We examined the president’s recent statements.
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President Biden has been promoting his legislative accomplishments leading up to his State of the Union address.
WASHINGTON — In a preview of his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Biden has toured the country promoting his legislative accomplishments and economic progress — and flubbed some facts along the way.
Here’s a fact check.
What Mr. Biden Said
“We created more new jobs in two years than any president did in their entire term.”
— a speech in Philadelphia on Friday
This needs context. A spokesman for the White House pointed to data showing that the economy added 12.1 million jobs from January 2021, the month Mr. Biden took office, to this January. By raw numbers, that is indeed a larger increase in new jobs over two years than the number added over other presidents’ full four-year terms since at least 1945.
But by percentage, Mr. Biden’s first two years still lag behind the job growth of his predecessors’ full terms. The economy added 8.5 percent more jobs under Mr. Biden so far, compared with 8.6 percent in President Barack Obama’s first term, 10.5 percent in President Bill Clinton’s first term, 11.2 percent in President Ronald Reagan’s second term and 12.8 percent in President Jimmy Carter’s four years in office.
Mr. Biden is of course comparing his first two years in office with the entire terms of his predecessors, so the comparison is not equivalent. Moreover, Mr. Biden’s first two years in office followed historic job losses wrought by the coronavirus pandemic. Most important, presidents are not singularly responsible for the state of the economy.
What Mr. Biden Said
“They want to eliminate the I.R.S. Sounds great. Except they want a 30 percent — 30 percent sales tax on every single thing.”
— in the Friday speech
This is exaggerated. Mr. Biden is referring to a proposal sponsored by two dozen House Republicans that would dismantle the Internal Revenue Service, eliminate current forms of federal taxation like individual and corporate income taxes and payroll taxes and instead enact an effective sales tax of 30 percent for new goods and services.
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The proposal would cover about 90 percent of all consumption, according to the conservative Tax Foundation, but it makes an exemption for used items and for items purchased for business purposes. So while the vast majority of consumer goods bought in the United States are new, not “every single thing” would be subject to the 30 percent tax. Sales of used vehicles, for example, typically surpass sales of new ones, according to government data.
The odds of this proposal becoming law are slim. As FactCheck.org has found, at least five Republican lawmakers, including Speaker Kevin McCarthy, have already voiced opposition to it — enough nay votes to block passage.
What Mr. Biden Said
“By the way, there’s a thousand billionaires, and they pay an average of 3 percent in taxes.”
— in the Friday speech
This is exaggerated. A 2021 report from Mr. Biden’s own Council of Economic Advisers estimated that the 400 wealthiest families paid an average of 8.2 percent in income taxes, or about $149 billion in taxes out of an income of $1.8 trillion. Mr. Biden might have been referring to a report from ProPublica estimating that the 25 wealthiest individuals — a smaller segment of the billionaire population — paid what the news outlet deemed a “true” tax rate of 3.4 percent, or $13.6 billion in income taxes over a collective net worth of $401 billion.
Mr. Biden made the same claim in a speech in January. The White House later corrected the transcript of his remarks, changing 3 percent to 8 percent.
What Mr. Biden Said
“The two years since we’ve been in power, we’ve reduced the national debt, so far, $1.7 trillion in two years. The debt — $1.7 trillion. And we still grew the economy. But we did it because we paid for everything. We paid for everything, and we grew the economy at the same time.”
— in a speech on Tuesday in New York
This is exaggerated. Mr. Biden was referring to the federal deficit, not debt. The total debt has actually increased from $27.8 trillion on his inaugural to about $31.5 trillion as of Tuesday. But the federal deficit did decrease by $1.7 trillion, from $3.1 trillion in the 2020 fiscal year to $1.4 trillion in the 2022 fiscal year, though Mr. Biden’s fiscal policies are not the sole factor.
In fact, much of that decline can be attributed to the expiration of pandemic-era spending, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which advocates lower levels of spending. In February 2021, before the Biden administration enacted any fiscal legislation, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the deficit would have reached $1.1 trillion in the 2022 fiscal year — less than what ended up happening.
Counter to Mr. Biden’s claim that “we paid for everything,” coronavirus stimulus funding added nearly $1.9 trillion to the deficit over 10 years, the C.B.O. estimated. The budget agency also estimated that the infrastructure package added $256 billion to the deficit, though supporters disagreed with the analysis. The Inflation Reduction Act, which was the only significant piece of legislation to reduce the deficit, trimmed it by $238 billion over the next 10 years.
Source: nytimes.com
