WASHINGTON—President Joe Biden released his fiscal year 2022 budget Friday.This proposal would drive up wasteful spending, doom social programs like Social Security and Medicare to insolvency, and fleece real priorities like national security. Matthew Dickerson, director of Heritage’s Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, released the following statement on the plan:
“President Biden’s budget request represents a massive increase in spending, and is frankly unreasonable, irresponsible, and stuffed with a liberal wish list. Congress should instead chart its own course for the fiscal year 2022 appropriations process and focus on reining in unsustainable entitlement spending.
“The budget fails to reform Social Security and Medicare, sentencing them to insolvency. This hurts young and working Americans the most, as they will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars into a benefit they will never get to enjoy. It cements a commitment to higher tax increases and larger benefit cuts in the not-distant future. If Social Security follows the same trajectory it has in recent years, failure to act could result in an additional $5.4 trillion in unfunded liabilities occurring over just the next four years—that’s an additional $32,700 in higher taxes or lower future benefits for every worker in the U.S.
“Not to mention, Biden plans to pair his massive spending plan with massive tax increases. Higher taxes are harmful for workers and families. This plan would kill jobs and halt our economic recovery.
“Congress must exercise spending restraint instead of continuing down the path of seemingly endless, reckless federal spending. Biden’s budget request should be disregarded, and Congress should chart a responsible fiscal path.”
Thomas Spoehr, director of Heritage’s Center for National Defense, released the following statement regarding the fiscal year 2022 defense budget:
“At a time of unprecedented threats to U.S. national security, the Biden administration’s proposed defense budget—$7 billion less than Trump’s proposed budget—is wholly inadequate to address the needs of the Defense Department.
“Just to keep up with inflation, the defense budget needed to be $720 billion, but Biden has proposed $715 billion instead. This is in sharp contrast to the16% average increases he proposes for every other federal department except the Department of Homeland Security. We’ve all seen the left’s push to “defund the police.” This DOD budget proposal essentially equates to ‘defunding the military.’
“After events of the last year, no one should harbor any illusions about China’s ambitions to replace the rules-based international order with their version of autocracy. China is growing its military budget this year by 6.8%,while the Biden budget doesn’t even keep up with inflation.
“The effects of Biden’s cut in military purchasing power will result in reduced training, reduced readiness, cuts in needed equipment programs, and a lower quality of life for service members.”
Melanie Israel, policy analyst at Heritage’s DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society, weighed in on the removal of the Hyde Amendment and other abortion provisions of the budget:
“Most Americans, of all political persuasions, oppose taxpayer-funded abortions, at home or abroad. Removing the Hyde Amendment and similar pro-life provisions is a deeply divisive move to satisfy the radical abortion lobby’s demands. Congress must ensure these long-standing, non-negotiable policy provisions are retained in the budget.”
It’s no wonder the Biden administration wanted to bury this budget over the Memorial Day holiday. They hope that the American people pay no attention to their costly agenda.
