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Latest Fact-Checks In Deficit

Clear
Donald Trump
Donald Trump
stated on November 12, 2025 an X post
“My tariffs … are helping to slash the deficit this year by more than 25%.”
False
By Louis Jacobson • November 14, 2025
stated on July 20, 2025 an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation"
Tariffs are “going to pay off our deficit.”
False
By Louis Jacobson • July 22, 2025
Karoline Leavitt
Karoline Leavitt
stated on May 19, 2025 a White House press briefing
President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill “does not add to the deficit.”
False
By Louis Jacobson • May 21, 2025
Mike Johnson
Mike Johnson
stated on November 5, 2023 an interview on "Fox News Sunday"
“Only in Washington can you cut funding, add a pay-for to a new spending measure, and they say it's terrible for the deficit.”
False
By Louis Jacobson • November 7, 2023
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
stated on January 27, 2023 an interview with reporters
“The largest contributor to the debt ceiling, or to our deficit, has been the Trump tax cuts.”
False
By Louis Jacobson • February 1, 2023
Lindsey Graham
Lindsey Graham
stated on December 12, 2021 an interview on Fox News Sunday
“The CBO says (the Build Back Better Act) is $3 trillion of deficit spending.”
False
By Jon Greenberg, Louis Jacobson • December 14, 2021
Kevin McCarthy
Kevin McCarthy
stated on November 18, 2021 a House floor speech
“Never in American history has so much been spent at one time. Never in American history will so many taxes be raised and so much borrowing be needed to pay for this reckless spending.”
False
By Louis Jacobson • November 19, 2021
Ted Cruz
Ted Cruz
stated on October 26, 2020 an interview
Says Trump “didn’t campaign on cutting the debt” … “That’s not what he promised to do.”
False
By Brandon Mulder • October 30, 2020
Donald Trump
Donald Trump
stated on October 14, 2020 a discussion with business leaders
Speaking of the federal debt before the coronavirus pandemic, “we were starting to get that number down.”
False
By Miriam Valverde • October 19, 2020
Keith Ellison
Keith Ellison
stated on January 5, 2017 a tweet
"House GOP rules package bars CBO from counting spikes in deficit spending spurred by an ACA repeal."
False
By Louis Jacobson • January 12, 2017
Ernest Almonte
Ernest Almonte
stated on October 19, 2014 a television commercial
Seth Magaziner "plans to spend billions more of your money."
False
By C. Eugene Emery Jr. • October 29, 2014
Vincent
Vincent "Buddy" Cianci
stated on September 21, 2014 an interview on WPRI-TV's "Newsmakers."
"In 2001 and '02 . . . we had the pension system funded at (the) 100% level in that year, and we did for two years at that point."
False
By C. Eugene Emery Jr. • September 28, 2014
Vincent
Vincent "Buddy" Cianci
stated on September 10, 2014 a radio interview
Jorge Elorza "wants to impose a municipal income tax."
False
By C. Eugene Emery Jr., Karen Lee Ziner • September 12, 2014
Chris Larson
Chris Larson
stated on September 8, 2014 a news release
"Over the next two years, this $1.8 billion deficit will cost individual Wisconsinites $300 each, or $1,200 for families of four."
False
September 11, 2014
Harry Reid
Harry Reid
stated on July 30, 2013 a media availability with reporters
The sequester has "already lost 1.6 million jobs."
False
By Jon Greenberg • August 1, 2013
Harry Reid
Harry Reid
stated on March 19, 2013 a Senate floor speech
"In the last two years, we have reduced the deficit by $2.5 trillion."
False
By Louis Jacobson • March 21, 2013
John Boehner
John Boehner
stated on November 9, 2012 a news conference
"The problem with raising tax rates on the wealthiest Americans is that more than half of them are small business owners."
False
By Tom Feran • January 3, 2013
The Campaign to Fix the Debt
The Campaign to Fix the Debt
stated on December 17, 2012 a press release
"If lawmakers fail to avert the fiscal cliff, 18 percent of the federal money that is sent to the states will be eliminated."
False
By Dave Umhoefer • December 20, 2012
Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney
stated on October 3, 2012 the first presidential debate in Denver
Says President Obama has "doubled" the deficit.
False
By Louis Jacobson • October 5, 2012
Tommy Thompson
Tommy Thompson
stated on October 27, 2012 an interview
Says U.S. Senate opponent Tammy Baldwin supported a federal budget "that spent trillions -- not billions, trillions -- more money than the Obama budget."
False
October 5, 2012
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