Factchecking the State of the Union

It's unclear how much such a proposal would affect the number of uninsured, most of whom have low incomes. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the projected number of uninsured in 2010 – 51 million – would be reduced by about 6.8 million, adding that "significant uncertainty surrounds" these estimates.
A somewhat higher estimate was produced by the independent Lewin Group, which put the figure at 9.2 million. But economist Jonathan Gruber at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology calculated that the number of uninsured would actually increase by 1.5 million. And Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the liberal Urban Institute and Brookings Institution, published an evaluation that also found "the plan could actually reduce overall insurance coverage."

One thing these reports agree upon is that the proposal gives much greater tax benefits to those with higher incomes. A majority of the uninsured, however, have such low incomes they wouldn't see a benefit at all: More than 55 percent of the uninsured have so little income that they don't pay federal income taxes and thus couldn't benefit from Bush's proposed deduction, according to the Commonwealth Fund.

One reason that some may lose coverage and others will gain it is that the deduction could prompt some employers to stop giving health insurance benefits, and not everyone who lost insurance would be able to, or inclined to, buy individual coverage. Healthy workers wouldn't have a problem picking up an affordable plan, says the Tax Policy Center report, but those with health issues and low incomes won't be able to do so.

Who Are 'We'?
Bush argued for extension of wiretap authority for U.S. officials, but misleadingly claimed "we" broke up a plot to blow up airplanes headed to the U.S. from Europe.

Bush: In the past six years, we have stopped numerous attacks, including a plot to fly a plane into the tallest building in Los Angeles and another to blow up passenger jets bound for America over the Atlantic.

The London plot, however, was actually broken up in August 2006 by British law enforcement, according to news accounts at the time and also according to Bush himself, who said just a year ago in his 2007 State of the Union address that "British authorities uncovered a plot to blow up passenger planes bound for
America over the Atlantic Ocean." If wiretaps by U.S. officials played any role, no administration official has yet said so publicly, despite plenty of opportunity.