Washington
CNN
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In Friday’s speech about September Recruitment reportPresident Joe Biden has made three false or misleading claims in quick succession. That is, he falsely stated that he had reduced the debt and falsely attributed the improved budget situation in 2021 and 2022 to the effects of tax policies that did not take effect until 2023. went. And he made misleading statements that he was presiding over a “real surplus.”
At another moment in the speech, Biden used outdated numbers to boast that unemployment rates for African Americans, Hispanics and people with disabilities had hit record lows. Although the proportions in these three groups hit record lows early in his presidency, all have since risen to non-record levels, and are in fact higher now than during some of Donald Trump’s presidencies. It has become.
Here’s a fact check.
biden Said In Friday’s speech, he said Republicans want “tax cuts for the very rich and big corporations” that would further increase the budget deficit. It’s fair game.
But then he added: “We were able to reduce the federal debt by $1.7 trillion in the first two and a half years. Now, remember what we talked about, the 50 companies that made $40 billion never paid a penny in taxes. Well, we made them pay 30%. Well, taxes are 15% – 15%. That’s nowhere near what they should be paying. And guess what? Paying for everything. In the end, we were able to actually make a profit.”
facts first: Biden’s claims were completely inaccurate. First, he hasn’t reduced the federal debt. increased It increased by about $7.8 trillion during President Trump’s four years in office, but it has increased by more than $5.7 trillion during his previous presidential term.it’s the budget deficit (1 year difference between expenses and income), but it is not nationwide. debt (accumulated federal borrowing and unpaid interest), which fell by $1.7 trillion in his first two fiscal years in office. Second, Biden’s 15% corporate minimum tax on certain large-profit companies would not take effect until the first day of 2023. probably couldn’t be held responsible Third, there is no “real surplus.” The federal government still has a budget deficit of well over $1 trillion.
CNN is Before Error exposed Biden has falsely claimed to have reduced the “debt” and to reduce the deficit in 2021 and 2022 with a new corporate minimum tax. The White House declined to comment on the record for this article, but fixed Biden’s previous public record, when he claimed the debt had fallen by $1.7 trillion, acknowledged he should have said it was a deficit.
As for Biden’s vague follow-up claim that “we’ll end up with a real surplus,” a White House official said Friday that the president didn’t know what the Inflation Control Act of 2022, the specific law that includes the new minimum tax, would do. He said he was referring to what it is. expected to reduce the deficit. But Biden did not explain this use of “surplus,” which is unusual at best. And he certainly sounded as if he was claiming that he was presiding over an overall budget surplus, because he was just talking about the big picture of the entire budget. He didn’t do that.
Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the liberal think tank Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said in response to the White House’s explanation: But in conversations about the federal budget, the word surplus has a very specific meaning. It doesn’t mean “additional,” it just means that your income exceeds your expenses. ” He noted earlier Friday that there has not been a federal budget surplus since 2001.
Worth noting. in front, that even if Biden had not incorrectly replaced the word “deficit” with “debt,” Friday’s comments would be missing important context. It is highly questionable how much credit Mr. Biden himself deserves for reducing the budget deficit in 2021 and 2022. Independent analysts say this is largely due to emergency COVID-19 relief spending from fiscal year 2020 expiring on schedule and Biden’s own new legislation and executive actions taking effect. It is said that this is the main cause. Current and projected future deficits will increase significantly.Furthermore, the deficit in 2023 will expand significantly. Be expected The deficit is expected to exceed the deficit in 2022.
Corporate minimum tax details
When Biden said Friday that “50 companies that make $40 billion don’t pay a dime in taxes,” he was, as always, referring to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. analysis The think tank’s 2021 list found 55 companies that did not pay federal corporate taxes in their most recent fiscal year.
But Biden’s statement Friday that we made “them” pay a 15% tax was inaccurate at best. That’s because the new 15% minimum tax only applies to businesses with average annual financial statement income of $1 billion or more. There are many nuances involved.You can read more here – And only 14 of the 55 companies on the think tank’s list reported U.S. pre-tax profits of at least $1 billion. In other words, some large and profitable companies would not be taxed.
Federal Bipartisan Joint Committee on Taxation projected Last year, it said the tax would reduce the deficit by about $222 billion by 2031, with the positive effects starting in 2023. Gardner said Friday that he fully expects the tax to play a role in reducing the deficit going forward, but that its deficit-reducing effects are not yet sufficient. This is because the Ministry of Finance has been the subject of intense criticism, saying that in 2023, there is a possibility that the figure will be lower than expected. lobbying activities Information from potentially affected businesses – The details of the law took so long to implement that the Internal Revenue Service ultimately Waiver of penalties For businesses that do not make estimated tax payments on it this year.
Nevertheless, Gardner said, “The minimum tax did not reduce the deficit at all in fiscal year 2021 or fiscal year 2022 because there was no minimum tax in those years.”
At the beginning of Friday’s speech, Biden touted statistics from the September jobs report released earlier in the day. But then, he said, “unemployment rates for women have hit a 70-year low, and unemployment rates for African-American and Hispanic workers and people with disabilities — those who have been left out and left out of the economic recovery so far — have fallen.” has reached an all-time low.” Too long. ”
facts first: Three of these four Biden unemployment boasts are outdated and therefore misleading. The only thing that remains is his claim that the unemployment rate for women is at a 70-year low. Unemployment rates for African Americans, Hispanics and people with disabilities fell to record lows at the beginning of Biden’s presidency, but have since risen to levels higher than unemployment rates at various points during the Trump administration.
woman: The seasonally adjusted female unemployment rate in September was 3.4%. That’s up slightly from the 3.3% rate seen in the past two months of 2023, but still tied with the two months of the Trump administration and the lowest level for this group since 1953, 70 years ago.
African American: The seasonally adjusted black or African American unemployment rate was 5.7% in September, up from a record low of 4.7% in April. The current rate of 5.7% is higher than the rate for this group during the four months of 2019 under the Trump administration.
hispanic: The seasonally adjusted Hispanic unemployment rate was 4.6% in September, up from a record low of 3.9% in September 2022. The current 4.6% is higher than the monthly unemployment rate for this group from April 2019 to February 2020 under the Trump administration. This was a few months before the Trump era.
people with disabilities: The unemployment rate for people with disabilities aged 16 and over was 7.3% in September, up from the record low of 5.0% in December 2022. (The numbers only go back to 2008, so the records are from a lower period.) The current rate of 7.3% is the same for this group during eight months of the Trump era (seven of which were in 2019). higher than the percentage of
