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CNN
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President Joe Biden has been again on the marketing campaign path, touring in October and early November to ship his pitch for electing Democrats within the midterm elections on Tuesday.
Biden’s pitch has included claims which are false, deceptive or missing essential context. (As at all times, we take no place on the accuracy of his subjective arguments.) Here’s a fact-check take a look at 9 of his current statements.
The White Home didn’t reply to a request for remark for this text.
Biden said at a Democratic fundraiser in Pennsylvania final week: “On our watch, for the primary time in 10 years, seniors are going to get the largest improve of their Social Safety checks they’ve gotten.” He has additionally touted the 2023 improve in Social Safety funds at other recent events.
However Biden’s boasts omit such vital context that they’re extremely deceptive. He hasn’t defined that the rise in Social Safety funds for 2023, 8.7%, is unusually massive simply because the inflation rate has been unusually big. A regulation handed within the Seventies says that Social Safety funds should be elevated by the same percentage that a certain measure of inflation has increased. It’s referred to as a cost-of-living adjustment.
The White Home deleted a Tuesday tweet that delivered an particularly triumphant model of Biden’s boast, and press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre acknowledged Wednesday that the tweet was missing “context.” You’ll be able to learn a extra detailed reality verify here.
Biden said at a Democratic rally in Florida on Tuesday: “And on my watch, for the primary time in 10 years, seniors are getting a rise of their Social Safety checks.”
The declare that the 2023 improve to Social Safety funds is the primary in 10 years is fake. In actuality, there was a cost-of-living improve every year from 2017 onward. There was additionally a rise yearly from 2012 by means of 2015 earlier than the cost degree was saved flat in 2016 because of a lack of inflation.
The context round this Biden comment in Florida suggests he may need botched his repeat marketing campaign line about Social Safety funds rising concurrently Medicare premiums are declining. No matter his intentions, although, he was incorrect.
Biden repeatedly suggested in speeches in October and early November {that a} new regulation he signed in August, the Inflation Discount Act, will cease the follow of profitable firms paying no federal company earnings tax. Biden made the declare explicitly in a tweet last week: “Let me provide the info. In 2020, 55 firms made $40 billion. They usually paid zero in federal taxes. My Inflation Discount Act places an finish to this.”
However “places an finish to this” is an exaggeration. The Inflation Discount Act will scale back the variety of firms on the listing of non-payers, however the regulation won’t get rid of the listing totally.
That’s as a result of the regulation’s new 15% various company minimal tax, on the “e book earnings” firms report back to traders, solely applies to firms with no less than $1 billion in common annual earnings. (There are many nuances; you possibly can learn extra specifics here.) In response to the Institute on Taxation and Financial Coverage, the assume tank that in 2021 published the list of 55 giant and worthwhile firms that prevented paying any federal earnings tax of their earlier fiscal 12 months, solely 14 of those 55 firms reported having US pre-tax earnings of no less than $1 billion in that 12 months.
In different phrases, there’ll clearly nonetheless be some giant and worthwhile firms paying no federal earnings tax even after the minimal tax takes effect in 2023. The precise quantity is just not but recognized.
Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow on the Institute on Taxation and Financial Coverage, stated in a Thursday electronic mail that the brand new tax is “an essential step ahead from the established order” and that it’ll elevate substantial income, however he additionally stated: “I wouldn’t wish to assert that the minimal tax will finish the phenomenon of zero-tax worthwhile firms. A extra correct phrasing could be to say that the minimal tax will *assist* be sure that *essentially the most worthwhile* firms pay no less than some federal earnings tax.”
Biden said on the Tuesday rally in Florida: “Look, you understand, you possibly can hear it from Republicans, ‘My God, that big-spending Democrat Biden. Man, he’s taken us in debt.’ Effectively, guess what? I diminished the federal deficit this 12 months by $1 trillion $400 billion. One trillion 400 billion {dollars}. Probably the most in all American historical past. Nobody has ever diminished the debt that a lot. We minimize the federal debt in half.”
