‘Bizarro World’: CNN’s Daniel Dale Torches Biden’s Claim He Helped Bring Down Deficit

CNN called on reporter and resident fact-checker Daniel Dale on Wednesday to pick apart President Joe Biden’s last week that he was responsible for bringing down the deficit.

“Let me remind you again: I reduced the federal deficit,” Biden said last Wednesday, blasting Republicans who criticize him over the $2.8 trillion deficit for fiscal year 2021. Among other economic woes is record inflation, affecting everything from grocery bills to gas prices across the nation.

According to Dale, experts “scoffed” at the idea that Biden is responsible in any way for bringing down the deficit.

“Experts I spoke to still scoffed at the idea that President Biden is personally responsible for having reduced the deficit. In fact, one advocate of deficit reduction, Marc Goldwein of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, told me that this claim is almost bizarro world, a reversal of reality,” Daniel told CNN’s New Day.

Dale said he also quoted Dan White, a senior director at Moody’s Analytics — which the White House often references — who said the president’s actions have made the deficit higher rather than lower than originally projected.

In short, short-term pandemic spending expiring is responsible for the deficit dropping approximately $360 billion in Biden’s first year in office. Expectations, however, were much higher, with the Congressional Budget Office projecting an $870 billion decline, Dale noted.

In the fiscal year 2021, the U.S. federal deficit sat at $2.8 trillion, a reduction from the previous year, but well bloated beyond the $984 billion in 2019, with the increase mostly thanks to Covid-19 spending increases. Biden claimed last week that his administration is projecting a drop of another $500 billion by September, though that is only a projection.

During Dale’s New Day appearance, he did make sure to take a swipe at Republicans, noting the increased deficit under former President Donald Trump and claiming they have no “higher ground” to stand on in criticizing Biden — even if he is wrong.

“Yes, we should be skeptical of President Biden’s own deficit boast, but it’s not like President Trump and Republicans have some sort of high ground here,” he said.