Reality Check: Did President Bush Keep Promises From 2006 State of the Union Address?

Jan. 23, 2007 — -- President Bush speaks before Congress and the nation tonight to deliver his priorities for 2007 in the annual State of the Union address.

But how well did Bush do on the promises he made this time last year?

Tonight, Bush is expected to defend his Iraq War strategy, and outline his goals this year for global warming and alternative energy fuels, as well as immigration, health care and education.

ABC News researched the promises Bush kept -- and the promises forgotten -- after his 2006 State of the Union speech.

Of the concrete promises the president made in his 2006 speech, ABC News found that only one-third of them had been kept.

However, analysts argue that the State of the Union speeches often include long lists of policies the president hopes to see the Congress act upon, rather than measures that lawmakers can reasonably be expected to see passed into legislation.

"The speech usually defines the direction of where a president wants to be, but not necessarily what can get passed," said John Fortier, a political scientist and research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

This year, Fortier said, Bush is further hampered by a Democratic Congress, which isn't as likely to pass his priorities as the Republican-led Congress last year.

Therefore the president will structure his speech around less contentious domestic issues such as the environment, energy and immigration, Fortier said.

"He knows he's constrained by the Democratic majority in Congress, and so he will focus on domestic issues where he has common ground with the Democrats," he said.

In an effort to push the Republican-led Congress to pass legislation making his first-term tax cuts permanent, Bush said in the 2006 State of the Union speech, "We need more than temporary tax relief. I urge the Congress to act responsibly, and make the tax cuts permanent."

Bush's first-term tax cuts expire by the year 2011. While Democrats have said they won't seek to repeal Bush's major first-term cuts, they oppose legislation making the tax cuts permanent.

In last year's speech, Bush said, "I am pleased that members of Congress are working on earmark reform, because the federal budget has too many special-interest projects. And we can tackle this problem together, if you pass the line-item veto."