Tag: state of the union

Census.gov provides demographic data for all to use

Census.gov  is a great resource for providing demographic based data for a variety of stories.

For example, one chart provides data for the poverty rate over time. Screenshot (18).png

This information could be included in an article that attempts to discuss Donald Trump’s claims about the economy, perhaps indicating that the decreasing poverty rate is attributable to more than his claim of making the economy great. As it can be indicated that the poverty rate in recent years has been in decline.

There are a number of ways that this information could be used, but this may be the most relevant given Trump’s recent State of the Union address.

Census.gov also provides a far wider variety of data including information about health, economy, and education.

 

Keeping America honest: NPR fact checks State of the Union Address

Fact checking is an important mechanism for holding accountable those in authority, especially so in an era built on “fake news.” NPR took at look at Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address and found the data to back up, or disprove claims made at the speech.

One of the first disputed claims came as Trump offered his sympathies to those affected by the season’s hurricanes. While the words are sweet, FEMA the executive branch organization that takes care of disaster relief, recently announced it would be halting direct aid to the affected regions, but would still provide help to nonprofit groups in the area. An update came the next day that the decision by FEMA had been reversed.

Claims of a 2.4 million increase in jobs “since the election” made by trump were corroborated by NPR. However, while the 2.4 million jobs added show a continuing uptrend in the economy, it is a smaller increase than the previous years 2.7 million under Obama.

Tax cuts would provide “tremendous relief for the middle class” according to Trump. However data has shown that the majority of the tax benefits will be reaped by the top 20 and top 1% seeing 65% of the savings and 20% respectively.

Now more than ever is keeping an eye on what is true and what is false an importance to Democracy. Luckily there are still a few devoted to the cause of keeping authority honest.