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(BPT) – The vibrant culture of Thailand took center stage in New York’s Times Square this September with the Ignite Thailand Festival – a groundbreaking event that immersed New Yorkers and visitors with all the innovations coming out of Thailand, from …

(BPT) – USAFacts, a not-for-profit, nonpartisan civic organization founded by former Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, is launching the next set of PSAs in a six-part series – these will focus on energy & the environment, and economy. Since the series aired last month, ‘Just the Facts with Steve Ballmer’ has had more than 16 million views, a testament to the public’s interest in understanding facts during peak election season.

‘Voters are yearning for a place where they know what they’re getting is accurate information and reporting, especially ahead of the Presidential debates,’ said Steve Ballmer, founder of USAFacts. ‘We take real government data that underscores important issues that matter to Americans from inflation numbers and housing stats to immigration and healthcare data and present it in a way that helps people understand the actual numbers and issues without the rhetoric.’

USAFacts’ mission is to provide Americans with answers using unbiased facts about our country that are rooted in data. The two new episodes will premiere on NewsNation on Sept. 8 at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, featuring key statistics on the economy and the U.S. energy sector and the environment. USAFacts will provide the facts – voters can see the data for themselves and decide what it means for them.

“At USAFacts, we are adding clarity to the conversation by providing unbiased, easy-to-understand facts to inform voters on the topics making headlines during election season,’ said Poppy MacDonald, president of USAFacts. ‘The positive response to our video series speaks to just how many voters are seeking to make sense of partisan dialogue. Our platform empowers voters with the facts to help them decide what’s best for our democracy in November.’

Episodes will be available to stream on the USAFacts YouTube channel.

Key economic stats** include:

• The U.S. went from 2.5% growth in 2019 to -2.2% when COVID hit in 2020, up to 5.8% in 2021 during the recovery, to about 2.5% in 2023.
• In 2023, real GDP per person in the U.S. reached a high of $81,624, which was up 2% from 2022.
• In February 2020, unemployment was a low 3.5% and increased to 14.8% in April 2020. By Q1 2023, it was at 3.4%, and a small increase to 4% as of May 2024.
• In 2019, the average cost of a gallon of gas was $2.60; by 2022, it rose to nearly $4. And in June 2023, it was over $5 a gallon. In 2023, the average cost lowered to $3.52 a gallon.
• U.S. employers added about 3.1 million jobs in 2023; growing the workforce to 159 million people.

**Sources: USAFacts, U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 7/19/24, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, accessed 8/14/24, Bureau of Economic Analysis, accessed 8/13/24

Overall, the proportion of total consumer spending spent on energy is lower today than in the past. Forty years ago, total energy costs accounted for almost 8% of all consumer spending. That’s recently dropped to around 4.2%.

Key energy & the environment stats* include:

• America consumes a lot of energy: with 4% of the world’s population, we account for about 16% of global energy use. The U.S. uses more energy than any other country except for China, but China spreads that energy use across the population nearly four times larger than ours.
• Transportation accounts for 30% of all energy consumption, almost 90% of which comes from gas and diesel fuels burned by vehicles. The U.S. has more than 280 million registered vehicles. Less than 1% are electric vehicles and hybrids, although they comprised over 16% of all light duty vehicle sales in the U.S. in 2023.
• Twenty years ago, fossil fuels accounted for 88% of U.S. energy consumption. In 2023 it was 82%, with nuclear power accounting for 9% and renewable energy, which includes solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal and biomass, like ethanol, also accounting for 9%.

*Sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration, accessed 8/12/24, U.S. Energy Information Administration, 7/21/20, U.S. Energy Information Administration, accessed 8/13/24, United States Census Bureau, accessed 8/12/24)

About 73% of America’s greenhouse gasses result from our burning fossil fuels for energy, with the transportation sector being the most significant source of these emissions. Global forces have also created an impact. Russia invading Ukraine, and unrest in Venezuela, reduced the amount of oil that the U.S. imported from both countries.

‘Just the Facts’ videos launch monthly leading up to Election Day (Nov. 5). Current episodes include Immigration, the National Budget, Energy & the Environment, and the Economy. The last set of PSAs will launch on Oct. 6 and dig into Health and Healthcare, and America by the Numbers.

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(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.
• 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.