(New York Post) President Biden wrongly claimed Tuesday that he lowered the national debt by $1.7 trillion — when in fact the debt grew by nearly $3.7 trillion during his first 23 months in office.
Biden made the error while using the terms “deficit” and “debt” interchangeably during remarks touting the slight decline in the annual inflation rate to 7.1% in November.
“We’ve done all of this while lowering the federal deficit in the two years we’ve been in office $1.7 trillion,” Biden said before incorrectly adding, “Let me say that again — $1.7 trillion we’ve lowered the federal debt.”
The national debt was roughly $27.75 trillion when Biden took office, according to the Congressional Research Service. It is about $31.43 trillion today.
President Biden erroneously said he trimmed down the national debt during his time in office.AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
Biden regularly touts the fact that the national deficit is declining, though fact-checkers note that much of the reduction is due to the expiration of bipartisan COVID-19 pandemic relief programs approved in 2020, rather than Biden’s own actions.
