The Ukraine war is still raging. The supply chain crisis is still ongoing. The border crisis is still ongoing. Gas prices are spiking. And inflation is increasingly becoming the top issue for voters, but Joe Biden said that the deficit is dropping under him, so clap it up right? Biden is acting as if the deficit has dropped trillions under him.
“After four years in a row of increasing deficits before I took office, we're now on a track to see the largest ever decline in the deficit in American history,” he said.
BIDEN: "After four years in a row of increasing deficits before I took office, we're now on a track to see the largest ever decline in the deficit in American history." pic.twitter.com/aqzHoH0cdE
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 15, 2022
Now, is it true? It is dropping some $360 billion, but who cares if the total deficit soared into the trillions for 2021 (via LA Times) [emphasis mine]:
The U.S. budget deficit totaled $2.8 trillion for 2021, the second highest on record but an improvement from the all-time high of $3.1 trillion reached in 2020. The deficits in both years reflect trillions of dollars in government spending to counteract the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Biden administration … that the deficit for the budget year that ended Sept. 30 was $360 billion lower than in 2020, as a recovering economy boosted revenues, helping to offset government spending on pandemic relief efforts.
Yeah, like this is less than a nothing burger. That’s like saying ‘I paid off $1,000 credit card debt, the single payment in a year, but still, have an outstanding balance of $10,000.’ It’s negligible. It’s a weird victory lap, which only adds to the narrative that this administration has nothing to run on and what they’ve done has yielded disastrous results. There’s no good news. Even liberal outlets are admitting that it’s clear this administration doesn’t care about deficits as Biden’s agenda contains trillion-plus dollar deficits for years to pay for his socialist goodie bag spending spree.
‘Guys, the deficit was only $2.77 trillion under me’ is a weird flex. Get back to me when that gets under a trillion. It also shows that both parties are up to their necks with government spending. Before the Koch brothers got all woke, they aptly noted that Democrats are racing over the fiscal cliff at 70 mph whereas the GOP travel at 40. The destination is the same but at different speeds. And people wonder why inflation is out of control.
Are Republican policies better? Sure—by a long shot—and the economic pain will be eased but not erased. The GOP will screw up something again, Democrats will regain control of Congress, and the spending spree will get back into the fast lane again. And around and around we go.