Biden to the Governors: 'Where the Hell Is He?' and 'All the Money We're Sending You' (February 10, 2023)

President Joe Biden welcomed the nation’s governors to the White House with a joke about his own title. “I told Governor Murphy once, every time I hear ‘the President of the United States,’ I look around and say, ‘Where the hell is he?’” Biden said, to laughter [1].

Then he joked about federal spending. “I know it’s a problem having to deal with all the money we’re sending you. [ Laughter ] And I understand that. But—[ laughter ]—you all think I’m kidding. I think it is part of our problem,” Biden said [1].

“Anyway, but what I’m going to do is—I’m going to be quiet, right? And I’m going to turn it over to you,” he said. “And then, eventually, I’m going to say something to you” [1].

The video above shows the opening of Biden’s Feb. 10, 2023, remarks to the National Governors Association. Quotes are from the official transcript published by the American Presidency Project, which marks the White House’s corrections [1].

”Senator—Governor Cox”

Biden also mixed up a Republican governor’s job. “Good to see you, Senator—Governor Cox,” he said, greeting Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, the association’s vice chair [1].

His aide had a slip of her own. Introducing the event, White House intergovernmental affairs director Julie Chavez Rodriguez described “an economy where work is rewarded, where equal pay isn’t optimal [optional; White House correction], and our small businesses continue to flourish” [1].

”The Get-Stuff-Done Caucus”

Cox, a Republican, answered with a jab of his own. “I will just remind you that you are in a room full of the—my wife said I can’t use my ‘farm words’—so the get-stuff-done caucus,” he said, to laughter. “Governors get stuff done” [1].

Biden pitched bipartisanship. “Seventy-five percent of what we did would not have happened without flat bipartisan. We would not have a 1-trillion-200-billion-dollar infrastructure bill,” he said [1].

He also noted his hires. “I hired a lot of Governors in my Cabinet—Granholm, Raimondo, Vilsack, et cetera—because you know how to get things done,” Biden said [1].

”A Little Thing”

When Biden spoke at length, he described his first big bill this way. “But we passed a little thing that was about a trillion 800 billion dollars called the recovery act, and it pulled an awful lot of people out of real deep trouble,” he said [1].

“That’s why we spent $350 billion for the first time in history and for—to every State, city, county, you shore up your budgets,” Biden said [1].

He claimed a record. “But we created 12 million jobs. No—that’s never happened before in this period of time, in a 2-year period. Twelve million real-live jobs,” Biden said [1].

”Thousands of Americans Are Dying Every Day”

On fentanyl, Biden overshot. “We’ve seized over 23,000 pounds of fentanyl that—thousands of Americans are dying every day from fentanyl,” he said [1].

His own number said otherwise. Three days earlier, in his State of the Union, Biden said, “Fentanyl is killing more than 70,000 Americans a year” [2]. That works out to about 190 a day, not thousands.

”25 Percent of the Entire National Debt”

Biden then blamed his predecessor for the debt. “You know, 25 percent of the entire national debt that was accumulated over 200 years occurred over the previous 4 years,” he said [1].

Treasury’s own figures show the same pattern under Biden. Total public debt was $27.75 trillion on Jan. 20, 2021, the day he took office, and $31.46 trillion on the day of this meeting [3].

By Jan. 17, 2025, his last business day in office, it was $36.21 trillion [3]. That is $8.45 trillion added in his four years, about 23% of the entire debt.

”I Just Don’t See You”

Biden also lost track of a guest. “I was with Andy Beshear and Governor DeWine—I don’t know where Governor DeWine is. I’m sure you’re here somewhere, I just don’t see you,” he said of Ohio’s Republican governor [1].

He closed by promising to stop talking. “So, as my mother would say, I’m going to hush up and turn it back to Julie,” Biden said. The transcript notes that the meeting continued without the press: “no transcript was provided” [1].

By the Numbers

$1.8 trillion: what Biden called “a little thing,” his 2021 recovery act [1].
190: fentanyl deaths a day, roughly, by Biden’s own State of the Union figure [2].
$27.75 trillion: the debt when Biden took office [3].
$36.21 trillion: the debt on his last business day in office [3].
23%: the share of the debt added during his four years [3].

What Happened Next

Some of the money came back. That June, the debt-limit deal Biden struck with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy “claws back some money aimed at the Internal Revenue Service and some unspent COVID-19 pandemic funds,” Fox News reported [4].

For Biden’s deficit claims, see HYGO News’ page on the $1.7 trillion boast, and for the State of the Union three days earlier, the page on the 2023 address.