In a nearly two-hour press conference, President Joe Biden stretched the facts and left out important context on vaccinations, funding for lead pipe removal, child poverty and more.
Biden exaggerated his administration’s progress against COVID-19, saying that the U.S. is “adding about 9 million more vaccinations each week.” That number has been around 7 million to 8 million doses, and more than half of them are booster doses.
Biden claimed that “thanks to the bipartisan infrastructure bill,” workers will be “removing lead pipes” so that “every American can turn on a faucet and drink clean water.” But the new law doesn’t include nearly enough funding to remove all lead pipes in the country.
The president had a point that the “bottom 40%” of wage earners “got a raise,” even when accounting for inflation, which he didn’t mention. But overall, inflation-adjusted wages have declined while he has been in office.
On the topic of Russia potentially sending troops into Ukraine, Biden wrongly suggested that “it hasn’t happened since World War II” that a “nuclear power” invaded another country. That’s false; Russia invaded Ukraine as recently as 2014.
Biden said that “we just made surprise medical bills illegal in this country,” but he needs to share credit with the previous administration. The bipartisan law was enacted in December 2020 and took effect this year.
Biden said child poverty had dropped by “nearly 40%,” citing an estimate due to an increase in the child tax credit. But that increase in the tax credit expired in December.
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