The Present Necessity

The Case, In Numbers.

What follows is not opinion, and it is not asked to be believed. It is the condition of the country as measured by the government's own agencies, the courts' own records, and the publishers' own databases — each figure set beside the founding principle it bears on.

The standard of proof on this page

Every number links to whoever published it. Not to a news story about it — to the agency, the court filing, or the organization that produced the figure. If you doubt a line, follow it.
We use the publisher's own words, not stronger ones. No fact-checking organization on earth claims to measure whether a person intended to deceive. They measure whether statements were accurate. So this page counts documented false and misleading statements, and it does not call them lies. That distinction is the difference between evidence and accusation.
We left out the numbers we could not stand behind. Several of the most-shared statistics in American political argument did not survive checking, including some that would have helped this page. They are listed, by name, in what we would not print. A claim that collapses under scrutiny does more damage than no claim at all.

The Bulletin

The State of the Union, Unadorned

Most recent figures available as of August 2026.

17%

of Americans trust the federal government to do what is right always or most of the time. In 1958 it was 73%.

Sept. 2025 · Pew Research Center

745,652

people counted homeless on a single night, including 131,294 children. The count was 582,462 in 2022.

Jan. 2025 point-in-time count · HUD, via Congressional Research Service

22.7million

renter households — 49% of all renters — spend more than 30% of their income on housing. 12.1 million spend more than half.

2024 · Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies

76.4%

of American adults live with at least one chronic condition. 51.4% live with two or more.

2023 · CDC

2,114,850

new cancer cases projected this year, and 626,140 deaths — about 1,720 people a day.

2026 projection · American Cancer Society

79.0years

American life expectancy, against an OECD average of 81.2 — nearly three years shorter than comparable nations.

2024 · CDC/NCHS · Commonwealth Fund

$220billion +

in medical debt owed by Americans. About 3 million adults owe more than $10,000 each.

2021 survey data · KFF

93.2% vs 33.7%

Productivity growth versus hourly pay growth for most American workers since 1979. Output rose nearly three times as fast as compensation.

1979 Q4 – 2026 Q1 · Economic Policy Institute

31.6% vs 2.5%

Share of all household wealth held by the top 1% versus the bottom half of the country. In 1989 it was 22.8% against 3.5%.

2026 Q1 · Federal Reserve

19.1%

of Americans 65 and older are still in the labor force, and 8.5% of those 75 and older. Only 54.3% of families hold any retirement account at all.

2025 · Bureau of Labor Statistics · Federal Reserve

550per 100,000

Americans behind bars — 1,852,900 people in prisons and jails, and close to 2 million across every form of confinement.

Yearend 2023 · Bureau of Justice Statistics · Prison Policy Initiative

79,384

drug overdose deaths in a single year — down sharply from 105,007 the year before, the largest recorded decline.

2024, final data · CDC/NCHS

The Ledger

What Was Promised, and What Is Recorded

On the left, the founding text, quoted exactly as it appears in the Library on this site. On the right, what the record now shows.

Article the First

On the truthfulness of those who hold office

The Principle

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

“The senators and representatives before-mentioned… and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this constitution…”

Constitution, Art. II & Art. VI · read it here

The Record

The Washington Post's fact-checking desk documented 30,573 false or misleading claims by President Trump across his first term — an average of 21 a day, rising to 39 a day in the final year, and 503 on November 2, 2020, the day before the election. Washington Post
Of 1,171 Trump statements rated by PolitiFact, 913 were rated Mostly False, False, or Pants on Fire. For comparison, of 315 statements rated for Joe Biden, 132 fell in those categories; of 160 for Ted Cruz, 108 did; of 181 for Bernie Sanders, 47 did. PolitiFact's own retrospective at 1,000 Trump fact-checks put the figure at about 76%, with a median rating of False. PolitiFact Counts as displayed August 7, 2026, and the arithmetic is ours. Fact-checkers choose which statements to examine, so these totals reflect editorial attention as well as speech. They are not random samples and should not be read as percentages of everything a person said.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has four statements rated by PolitiFact: two False, one Mostly False, one Mostly True. Among them, his claim that “nobody was texting war plans” was rated False. PolitiFact Four ratings is far too small a sample to express as a percentage, and we will not do so. No publisher maintains a cumulative count for him. Separately, his claim that troops were sent to polling stations was rated false by both Snopes and AFP after he repeated it in congressional testimony.
No organization maintains a running cumulative count for the current term. CNN's roundups state plainly that they do not attempt a total. CNN If you see a specific second-term tally circulating, no publisher stands behind it.

Article the Second

On petitioning for redress, and being answered with injury

The Principle

“In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.”

