evidence: Biden said: "And by the way, you know everybody said, well, how was I able to have these new programs and still cut the deficit $1.7 trillion the last two years? Well, it’s pretty – pretty straightforward. There were 550 companies of the Fortune 500 that made $40 billion that didn’t pay a penny in tax – zero, nothing – in taxes. So I said the – you know, outrageous. And we got votes for it. I said they ought to pay a minimum of 15%. Fifteen percent. That’s less than you all pay. And guess what? It allowed me to cut the deficit." [...] Nonetheless, the president explicitly said in a prepared speech, with emphasis, that the minimum tax was the reason he was able to cut the deficit by $1.7 trillion over the previous two years. That’s inaccurate. [...] The primary reason for the deficit falling by $1.7 trillion under Biden was that the deficit had skyrocketed to a record high of about $3.1 trillion in fiscal 2020 during the early stage of the pandemic under then-President Donald Trump. The increase happened largely because of temporary, bipartisan pandemic spending. After much of the temporary spending expired on schedule, the deficit plummeted to about $1.4 trillion in fiscal 2022 under Biden.