Lying Joe has told these false nuggets on the campaign trail just this week. This is what happens when he is not reading a prompter or being redirected by the Easter Bunny.
1) he told and then retold a story in which he strongly suggested his late uncle, Ambrose Finnegan, was eaten by cannibals after his plane was shot down while he fought in World War II. Biden's dramatic details don't match the Defense Department's official account of the plane crash.
2) He repeated his regular promise that nobody making less than $400,000 per year will pay even a cent more in taxes under his proposals. He then added, "I hope you're all able to make $400,000. I never did."
The truth is his presidential salary is $400,000 per year; the joint tax filings of President Biden and first lady Jill Biden showed $619,976 in income last year, $579,514 in 2022 and $610,702 in 2021. In addition, Biden earned millions in 2017 and 2018, when, during his time as a private citizen following his vice presidency, he and Jill Biden signed a lucrative book deal and he delivered paid speeches. The Bidens' joint tax filings showed a total of about $11 million in 2017 income and about $4.6 million in 2018 income.
3) He touted provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act he signed in 2022. He said: "For example, seniors, beginning in 2024, no matter how much their prescription drug costs are, they'll never have to pay more than $2,000 a year, no matter what."
The truth is the $2,000 cap on Medicare Part D enrollees' out-of-pocket prescription drug spending takes effect in 2025, not 2024; there is a higher cap, more than $3,000, in place this year. (The White House corrected the official transcript of Biden's speech to make clear Biden should have said 2025 instead of 2024.) Second, it's not true that seniors will "never" have to spend more than $2,000 per year on prescription drugs "no matter what." The cap is indexed to annual inflation in Part D costs, so it is highly likely to be set higher than $2,000 in future years. Also, the cap doesn't apply to out-of-pocket spending on Medicare Part B drugs like those administered at doctors' offices.
4) He said "I always say to my colleagues when I meet other world leaders, I say, 'Would you trade places with China? Would you trade places with their problems?' They've got a population that is more people in retirement than working."
The truth is that China reported having more than 740 million employed people at the end of 2023, while it also reported having just shy of 297 million people age 60 or above that year. (Sixty is the normal retirement-benefits age for Chinese men; it's 50 to 55 for women depending on the nature of their jobs.) And some of the 60-plus population is still working.
5) He also said that "When Trump was president in 2020, 55 of the largest corporations in America of the Fortune 500 made $40 billion in profit and paid zero zero in federal income taxes." After someone in the audience called that "sinful," Biden continued, "Well, guess what? I came along and took care of the sin. Not anymore. Thanks to the law that I wrote and signed, big corporations now have to pay a minimum they should be paying more a minimum of 15% tax."
The truth is that the minimum tax is only for on the "book income" companies report to investors, which only applies to companies with at least $1 billion in average annual income. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, only 14 of the companies on that 2021 list of 55 non-payers reported having US pre-tax income of at least $1 billion.
1) he told and then retold a story in which he strongly suggested his late uncle, Ambrose Finnegan, was eaten by cannibals after his plane was shot down while he fought in World War II. Biden's dramatic details don't match the Defense Department's official account of the plane crash.
2) He repeated his regular promise that nobody making less than $400,000 per year will pay even a cent more in taxes under his proposals. He then added, "I hope you're all able to make $400,000. I never did."
The truth is his presidential salary is $400,000 per year; the joint tax filings of President Biden and first lady Jill Biden showed $619,976 in income last year, $579,514 in 2022 and $610,702 in 2021. In addition, Biden earned millions in 2017 and 2018, when, during his time as a private citizen following his vice presidency, he and Jill Biden signed a lucrative book deal and he delivered paid speeches. The Bidens' joint tax filings showed a total of about $11 million in 2017 income and about $4.6 million in 2018 income.
3) He touted provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act he signed in 2022. He said: "For example, seniors, beginning in 2024, no matter how much their prescription drug costs are, they'll never have to pay more than $2,000 a year, no matter what."
The truth is the $2,000 cap on Medicare Part D enrollees' out-of-pocket prescription drug spending takes effect in 2025, not 2024; there is a higher cap, more than $3,000, in place this year. (The White House corrected the official transcript of Biden's speech to make clear Biden should have said 2025 instead of 2024.) Second, it's not true that seniors will "never" have to spend more than $2,000 per year on prescription drugs "no matter what." The cap is indexed to annual inflation in Part D costs, so it is highly likely to be set higher than $2,000 in future years. Also, the cap doesn't apply to out-of-pocket spending on Medicare Part B drugs like those administered at doctors' offices.
4) He said "I always say to my colleagues when I meet other world leaders, I say, 'Would you trade places with China? Would you trade places with their problems?' They've got a population that is more people in retirement than working."
The truth is that China reported having more than 740 million employed people at the end of 2023, while it also reported having just shy of 297 million people age 60 or above that year. (Sixty is the normal retirement-benefits age for Chinese men; it's 50 to 55 for women depending on the nature of their jobs.) And some of the 60-plus population is still working.
5) He also said that "When Trump was president in 2020, 55 of the largest corporations in America of the Fortune 500 made $40 billion in profit and paid zero zero in federal income taxes." After someone in the audience called that "sinful," Biden continued, "Well, guess what? I came along and took care of the sin. Not anymore. Thanks to the law that I wrote and signed, big corporations now have to pay a minimum they should be paying more a minimum of 15% tax."
The truth is that the minimum tax is only for on the "book income" companies report to investors, which only applies to companies with at least $1 billion in average annual income. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, only 14 of the companies on that 2021 list of 55 non-payers reported having US pre-tax income of at least $1 billion.