Declaration of Independence, 1776 · read it here

The Record

1969. A Johnson & Johnson executive responsible for talc supply asked a company physician how much asbestos-family tremolite “can safely be in a talc base.” The doctor advised holding it to “an absolute minimum,” noted the chairman's concern about “adverse effects on the lungs of babies or mothers,” and urged consulting lawyers because “it is not inconceivable that we could become involved in litigation.” The product stayed on American shelves until 2020. Reuters, from company files
2026. Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay $5.5 billion to resolve roughly 76,000 ovarian cancer claims, while stating it continues to maintain the product is safe and calling the litigation meritless. Johnson & Johnson The next day, the stock reached record highs. CNBC
2007. Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty to a felony — misbranding OxyContin with intent to defraud and mislead — and paid $634.5 million. Its own market research had already found that “the biggest negative” of the drug “was the abuse potential.” U.S. Attorney, W.D. Va. The conduct admitted in its second federal case ran from May 2007 through at least March 2017 — that is, after the conviction. Dept. of Justice
2012. GlaxoSmithKline paid a criminal fine of $242,612,800 specifically for failing to report safety data on the diabetes drug Avandia to the FDA between 2001 and 2007, as part of a $3 billion resolution. Dept. of Justice
Nine years after the FDA approved Vioxx, and after a trial had already shown a fourfold difference in heart attacks, Merck withdrew it — then pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and paid $950 million. It stated it “believed it would have been possible to continue marketing” the drug with updated labeling. Dept. of Justice · New England Journal of Medicine

Article the Third

On there being no rank of person the law treats differently

The Principle

“No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States…”

“For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury…”

Constitution, Art. I · Declaration of Independence · read it here

The Record

Purdue Pharma took in roughly $34 billion in revenue between 1996 and 2019, about 91% of its domestic sales from OxyContin, as found by the federal judge reviewing its bankruptcy. Judge Colleen McMahon, S.D.N.Y. The Sackler family's cash contribution to the final settlement is $1.5 billion, paid out through 2029 — roughly 4% of that revenue — and they admitted no wrongdoing. N.Y. Attorney General
Across the five largest pharmaceutical fraud resolutions in American history — more than $16.5 billion combined — the only individuals to face criminal liability were three Purdue executives in 2007, who pleaded to misdemeanors and served no prison time. U.S. Attorney, W.D. Va.
The exception proves the rule: Insys Therapeutics founder John Kapoor was sentenced to 66 months in federal prison for a racketeering conspiracy that bribed doctors to prescribe a fentanyl spray approved only for cancer pain. Dept. of Justice Stated precisely: within the resolutions documented on this page, that is the pattern. We did not compile a complete census of every prosecuted pharmaceutical executive.
The same injury from the same molecule is compensable or not depending on which bottle the pharmacy handed you. In 2009 the Supreme Court held that FDA approval does not shield a brand-name manufacturer from failure-to-warn claims (Wyeth v. Levine); two years later it held that those same claims are preempted against generic manufacturers (PLIVA v. Mensing), decided 5–4. The patient does not choose which version is dispensed.
The three largest drug distributors committed to up to $21 billion over 18 years, and Teva, CVS and Walgreens to $17.3 billion — nominal dollars, paid out across a generation, in every case without an admission of liability. National Assn. of Attorneys General · N.Y. Attorney General

Article the Fourth

On ambition checking ambition, and who now pays for the check

The Principle

“Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place… If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

Madison, Federalist No. 51 · read it here

The Record

The pharmaceutical and health products industry spent $1.84 billion on federal lobbying over five years, 2020 through 2024 — an average of more than $367 million a year. OpenSecrets
In 2024 it employed 1,814 lobbyists — more than three for every member of Congress — and 1,009 of them had previously worked in government. OpenSecrets
The five largest corporate spenders in that industry in 2024 — Johnson & Johnson, McKesson, Cencora, Teva, and Cardinal Health — are every one of them defendants in the opioid settlements described above. OpenSecrets
Of 356 drugs approved by the FDA from 2010 to 2019, 354 had publicly funded research behind them, associated with $187 billion in National Institutes of Health spending on those drugs and their biological targets. JAMA Health Forum Stated precisely: that is public research spending, largely at universities and government labs, that underwrote the underlying science. It is not a cash transfer to manufacturers, and we will not describe it as one.

