In a recent speech, President Joe Biden stated that he had added more to the national debt of the United States than any other president in history, saying, “No President added more to the debt in 4 years than my President… I misspoke – 25% of our country’s entire debt.”
Although Biden acknowledged that he misspoke in his statement and corrected himself, the current financial outlook for the U.S. debt does not seem to be optimistic.
To find the “Federal Government Financing and Debt” table in Biden’s proposal, simply navigate to pages 142 and 143.
Here, you will find Table S-10, which includes a subsection labeled “Debt Outstanding, End of Year.”
This section presents the Biden administration’s predictions for the total federal debt, as outlined in the budget proposal, for each fiscal year through 2032.
According to the table, the total federal debt at the end of fiscal 2021 was $28.386 trillion, and by the end of fiscal 2032, it is projected to reach $44.797 trillion.
This means that under Biden’s budget plan, the federal debt would escalate by 57.8% or $16.411 trillion in the 11 fiscal years, starting from fiscal 2021 when he first assumed office and ending in fiscal 2032.
Biden has often emphasized that the federal debt significantly escalated during Trump’s presidency and has proudly claimed that his administration was responsible for reducing the deficit by $1.7 trillion, the most significant debt reduction in U.S. history.
However, this reduction cannot be credited to any specific actions taken by his administration. Rather, it is due to the decline in emergency relief spending following the disease outbreak.
Dan White, Senior Director of Economic Research at Moody’s Analytics, stated in an October CNN interview that the Biden administration’s policies have resulted in a larger deficit, not a reduction.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, an advocacy group, projected in September that Biden’s actions will add over $4.8 trillion to the deficits between 2021 and 2031, or $2.5 trillion excluding the 2021 American Rescue Plan relief bill.
It is claimed that Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, enacted last year, will result in a reduction of more than $200 billion in the deficit over the next ten years.
However, it is predicted that the positive effect of this legislation will be outweighed by the negative impact of other bills and policies that Biden has approved, causing the deficit to increase.