Biden’s economic gaslighting is about to explode in his face

President Biden has repeatedly taken credit for reducing the federal deficit since taking office. This was always pretty misleading, as the decrease in deficits under his watch largely occurred because of COVID-era spending expiring and happened only because Biden’s additional spending agenda didn’t get passed. Yet the president’s supposed fiscal conservatism has also proven remarkably short-lived. 

New reporting from the Washington Post reveals that the federal deficit is projected to explode back up to $2 trillion for Fiscal Year 2023, meaning that Biden’s supposed decrease was just a temporary reduction. This is particularly unusual, Jeff Stein reports, because deficits typically decrease when the economy is growing at a decent clip, but the opposite is happening here. 

“To see this in an economy with low unemployment is truly stunning. There’s never been anything like it,” former Obama administration economist Jason Furman said. “A good and strong economy, with no new emergency spending — and yet a deficit like this. The fact that it is so big in one year makes you think it must be some weird freakish thing going on.”

A $2 trillion deficit in 2023 will amount to 7.6% of the size of the economy, which Manhattan Institute economist Brian Riedl notes, “has been exceeded only during the depths of World War II, the great recession, and pandemic.”

This isn’t just wonkery—it has real-world ramifications for everyday Americans. As the federal debt grows, we all owe more in taxes to cover the interest payments every year. Plus, incomes see less growth than they otherwise would because productive private-sector investment is “crowded out” by government borrowing.

And a $2 trillion projected deficit also blows up the president’s narrative about his “fiscal responsibility.” So, the next time you hear Biden brag about how he supposedly reduced the deficit, remember that this spin is pure and utter malarkey.

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