{"id":1363752,"date":"2022-03-08T05:15:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T10:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1363752"},"modified":"2022-03-08T07:48:04","modified_gmt":"2022-03-08T12:48:04","slug":"how-bidens-welfare-expansion-plans-undermine-americas-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-bidens-welfare-expansion-plans-undermine-americas-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"How Biden\u2019s Welfare Expansion Plans Undermine America\u2019s Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhow-bidens-welfare-expansion-plans-undermine-americas-safety%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1363752&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>In his State of the Union message, President Biden may have mentioned the federal deficit, but he failed to discuss how years of inaction have jeopardized Americans\u2019 retirement and their national security. Biden attempted to take credit for a budget deficit of \u201conly\u201d an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/system\/files\/2021-07\/57263-outlook.pdf\">estimated $1.2 trillion<\/a> this fiscal year\u2014a measure less of fiscal rectitude than his inability to jam his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/system\/files\/2021-12\/57706-BBBA-Palmer-Letter.pdf\">$5 trillion<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/12\/13\/republicans-should-force-democrats-to-vote-on-the-full-5-trillion-build-back-bankrupt\/\">spending proposal<\/a> through Congress last fall.<\/p>\n<p>The real problem, and prime source of our more than $30 trillion in federal debt, comes from entitlements, and on that front, Biden offered only more new spending. The leader of a party who not long ago criticized Republicans for fighting two wars with three tax cuts now apparently wants to \u201creduce the deficit\u201d\u2014and fight the march of autocrats worldwide\u2014by creating a new child care entitlement and expanding several others.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"debts-coming-due\"><strong>Debts Coming Due<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Just as Vladimir Putin\u2019s march on Kyiv finally forced many European countries to come to grips with over a decade of fecklessness in the wake of aggression, so too could the United States soon face the consequences of its long inaction on debt and deficits. The ramifications could undermine America\u2019s ability to project its strength on the global stage.<\/p>\n<p>In many ways, Obamacare lies at the root of this problem; its financial legerdemain has empowered politicians to ignore our entitlement crisis for more than a decade. The year prior to the law\u2019s passage, Medicare\u2019s trustees <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cms.gov\/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems\/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports\/ReportsTrustFunds\/Downloads\/TR2009.pdf\">projected<\/a> the program would become insolvent in 2017\u2014five years ago. But because government accounting allowed Democrats to count Medicare spending reductions as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ukaIZ7pmabo\">both funding Obamacare<\/a> and improving the Medicare trust fund, the law magically extended Medicare\u2019s insolvency by a decade\u2014if only on paper.<\/p>\n<p>This gimmick enabled lawmakers of both parties to avoid the hard choices necessary to make America\u2019s entitlements, and our long-term fiscal situation, sustainable. President Biden\u2019s remarks last week demonstrate his head remains firmly in the sand. In a nearly 6,500 word <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/03\/01\/biden-state-of-the-union-2022-transcript-full-text-00013009\">speech<\/a>, he mentioned Medicare only twice\u2014neither in the context of solvency or reform\u2014and Social Security not at all.<\/p>\n<p>Biden\u2019s entitlement reform proposals, such as they are, consist primarily of closing a tax loophole\u2014one that he and his wife <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/05\/19\/his-returns-show-joe-biden-has-dodged-half-a-million-in-taxes-while-urging-tax-increases\/\">spent the past four years exploiting<\/a>, to avoid nearly $400,000 in Medicare taxes\u2014and <a href=\"https:\/\/home.treasury.gov\/system\/files\/131\/General-Explanations-FY2022.pdf\">re-directing those funds<\/a> to yet more new spending. In amplifying Obamacare\u2019s fiscal gimmicks and dishonesty to justify additional entitlements, the soon-to-be octogenarian president is showing little regard for his fellow seniors\u2019 financial futures.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"growing-pressures-on-the-u-s-budget\"><strong>Growing Pressures on the U.S. Budget<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine puts the need for structural fiscal reform in even starker relief. America\u2019s defense spending has fallen by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/omb\/historical-tables\/\">nearly a third<\/a> as a percentage of GDP, from 4.7 percent in 2010 to 3.3 percent this fiscal year, with a further drop projected in the coming years. Germany\u2019s shock decision to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-02-27\/scholz-says-germany-to-create-special-eu100b-armed-forces-fund\">increase its defense budget<\/a> by \u20ac100 billion\u2014with more to follow\u2014in the wake of the invasion illustrates the hard fiscal choices lawmakers will have to make yet Biden has avoided.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the pricing pressures arising from the invasion, in the form of higher costs for energy and other goods, will exacerbate the problems of a Federal Reserve already <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/11\/17\/how-the-federal-reserve-keeps-stoking-inflation\/\">behind the curve in fighting inflation<\/a>. Hemmed in by a year of indecision and the pressures of the Ukrainian conflict, the Fed could have to tighten monetary policy further and faster, raising interest costs to the Treasury and increasing the possibility of a recession.<\/p>\n<p>In July, the Congressional Budget Office <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/system\/files\/2021-07\/57263-outlook.pdf\">estimated<\/a> that borrowing costs to the federal government would rise to nearly $1 trillion by the end of the decade, more than doubling as a share of GDP from 1.3 percent to 2.7 percent and nearly eclipsing the entire defense budget. But those estimates assumed that inflation would remain under relative control, and the Federal Reserve would not start raising interest rates until \u201clate 2023.\u201d Subsequent events have rendered those predictions inaccurate, meaning CBO\u2019s projection of $5.4 trillion in net borrowing costs over the coming decade could prove an underestimate.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"debt-is-a-national-security-issue\"><strong>Debt Is a National Security Issue<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Biden believes he can carry on the left\u2019s goals of creating \u201cfree\u201d new entitlements for the American people. But all this \u201cfree\u201d spending is undermining America\u2019s financial freedom. Our existing obligations have already raised our debt to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/system\/files\/2021-07\/57263-outlook.pdf\">more than 100 percent<\/a> of GDP, compared to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ceicdata.com\/en\/indicator\/russia\/government-debt--of-nominal-gdp\">Russia\u2019s 18 percent<\/a>. And rather than using the Ukraine invasion as an opportunity to call for sacrifice\u2014to finally get our financial house in order\u2014Biden instead proposed a spending blowout without end.<\/p>\n<p>Over a decade ago, Admiral Mike Mullen, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2010\/US\/08\/27\/debt.security.mullen\/index.html\">called<\/a> the federal debt our biggest national security threat. If Biden really wants to protect and defend the United States from growing threats overseas, he should act accordingly.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Chris Jacobs is founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group, and author of the book, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1645720020\">The Case Against Single Payer<\/a>.&#8221; He is on Twitter: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/chrisjacobshc\">@chrisjacobsHC<\/a>. Previously he was a senior health policy analyst for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a senior policy analyst in The Heritage Foundation\u2019s Center for Health Policy Studies, and a senior policy analyst with the Joint Economic Committee\u2019s Senate Republican staff. During the debate over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, Jacobs was a policy adviser for the House Republican Conference under then-Chairman Mike Pence. In the first two years of the law\u2019s implementation, he was a health policy analyst for the Senate Republican Policy Committee. Jacobs got his start on Capitol Hill as an intern for then-Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). He holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in political science and history from American University, where he is a part-time teacher of health policy. He currently resides in Washington, D.C.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In his State of the Union message, President Biden may have mentioned the federal deficit, but he failed to discuss how years of inaction have jeopardized Americans\u2019 retirement and their<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1363752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1363752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1363752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1363752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1363752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}