The national debt of the United States reached a record $34 trillion, drawing criticism for the Biden administration. Karine Jean-Pierre, the press secretary for the White House, blamed the large surge in debt on Republican tax cuts, asserting that, excluding emergency spending, they were accountable for about 90% of the debt increase as a percentage of the GDP over the previous 20 years.
Jean-Pierre supported President Biden’s track record, emphasizing his signing of the Inflation Reduction Act and other debt-reduction initiatives. She also discussed the administration’s plans to strengthen the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and take tough measures against affluent taxpayers who evade taxes. The national debt has increased despite these efforts, adding about $10 billion per day without declining.
Given Biden’s nearly three-year term in office, FOX Business reporter Edward Lawrence questioned Jean-Pierre over the administration’s accountability for the debt at a news briefing. Reiterating her position, Jean-Pierre highlighted how Republican tax policies contribute to the national debt and contrasted them with Biden’s deficit-reducing initiatives.
Certain quarters are skeptical of the administration’s statements. Biden claimed that his administration had cut the budget deficit by $1.7 billion, which was a crucial step in reducing the national debt. However, a number of liberal fact-checkers examined this claim last year. Fact-checkers pointed out that while the federal deficit fell from $3.1 trillion in the 2020–2022 fiscal year to $1.4 trillion in the 2022 fiscal year, Biden’s economic policies were not the main or only cause in the decline.
The federal government under President Biden ran a nearly $1 trillion federal deficit in just the first seven months of the fiscal year 2023, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Both the Biden and the past Trump administrations’ extensive borrowing, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic-related spike in interest rates and inflation, has caused the national debt to expand in recent years.
This event brings to light the continuous discussion about fiscal responsibility and the difficulties in managing the national debt in the face of shifting economic conditions.