BIDEN TRUMPETS HIS 'FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY' WHILE HIS BUDGET LEAVES A WHOPPING $1.3 TRILLION IN RED INK, WHICH WILL ONLY FURTHER FUEL INFLATION

 

Biden’s $5.8T budget proposal would be laughable — if it weren’t so alarming

Post Editorial Board

 

New York Post

March 28, 2022

 

 

 

President Biden unveiled his budget proposal of $5.8 trillion for this year. The administration claimed the proposal showed “fiscal responsibility” since it lowers the deficit (but only because Biden spent so much in 2021 and will impose crushing new taxes)

 

 

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.