Scoring President Obama's Recent Talking Points

With the State of the Union Address recently over, a lot's being mulled over by political commentators. Here are a few of the more interesting talking points, scored by PolitiFact:

Obama: more factories opening today than two decades ago - "Mostly True"

The latest figures line up with Obama’s claim. The number of factories steadily decreased from 1998 to 2013. In the first two quarters of 2014, things started to pick up, though they are still nowhere near the 1998 peak. We should note that economists are far from certain that this is a significant trend, or if it will continue.

Barack Obama claims deficit has decreased by two-thirds since taking office - "Mosty True"

Obama said since taking office the country has seen "our deficits cut by two-thirds."

His claim is accurate if you use 2009, his first year in office with an historically high deficit, as a starting point.

The claim ignores a stark reality about the deficits, however. The country’s spending is not expected to continue its downward route, according to federal forecasters, for factors that include increased interest payments on the debt and the lack of substantial policy changes for the country’s biggest programs, like Social Security and Medicare.

Barack Obama says U.S. auto industry has 'created about 500,000 new jobs' in past 5 years - "True"

Obama said that over the past five years, the American automobile industry has "created about 500,000 new jobs."

During the period in question, the actual number of job gains in the car industry is strikingly close to what Obama said -- 502,900 -- and we don’t find any significant omissions in his claim.

Barack Obama says U.S. economy is creating jobs at fastest pace since 1999 - "True"

Obama said the economy is "creating jobs at the fastest pace since 1999." The current jobs recovery isn’t perfect, but Obama is correct that it’s the fastest since 1999.

Republicans Are Finally Talking About Inequality →

And while liberals will not agree with Republican prescriptions, there’s real value in their critiques and counterproposals. For example, one of the smarter conservative criticisms of President Obama’s plan for larger child and child care tax credits is that they penalize stay-at-home parents. Specifically, Obama’s plan would give new tax credits to dual-income families as well as provide larger credits to parents who need child care to do paid work. But if a family chooses to forgo market income by having a parent stay home, it loses these credits.
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...And while Republicans are a little late to the inequality conversation, their growing presence is a sign that action could happen. For liberals who have long engaged these problems, and who are fighting on friendly territory, this is a good thing.

Hawaii’s Solar Push Strains the Grid →

On the road to progress:

The prospect of cheaper, petroleum-free power has lured the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) to quintuple utility-scale solar capacity over the past year, building two 12-megawatt photovoltaic arrays. These facilities are the biggest and a significant contributor to the island’s 78-megawatt peak power supply. When the second plant comes online this summer, peak solar output on Kauai will approach 80 percent of power generation on some days, according to Brad Rockwell, the utility’s power supply manager.

That puts Kauai on the leading edge of solar power penetration, and KIUC has bruises to show for it. Power fluctuations from a first large plant installed in 2012 have already largely burned out the big batteries installed to keep solar from destabilizing the island’s grid.

Now KIUC is taking a second try with batteries and hoping energy storage technology has progressed sufficiently to keep the same problems from recurring.

Yingluck Shinawatra banned from Thai politics and faces charges →

Thailand’s military government has banned former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra from politics and proceeded with criminal charges that could lead to her serving 10 years in jail – a major double blow to the powerful Shinawatra clan that experts have warned may plunge the nation into violent upheaval. 

The decision – made on Friday by a handpicked legislature – makes Yingluck the first premier in Thailand’s history to be impeached and relates to a hugely popular but deeply troubled government scheme to pay rice farmers double the market price for their crop, a policy believed to have incurred losses of around £10bn. 

The ban prevents Yingluck from participating in politics for five years, a move analysts say is nothing more than an attempt to keep her – and her brother Thaksin, the former prime minister who was himself ousted in a military coup in 2006 – away from polls that have won them, or their affiliates, every election in the past decade.

ECB launches 1 trillion euro rescue plan to revive euro economy →

Economists noted that Draghi had said only 20 percent of purchases would be the responsibility of the ECB. This means the bulk of any potential losses, should a euro zone government default on its debt, would fall on national central banks.

Critics say this casts doubt over the unity of the euro zone and its principle of solidarity, and countries with already high debts could find themselves in yet deeper water.

"It is counterproductive to shift the risks of monetary policy to the national central banks," said former ECB policymaker Athanasios Orphanides. "It does not promote a single monetary policy. This path toward Balkanisation of monetary policy would signal that the ECB is preparing for a break-up of the euro."

U.S. Fears Chaos as Government of Yemen Falls →

The American-backed government of Yemen abruptly collapsed Thursday night, leaving the country leaderless as it is convulsed by an increasingly powerful force of pro-Iran rebels and a resurgent Qaeda.

The resignation of the president, prime minister and cabinet took American officials by surprise and heightened the risks that Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country...

The resignation of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi brought full circle Yemen’s Arab Spring revolution, which ousted former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011 amid massive popular protests. Now Mr. Saleh, who has lately made himself an unlikely ally of the Houthi rebels who toppled the government, is poised to return to the forefront of Yemeni politics.

Saudi King Abdullah Is Dead →

Saudi Arabia's 91-year-old King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz has died, according to Saudi media outlets.

He was admitted to the hospital in Riyadh for "medical checks" at the end of December.

Crown Prince Salman has been named the new king.

King Abdullah assumed the throne in 2005 as the country's sixth king. Salman, 79, is Abdullah's half-brother and has been making appearances and speeches on behalf of the late king for the last couple of months.

Salman is also reportedly in poor health, so from here the family's succession could get interesting...