AP FACT CHECK: Trump takes credit he hasn't earned
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump boasted Tuesday night about corporate job expansion and military cost-savings that actually took root under his predecessor and gave a one-sided account of the costs and benefits to the economy from immigration — ignoring the upside.
TRUMP: "According to the National Academy of Sciences, our current immigration system costs America's taxpayers many billions of dollars a year."
The report found that the "long-run fiscal impact" of immigrants and their children would probably be seen as more positive "if their role in sustaining labor force growth and contributing to innovation and entrepreneurial activity were taken into account."
The head of the Air Force program announced significant price reductions in the contract for the Lockheed F-35 fighter jet Dec. 19 — after Trump had tweeted about the cost but weeks before he met the company's CEO about it.
Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with the aerospace consulting firm Teal Group, said there is no evidence of any additional cost savings as a result of Trump's actions.
TRUMP: "Since my election, Ford, Fiat-Chrysler, General Motors, Sprint, Softbank, Lockheed, Intel, Walmart and many others have announced that they will invest billions of dollars in the United States and will create tens of thousands of new American jobs."
The project was delayed by insufficient demand for Intel's high-powered computer chips, but the company now expects to finish the factory within four years because it anticipates business growth.
Independent analyses of his campaign's tax proposals found that most of the benefits would flow to the wealthiest families.
A White House fact sheet on the nation's infrastructure issued with his speech describes "a desperate need for improvement" of public infrastructure "in poor condition."
The trade association for road builders, using government data, indeed says there are 55,710 structurally deficient bridges — those carrying more traffic than they were designed for.
[...] it includes retirees, parents who are staying home to raise children, and high school and college students who are studying rather than working.
The FBI and the Justice Department have been preoccupied with violent extremists from inside the U.S. who are inspired by the calls to violence and mayhem of the Islamic State group.
The health law offers subsidized private health insurance along with a state option to expand Medicaid for low-income people.
Republican governors whose states have expanded Medicaid are trying to find a way to persuade Congress and the administration to keep the expansion, and maybe even build on it, while imposing limits on the long-term costs of Medicaid.
[...] affected are millions of people who buy individual policies outside the government markets, and face the same high premiums with no financial help from the health law.