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Latest Fact-Checks In Deficit

Clear
Donald Trump
stated on November 12, 2025 in an X post:
“My tariffs … are helping to slash the deficit this year by more than 25%.”
False
By Louis Jacobson • November 14, 2025
Howard Lutnick
stated on July 20, 2025 in an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation":
Tariffs are “going to pay off our deficit.”
False
By Louis Jacobson • July 22, 2025
Karoline Leavitt
stated on May 19, 2025 in a White House press briefing:
President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill “does not add to the deficit.”
False
By Louis Jacobson • May 21, 2025
Joe Biden
stated on March 7, 2024 in his State of the Union address:
The Trump administration “added more to the national debt than any presidential term in American history.”
Half-True
By Louis Jacobson • March 12, 2024
Joe Biden
stated on March 7, 2024 in a State of the Union address:
“We’ve already cut the federal deficit by over $1 trillion.”
Half-True
By Louis Jacobson • March 8, 2024
Mike Johnson
stated on November 5, 2023 in an interview on "Fox News Sunday":
“Only in Washington can you cut funding, add a pay-for to a new spending measure, and they say it’s terrible for the deficit.”
False
By Louis Jacobson • November 7, 2023
Joe Biden
stated on August 29, 2023 in a speech at the White House:
“According to the Congressional Budget Office,” the Inflation Reduction Act “will save the federal government $160 billion over the next 10 years because Medicare will…
Mostly True
By Louis Jacobson • August 31, 2023
Mike Pence
stated on August 23, 2023 in a Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee:
“I actually pushed the Deficit Reduction Act. That was the last time we actually reduced the national debt in the United States, when I was…
Mostly False
By Louis Jacobson • August 29, 2023
Devin LeMahieu
stated on January 3, 2023 in Senate address:
“In 2010, (Wisconsin Republicans) inherited a multi-Billion dollar deficit … Today we are looking at a projected surplus approaching 7 Billion.”
Mostly True
By Vanessa Swales • February 3, 2023
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
stated on January 27, 2023 in an interview with reporters:
“The largest contributor to the debt ceiling, or to our deficit, has been the Trump tax cuts.”
False
By Louis Jacobson • February 1, 2023
Occupy Democrats
stated on January 12, 2023 in a Facebook post:
“Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit or the national debt.”
Mostly False
By Tom Kertscher • January 18, 2023
Joe Biden
stated on September 18, 2022 in an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes":
“This year, it’s going to be over $1.5 trillion (that we’ve) reduced the debt.”
Half-True
By Louis Jacobson • September 20, 2022
Janet Yellen
stated on July 24, 2022 in an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press":
“We’ve cut the deficit by a record $1.5 trillion this year.”
Half-True
By Louis Jacobson • July 28, 2022
Joe Biden
stated on May 10, 2022 in remarks at the White House:
“My Treasury Department is planning to pay down the national debt this quarter, which never happened under my predecessor.”
Half-True
By Louis Jacobson • May 13, 2022
Lindsey Graham
stated on December 12, 2021 in an interview on Fox News Sunday:
“The CBO says (the Build Back Better Act) is $3 trillion of deficit spending.”
False
By Jon Greenberg, Louis Jacobson • December 14, 2021
Kevin McCarthy
stated on November 18, 2021 in a House floor speech:
“Never in American history has so much been spent at one time. Never in American history will so many taxes be raised and so much…
False
By Louis Jacobson • November 19, 2021
Joe Biden
stated on October 6, 2021 in remarks at the White House:
“Raising the debt limit is paying our old debts. It has nothing to do with new spending.”
Mostly True
By Louis Jacobson • October 13, 2021
Nikki Haley
stated on June 28, 2021 in a Facebook post:
“The national debt is now bigger than our economy. That hasn’t happened since World War Two – and we’re in peacetime. Joe Biden is digging…
Half-True
By Jason Asenso, Louis Jacobson • July 2, 2021
Wisconsin Republican Legislative leaders
stated on April 7, 2021 in Twitter:
Wisconsin’s 2019-21 budget produced the first positive general fund balance since 2000, and the governor’s proposed 2021-23 budget would return it to a deficit.
True
By Madeline Heim • May 25, 2021
Ted Cruz
stated on October 26, 2020 in an interview:
Says Trump “didn’t campaign on cutting the debt” … “That’s not what he promised to do.”
False
By Brandon Mulder • October 30, 2020
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