evidence: "We’ve also reduced the debt and reduced the debt by $350 billion my first year," Biden said. [...] This decrease of more than $1.7 trillion is in line with the "over $1.5 trillion" figure Biden cited in the interview (although, officially, this number is a moving target until the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30). [...] Without the reduced deficits Biden referred to, the federal debt would have been higher than $24.3 trillion, probably $1.7 trillion higher, if we use CBO’s estimate.