Article the Fifth

On domestic tranquility, and the general welfare

The Principle

“We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity…”

Constitution, Preamble · read it here

The Record

745,652 people were counted homeless on a single January night, including 131,294 children. Four years earlier the count was 582,462. The one-night method undercounts those hardest to find, so it is a floor rather than a total. HUD, via Congressional Research Service
367,460 properties had foreclosure filings in 2025, and filings in the first half of 2026 were up 21% year over year. ATTOM
In Florida, 59% of renter households are cost burdened — the highest rate of any state. Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies
59.5% of adults aged 18 to 34 already live with at least one chronic condition, up from 52.5% a decade earlier. 115.2 million adults have prediabetes. CDC · CDC
Cancer is arriving earlier. Colorectal cancer in people under 50 rose 2.9% a year over the past decade, against 0.4% a year among those aged 50 to 64. American Cancer Society
26.7 million people under 65 had no health insurance in 2024 — the second straight annual increase after years of decline. KFF

Article the Sixth

On the blessings of liberty, secured to our posterity

The Principle

“…and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity…”

“…that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

Constitution, Preamble · Declaration of Independence · read it here

The Record

Since 1979, productivity has grown 93.2% while hourly pay for production and nonsupervisory workers — about 80% of the workforce — grew 33.7%. Economic Policy Institute Stated precisely: pay did rise. It rose roughly a third as fast as what workers produced. Anyone who tells you wages have been flat since 1979 is overstating it.
The top 1% now hold 31.6% of all household wealth and the bottom half hold 2.5%. In 1989 the figures were 22.8% and 3.5%. Federal Reserve
19.1% of Americans 65 and older are still working, and 8.5% of those 75 and older. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects both figures to keep climbing through 2034. BLS · BLS projections
Only 54.3% of American families hold a retirement account of any kind, and just 35% of people not yet retired believe their savings are on track. Federal Reserve · Federal Reserve
37% of adults could not cover a $400 emergency expense with cash, and 12% could not cover it by any means at all. Federal Reserve Stated precisely: the familiar claim that “4 in 10 Americans can't afford a $400 emergency” misreads this survey. Most of that 37% would cover it by borrowing or selling something. The number who genuinely could not is 12%.

The Discipline

What We Would Not Print

These claims circulate constantly, several of them in service of the very argument this page makes. Each one failed verification, so none appears above.

The circulated claim	Why it is not on this page
“Medical error is the third leading cause of death — 251,000 deaths a year.”	Traced to a 2016 BMJ item that the National Library of Medicine catalogues as a comment rather than original research, with no abstract, and which has been widely criticized for extrapolating from very small studies. PubMed record
“Vioxx killed 40,000 — or 55,000, or 60,000 — Americans.”	The FDA scientist's study in The Lancet estimated 88,000 to 140,000 excess cases of serious heart disease, not deaths. Every death toll in circulation is somebody's multiplication, not a published finding. Graham et al.
“The FDA logged 97,567 deaths from prescription drugs last year.”	That is a count of reports in which death was listed as an outcome — not deduplicated, not medically confirmed, and not proof any drug was the cause. The FDA states directly that these data “cannot be used to estimate the incidence” of events. FDA
“Only 1 in 4 Americans can name the three branches of government.”	True in 2016. As of the August 2025 survey, 70% named all three — the highest reading on record. Repeating the old figure would be spreading a stale statistic on a page built to oppose exactly that. Annenberg Public Policy Center
“1 in 2 people will get cancer.”	The current lifetime estimate is 39.2% for men and 38.7% for women — roughly 1 in 3. American Cancer Society
“4 in 10 Americans can't afford a $400 emergency.”	The Federal Reserve says 63% would cover it with cash, and 12% could not pay by any means. The 37% figure includes everyone who would borrow or sell something. Federal Reserve
Any cumulative false-statement total for the current presidential term.	No publisher maintains one. The Washington Post retired its database in 2021. Any specific running total you see for 2025–2026 has no publisher behind it.
“The Sacklers took exactly $10.4 billion out of Purdue.”	The House Oversight Committee says only “more than $10 billion,” and attributes even that to news reporting rather than its own analysis. The defensible phrasing is the committee's. House Oversight memo
“Wages have been flat since 1979.”	The real median hourly wage is up about 29% since 1979 — slow, roughly a third of productivity growth, but not flat. The honest charge is suppression, not stagnation. Economic Policy Institute
“Suicide is at an all-time high.”	Suicide deaths fell slightly to 48,824 in 2024 and life expectancy rose. The crisis is real; that particular sentence is not currently true. CDC/NCHS

“It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood…”

Madison, Federalist No. 62

Nothing on this page asks you to take a side. It asks you to read the document that all of it is measured against — and then to decide for yourself whether the promise and the record still match. The full text of all seven founding documents is on this site, free, with the original scans beside them.

Read the Constitution Ask the Founders Sign the Declaration

A note on method. Figures are the most recent available as of August 2026 and will go out of date; where a number is our own arithmetic on published inputs, or rests on a single study, or is commonly stated more strongly than its source supports, it says so on the line itself. Answers in Ask the Founders and the Question Bank remain sourced strictly to the founding era, 1776 to 1791 — this page is the only place on FoundingTimes that cites present-day data, and it is kept separate for that reason. Found something wrong? It should be fixed, not defended. Write to contact@cyberadspace.com.