Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA), who is facing a toss-up re-election race against Democrat Abigail Spanberger in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, made a bunch of demonstratively dishonest claims in an interview Monday on a conservative radio show. But one of his lies was false for about 1.9 trillion reasons.

Days after telling an incarcerated woman in an addiction support group that he has it worse than she does because he is enduring negative attack ads, Brat told host John Fredericks that Republicans do not deserve the blame for massively increasing the budget deficit and national debt. And though the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has said the massive tax cuts for corporations and the rich that Brat supported last year will increase the debt by almost $2 trillion, he made the absurd claim that the tax cuts were actually fully paid for.

“Obama doubled the debt from $10 [trillion] to $20 trillion right?” Brat incorrectly claimed. “Obama, the Democrats, they’re the spenders. Our tax cuts, if you grow three and a half to four percent they’re paid for. And we’re growing right now at 4.2.”

He then boasted that the GOP has done “$150 billion in tax cuts, paid for.”

In fact, government revenue has declined since the tax cut, despite the unusually high and likely unsustainable economic growth. Given Brat is an economist, it seems he would likely know that this is the opposite of something being “paid for.”


Brat tries to pretend he is a deficit hawk, touting his support for a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. But just last month, he voted to add another half trillion to the deficit with a new tax cut bill.