Congress Should Reject Biden’s $7.3T Budget Proposal
It is an election year and the incumbent president currently has an approval rating that rivals certain types of flesh-eating bacteria, so naturally that means it is time to fire up the printing presses at the Federal Reserve. After last week’s State of the Union address, President Biden unveiled his budget for fiscal year 2025, a bloated monstrosity that would undoubtedly worsen the nation’s debt and deficit crisis. Read the full budget proposal here.
Fiscal year 2024 was a catastrophe if you value responsible government spending. The federal budget ballooned to $6.5 trillion and the government ran a whopping $1.6T deficit. The deficit worsened over the course of the year and the federal government is now adding $1T to the national debt every 100 days, prompting Moody’s Investor Service to lower its ratings outlook on the U.S. government from stable to negative. “In the context of higher interest rates, without effective fiscal policy measures to reduce government spending or increase revenues,” the agency said. “Moody’s expects that the US’ fiscal deficits will remain very large, significantly weakening debt affordability.”
Naturally, in the face of growing deficits and more debt than any nation in world history has accrued, the administration has decided that the best course of action is to increase spending by $800 Billion in 2025.
“The Budget details the President’s vision to protect and build on his Administration’s progress by continuing to lower costs for working families, protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare, invest in America and the American people to make sure the middle class has a fair shot and we leave no one behind, and reduce the deficit by cracking down on fraud, cutting wasteful spending, and making the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share. Building on the President’s record of fiscal responsibility, his Budget reduces the deficit by $3 trillion over the next 10 years—on top of paying for new investments” said the White House Office of Management and Budget. Of course, to justify these statements on fiscal responsibility and deficit reduction, the White House cites massive tax increases on the wealthy and capital gains that are almost certainly dead on arrival in Congress, barring massive electoral victories by the president and his party in November, and even operating under the assumption that President Biden achieves those victories, the budget plan predicts an increase of a little under $5T in tax revenue over the next decade, hardly a way to offset the $1T being added to the national debt every three months.
The contents of the budget are what you would expect from an unpopular president attempting to woo swing voters. Child tax credits, subsidies for childcare for anyone making less than $200k/yr, $258B to build or preserve housing units, a $10k tax credit for first-time home buyers, expanded subsidies for higher education, and a litany of left-wing fantasies like raising the corporate tax rate, taxing “unearned income,” imposing a 25% minimum tax rate on the wealthy to support failing entitlement programs, and investing billions in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
The White House doubled down on its climate change alarmism in the proposed budget despite voters consistently ranking the climate near the bottom of their list of priorities when they head to the ballot box. “Beyond leading by example through domestic investments, the Budget provides a path to achieving the President’s $11 billion commitment for international climate finance. The Budget also supports $3 billion contribution through mandatory funding to finance the Green Climate Fund. The Budget builds on historic international climate finance progress made over the course of this Administration, in which estimated 2023 levels of $9.5 billion represent a near-sixfold increase from 2021” says the OMB.
The budget also doubles down on the Biden administration’s support for additional funding of the Ukrainian, Israeli, and Taiwanese militaries with $92B in new foreign aid, the vast majority of which going to the Ukrainian war effort.
To be clear, the debt and deficit crisis will almost certainly get worse regardless of the outcome of this year’s presidential election. Neither Party has attempted to meaningfully reduce spending in two and a half decades, and it is the explicit position of both presumptive presidential nominees to avoid reforming entitlements, which represent 55% of all federal spending. Still, congress must reject President Biden’s proposal. The American people deserve better than the inflation and economic hardship caused by a federal government enthralled by debunked Keynesian ideas on spending and debt. If members of Congress claim to care about the futures of their constituents, they will laugh the president’s budget right out of the Capitol building and insist that the government returns to some semblance of fiscal responsibility.
This article was originally featured on Catalyst. You can read the original here.
