President Joe Biden gave a rare speech on Thursday. He went viral for repeating the line, “I mean this from the bottom of my heart, my word as a Biden: I’ve never been more optimistic about America’s future than I am today.”
But before Biden repeated this sound bite, he told three lies during his speech.
Let’s count them.
NO. 1
Biden lied about last year’s “Inflation Reduction Act” and its cap on prescription drug costs.
“We put a cap, and it’s now in effect — now in effect, as of January 1 — of $2,000 a year on prescription drug costs for seniors, even if their drugs cost $10,000, $12,000, or 14 [thousand] a year, as some cancer drugs do. They pay no more than $2,000 a year,” Biden said. “Your tax dollars, they do good work.”
The $2,000 cap is, in fact, not in effect. It doesn’t take effect until 2025. In fact, the plain text of the bill says that the cap “for 2025, is equal to $2,000.”
So, we don’t know yet whether our tax dollars are doing “good work.”
NO. 2
Biden lied about former President Donald Trump’s effect on vaccinations.
“Back then, only 3.5 million people had been — even had their first vaccination, because the other guy and the other team didn’t think it mattered a whole lot,” Biden said. “Now we have fully vaccinated 230 million Americans.”
In fact, between 19 million and 21 million people had taken their first COVID-19 shot before Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021.
At that time, only about 3.5 million people had completed their first series of shots, but that’s more because of calendar math than because of apathy from the previous administration. Our nation’s healthcare workers started taking their first shots only on Dec. 14, 2020, and patients need to wait several weeks between shots.
NO. 3
Biden misstated the number of construction projects started during his presidency.
The White House staffers edited the official transcript to correct Biden’s remark after the fact.
The transcript says, “Last year, we funded 700,000 [7,000] major construction projects — 700,000 [7,000] all across America. (Applause.) From highways to airports to bridges to tunnels to broadband.”
I’ve never been more optimistic about America’s future than I am today. pic.twitter.com/EJmvmpRr8q
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) January 20, 2023
A columnist for TownHall.com singled out these three mistakes as Biden’s big lies.
Biden made other, smaller mistakes, too. For example, Biden was speaking alongside Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., and he was calling him “Doug.”
“Where’s Doug [Don]? The congressman. He’s around here somewhere,” the transcript says.
“Oh, there you are. Doug [Don], thanks for the passport into town. (Applause.) Doug [Don] and I have something in common. We both married way above our station.”
Biden said “Doug” five times in a 43-minute speech. He even corrected himself once.
“They want to cut your Social and Medicare,” Biden said. “I’ve been saying this during the last campaign — in the off-year campaign. Doug knows — Don.”
The Horn editorial team