Q&A: Biden’s Budget Flunks Fiscal Test

Q&A: Biden's Budget Flunks Fiscal Test

With U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley

Q: Any surprises in President Biden's budget proposal?

A: It's too bad the expression "better late than never" doesn't apply to the president's budget proposal. The tardy budget was delivered to Congress a month behind schedule, late for the fourth in year in a row. Despite bipartisan efforts by Senate appropriators to pass the 12 appropriations bills that fund the federal government over a 12-month period of time, the work product of this essential constitutional function collected dust on the desk of Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. As a result, the end of the fiscal year came and went on September 30 with none of the 12 appropriations bills sent to the president's desk. As a result, Congress has lurched from one funding extension to the next. Five months into fiscal year 2024, Washington approved six of the 12 appropriations bills to keep the government open. This is an irresponsible way to run the people's business. It causes unnecessary uncertainty for services the American people count on from the government. It's no wonder the American people are fed up with Washington.

American families are struggling to make ends meet in an economy where the rising cost of living has added thousands of dollars to household budgets each year since President Biden took office. Even as inflation ticks down from its four-decade high of 9.1 percent in June 2022, the Biden economy's impact on consumer prices is baked into what Americans pay for consumer goods and services. If the Biden administration had its way, the sea of red ink that fueled the fires of inflation would continue flooding the economy with new spending on social programs that grows the federal government and expands its reach into everyday life, from child care, to housing and health care. Over the next decade, the president's budget would add $2.5 trillion in new mandatory spending proposals. This is another step towards socialism and promises higher taxes and higher prices for Americans for generations to come, hammering another nail in the coffin of the American Dream. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said it best: "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."

Q: Does the president's budget bring deficits under control?

A: Not by a country mile. In fact, over the next 10 years, the president's budget would accumulate $16.3 trillion in deficit spending. Instead of snuffing out deficit spending, President Biden's budget takes a blow torch to fiscal discipline. Remarkably, the president claimed in his State of the Union speech that his policies have improved the federal deficit, that's the gap between revenue coming into the Federal Treasury and tax dollars going out. Even the president's allies in the media have called out the absurd claim, noting his policies "have had the overall effect of worsening annual deficits, not reducing them." Iowans know what happens when deficits are allowed to grow, when spending outpaces payments and credit card debt carries over from one month to the next. It digs a bigger hole each month with interest accumulating on top of the principle balance. Likewise, the president's budget puts the taxpayer on a bigger hook to pay off the nation's debt that's already $34 trillion and counting. The big spenders in Washington ought to hand out shovels with their big government handouts.

Kicking the fiscal can down the road has consequential impact on the lives of Americans, including national security and programs for seniors and veterans. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, interest on the debt will reach $870 billion this year. For the first time since World War II, that's more than what we're expected to spend on national defense, the number one responsibility of the federal government. Debt service costs have more than doubled during the Biden administration, squeezing funding for other government services. When I go around the state holding Q&A's with Iowans at my 99 county meetings, I often get a question yelled from the back of the room. "What are you going to do about the national debt?" As ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, I'm not throwing in the towel on fiscal discipline. The U.S. economy is the largest in the world because America stands for economic freedom. We must reject the big government, tax-and-spend agenda of the Biden administration to save the American Dream for generations to come.

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