Ron Klain Claims Biden Believes in ‘Fiscal Responsibility’ Despite Trillions in Deficits

The president’s Chief of Staff, Ron Klain, claimed Monday that carefulness with taxpayers’ money “is very important” to those who work in the Biden administration – which posted deficits worth a combined $4.2 trillion in fiscal years 2021 and 2022.

Speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit, Klain said, “Fiscal responsibility is very important to us in the Biden administration. We are very aware that we have to stay within our means economically.”

“I think you will see that in the president’s budget that will come out next spring,” Klain added. “And you see that in everything we’ve tried to do these past two years.”

During the last two years, the Biden administration has posted massive deficits, collecting less than it spent. According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, the Biden administration spent $1.4 trillion taxpayer dollars more than it collected in fiscal year 2022.

In fiscal year 2021, the Biden administration spent $2.8 trillion more taxpayers’ money than it collected.

According to the GOP House Committee on Budget, Biden’s 2021 spending spree ran up the second-highest deficit in U.S. history. “In fact, it was $517 billion higher than the Congressional Budget Office had projected for 2021 after Democrats rammed through their $2 trillion American Rescue Plan,” the committee estimated.

The Biden administration has been a key contributor to the deficits. The committee also calculated the administration has spent over $1 trillion of taxpayers’ money on 600 executive actions (policies that are implemented by the administrative state without passing through Congress). Congress was designed by the Founders as the institution that controlled the purse. But checks and balances have been overridden in many cases because Congress appears to prefer to delegate its power to the executive branch for political expediency.

Biden’s deficits have contributed to the national debt. For the first time in history, the taxpayers are now liable for over $31 trillion in money already spent. The Biden administration is responsible for $1.84 trillion of the total sum.

The national debt became a modern issue since former President Lyndon Johnson greatly expanded the welfare state.

Subsequent presidents have each added to the debt: Richard Nixon, $121.3 billion; Gerald Ford, $223.8 billion; Ronald Reagan, $1.86 trillion, George H.W. Bush, $1.4 trillion; Bill Clinton, $1.4 trillion; George W. Bush, $6.1 trillion; Barack Obama, $8.34 trillion; Donald Trump, $8.2 trillion.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.