You might find some laughs in the $5.8 trillion budget President Joe Biden unveiled Monday — if it weren’t so alarming.
Team Biden, for example, brags about its “fiscal responsibility,” arguing that a plan to spend a jaw-dropping 32% more than just four years ago cuts the deficit in half. Umm, only because the prez spent so much in 2021.
That includes the Democrats’ $2 trillion COVID “stimulus package” when the economy needed no stimulus, and so fueled today’s rampant inflation. Plus the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, though not the $5 trillion the prez wanted for the “Build Back Better” bill (which he still hopes to pass).
Fact is, this budget still leaves a whopping $1.3 trillion in red ink, which will only further fuel inflation.
Biden’s supposed deficit-reduction also relies on crushing new taxes — raising corporate rates from 21% to 28%, for example. Plus a bid to set a minimum 20% tax on households worth more than $100 million that would hit income and unrealized gains on stocks and other assets. It’s likely unconstitutional, probably unworkable — and won’t pass, since at least two Democratic senators voiced opposition the last time the idea came up.
Another knee-slapper: Biden touts his plan’s new outlays for national defense and law enforcement. Yet his national-security spending, including outlays for the Pentagon, would rise by just 4.5% — less than inflation. And while he’d pump $32 billion more into what he calls crime-fighting, much of it is for stuff like “community violence intervention” that does little to help our cities.
Biden’s plan is just a wish list, of course; he’ll be negotiating the real deal with Congress for months to come. Let’s hope our lawmakers laugh it off.