By: Alvin Wilson Staff Writer
Tuesday’s State of the Union Address was Obama’s last time to address the nation and Congress in this manner. He is one of just six U.S. presidents who have given a State of the Union Address in their eighth year in office.
The general tone of his final State of the Union Address was that of victory; an attitude of “look at what we’ve accomplished” permeated his speech, and it was clear that he wanted to emphasize the good that he has done.
But the speech wasn’t just a jab at Republicans or a giant pat on the back for himself. He showed regret for what was left unaccomplished and a desire to continue making progress.
Throughout his speech, Obama outlined the actions he believes we need to take to ensure a safe and prosperous future. Not all of what Obama presented during his speech was the truth in full context, but much of it was still grounded in factual data.
Here are some examples of misrepresented facts presented during his address:
Obama claimed that the budget has been cut by nearly three-fourths. According to a USA Today fact check, those numbers are a bit distorted.
Obama included more than $100 billion in increased spending in the calculations. This increase in spending made the deficit appear to shrink, but it’s unfair to say that a bigger budget equals a smaller deficit.
He claimed the U.S. had created more than 14 million new jobs, which is true. But he doesn’t mention the fact that those new jobs are only in the private sector, and it only accounts for jobs created since the job market reached an all-time low in 2010.
Obama, in a humorous manner, mentioned the strength of our country in his address. In response to recent claims that our country has grown weak, or that our military is shrinking while others are growing, he said, “The United States of America is the most powerful country on Earth. Period. It’s not even close.”
He went on to mention that the U.S. spends more on our military than the next eight countries combined.
This number is only partially correct when looking at actual dollars spent on the military.
An April 2015 report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on military expenditures found that “the U.S. spent $610 billion on defense in 2014, while the next eight nations spent a combined total of $646.4 billion.”
However, in terms of percent of gross domestic product (GDP) spent on military, the U.S. ranks fourth, according to that same report.
“The U.S. spends 3.5 percent of its gross domestic product — which is only the fourth highest of the top 15 countries. Saudi Arabia (10.4 percent), United Arab Emirates (5.4 percent) and Russia (4.5 percent) spend more on the military as a share of GDP than the United States,” according to the same data from the SIPRI.
Obama, in a possible attempt to seem less brutish, wanted to make it clear that America isn’t just respected for its military prowess.
“The world respects us not just for our arsenal; it respects us for our diversity and our openness and the way we respect every faith,” said Obama.
For his last State of the Union Address, Obama chose to take a victory lap. Most of the address was focused on the good things of his presidency, and the rest was interested in the future.
The area that was the most flawed in this address was the presentation of facts. All of his facts came from data available to anyone in the U.S., but much of it was distorted to support the idea that Obama is great — which, to be honest, should be expected of any politician.
His area of success was definitely the emotion and passion he displayed. There were some very powerful things said and many quotable moments for social media. He touched on issues such as immigration, the economy, technological innovation, and climate change, among others. But he also succeeded in setting the tone for politics in the rest of this decade and beyond.
You can see the full transcript of the speech on www.npr.org, or watch the entire speech on the White House YouTube page.
