The largest ever decline in the federal deficit – thanks to President Biden’s leadership. pic.twitter.com/jeP6Jozziz
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 21, 2022
Republicans are in a conundrum when it comes to reality. They claim to be the Party of Fiscal Responsibility–just as they hilariously claim the mantle of the Party of Personal Responsibility while they brush off their individual crimes and misdeeds like stealing documents or fathering children–but every GOP president over the last half-century has left office with deficits significantly higher than when they entered office, versus every Democratic president over that same time who has left office with deficits at the same levels or lower. (President Bill Clinton actually left office with a budget surplus, which George W. Bush turned into a record-setting at the time $1.4 trillion annual deficit.)
Tax revenues increased significantly during FY2022 which ended October 1st, while pandemic-related federal spending was cut significantly, leading to the deficit falling from $2.77 trillion in FY2021 to $1.3 trillion at the end of the last fiscal year, Politico reports. The $1.4 trillion cut was targeted by Biden as he entered office: He made the campaign promise to lower the deficit to under $1 trillion at a time when the expected deficit in Donald Trump’s last year in office was expected to be lower, at $2.4 trillion.