One of Terry Jeffrey’s pastimes as editor for CNSNews.com editor was blaming Democrats for deficit spending while absolving Republicans of the same offense — even when Republicans controlled the White House and at least one house of Congress. He got in a couple more of those deficit complaints before CNS was shut down in April. He complained in a March 9 article:
President Joe Biden released a fiscal 2024 budget proposal today that estimates the federal debt will hit $50.712 trillion dollars by the end of fiscal 2033.
That would be an increase of $17.988 trillion from the $32.724 trillion that Biden’s budget estimates the debt will be by the end of this fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30.
As of March 8 of this year, which is the latest date currently reported by the U.S. Treasury, the total federal debt was $31.459 trillion.
In his budget —which proposes increasing the debt to $50.712 trillion over the next ten years—Biden emphasizes his commitment to fiscal responsibility.
Jeffrey also did a fact-check of sorts that emphasized pre-pandemic budgets and downplayed the huge federal deficits during the pandemic — but he didn’t mention that a Republican president presided over those huge pandemic deficits.
Jeffrey complained more about the deficit in an April 12 article:
The federal deficit topped $1 trillion in the first six months of fiscal 2023 (October through March), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released today.
This was despite the fact that federal tax revenues in the first six months of this fiscal year were $2,048,196,000,000, which was the second-highest in the nation’s history (when compared to the inflation-adjusted numbers for the tax revenues collected in the first six months of previous fiscal years).
In noting that “this year’s October-through-March federal deficit is the fourth largest in the nation’s history,” Jeffrey did concede that the largest was in fiscal 2021 — but, again, failed to mention that Republican Donald Trump was president for most of that period. He did, however, make sure to illustrate his article with a picture of President Biden and Sen. Chuck Schumer.
As usual, he also complained that “The Department of Health and Human Services led all government departments and agencies in spending during the first six months of this fiscal year. It spent $843,257,000,000 from October through March.”
CNS was shut down eight days later.