The Washington Post led by example this week by holding President Joe Biden accountable for one of his recent claims with a fact check. It’s comforting to see that their “fact checker” is doing an excellent job of informing the public.
In response to the president’s comments made three days earlier at the North American Building Trades Unions event, a fact-check was published on Friday. His claim was examined, and an unexpected fact emerged.
“As a matter of fact, my first two years in office I’ve lowered the deficit by a record $1.7 trillion. Lowered the deficit — the debt,” said the president.
Fact-check: FALSE!
Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post discovered President Trump’s bogus statement and bemoaned its continual repetition in his highly regarded fact-checking article.
“[A]s we have documented before, Biden’s talking point is highly misleading — worthy of Three Pinocchios. Yet he keeps saying it over and over. By our count, at least 30 times since June he’s taken credit for reducing the budget deficit by $1.7 trillion,” Kessler wrote.
“Why is this significant? Readers may recall that during Donald Trump’s presidency, we established a new category, the Bottomless Pinocchio, to account for false or misleading statements repeated so often that they became a form of propaganda. A statement would get added to the list if it had earned a Three or Four Pinocchios rating and been repeated at least 20 times. By the end of the Trump presidency, 56 claims made by Trump had qualified,” he added.
The deficit lie has been widely spread by the president, which Kessler acknowledged with his lowest grade of Bottomless Pinocchio.
President Trump has yet again gotten a Bottomless Pinocchio Award for making false remarks, despite his track record.
“We’d previously given Biden a Bottomless Pinocchio for claiming — without any evidence — that he’s traveled 17,000 miles with Chinese president Xi Jinping. He’s still saying that line, most recently during a speech to the Irish parliament on April 13,” according to Kessler’s fact-check.
Breaking: Tinnitus Wipes 1% Of Your Memories Every Month
He has received only two Bottomless Pinocchios since assuming office, which is a tribute to the uncontrolled truth-bending of this presidency despite his repeated fabrications.
When examining the decline in the deficit from 2020 to 2022—a difference of $1.7 trillion—Kessler demonstrates that Biden’s delusion was exposed.
Our country has had a significant two-year deficit reduction of $1.7 trillion despite the current administration’s modest involvement, a significant improvement in fiscal responsibility for all Americans.
“The Congressional Budget Office, the official scorekeeper, in February 2021 already estimated the budget deficit would fall dramatically in fiscal 2021 and 2022 because emergency pandemic spending would lapse,” Kessler wrote.
“The combined 2021 and 2022 budget deficits were projected by the CBO in 2021 to be $3.31 trillion. In November, the CBO said the combined deficits were in fact $4.15 trillion,” he added.
What took place? By approving more COVID money, the president actually made matters worse.
“For instance, the deficit was projected to be about $1 trillion in 2022, and it turned out to be about $1.375 trillion. It was supposed to decline $875 billion in 2021, and it was actually $360 billion under Biden. All told, in those two years Biden increased the national debt about $850 billion more than originally projected,” Kessler noted.
Kessler succinctly described the inflation’s dramatic effects on the economy, noting that they were significant enough to lead Marc Goldwein of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget to predict that, by the end of the fiscal year in 2022, deficits would be alarmingly higher than the CBO had initially predicted at the beginning of the year.
“In other words, again the data shows the deficit picture has worsened under Biden,” the WaPo “fact-checker” wrote.
It worsens, though.
“Moreover, going forward, Biden has enacted legislation that will require the federal government to borrow even more, such as the bipartisan infrastructure bill ($370 billion in additional deficits over 10 years), health and disability benefits for veterans exposed to toxic substances ($280 billion), the CHIPS Act for semiconductor manufacturing expansion in the United States ($80 billion) and student loan debt relief and repayment pauses ($750 billion),” Kessler explained.
More issues, more money
After a thorough review, Kessler assigned the president’s statement his second-ever Bottomless Pinocchio rating – the lowest score on their scale.
“In his battle with congressional Republicans, who claim they are concerned about rising deficits, through sleight of hand, the president repeatedly has claimed he achieved historic deficit reduction because of his policies,” he wrote.
“Budget numbers often make people’s eyes glaze over and so, from a communications perspective, it’s easy to manipulate the math. But the numbers don’t lie. The president earns his second Bottomless Pinocchio,” he added.
Twice in this article you’ve said ‘President Trump’, when you should have said ‘President Biden’, because the quoted text following each was about Biden receiving a second ‘Bottomless Pinocchio Award’, not Trump.
The first time was after Glenn Kessler’s tweet, and the second was when referencing that this is his (Biden) 2nd Bottomless Pinocchio Award for making false remarks, despite his track record.
Perhaps you should spend a little more time proofreading before posting so these types of mistakes aren’t made.