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Biden’s Busted Budget

April 4, 2022
Weekly Columns

Last week, President Joe Biden submitted to Congress his budget proposal for fiscal year (FY) 2023 that plainly states his funding priorities and goals. Like all presidential budgets, it is simply a request and is not enforceable by law. In fact, several policies recommended in this budget stand no chance of passing both chambers or being signed into law. Unfortunately, the wish list reveals President Biden's desire to double down on his out-of-touch policies and out-of-control spending from his failed budget proposal from the previous fiscal year and the wildly unpopular Build Back Better bill. Clearly, in ignoring the actual priorities of the American people in his dead-on-arrival budget, the president has learned nothing from his first year.

With a price tag of $5.8 trillion, President Biden's proposed budget would spend $73 trillion over the next 10 years, a 66 percent increase from the previous 10 years. This would be the highest sustained level of government spending in American history and would also lead to the highest level of deficits ever. Although President Biden claims that this budget plan would reduce our national debt, it would lead to the accumulation of $16 trillion in new public debt and $1.1 trillion in yearly debt interest payments by 2032.

At a time when inflation is costing the average household nearly $3,500 extra a year, President Biden's budget outlined that he wants to collect $58 trillion in taxes on hardworking Americans, families and businesses over the next 10 years – the highest sustained tax burden in American history. This would only further strap their wallets, lessen their purchasing power and further fuel the inflationary crisis.

While President Biden proposed an increase in the base budget for the U.S. Department of Defense for the next fiscal year, it is still not enough to keep pace with the rate at which inflation is rising. In fact, the so-called increase could actually result in a net cut in funding for our national defense. In addition to not providing enough funding to keep up with the devaluation of the U.S. dollar, President Biden also proposed a decrease in production of 37 percent for our nation's Paladin Integrated Management (PIM) artillery program, in overall funding for Army procurement of $1.5 billion and Army research and development by $800 million.

Shockingly, the president also wants to decrease our Army end strength to the lowest level it has been since 1940, totaling with Guard and Reserve at only 998,500, down from 1,010,500. His budget proposal would also reduce our Air Force's aircraft production and inventory for many platforms such as the F-35, E-3 and MQ-9. In the meantime, he recommends non-national security agencies receive a 12 percent average increase. With ongoing international crises and growing tensions around the globe, this only shows that this administration is unwilling to prepare our military to confront the strategic threats we face.

Furthermore, after Democrats were forced to restore longstanding pro-life protections in the FY 2022 omnibus funding package recently signed into law, President Biden chose to pick the same losing fight against those protections in his FY 2023 budget. For example, he removed the longstanding Hyde Amendment which rightly prevents taxpayer dollars from funding abortions and protects the conscience rights of all Americans. Additionally, his budget proposal calls for a $400 million increase for Title X funding to go toward Planned Parenthood and other entities that perform abortions.

Finally, while Americans struggle to afford to fill their gas tanks and power their homes because of high energy costs, President Biden wants to push our country further away from energy independence with more anti-American energy policies. After shutting down the North American Keystone XL pipeline and preventing energy leasing on federal lands and waters on day one of his presidency, gas prices have reached the highest level ever. During the Trump Administration, America produced more at home and bought more from our allies and neighbors such as Canada. Now, as revealed in his budget, President Biden wants to increase this burden by adding $45 billion in new taxes on domestic energy production.

President Biden has delivered yet another busted budget that would continue to bankrupt our nation, make inflation worse on hardworking Americans, leave us with a weak national defense and keep us at the mercy of tyrants and state sponsors of terrorism for our energy needs. President Biden introduced a similar budget last year. It did not work then, and it will not work now.

Issues:Defense, National Security & Foreign AffairsEconomy & Small BusinessEnergy & Environment