This past Monday, President Joe Biden officially lashed out at Republicans as he called them “fiscally demented” while giving a speech at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Breakfast hosted by the National Action Network.
“We’re making this progress at the same time, reduced the deficit,” exclaimed Biden, as reported by The Hill. “You know, we’re gonna talk about big-spending Democrats again? Guess what? I reduced the deficit last year $350 billion. And this year? The federal deficit’s down $1 trillion-plus dollars. That’s a fact. And there’s gonna be hundreds of billions reduced over the next decade. These guys are fiscally demented, I think. They don’t quite get it.”
Apparently, Biden was making reference to a drop in the budget deficit from $3.1 trillion in the fiscal year 2020 to $2.7 trillion in the fiscal year 2021, quickly followed by another drop to $1.4 trillion throughout the fiscal year 2022, as explained via data released from the Office of Management and Budget. Despite everything, Old Uncle Joe outright failed to mention that the deficit drops came in the wake of a number of stimulus packages which has been greenlit by legislators as a reaction to the recent recession due to the lockdown; the most recent budget deficit of $1.4 trillion by far goes past the shortfalls seen in the years prior to the draconian lockdowns.
Going against his claim that “hundreds of billions” will be taken out of the deficit over the coming decade, spending packages sporting the seal of approval from Biden will contribute well over $4.8 trillion in terms of new deficit spending between 2021 and 2031, as explained in an analysis from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Taking out the effect of the American Rescue Plan, which was a stimulus package issued its approval quite soon after Biden’s inauguration, implies $2.5 trillion of new deficits.
On numerous occasions, Biden has claimed that his actions have been quite beneficial to the taxpayers.
“On my watch, things have been different. The deficit has come down both years that I’ve been in office,” he stated last year. “And I just signed legislation that’s going to reduce it even more in the decades to come. Now Republicans in Congress are doubling down on their commitment to explode the deficit again. Just this week, Republican leaders said if they get their way, they’re going to extend the Trump tax cuts, which are due to expire in a couple years.”
