evidence: "By the way, we’ve also … reduced the deficit by $350 billion my first year. [...] "By the way, when you hear your Republican friends or anybody else tell you, ‘Boy, they’re spending a lot of money,’ guess what? We cut the budget [deficit] $350 billion last year," he said at an infrastructure event in Boston on Sept. 12. At a fundraising event in the city, Biden said: "Our Republican friends talk about, well, ‘Big Spendin’ Biden.’ Well, guess what? I lowered your deficit by $350 billion the first year and over $1 trillion this year." [...] The president is playing a rhetorical shell game. He’s trying to dazzle listeners with impressive-sounding numbers. But the reality is he’s increased the budget deficit, not reduced it.