The White House blamed former President Donald Trump and his administration for the $1.8 trillion deficit the Treasury Department reported last week for fiscal 2024, the third-largest deficit in U.S. history.
“The former administration passed tax cuts for billionaires and corporations that have led to where we are currently in this deficit,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told the Washington Examiner on Monday. “What we’re trying to do here from this administration is make sure that the economy continues to grow, that jobs are available, continue to grow, that we’re lowering the unemployment rate and lowering costs.”
Jean-Pierre then compared the Biden administration’s record, including the debt ceiling deal President Joe Biden and then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed to last year which would reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next decade, claiming Republicans have been doing “the opposite.”
“They want to continue to give tax cuts to billionaires and corporations,” she said. “They want to make it harder for middle-class families. And so there’s a difference there. Like the contrast could not be more different than what we’re trying to do and what they’re trying to do.”
Jean-Pierre dismissed the idea that the fiscal 2024 deficit, exacerbated by interest on the federal debt being more than $1 trillion for the first time and increased spending on Social Security, healthcare, and the military, was evidence Democrats are weaker on the economy than Republicans as the economy remains one of voters’ top concerns.
“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 has 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 has been able to do in lowering cost because we understand that there’s more work to do.”
“Everything that we’re talking about, Republicans in Congress, majority of them, don’t wanna see,” she added. “They’re on the other side of what we’re trying to do. We understand there’s more work to do, and we’re going to continue to push forward.”
The deficit for fiscal 2024, the year that ended Sept. 30, was 8% higher, or $138 billion more, from the $1.7 trillion deficit for fiscal 2023, though it was lower than the pandemic-era deficits of $3.1 trillion in fiscal 2020 and $2.8 trillion in fiscal 2021.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a fiscal think tank, has estimated that former President Donald Trump‘s 2024 campaign proposals would create $7.5 trillion in new debt, while Vice President Kamala Harris‘s plans are projected to add $3.5 trillion.
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At the same time, polling respondents have repeatedly told pollsters they trust Trump with the economy more than Harris.
An Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll published on Monday did find that 46% of voters preferred Harris regarding middle-class taxes, while 35% preferred Trump. Harris also had an advantage related to the cost of housing, while Trump had an edge on tariffs. Voters were relatively split on whether Trump or Harris would be better on prices for everyday essentials, such as groceries and gas, and on jobs and unemployment.