White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blamed the federal budget deficit increase under President Joe Biden on “MAGAnomics” and Republicans’ “trickle-down economics” policies during a Wednesday press briefing.
“The CBO yesterday said that the budget deficit totaled $1.7 trillion which is an increase from $300 billion from last year. Why did the deficit increase if the U.S. economy is doing so well like President Biden has said?” a reporter asked the press secretary.
“[MAGAnomics] has increased the deficit. It has increased even more than it was anticipated. And so this is what we believe is a ‘MAGAnomics’ deficit and the reason why, there is a couple of things to lay out here, if you think about the Republican tax cuts, they are responsible for about 90% of the increase in the debt as the share of the economy and that is over the last two decades … and that is including that one-time emergency spending.”
The federal government’s deficit was projected in September to hit $2 trillion, which would be double its deficit in 2022. The deficit is increasing under the Biden administration because of the president’s increased government spending on the Inflation Reduction Act and higher Social Security payments from elevated inflation, budget experts told the Washington Post.
The deficit jump seen under the Biden administration is one of the largest that the country has experienced outside of wars and recessions, the Post reported. The increase indicates that interest rates have increased and that more economic struggle is to be expected.
“This is decades and decades of trickle-down economics that just doesn’t work … and we see that in the numbers from yesterday,” Jean-Pierre told reporters.
The president’s economic policies, dubbed “Bidenomics,” have come under increased scrutiny as 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck. Some Democrat allies are even urging the White House to stop promoting “Bidenomics,” fearing that the push is not selling the American people on the economy. (RELATED: White House, Media Elites Think Americans Are Too Stupid To See How Good Biden’s Economy Is)
“With all due respect to the president, to the White House, this is not so much about them as it is the people who are benefiting by the policies that they came out and demanded,” Democratic Nevada Rep. Steven Horsford told Politico. “We have to do a better job framing this not so much for one person — for the office of the presidency — but for the people.”