good job. There's a recent quote from Snake Island that is perfect for you

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  • The fact check is appreciated. I would have liked the text divided by subheadings for the different statements fact checked (or put the precise statement in italics or bolded in a separate paragraph) to make it an easier read.

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  • You could have saved a lot of time and space writing about the things Biden said that *were* true or accurate.

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  • Best practices from a journalistic standpoint here would probably be to disclose that Scott Lincicome is a Dispatch contributor when citing him.

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    1. I was struck by that as well. Did he quit? Was he fired under dubious circumstances?

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  • This article is misleading. I expect much better. You point out that people earning less than $25,000 got a $60 tax cut, people in the middle got $900, and the people in the top 1% got $13,500 on average. This is somehow ok because everyone got a tax cut. Really?
    You challenge whether 55 large companies didn't pay anything last year because of the source of the data. They either did or they did not. If you don't like President Biden's source do the homework to show it is wrong, don't just reference some expert who doesn't challenge whether it is factual or not. Lastly you need to work on your math. This is in your article " The nonpartisan Tax Foundation also analyzed Biden’s plan and noted: “On a conventional basis, the Biden tax plan by 2030 would lead to about 7.7 percent less after-tax income for the top 1 percent of taxpayers and about a 1.9 percent decline in after-tax income for all taxpayers on average.” You state that taxpayers on average experience a decline in after tax income of 1.9%, but you don't give the numbers for a middle income taxpayer. You have included the 7.7% reduction that the top 1% receive in calculating the overall decline of 1.9%. This is not a valid way to do this. Be factual. What is the decline under the Biden plan you are criticizing for a middle income taxpayer? My guess is it is zero.

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