WASHINGTON – President Biden criticized the media on Friday over the public’s economic worries and again conflated the terms “debt” and “deficit” – while also claiming he is presiding over a federal budget surplus despite actually overseeing the highest non-pandemic annual deficit in US history.
“Y’all are not the happiest people in the world,” Biden scolded a group of reporters at the White House.
“You turn on the television and there’s not much about ‘Boy saves a dog while he’s swimming in a lake,'” he added. “It’s about ‘Someone pushed the dog in the lake.’ I mean, I understand.”
After that curious metaphor, Biden continued: “I think the American people are very smart and know their interests. I think they know they’re better off financially than they’ve ever been. It’s a fact. And all that data, all that polling stuff shows they think they are more positive about the economy than before.”
The University of Michigan’s monthly consumer sentiment index has tracked a modest improvement in how people feel about the economy, though the figure remains on par with the effects of the Great Recession, largely due to high inflation and rising interest rates.
President Biden criticized the media on Friday about the public’s economic concerns and again mixed up the terms “debt” and “deficit.” AP Biden also claimed that he presided over a federal budget surplus despite actually overseeing the highest non-pandemic annual deficit in US history.Getty Images
A Marquette Law School poll this week found that 77% of registered voters rate the economy as “not very good” or “poor,” while 23% say the economy is “excellent” or “good.”
The president spoke on a stronger-than-expected jobs growth report for September, which showed the economy added 336,000 positions, raising the chance of another round of Federal Reserve interest rate hikes, which will cost consumers more on credit card and mortgage bills.
Biden described the jobs report as a positive development for people who had been able to find work before trying to turn the federal balance sheet around for the better.
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“Those 50 companies that make $40 billion and don’t pay a cent in taxes? Well, guess what, we make them pay 30% — 15% in taxes, 15%, whatever they’re supposed to pay. And guess what? We can afford everything. And we ended up with a real surplus,” Biden said.
“I was able to reduce the federal debt by $1.7 trillion in those first two and a half years — two years,” Biden said at one point, confusing the terms “debt” and “deficit.”
The national debt has increased by nearly $6 trillion since Biden took office, from $27.75 trillion to about $33.48 trillion.
Former President Donald Trump’s four years in office also saw a huge increase in the debt, nearly $8 trillion.
The 80-year-old president claimed there was a “surplus” in an apparent reference to August budget data that depicted spending as lower following a Supreme Court ruling that overturned Biden’s attempt to forgive student loan debt, with a $319 billion downward accounting revision resulting in an $89 billion surplus above paper.
But the annual deficit for fiscal 2023, which ends on September 30, is still expected to be the worst in American history outside of emergency spending during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Treasury Department data show that the deficit for the first 11 months of fiscal 2023 was about $1.52 trillion — 61% higher than at the same point a year earlier and already exceeding all years of federal deficit spending except for 2020 and 2021, when the federal government shouldered the bulk. national wages during the epidemic.
Former President Donald Trump’s four years in office also saw a huge increase in the debt, nearly $8 trillion, according to AP reports
The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget recently projected that the deficit for fiscal 2023 could reach $2 trillion, up from $1.38 trillion last year.
The increase is expected due to factors including higher interest rates, which impact the government’s own borrowing costs.
Interest rates have soared as part of a drive to lower inflation, which soared during Biden’s first year in office and peaked last year at an annual rate of 9.1%.
Interest rates have soared as part of a drive to lower inflation, which soared during Biden’s first year in office. AFP via Getty Images
Biden’s critics blame his huge spending bill while he blames Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and supply chain issues.
Annual inflation eased to 3.7% in August, which remains roughly twice the Federal Reserve’s goal.
Consumer prices have remained up 17% since Biden took office in January 2021.
The average credit card interest rate is now 28.06% – nearly double the 14.6% average during Biden’s tenure – and the average 30-year home mortgage rate has jumped from 2.65% to 7.5%.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
