President Joe Biden heaped blame on former President Donald Trump for raising U.S. spending levels and pushing “fiscal responsibility” to the wayside as Biden touted his own budget proposal.
Biden, delivering remarks Monday on his $5.8 trillion budget request for fiscal year 2023, opened by noting that the “previous administration, as you all know, ran up record budget deficits.”
Recommended Stories
WHITE HOUSE MAINTAINS THAT INFLATION WON’T STOP BIDEN’S BUDGET FROM REDUCING DEFICIT
“In fact, the deficit went up every year,” he continued. “My administration is turning that around.”
Biden proceeded to outline how, in his first year in office, the U.S. deficit shrank by more than $350 billion, which the president attributed largely to emergency pandemic aid expiring. The White House estimates that should Congress fulfill the president’s budget request in full, the deficit will be cut by an additional $1.3 trillion in 2023, the highest such reduction in one year in U.S. history.
“We’re reducing the size of the deficit relative of our economy by almost two-thirds, reducing inflationary pressures, and making real headway cleaning up the fiscal mess I inherited after my predecessor’s fiscal mismanagement,” he added. “We were reducing the Trump deficits and returning our fiscal house to order.”
Biden also attacked the Trump administration’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which he claimed “added $2 trillion in deficit spending and largely helped the rich and the largest corporations.”
A major chunk of Biden’s deficit reduction would be realized by instituting a 20% minimum tax on all income generated by billionaires and families earning more than $100 million a year. The White House estimates that the new tax would affect .01% of U.S. households and generate an additional $360 billion in tax revenue over the next decade.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
You can watch Biden’s remarks in full below:
