Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y., spoke with FOX Business’ Hillary Vaughn on Thursday to find out if Democrats have spent too much taxpayer money.
With President Biden poised to run a $1 trillion budget deficit this year, Democrats are still blaming his predecessor’s tax cuts for fueling the federal deficit.
Cornered outside the Capitol on Thursday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D.N.Y., was asked if Democrats spent too much money in the two years they had full control of Congress with Biden in the House. White.
“I think the biggest contributor to the debt ceiling, to our deficit has been Trump’s tax cuts,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
The United States’ growing national debt stands at $31.4 trillion, while the federal government’s annual budget currently stands at $6.3 trillion, nearly $2 trillion more than this he spent each year before the coronavirus pandemic.
When Trump cut taxes in 2017, the Congressional Budget Office projected that tax revenue for the next decade would fall by $1.1 trillion. However, CBO estimates released last year showed government revenues for 2018-2027 are actually expected to be $570 billion higher for the same period, even after adjusting for inflation, according to the conservative Heritage Foundation. .
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Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attends a press conference outside the US Capitol on Thursday, January 26, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images/Getty Images)
The Treasury Department launched a series of emergency measures to allow the government to pay its bills after the United States hit its debt limit last Thursday. Congress must pass legislation to raise the debt ceiling to allow the government to borrow more money to fund its obligations, including Social Security, Medicare, a host of other benefit programs , military salaries and tax refunds.
Republicans want to negotiate spending cuts before agreeing to a debt ceiling increase, but the White House is asking Congress to raise the debt ceiling “unconditionally”. GOP tax hawks in the Senate held a press conference Wednesday insisting that Biden must negotiate.
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Senator Rand Paul speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on January 25, 2023. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/Getty Images)
“President Biden needs to know, absolutely he will negotiate, and better start now,” the senator said. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told reporters. He claimed the Republican majority in the House would not vote to raise the debt ceiling “without meaningful budget reform.”
Democrats say the GOP is endangering the economy by being reckless with the debt ceiling and have accused Republicans of fiscal hypocrisy.
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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on January 26, 2023. (Win McNamee/Getty Images/Getty Images)
At a press conference Thursday, House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, DN.Y., blamed the Trump presidency for about a quarter of the current debt.
“Extreme Republicans, they want to lecture the country on fiscal responsibility when 25% of the national debt has been incurred in the four years of the Trump presidency,” Jeffries said. He added that Democrats cut the deficit by $1.7 trillion over the past two years, but those cuts mostly represent the end of emergency spending for the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The federal government added $83 billion to the national debt in the first month of fiscal 2023, at a rate of $2.7 billion in new debt per day. At this rate, Biden is expected to add another $1 trillion in debt this year.
Peter Kasperowicz, Megan Henney and Brandon Gillespie of FOX Business contributed to this report.
