Nikki Haley slams Biden for calling Republicans 'fiscally demented': 'Try again, Mr. President'
Biden proposed $6 trillion in new spending in 2021
Holding debt limit hostage won’t fix spending problems: Douglas Holtz-Eakin
Former Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Holtz-Eakin dissects the battle raging over the debt limit which the U.S. is expected to reach on Thursday.
Former United Nations ambassador. Nikki Haley slammed President Biden's comments that Republicans are "fiscally demented" calling out the President for signing off on a $6 trillion spending package amid a looming debt ceiling deadline and crushing inflation.
"Biden's signed off on more than $6 trillion in new spending—and pushed for trillions more, and he's calling Republicans ‘fiscally demented.’ Try again, Mr. President." the former South Carolina governor wrote on Twitter.
The national debt when Biden took office was $27.7 trillion. As of the time of this publication, it was $31.4 trillion, an increase of $3.7 trillion in a two years.
While speaking at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event Monday, the President blasted Republicans, calling them "fiscally demented" while touting what he called Democrats' accomplishments and claiming that they are the fiscally responsible party.
"They’re going to talk about big-spending Democrats again. Guess what? I reduced the deficit last year $350 billion. This year, federal deficit is down $1 trillion plus. That’s a fact." Biden said, prompting roaring applaud from the crowd. "And there’s going to be hundreds of billions reduced over the next decade. But so what? These guys are the fiscally demented, I think. They don’t quite get it."
In May 2022, the president proposed a $6 trillion spending package in a proposal aimed at to funding his sweeping economic agenda, which included investments in education, infrastructure, and transportation.
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Since President Biden has taken office, Democrats have passed about $3.8 trillion in spending on their top agenda items. The single most expensive of Democrats' significant pieces of legislation was also their first — the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (ARP). That was followed in 2021 by the bipartisan infrastructure bill, was supported by all Democrats and a smaller number of Republicans and which cost $1.2 trillion in new and baseline spending.
In the summer of 2022, Democrats, alongside of President Biden, passed a $280 billion bill to compete with China and a gun control bill with $20 billion in spending.
Finally, they passed the Inflation Reduction Act — the reconciliation revamp of Build Back Better — with estimates ranging between $430 billion and $480 billion in combined spending and tax credits. Biden signed his Inflation Reduction Act into law in August 2022.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks to supporters at the National Action Network's Annual Martin Luther King Day Breakfast on January 16, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images / Getty Images)
US President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the National Action Network's (NAN) Martin Luther King, Jr. day breakfast at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC, January 16, 2023. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Under Former President Donald Trump, the national debt went up about $8 trillion over his four-year term with a portion of the debt increasing due to the COVID-19 relief plan. After Trump took office, he quickly implemented a massive tax cut including a reduction in the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35%, a move that critics say increased the annual deficit further.
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Last Friday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that the U.S. is on track to reach the debt limit, the cap on how much money the federal government can borrow, by Thursday. The ceiling was last raised by $2.5 trillion in December 2021 to $31.4 trillion.
US President Joe Biden delivers remarks for the National Action Network (NAN) at their Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Breakfast, in Washington, DC, on Jan. 16, 2023. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The Treasury Department has warned Democrats and Republicans alike to reach a compromise. Still, House Republicans said they would not support the Democrats' call to increase the debt ceiling this time around unless there are significant spending cuts and concessions made.
Yellen warned the congressional leaders to recall 2011, when the U.S. reached its debt limit, wreaking havoc on the stock market.
In June 2022, under the Biden administration, inflation hit a 40-year-high of 9.1%, and gas prices soared nationwide under his watch.
In November, the Biden administration claimed it was responsible for the historic reduction in the federal deficit, leaving out other major contributing factors that led to the decrease.
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"The Biden-Harris Administration lowered the deficit with the single largest one-year reduction in American history," the White House tweeted.
Twitter users quickly pointed out that despite the reduction, "the FY22 deficit is still the 4th largest in history and is 41% larger than FY19" and highlighted that high COVID-driven deficits played a significant role in the drop.
Fox News' Tyler Olson contributed to this article.