Biden in 2022: the US deficit to fall below half of what it was. It was $1.38 trillion against $3.13 trillion in 2020
Joe Biden1 March 2022 · State of the Union address
«by the end of this year, the deficit will be down to less than half what it was before I took office»
The FY2022 deficit was $1.38 trillion, less than half of $3.13 trillion in FY2020.
Half the 2020 deficit is $1.57 trillion. The cut came mostly from the end of emergency pandemic spending; in 2023 the deficit rose again, to $1.69 trillion.
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The president promised in his annual address to Congress that the year’s budget deficit would be less than half of what it was before him. It was, though a year later the deficit rose again.
First the words: who said it, when and where, verbatim (translations are ours). Answer Yes or No, or just open the answer: the stamp is the outcome, below it what came of it. On the chart the dark line is the fact year by year up to the deadline, the pale one after it; the blue dashed line is the promised number from the year of the words to the deadline, the light band the time the promise gave; the ring on the line is when it was said, the ring in the stamp’s colour the fact in the deadline year, beside it how far it landed from the goal. The numbers on the right are the scale.
- Joe Biden, State of the Union address quote
«by the end of this year, the deficit will be down to less than half what it was before I took office»
- What happened came true
The FY2022 deficit was $1.38 trillion, less than half of $3.13 trillion in FY2020.
Quote: the State of the Union address of 1 March 2022, transcript by The American Presidency Project. Fact: the White House Office of Management and Budget, Historical Tables, table 1.1. Outcome: «came true» — the promised number reached by the deadline («about» within 5%), an event happened before the end of the year promised; «exceeded» — with room to spare; «nearly» — short by no more than 10%; «late» — reached, but after the deadline; «did not come true» — not reached; «came true, then undone» — reached, then reversed. The deadline is the end of the year named.
The comparison is with fiscal 2020, the last full year before he took office. The US fiscal year runs October to September, so the promise was made with half the year gone.
A question for this picture
Does a promise count if it is kept by the end of spending a predecessor began?