Joe Biden is the $6 trillion man. If passed, the budget proposal he unveiled Friday will plunge the United States into a debt crisis—threatening our very economic future. It must be stopped or America is doomed.
Biden’s budget is the most radical ever proposed in U.S. history. It is a spending blowout, which seeks to create a cradle-to-grave entitlement state. Its goal is not just to spend trillions of dollars on left-wing causes, but to transform America into a European-style social democracy.
Biden wants to spend $6 trillion next year. Just a few years ago prior to the pandemic, the budget was at $4 trillion. He now wants to blow past that record high level of spending. According to his 10-year plan, the budget would hit a whopping $8 trillion before 2030. This is a level of spending and debt that is unsustainable.
For example, according to Biden’s own plan, the budget deficit next year will be a crushing $1.8 trillion. By 2030, the national debt will explode to $44 trillion—that’s $300,000 per household. No country can pay this massive amount of debt back.
Moreover, the $6 trillion budget blowout does not include trillions more in spending that Biden promises, such as the public option for Obamacare, Social Security, free community college and climate change. As Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez admitted, the goal of Biden and Democratic progressives is to spend $10 trillion on universal health care, the Green New Deal and erecting a vast entitlement welfare state.
The Big Lie being peddled by Biden and his allies in the liberal media is that increasing taxes on the rich will pay for all this new spending. That is false. It is impossible. It is not a question of ideology, but basic arithmetic. Even if the federal government would dramatically increase top marginal income tax rates, real estate taxes, capital gains taxes, and taxes on corporations and Wall Street—in other words, soak the wealthy and big business—it would not come close to paying for the huge expansion in spending and the size and scope of government.
This means—like in Europe—the burden will eventually fall on the middle- and working-class. And like in Europe, taxes will increase dramatically for ordinary Americans. Payroll taxes will have to double; gas taxes will skyrocket; income taxes will go up substantially; and most importantly, a 30% value-added tax (VAT), a sort of national sales tax, will be imposed. It is inevitable: A European-style welfare state demands European-style taxation. The cost of everything—food, gas, heating, homes, cars, consumer goods—will soar, thereby undermining America’s standard-of-living. The middle- and working-class will be substantially impoverished.
Also, the United States will no longer be a superpower. One cannot have both a vast European welfare state and a world class military; the massive revenue needed to fund lavish social programs inevitably squeezes out military spending. This is why European countries, such as France, Britain, Germany and Italy, as well as other nations like Canada or Australia, are dependent upon American military protection. Their social welfare states do not allow them to adequately spend on national defense. It’s no accident that the one area—besides border protection—that Biden’s budget does not increase spending on is the military. It will eventually be hollowed out, slowly starved to death as the Federal Leviathan grows into an all-consuming entity.
Yet, it is inflation that threatens to bring America down. Already there are huge inflationary pressures. Gas, energy, meat, milk, bread, cars, home sales, construction materials, lumber—prices are surging. This massive spending spree will only drive up inflation even more. The Biden administration has asked—and is expecting—the Federal Reserve to monetize the massive new debt and deficits. In plain English, the Federal Reserve will be printing a lot of money to try to underwrite Biden’s historic spending and debt levels.
Like Weimar Germany, however, there is only so much printing of money before inflation takes off. And to counter soaring inflation, the Federal Reserve eventually will have no choice but to deploy the ultimate policy option: raising interest rates. And when that happens—with America’s crippling debt load and unprecedented high deficits—much of our budget will then have to be spent on simply paying the interest on our debt.
This is what economists call a “debt crisis.” In other words, America will be reduced to Greece, Argentina or Venezuela—a socialist Third-World basket case, plagued by soaring inflation, high interest rates, crushing taxation and economic sclerosis.
Biden’s budget is not simply wasteful, unnecessary and reckless. But it is dangerous. It threatens our economic future and very stability. Republicans must do everything in their power to stop it. Otherwise, future generations will never forgive them.
-Jeffrey T. Kuhner is host of “The Kuhner Report” on WRKO AM-680 in Boston. His daily show airs 6:00-10:00 am EST. He can be reached at: JeffreyKuhner@iheartmedia.com
Photo: Getty Images