FactChecking Biden’s Reelection Remarks
President Joe Biden announced on April 25 that he would run for reelection in the 2024 campaign. In his video announcement and a speech later that day to a union group, Biden repeated several claims we’ve fact-checked before:
- The president claimed Republicans would cut Social Security for seniors, but proposals for potential changes haven’t attracted much congressional support.
- Biden was correct in saying the debt had gone up “nearly 40%” under his predecessor, but that leaves a misleading impression. Trillions of it were due to bipartisan pandemic relief legislation, not Republicans acting alone.
- Biden’s boast that more jobs were created in two years of his presidency “than any president created in a four-year term,” is correct in raw numbers, but not when looking at the percentage growth.
- The president said that “in my first two years in office I’ve lowered the deficit by a record $1.7 trillion,” but most of that reduction was expected as a result of expiring emergency pandemic spending.
- Biden said the average tax rate for billionaires is 8%, lower than the rate for schoolteachers or firefighters. That’s based on factoring in gains on unsold stock as income.
- He said the U.S. “fell to number 13 in the international ratings” for infrastructure prior to his signing a bipartisan infrastructure law in 2021, but some experts say the ranking underrated the U.S.
Social Security
In his , Biden once again raised the possibility that Republicans will cut Social Security retirement benefits, although there seems to be little appetite in Congress for any significant changes.
