The White House once again tried to stretch the truth in a post on Twitter, and was quickly called out by users, who added “context” to their tweet about lowering the deficit.
“The Biden-Harris Administration lowered the deficit with the single largest one-year reduction in American history,” the official White House Twitter account wrote in a post on Monday evening.
Soon after the post was made, a note was added with a tag that stated: “Readers added context they thought people might want to know.”
The context added by Twitter users explained that deficits that were “COVID-driven” in both fiscal year 2020 and 2021 were “roughly double the previous record” in 2009. The fact that the pandemic raised the deficits in those years so drastically allowed the Biden administration to act as if the “drop” back to below pandemic levels was “sizable.”
Nonetheless, the White House was leaving out one key fact — the deficit for fiscal year 2022 is still the fourth largest in U.S. history, and is 41% larger than the last year prior to COVID, fiscal year 2019.
“COVID-driven deficits in both FY20 & 21 were roughly double the previous record (09), making the drop to FY22 sizable. But the FY22 deficit is still the 4th largest in history and is 41% larger than FY19,” the note read, linking to data from the official Treasury.gov website.
Twitter users roasted the White House for their tweet, and celebrated the fact that Twitter — under the new ownership of Elon Musk — is now actually fact-checking Democrats.
“Loving the new Twitter,” one user wrote, sharing a screenshot of the fact check.
Loving the new Twitter. pic.twitter.com/gE95Dym9d8
— Mikey Likes (@mliebow) November 22, 2022
“Exactly like ‘we lowered the gas prices by .30 cents’ after they raised them $1.50,” one critic said.
“I hate it when my government raises deficit spending 3x one year then drops it to 1.5x the next year and tells me they cut deficit spending in half. It sounds a lot like safe and effective accounting,” another user quipped.
“You can’t lower the deficit by spending more money,” responded Joe E. Collins III, a California Republican congressional candidate.
“Then why the hell is Gas, food, and the cost of living so damn high?” Collins added in another tweet.
