White House talks up CBO projections that show 'historic' deficit reduction

The Biden White House on Wednesday touted new projections from the Congressional Budget Office, noting the CBO estimates that the deficit this year "will fall by $1.7 trillion -- the single largest nominal reduction in the federal deficit in American history." Shalanda Young, director of the White House's budget office, said: "With that historic reduction, our deficit this year will be lower than CBO projected it would be before passage of the American Rescue Plan. That means that our strong economic recovery, powered by President Biden's economic and vaccination policies, also improved our nation's fiscal position and reduced our deficit." The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan watchdog organization, offered a different take on the CBO projections, saying: "Rather than celebrating the false victory of returning from fiscally-disastrous to fiscally-bad, we should work to achieve a position of actual fiscal health." The CRFB has previously described the Biden administration's rhetoric around deficit reduction as "misleading."

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