President Joe Biden likes to pass himself off as a deficit slayer, which is a bit like Monty Python’s Mr. Creosote claiming to be an avid dieter.
Biden in February bragged that he had presided over “the largest deficit reduction in American history,” a drop of more than $1.7 trillion. Never mind that the administration was still sitting on $1.4 trillion in red ink when the president thumped his chest. In fact, the steep drop in the annual deficit was a result of pandemic relief spending coming off the books and had nothing to do with the White House.
Biden did indeed happen to be the man sitting in the Oval Office when the deficit inevitably eased after the nation’s battle with COVID. The president’s braggadocio, however, implies that he’s the leader taxpayers can trust to get the nation’s fiscal house in order. And this is where reality intrudes.
