Congressman Smith Capitol Report

Last Friday afternoon, as Americans were preparing to commemorate Memorial Day weekend, Joe Biden released his long-awaited budget. This is the latest a president has ever submitted a budget in the modern-budget era. Typically, when something is released the Friday afternoon before a three-day weekend, it’s because whoever is releasing it is not proud of whatever it is. In the case of Joe Biden’s budget, I think it’s obvious why they were not proud and to trying to avoid scrutiny.

First and foremost, President Biden’s budget is a slap in the face to American working-class families. The price tag is astonishing even by Joe Biden’s already inflated standards -- a whopping $69 trillion over ten years. Because of the overload of federal spending Joe Biden has already enacted, we are starting to see serious inflation occur, with April inflation reaching the highest level in four decades. By continuing to force feed federal spending into an overheated economy, this budget conveniently ignores the impact that massive government spending will have on increasing the cost of food, gas, medicine, clothing and other essentials. But what’s clear is this administration doesn’t care about the impact its policies have on those who can least afford these price increases – their only concern is allowing Washington to seize greater command and control over the lives and livelihoods of every American citizen. 

Every page has spending increases intended to expand Washington control. However, what will not shock anyone about the spending is that even with this record-setting spending, the president couldn’t find a single new dollar for our homeland security, and couldn’t find a single dollar – period – for the border wall. In the midst of our worst border crisis ever, that says everything about the administration’s lack of seriousness about securing our homeland.

During his campaign, Joe Biden promised that he wouldn’t raise taxes on hardworking American families, but this proposal does just that by allowing the historic Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to expire. But it’s not just that: the reality is that President Biden has proposed the largest tax increase in American history, with 30 tax increases on American families, farms, and small businesses. In total, Joe Biden is proposing $55 trillion to be taken from taxpayers over the next decade. To get this record level of revenue, this budget unleashes IRS bureaucrats on every American family, providing the agency an astonishing $80 billion to harass taxpayers to send more revenue to the federal government.

And if you’re reading along and good at math, you might have noticed that $69 trillion in spending and $55 trillion in revenues don’t add up. That’s because this budget is riddled with debt, debt, and more debt. In total, once you add in interest payments on the national debt, this budget increases debt by over $17 trillion. In 2031, Joe Biden believes America should spend more in interest payments on the debt than we spend on Medicare or our national defense and 10 times the amount we spend on veterans’ health care. This budget maxes out America’s credit card in order to satisfy his progressive base.

Maybe the worst part of this budget is what it says Joe Biden believes about America. Even with Joe Biden’s record-setting federal spending sugar high, Joe Biden believes America’s economic growth will drop 33 percent below our 75-year historic average in the last 8 years of his budget. In other words, the President actually admits that his budget and tax hikes will slow economic growth, as if it was their intention all along. This is unacceptable. 

The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote last week that this is a budget that predicts America’s economic and political decline, and I couldn’t agree more. If there’s one positive in this budget, it’s that it clearly spells out for the American people the drawbacks of unlimited government, and makes clear why the working class in this country feel left behind.