Biden offered a similar narrative at a Thursday rally in New Mexico, this time saying, “We minimize the federal debt in half. A reality.”
There are two important issues right here.
First: Biden conflated the debt and the deficit, that are two various things. It’s not true that Biden has “minimize the federal debt in half”; the federal debt (total borrowing plus interest owed) has continued to rise beneath Biden, exceeding $31 trillion for the primary time this October. Slightly, it’s the federal deficit – the annual distinction between spending and income – that was minimize in half between fiscal 2021 and monetary 2022.
Second, it’s highly questionable how a lot credit score Biden deserves for even the discount within the deficit. Biden doesn’t point out that the primary reason the deficit plummeted in fiscal years 2021 and 2022 was that it had skyrocketed to a report excessive in 2020 due to emergency pandemic reduction spending. It then fell as anticipated because the spending expired as deliberate.
Dan White, senior director of financial analysis at Moody’s Analytics – an economics agency whose assessments Biden has repeatedly cited throughout his presidency – told CNN’s Matt Egan in October: “On internet, the insurance policies of the administration have elevated the deficit, not diminished it.” The Committee for a Accountable Federal Funds, an advocacy group, says the administration’s personal actions have significantly worsened the deficit picture. (David Kelly, chief world strategist at JPMorgan Funds, informed Egan that the Biden administration does deserve credit score for the financial restoration that has boosted tax revenues.)
Biden said on the Florida rally on Tuesday: “Unemployment is down from 6.5 to three.5%, the bottom in 50 years.” He stated on the New Mexico rally on Thursday: “Unemployment price is 3.5% – the bottom it’s been in 50 years.”
However Biden didn’t acknowledge that September’s 3.5% unemployment rate was really a tie for the bottom in 50 years – a tie, particularly, with three months of Trump’s administration, in late 2019 and early 2020. Since Biden makes use of these marketing campaign speeches to favorably evaluate his personal report to Trump’s report, that omission is important.
The unemployment price rose to three.7% in October; that quantity was revealed on Friday, after these Biden feedback. The speed was 6.4% in January 2021, the month Biden took workplace.
Throughout an on-camera discussion performed by progressive group NowThis Information and revealed on-line in late October, Biden told younger activists that they “in all probability are conscious, I simply signed a regulation” on pupil debt forgiveness that’s being challenged by Republicans. He added: “It’s handed. I bought it handed by a vote or two, and it’s in impact.”
Biden’s claims are false.
He created his pupil debt forgiveness initiative through executive action, not by means of laws, so he didn’t signal a regulation and didn’t get it handed by any margin. Since Republicans against the initiative, together with these challenging the initiative in court, have referred to as it illegal exactly as a result of it wasn’t handed by Congress, the excellence between a regulation and an government motion is a extremely pertinent reality right here.
A White Home official informed CNN that Biden was referring to the Inflation Discount Act, the regulation narrowly passed by the Senate in August; the official stated the Inflation Discount Act created “room for different essential packages” by bringing down the deficit. However Biden definitely didn’t make it clear that he was speaking about something aside from the coed debt initiative.
Biden accurately noted on varied events in October that fuel costs have declined considerably since their June 2022 peak – although, as at all times, it’s essential to notice that presidents have a limited impact on gas prices. However in an financial speech in New York final week, Biden said, “At this time, the commonest worth of fuel in America is $3.39 – down from over $5 after I took workplace.”
Biden’s declare that the commonest fuel worth when he took workplace was greater than $5 is just not even near correct. The most typical worth for a gallon of normal fuel on the day he was inaugurated, January 20, 2021, was $2.39, based on information supplied to CNN by Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum evaluation at GasBuddy. In different phrases, Biden made it sound like fuel costs had fallen considerably throughout his presidency once they had really elevated considerably.
