The White House has blamed former president Donald Trump and his government for the $1.8 trillion deficit that the Treasury Department announced last week, which is the third largest deficit in U.S. History.
Karine Jean Pierre said, “The former administration had passed tax cuts to billionaires and corporations which led us to this current deficit. This administration wants to make sure the economy grows, jobs are available, and continue to grow. We also want to lower the unemployment rate, as well as reduce costs.”
Jean-Pierre compared the Biden Administration’s record to the Republicans, including the debt-ceiling deal that President Joe Biden, then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, agreed on last year, which would have reduced the deficit by $1.5 trillion in the next decade.
She said, “They want tax cuts for billionaires and corporations to continue. They want it to be harder for middle-class families. There’s a big difference. The contrast between what we are trying to achieve and what they are trying to achieve could not be greater.”
Jean-Pierre dismissed that the fiscal deficit of 2024, which was exacerbated due to the interest rate on the federal debt exceeding $1 trillion for the very first time, as well as increased spending on Social Security and healthcare, along with the military, is evidence Democrats are weaker in the economy than Republicans since the economy remains a top concern of voters.
“It’s not true,” the press secretary said. “We saw a situation with the pandemic where there was no strategy. Businesses were closing down, the majority of schools were closed, and so this president said he needed to turn that around with the help of the vice president. And so this is why we’re gonna go to New Hampshire tomorrow. We’re gonna speak to the Inflation Reduction Act and what the president and vice president have been able to do in lowering cost because we understand that there’s more work to do.”
She added, “The majority of Republicans in Congress don’t want to see anything we are talking about. They’re the opposite of what we are trying to achieve. We know there is more work to be done, but we will continue to move forward.”
The fiscal 2024 deficit, which ended on September 30, was $138 billion higher than the fiscal 2023 deficit of $1.7 trillion, but lower than the pandemic era deficits, $3.1 trillion for fiscal 2020 and $2.8 trillion for fiscal 2021.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a fiscal think-tank, estimated that former president Donald Trump’s campaign plans for 2024 would add $7.5 trillion to new debt. Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris’s plans will likely add $3.5 trillion.
Despite this, respondents to polls have told pollsters that they trust Trump more with the economy than Harris.
A poll conducted by the Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research on Monday found that 46% of voters preferred Harris in regards to middle-class taxation, while 35% chose Trump. Harris had a slight advantage in housing costs, while Trump was better on tariffs. Voters were split between Trump and Harris on the issue of prices for essentials like groceries, gas, jobs, and unemployment.
