(BPT) - Breaking down the numbers behind the headlines, this August a one-hour national TV special 'Just the Facts with Steve Ballmer' by USAFacts shares data on immigration, taxes, government spending and more.
USAFacts, a not-for-profit, nonpartisan civic organization founded by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, announced the launch of a new six-part PSA series titled 'Just the Facts with Steve Ballmer.'
The series premiered in a one-hour special on Thursday night, Aug. 1, on FOX at 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, with the first two episodes covering immigration and the budget. Episodes will be available to stream on the USAFacts YouTube channel. The group is investing tens of millions in this campaign to get the word out.
The USAFacts mission is to empower Americans with nonpartisan, government data about issues people care about most. The six-part series will cover immigration, budget, health and healthcare, economy, energy and the environment, and the American population by the numbers. Just the Facts from USAFacts: You decide what you believe.
According to Ballmer, 'All Americans are stakeholders in our democracy and deserve access to nonpartisan, source data. Debates about how this country should move forward should start with an agreement on the facts.'
'Just the Facts' kicks off with immigration numbers. 'Most of us have an immigrant story. My maternal grandparents came to the U.S. from what was then Russia, and my father came from Switzerland. We will share the facts behind the immigration system and what the data says about immigration in America today,' said Ballmer.
Immigration being the hot-button issue that it is, this 'Just the Facts' episode provides viewers with hard metrics on authorized and unauthorized immigration.
Key immigration stats* include:
- Roughly 19% of the U.S. workforce, almost 1 in 5 workers, is foreign born.
- In 2022, 2.6 million authorized immigrants, both those with no path to citizenship and with path to citizenship, were granted entry to the United States.
- More than 2 million people were awarded non-immigrant visas that allow people to temporarily live in the United States but do not provide a path to citizenship.
- Over a million of these visas were for work. Foreign students received 700,000 visas and those wishing to join immediate families account for roughly 330,000 visas.
- Meanwhile, 500,000 people were given immigrant visas, granted mostly to those with a relative who is a citizen who lives here, which eventually provide individuals a green card and the option of a path to citizenship.
- More than 2 million people were awarded non-immigrant visas that allow people to temporarily live in the United States but do not provide a path to citizenship.
- There were 3.2 million border encounters in 2023. Of that, 2.5 million, or 77%, were at the Southwest border while another 392,000 people came through airports, 189,000 through the Canadian border, and 144,000 people came to our coastal borders.
- Homeland Security estimates roughly an additional 600,000 people arrived undetected.
- At the end of 2023, there was a backlog of 2.5 million immigration court cases. That year, there were 222,000 decisions handed down by the courts and only 14% were granted asylum.
*Sources: U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Much of what the government spends comes from money it collects from taxpayers. The second episode of 'Just the Facts' shows Americans what the federal government brings in and what it spends, so they can judge these spending decisions for themselves. Key budget stats** include:
- There was a deficit of $1.7 trillion in the FY 2023 federal budget resulting from $6.2 trillion in spending and $4.5 trillion in revenue.
- Mandatory spending by the federal government totaled $3.8 trillion; more than half was for Social Security and Medicare.
- Discretionary spending accounts for $1.7 trillion and includes categories such as defense, education, transportation and research.
- The 2021 Infrastructure and Jobs Act will inject an additional $110 billion on average per year through 2026 into public works priorities like roads, bridges, water and broadband. That's a 32% increase over the 2021 combined federal, state and local spending in those areas.
**Sources: USAFacts, U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, Congressional Budget Office, Social Security Administration Fact Sheet as of June 2024 (6/18/24)
'Just the Facts' videos will be unveiled monthly - Energy & the Environment, the Economy, Health and Healthcare, and finally, America by the Numbers - so voters have the facts ahead of Election Day on Nov. 5, 2024. USAFacts unveiled a 30-second ad to promote the series that has been running on broadcast and cable stations nationwide.
"At USAFacts, we don't just provide facts - we breathe life into them using data straight from the source. This new video series is our latest and boldest initiative to transform raw government data into a powerful tool for democracy. As voters face critical decisions in the upcoming elections, we're here to ensure they have clear, actionable information at their fingertips,' stated Poppy MacDonald, president of USAFacts.
