Fact-Checking Obama's Speech

American History Lessons
Obama got two historical facts wrong last night, saying the automobile was a U.S. invention and that the transcontinental railroad was completed during the Civil War. Neither historical claim is true.

First, the automobile:

Obama: I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it.

There is some debate about exactly who invented the automobile, but the inventor's nationality was French, German or Scottish, depending on whether one considers steam or electric vehicles to qualify as an "automobile," or only those powered by gasoline. The Library of Congress’ “Everyday Mysteries” site gives the honor to Karl Benz from Germany, who invented a three-wheeled, gasoline automobile with an internal combustion engine in 1885-1886. Before that, France's Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot invented a steam-powered vehicle for the French army in 1769, and Robert Anderson of Scotland built an electric carriage around 1832-1839. Germans Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach developed a four-wheeled gas-powered vehicle in 1886.

Obama would have been correct had he said the U.S. is the nation that invented mass production of the automobile. It was the 1901 Curved Dash Oldsmobile that was first produced in quantity, and, of course, Henry Ford made the car affordable for the masses with the first moving assembly line in 1913.

As for the railroad, Obama said:

Obama: In the midst of civil war, we laid railroad tracks from one coast to another that spurred commerce and industry.

Obama would have been justified in saying that a transcontinental railroad system was "planned and begun" in the midst of the Civil War, which started in 1861. The Pacific Railway Act provided for the transcontinental railroad and was signed in 1862. Workers on the Western end, the Central Pacific line, spiked the first rails in 1863. But construction on the Union Pacific line, which would start in Nebraska and connect to the Central Pacific in Utah, didn't begin until after the war, at which point the Central Pacific was still working in California and had made it roughly to the Sierra Nevadas. The two lines were not to meet until the famous "golden spike" ceremony of May 10, 1869, four years after the war had ended.

57 Cops
Obama said that "there are 57 police officers who are still on the streets of Minneapolis tonight because this plan prevented the layoffs their department was about to make." But that's a dubious claim.

It's true that Mayor R.T. Rybak (an early Obama supporter) said Feb. 23 that cuts in state aid "would have led to the elimination of 57 sworn police officer positions and 19 non sworn employees" and that the stimulus bill "will keep 57 police officers working on the streets of Minneapolis." But there's more to it than that.

For one thing, the mayor's 57-cop figure is hypothetical. No layoffs were actually proposed. The mayor said that number would have to go "IF you allocated the Governor's proposed cuts equally across the city" and "IF the Governor's cuts were passed on directly to the Police Department." We emphasize the word "if." Cities seldom spread such cuts equally across all city departments and services. The usual practice is to minimize impact on public safety and make larger cuts in less essential services.

More important, the mayor himself cites four other factors besides the stimulus money that allow him to avert these hypothetical layoffs. Elsewhere in the same budget speech, he puts stimulus funds last, behind four other factors: lowering debt service payments, focusing cuts on "more expensive management positions," eliminating services and "developing new revenue options." Specifically, Rybak said: "We are proposing elimination of $1.5 million in non-personnel costs, including overtime." So the truth is the stimulus money will help and may avert some future layoffs, but not all 57 cited by the mayor.

Bravado Reprise
Obama continued his recent habit of asserting projections as fact:

Obama: This plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs. More than 90 percent of these jobs will be in the private sector, jobs rebuilding our roads and bridges, constructing wind turbines and solar panels, laying broadband and expanding mass transit.

As we pointed out in our Feb. 13 article, "Stimulus Bill Bravado," Obama's numbers are not certain. The estimate of 3.5 million jobs is backed up by projections from different economists, including independent experts as well as the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. However, one economist, Mark Zandi, downgraded his job estimate to 2.2 million once the stimulus legislation was finalized. It's worth noting that even Nobel-winning economists disagree sharply about macroeconomic projections. That's because macroeconomics is still a relatively new discipline. There is limited data, and even less agreement about what the available data actually mean.

Tax Cuts for 95%?
Obama said his stimulus program provides a tax cut for "95 percent of working households" and later said that a cut would go to 95 percent of "working families." That calls for some explanation. The key words are "working" and "cut."

He's referring to the "making work pay" refundable tax credit, which is only available to workers. As we pointed out previously on The FactCheck Wire, there would be no credit for retirees or those who are unemployed. A Tax Policy Center analysis found that a more modest 75.5 percent of all households would benefit, whether their members are working or not.

It is also questionable whether all of the tax refunds can properly be called "tax cuts." The credit is refundable and, therefore, is going to many who earn so little that they pay no federal income taxes in the first place. The White House calls them tax cuts, but the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office officially scores the bill’s refundable credits under "direct spending."

Korean Batteries for American Cars?
Obama gave a few examples of how the U.S. isn't leading when it comes to "clean, renewable energy," saying at one point that "new plug-in hybrids roll off our assembly lines, but they will run on batteries made in Korea."

He's partly right.