The economy was a major topic during the presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Biden claimed that the American economy was in freefall, while Trump boasted about the country’s economic performance under his leadership and his handling of the pandemic.
Despite Trump’s claims that everything was going well with the economy and that the U.S. was on track to pay down its national debt before the pandemic, this was not entirely accurate. Budget deficits had been increasing under Trump due to his 2017 tax cuts not generating enough revenue to cover their cost. In 2019, the deficit had grown from $584 billion to $984 billion, and then exceeded $3 trillion in 2020 after the pandemic hit.
According to a May Gallup poll, about 3 in 10 Americans identified economic issues as one of their top concerns, alongside high cost of living, inflation, immigration, and poor government leadership. Both candidates made factual errors during the debate. Biden initially claimed he had created 15 million jobs instead of 15,000 jobs as he stated earlier on. He also misstated the cost of an insulin shot, saying it was $15 when it is actually capped at $35 for older Americans on Medicare. On the other hand, Trump incorrectly stated that the U.S. was ready to reduce its national debt before
