In Brief: Biden’s Bloated Budget
Gimmicks, wasteful spending, and a failure to address real priorities.
We wrote about President Joe Biden’s eye-popping $6 trillion dollar budget 10 days ago, but the GOP has put out some facts about it that are worth perusing. First, the GOP says, “Biden’s irresponsible budget will drive spending and debt to historic levels.”
The Biden White House attempted to bury their own budget by releasing it last Friday afternoon before the Memorial Day weekend.
Biden’s $6 trillion spending spree would surge the national debt to its highest level in American history. If Biden’s plan were adopted, the national debt would be about $330,000 per household by 2031, totaling $44.8 trillion.
Biden’s budget is missing several tax-and-spend proposals that he promised on the campaign trail, such as the creation of a public option. These omissions, and the interest costs to pay for them, total $5.8 trillion in additional spending, meaning Biden’s actual spending plans nearly double those outlined in his budget. Biden’s budget assumes that certain spending items included will expire — such as the child tax credit expansion and long-term care for seniors — when he has no intention of allowing these programs to expire.
Biden’s budget greatly expands the federal bureaucracy, adding 50,000 new federal employees.
We suppose that’s one way of producing “shovel-ready jobs.”
Next, “Biden’s budget jeopardizes America’s national security.
When accounting for inflation, Biden’s budget cuts defense. Biden’s budget would cut Army funding by $3.6 billion and leave Coast Guard funding essentially flat.
At a time when the Chinese Communist Party has increased its defense spending by over 75 percent in the last decade, the $715 billion request for the DoD would represent about a 3 percent real decrease compared with the current fiscal year. This is equivalent to a $4 billion funding cut.
His budget would cut 4,600 troops from all branches of the active-duty military (except the Space Force) and decrease procurement in several critical areas, including aviation, shipbuilding, and weapons. Less money is requested for ground weapons, missile defense, and missiles and bombs. This comes at a time when military leaders have already expressed concern about troop levels being too low.
America’s servicemembers took a back seat in Biden’s budget, with the White House summary failing to mention "military,” “defense,” or “national security” even once.
Third, “Biden’s budget will make his border crisis even worse,” which hardly seems possible.
Despite a 21-year high in border crossings, Biden’s budget effectively cuts funding for DHS after accounting for inflation.
Biden’s budget nixes funding of the border wall and would even cancel unused funds previously allocated to the wall.
Biden’s budget slashes Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) funding for several priorities. CBP funding for “Procurement, Construction and Improvements” would be cut by 50 percent, and ICE Funding for the same would be cut 47 percent. CBP funding for “Border Security Assets and Infrastructure” would be cut by 96 percent, from $1.5 billion to $54 million.