In other recent remarks, Biden has mentioned the state of fuel costs in relation to the summer time peak of greater than $5 per gallon, not in relation to when he took workplace. Regardless, the remark final week was the second this fall during which Biden inaccurately described the worth of fuel – each occasions in a means that made it sound extra spectacular.
You’ll be able to learn an extended reality verify here.
Biden has revived a declare that was debunked greater than 20 months in the past by The Washington Post after which CNN. At the least twice in October, he boasted that he traveled 17,000 miles with Chinese language chief Xi Jinping.
“I’ve spent extra time with Xi Jinping of China than any world chief has, after I was Vice President right through to now. Over 78 hours with him alone. Eight – 9 of these hours on the cellphone and the others in individual, touring 17,000 miles with him world wide, in China and the US,” he told a Democratic gathering in Oregon in mid-October.
Biden made the quantity even greater throughout a speech on student debt in New Mexico on Thursday, saying, “I traveled 17-, 18,000 miles with him.”
The declare is fake. Biden has not traveled anywhere close to 17,000 miles with Xi, although they’ve certainly spent numerous time collectively. Washington Publish fact-checker Glenn Kessler famous in 2021 that the 2 males usually didn’t even journey parallel routes to their gatherings, not to mention bodily journey collectively. The one obvious option to get Biden’s mileage previous 17,000, Kessler discovered, is so as to add the size of his flight journeys between Washington and Beijing, throughout which, clearly, Xi was not with him.
A White Home official informed CNN in early 2021 that Biden was including up his “whole journey backwards and forwards” for conferences with Xi. However that may be very completely different than touring “with” Xi as Biden retains saying, particularly within the context of a boast about how properly he is aware of Xi – and Biden has had greater than sufficient time to make his language extra exact.
Biden claimed on the Thursday rally in New Mexico that beneath Trump, Republicans handed a $2 trillion tax minimize that “affected solely the highest 1% of the American public.”
Biden accurately said in varied October remarks that the Trump tax minimize regulation was significantly helpful to the rich, however he went too far right here. It’s not true that the Trump coverage “solely” affected the highest 1%.
The Tax Coverage Heart assume tank found in early 2018 that Trump’s regulation “will scale back particular person earnings taxes on common for all earnings teams and in all states.” The assume tank estimated that “between 60 and 76 p.c of taxpayers in each state will obtain a tax minimize.” And in April 2019, tax-preparation firm H&R Block stated two-thirds of its returning prospects had certainly paid much less in tax that 12 months than they did the 12 months prior, The New York Occasions reported in an article headlined “Face It: You (In all probability) Acquired a Tax Minimize.”
The Tax Coverage Heart did find in early 2018 that folks on the prime would get by far the largest advantages from Trump’s regulation. Particularly, the assume tank discovered that the highest 1% of earners would get a median 3.4% improve in after-tax 2018 earnings – versus a median 1.6% earnings improve for folks within the center quintile, a median 1.2% earnings improve for folks within the quintile under that and simply a median 0.4% earnings improve for folks within the lowest quintile. The assume tank additionally discovered that the highest 1% of earners would get greater than 20% of the earnings advantages from the regulation, a much bigger share than the underside 60% of earners mixed.
The distribution may get much more skewed after 2025, when the regulation’s particular person tax cuts will expire if not prolonged by Congress and the president. If there isn’t a extension – and, subsequently, the regulation’s everlasting company tax minimize stays in place with out the person tax cuts – the Tax Coverage Heart has estimated that, in 2027, the highest 1% will get 83% of the advantages from the regulation.
However that’s a chance in regards to the future. Biden claimed, previously tense, that the regulation “affected” solely the highest 1%. That’s inaccurate.
This wasn’t the primary time Biden overstated his level in regards to the Trump tax cuts. The Washington Publish fact-checked him in 2019, for instance, when he claimed “all of it” went to the ultra-rich and firms.
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