OPINION:
It’s a congressional tradition to declare every president’s budget dead on arrival. This tends to happen regardless of party affiliation, but the particular document the White House released Monday is more lifeless than most.
“Biden’s budget doesn’t just miss the mark,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, “it is a roadmap to accelerate America’s decline. … House Republicans reject Biden’s misguided budget proposal and have taken action to steer our nation back to a path of fiscal sanity.”
The legislative branch didn’t wait for President Biden’s tardy submission. Half of the 2025 spending measures have already been enacted, with Congress left to wrangle over the six remaining appropriations bills. That means Mr. Biden’s fiscal 2025 blueprint won’t have much impact. And that’s a good thing, because it would only contribute to our country’s financial disarray.
Last year, the government spent $1.7 trillion more than it took in. The red ink rises to $1.9 trillion this year, even though taxpayers will send an extra $640 billion to Uncle Sam. Mr. Biden’s budget plan squanders all of that extra income with unbounded extravagance, proposing annual expenditures that continuously rise to $10 trillion by 2033.
The administration’s own figures point to an alarmingly simple solution to the budgetary imbalance. Without changing anything else, income and expense would come into balance within three years by holding spending at last year’s already excessive levels.
But discipline is not in Mr. Biden’s vocabulary. For 2025, he is asking for a $7.3 trillion spending extravaganza that distributes billions in rewards to agencies serving his special needs. The Department of Justice, for instance, gets a $1.1 billion bonus no doubt in thanks for its work locking up Mr. Biden’s political opponents — including the unprecedented prosecution of his main rival in the November election.
The president also wants $9.3 billion for “refugee resettlement,” which refers to the distribution of illegal immigrants in areas of the country that bring the most political advantage. The biggest boost in spending by far goes to the Defense Department, which is focused more on Ukraine’s security than America’s.
Formal spending on Ukraine is done in supplemental appropriations, but the administration is already allocating funds to improve that nation’s infrastructure. “The Budget includes a new capital increase to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to maintain support to Ukraine,” the White House document explains.
Radical expenditure always comes with a cost: tax increases. There’s a 25% minimum tax on “billionaires” (defined as those worth $100 million), a jump in the corporate tax rate and the closing of tax loopholes for corporations. The “soak the rich” approach may have superficial appeal, but corporations won’t pay those new taxes. Any added cost will be passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices — as if prices weren’t high enough already.
Government’s unhinged spending has also sent interest rates skyward. At 7.3%, the average home mortgage rate is more than double the 2.65% rate when Mr. Biden took office, adding nearly $1,000 to the average monthly house payment.
Restoring the American dream requires only an uncharacteristic bit of restraint on Washington’s part. It’s up to the House to come up with a realistic alternative.
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