As President Joe Biden travels the country to promote Bidenomics, let’s see if he highlights one area where he is the undisputed leader when compared to other presidents: the exploding federal deficit.
Recall that last October, Biden did a victory dance claiming he had reduced the federal deficit.
“Today, my administration announced that this year the deficit fell by $1.4 trillion — the largest one-year drop in American history — $1.4 trillion decline in the deficit.
Let me repeat that: the largest-ever decline in the federal deficit.”
So, how’s that historic decline in the deficit going now?
The table shows the federal deficit—which is the amount the federal government spends above its revenue for any given fiscal year (from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30)—for the past nine years.
The biggest deficit increase came in 2020, when the federal government under President Trump spent massive amounts of money trying to offset the impact of government shutdowns.
The government spent too much too quickly in 2020, and it set aside normal controls that might have limited fraud. But at least it was meant to be a one-time effort to keep the economy and millions of people forced into unemployment from going into a depression.
However, Biden has undertaken a concerted effort to keep spending high.
So, while the federal deficit declined from 2020 to 2021, and again from 2021 to 2022, it was still at historically high levels. And now that we are nearing the end of fiscal year 2023, we see the deficit is rising again.
Initially, the deficit was predicted to be in the $1.4 trillion range for 2023. It is already more than $1.6 trillion, and it could easily reach $1.7 trillion or $1.8 trillion by the end of September. And the deficit is predicted to hit $1.74 trillion in FY2024.
Sensing a vulnerability, the White House is sending Democrats a memo claiming Biden wants to reduce federal deficits. Politico reports that deputy White House press secretary Andrew Bates writes in the memo, “Congressional Republicans keep indicating they want to talk about deficits. Not as much as we do.” But Biden’s deficit-reduction measures rely almost entirely on raising taxes, not cutting spending.
Fortunately, the public isn’t buying it. That’s why Biden’s polling on the economy is so low, and why he’s planning to hit the road to highlight all his spending programs. But taxpayers are realizing the Deficit King is only trying to buy votes with their own tax dollars.
August 15, 2023