The Facts of the State of the Union

President Obama’s State of the Union Speech discussed a lot of crucial issues coming up in the next few months. But what are the facts that will drive the debate? Face The Facts USA has the info – no spin, no agenda – just plain facts.

Gun Policy

Did you know that few gun sales are denied on the basis of mental illness and there are about enough guns in the country for one per American? U.S. manufacturing of guns is soaring and even in this age of mass murders, overall gun deaths are down.

Weapons an intrinsic part of U.S. society, culture

Released Jan. 31, 2013

Latest figures show there are 310 million guns in the U.S. or about one gun for every American citizen.

Few gun sales denied on mental illness grounds

Released Jan. 30, 2013

Background checks on gun purchasers find only a tiny fraction with enough of a mental illness record to deny the sale.

In age of mass shootings, overall gun murders in decline

Released Jan. 29, 2013

Gun-related homicides in the U.S. have been falling for 20 years, despite a string of tragic high-profile mass shootings.

U.S. gun manufacture rate soars

Released Dec. 16, 2012

The number of guns manufactured in the U.S. grew to 5.5 million in 2010, up 86 percent from 2001. 310 million firearms are in civilian hands.

Immigration

On immigration, Asians are the biggest immigrant group today, not Hispanics but there is a steady flow of illegal immigrants to the country. Meanwhile, there’s a quiet deportation boom underway.

Under way: A quiet deportation boom

The number of illegal immigrants deported by the United States doubled in the decade from 2001 to 2011, to almost 400,000 in fiscal 2012.. The federal government was on track in 2012 to deport more parents of legal American children than... Get The Fact »

Big shift in the immigrant tide

Asians, not Hispanics, are now the leading class of immigrants to the US. About 430,000 Asian immigrants arrived in the US in 2010, compared to about 370,000 of Hispanic origin. An influx of educated Asians is filling the demand for... Get The Fact »

A steady flow of illegal immigrants to the U.S.

Released Jan. 28, 2013

Three million illegal immigrants joined the U.S. population over the past decade. Their total ranks reached 11.5 million in 2011.

Post-recession, immigrant workers climb back faster

Immigrants are recovering from the economic downturn and finding jobs faster than workers born in the United States. Between 2009 and 2011, employment among foreign-born workers rose 5.2 percent, compared with 1.8 percent for U.S.-born workers. Today’s infographic has the... Get The Fact »

Climate

We’ve got the goods on climate change here:

28 straight years of warmer average temperatures

Released Jan. 1, 2013

Global temperatures have not dipped below long-term averages since 1985. The U.S. broke several temperature records in 2012.

Sequestration

Here’s the skinny on sesquestration that shows not all programs are created equal under the budget-cutting knife.

Across the-board budget cuts? Not quite

Released Feb. 4, 2013

Automatic, mandatory spending cuts could hammer the Pentagon and some domestic programs, but others will be safe and sound.

Infrastructure

And on infrastructure, the bridges and roads are in dire need of repair.

A high-stakes bridge game

Released Jan. 27, 2013

67,000 US bridges were “structurally deficient” in 2011. Billions in stimulus money barely made a dent.

$688 billion upgrade estimate for aging interstates

Our aging 47,000-mile Interstate system accounts for just 1.2 percent of U.S. highway miles, but carries 24.2 percent of all highway traffic. The system was established in 1956 and built mostly in the 1960s and 1970s. Although $20 billion was... Get The Fact »