(CNSNews.com) -- The federal government ran a $2.7-trillion deficit in fiscal year 2021 and currently has a $475-billion deficit for fiscal year 2022. In addition, the national debt, as of Mar. 14, was $30.19 trillion.
Despite these numbers, some Democrat senators praised President Joe Biden's policies, saying they helped the economy to recover under very difficult circumstances.
At the Capitol on Mar. 17, CNSNews.com asked a couple of the senators if President Biden will ever balance the budget.
Sen. Angus King (Me.) said, “Well, let’s ask if President Trump ever balanced the budget. We haven’t had a balanced budget in some time, so I think that’s an unrealistic question given where we are in the world with the amount of crises that we’re facing.”
“But, I think it’s a goal that we should have and the stimulus that was provided in 2021, I think, brought the economy back,” said King.
“If you look at the recession after the financial crisis, it took about five years to recover the number of jobs,” he added. “The pandemic recession, it took one year, that was an extraordinary achievement.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said, “President Biden actually reduced the deficit in his first year by a historic amount and helping the economy recover. We now have more people at work and more tax revenue coming in. It’s sound economic policy that his administration has been following.”
The official numbers for the federal debt are posted daily on the U.S. Treasury's "Debt to the Penny" website. According to the numbers posted by the Treasury, the debt was $27,751,896,236,414.77 at the close of business on Jan. 20, 2021, which was the day President Biden was inaugurated. At the close of business on March 14, 2022, the latest day for which the numbers are available, the debt was $30,192,743,136,499.51.
That means that since Biden was inaugurated president, the federal debt has increased by $2,440,846,900,084.74.
According to a table published by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in the Monthly Treasure Statement, the deficit of the U.S. government for fiscal year 2021 (Oct. 1, 2020 -- Sept. 30, 2021) was $2.775 trillion.
And in fiscal year 2022 (Oct. 1, 2021 – Sept. 30, 2022), so far, the federal deficit is $475 billion.
In addition, data from the Fiscal Data Treasury shows that the United States’ total debt, as of March 14, 2022, is $30.19 trillion.
President Biden’s budget plans for FY2022 include the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan. The jobs plan allegedly would create millions of jobs for Americans. This plan focuses on infrastructure, delivering clean water, and a renewed electrical grid, revitalizing manufacturing, as well as other goals.
The American Families Plan allegedly will help families financially and will include additional four years of “free education” for children in preschool (and also two years of community college); provide direct support to children and families, extend tax cuts for families with children and American workers, strengthen health care, along with other goals stated in the plan.
As claimed in the Fact Sheet for Biden’s budget for FY2022, “Over time, the savings from these reforms will exceed the cost of the investments, and by large and growing amounts. The American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan together are paid for over 15 years. And the full set of proposals in the president’s budget reduce the annual deficit by the end of the ten-year budget window and every year thereafter. In the second decade, the president’s budget proposals cut deficits by over $2 trillion.”
According to the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), using a Penn Wharton Budgeting Model, the American Jobs Plan “would actually stifle U.S. economic growth and kill American jobs.”
“According to the Budget Model, the Biden administration’s out of control spending would balloon the deficit, which ultimately ‘outweighs productivity boosts from the new public investments,’” said the NRSC. “And the administration’s tax hikes would ‘discourage business investment’ in American jobs and American workers.”