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   From: joe.biden.robbed.your.401k@latimes.com   
      
   On 30 Dec 2023, Culture War  posted some   
   news:umpqh9$1cfnh$11@dont-email.me:   
      
   > Biden is a criminal and should be treated like one.   
      
   KEY TAKEAWAYS   
   The deficit Biden has been bragging about was actually $319 billion higher   
   than what was expected when he had just taken office on Jan. 20, 2021.   
      
   Deficit spending was a leading factor in the surge of inflation...a   
   development that could stall the economic recovery.   
      
   The Budget Blueprint contains $15.5 trillion in spending reductions, along   
   with trillions of dollars in improvements to the tax code.   
      
     Copied   
   President Joe Biden has a long, well-documented history of telling tall   
   tales. Accordingly, it was not a surprise that his State of the Union   
   address Feb. 7 included many misleading and inaccurate claims.   
      
   Although a group of experts dissected the speech in real time, one line in   
   particular is worth rebutting at length:   
      
   In the last two years, my administration has cut the deficit by more than   
   $1.7 trillion—the largest deficit reduction in American history.   
   With the national debt and federal spending set to be a pivotal political   
   battle this year, understanding the truth about Biden’s fiscal record is   
   vital.   
      
   The deficit for fiscal year 2020 was a record $3.1 trillion. There’s no   
   mystery about why: Lower tax revenue due to pandemic lockdowns reducing   
   economic activity combined with increased spending (much of it wasted)   
   meant the year was a perfect storm for adding to the national debt.   
      
   Although some pandemic-related restrictions lingered, the end of lockdowns   
   meant the economy (and tax revenue) largely bounced back in fiscal year   
   2021—and this would have happened regardless of who was president.   
   Similarly, the bulk of stimulus spending enacted in 2020 wasn’t designed   
   to carry over into future years, meaning that federal spending was   
   expected to dip in 2021.   
      
   Because of those factors, the Congressional Budget Office predicted that   
   the federal deficit would decline sharply between fiscal years 2020 and   
   2022.   
      
   However, an updated report from the CBO reveals that the deficit Biden has   
   been bragging about was actually $319 billion higher than what was   
   expected when he had just taken office on Jan. 20, 2021.   
      
   In fact, deficits through fiscal year 2031 are on pace to total a   
   staggering $6 trillion more than when the Biden administration began, or   
   about $46,000 for every household in the country.   
      
      
   This isn’t an accident, but instead the result of many deliberate choices   
   by Biden and Congress to increase spending and add to the national debt   
   recklessly. Here are seven:   
      
   The largest by far was the $1.9 trillion package of welfare expansions and   
   bailouts in March 2021, which passed Congress with Democrat-only support.   
   It was promoted as a response to COVID-19. In reality, the bill was a   
   textbook example of political opportunism that took advantage of the   
   pandemic to enact a raft of the Left’s priorities.   
      
   The 2021 infrastructure package, which Biden regularly cites as an   
   achievement, was loaded with budget gimmicks to hide its true cost and   
   included many wasteful carve-outs for progressives. The Biden   
   administration’s highly flawed and partisan implementation of the bill   
   only has made things worse.   
      
   Biden was happy to sign two omnibus appropriations packages, both of which   
   were thousands of pages long, larded up with pork and unnecessary spending   
   increases for the swamp, and included tens of billions in questionable   
   non-military aid to Ukraine.   
      
   The so-called Inflation Reduction Act, a mix of tax hikes and Green New   
   Deal-style industrial subsidies, was designed in a way that will add to   
   deficits over the first five years and add even more down the line if any   
   of its spending is renewed. Incredibly, things would have been even worse   
   if the originally planned “Build Back Better” debacle had become law.   
      
   The COMPETES Act, supposedly about addressing challenges posed by China,   
   was in fact a deficit-financed mess of corporate welfare and increased   
   spending authorizations for federal “science” bureaucracies.   
      
   The PACT Act started as a reasonable measure to assist veterans who   
   suffered from toxic exposure, but was turned into a massive expansion for   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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