{"id":1425032,"date":"2022-04-08T07:45:31","date_gmt":"2022-04-08T11:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1425032"},"modified":"2022-04-08T07:45:40","modified_gmt":"2022-04-08T11:45:40","slug":"5-reasons-the-biden-budgets-supposed-deficit-reduction-is-a-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/5-reasons-the-biden-budgets-supposed-deficit-reduction-is-a-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Reasons The Biden Budget\u2019s Supposed \u2018Deficit Reduction\u2019 Is A Fraud"},"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\">22<\/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%2F5-reasons-the-biden-budgets-supposed-deficit-reduction-is-a-fraud%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=1425032&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><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/5857234643_b113041f96_k.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Surprise, surprise: Joe Biden\u2019s budget wasn\u2019t worth the wait.<\/p>\n<p>The administration finally submitted some of its fiscal proposals to Congress last week\u2014seven weeks after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.enotrans.org\/article\/white-house-to-release-first-biden-budget-on-may-27\/\">the statutory deadline<\/a> of the first Monday in February. Even then, major portions of the budget were not posted on the Office of Management and Budget\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/omb\/budget\/\">website<\/a> last Monday afternoon, with a note saying additional documents would get posted later in the week.<\/p>\n<p>The administration tried to spend the weekend ahead of the budget\u2019s release <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/politics\/president-biden-to-unveil-new-minimum-tax-on-billionaires-in-budget\/ar-AAVwLjD?ocid=entnewsntp&#038;pc=U531&#038;cvid=0cc7265b20604752aca758983d45ccd2\">promoting<\/a> its plan for a \u201cbillionaire\u2019s tax.\u201d The proposal, which some tax experts have criticized as both unworkable and unconstitutional, served one useful purpose: It attempted to distract from the fiscal gimmickry that the administration believes constitutes \u201cdeficit reduction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even the press picked up on the \u201cabsurd\u201d nature of the White House\u2019s claims, in a Monday morning <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/press-briefings\/2022\/03\/28\/on-the-record-press-call-by-omb-director-shalanda-young-and-cea-chair-cecilia-rouse-on-the-presidents-fy23-budget\/\">background briefing with reporters<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>My core question is: A lot of the budget experts are saying, you know, look, the reason the deficit is falling is because the expiration of inherently temporary economic programs, and it\u2019s kind of absurd for the administration to be taking credit\u00a0for the decline from inherently temporary economic programs.\u00a0Can I get a response to that?\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Attempting to take credit for \u201cdeficit reduction\u201d because Democrats\u2019 plans to pass even more tax-and-spend legislation have run aground on Capitol Hill doesn\u2019t represent the only gimmick in Biden\u2019s budget\u2014or even the biggest.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Biden\u2019s 10-Year Deficit Baseline Has <em>Increased<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The budget includes two separate, but equally important, ten-year budget numbers. The first, the current-law baseline, reflects potential fiscal outcomes if the budget stays on \u201cauto-pilot\u201d absent additional changes. By contrast, the proposed budget assumes all of the administration\u2019s proposals for both tax and spending get enacted into law.<\/p>\n<p>Take a look at both sets of numbers from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/budget_fy2023.pdf\">budget proposed this week<\/a> and the budget Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/www.govinfo.gov\/content\/pkg\/BUDGET-2022-BUD\/pdf\/BUDGET-2022-BUD.pdf\">proposed last May<\/a>, and the differences\u2014and lack thereof\u2014become obvious:<\/p>\n<p>May 2021 budget: Current law deficit of $13.176 trillion; proposed deficit of $14.531 trillion<br \/>Monday\u2019s budget: Current law deficit of $15.466 trillion; proposed deficit of $14.421 trillion<\/p>\n<p>Regarding the current law budget\u2014that is, the fiscal policies we already have\u2014Biden\u2019s performance is nearly $2.3 trillion <em>worse<\/em> than last year. The budget Biden wants would reduce the ten-year deficit by only $110 billion, or only 0.7 percent, compared to what Biden himself proposed just last May.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>\u2018Magic Asterisk\u2019 for Build Back Bankrupt<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>When it comes to Biden\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/12\/20\/build-back-bankrupt-turns-into-another-major-failure-for-joe-biden-and-nancy-pelosi\/\">floundering proposals<\/a> to expand the welfare state, the budget includes the following footnote:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>The Budget includes a reserve [fund] for legislation that reduces costs, expands productive capacity, and reforms the tax system. While the President is committed to reducing the deficit with this legislation, this allowance is shown as deficit-neutral to be conservative for purposes of the budget table. Because discussions with Congress continue, the Budget does not break down the reserve among specific policies or between revenues and outlays.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In other words, the budget just assumes that creating <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/12\/13\/republicans-should-force-democrats-to-vote-on-the-full-5-trillion-build-back-bankrupt\/\">massive new entitlements<\/a> would be fully paid for. That assumption comes despite Congressional Budget Office <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/system\/files\/2021-12\/57673-BBBA-GrahamSmith-Letter.pdf\">analyses<\/a> showing that extending these entitlements in full over a decade\u2014which Democrats want to do\u2014would total nearly $5 trillion, far more than they have proposed in tax increases to offset that spending.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Ignores the Pork-Laden Omnibus Just Made Law<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The budget includes another whopper of a footnote:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>Reflects budget deficit reduction compared to a baseline that does not include the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 (Public Law 117-103), which was enacted after the baseline was finalized. <strong><em>Deficit reduction relative to a baseline that incorporated that legislation would be<\/em> <em>significantly greater<\/em>. <\/strong>[Emphasis added.]\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In other words, because <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/03\/10\/with-inflation-at-its-highest-in-decades-congress-works-to-shovel-trillions-more-out-the-door-in-a-craptastic-omnibus\/\">Congress just passed<\/a>, and Biden signed into law two weeks ago, a bill with <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/03\/14\/earmark-porkfest-in-omnibus-bill-demonstrates-washington-corruption\/\">billions of dollars of earmarks<\/a>\u2014to say nothing of other unnecessary spending\u2014practically all of Biden\u2019s supposed \u201cdeficit reduction\u201d has already vanished.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Unrealistic Economic Assumptions<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The budget assumes inflation will total 4.7 percent for the fiscal year ending September 30, and then fall to a mere 2.3 percent for the fiscal year starting on October 1\u2014estimates that a reporter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/press-briefings\/2022\/03\/28\/on-the-record-press-call-by-omb-director-shalanda-young-and-cea-chair-cecilia-rouse-on-the-presidents-fy23-budget\/\">rightly called<\/a> \u201cnot realistic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On the background call with reporters, Council of Economic Advisers Chair Cecilia Rouse revealed that printing and other deadlines meant the budget\u2019s economic estimates were locked in as of last November 10. As a result, more recent developments, like expanded federal spending and the Ukraine invasion\u2019s effects on oil and food prices, obviously did not get taken into account when formulating the fiscal plan.<\/p>\n<p>But Rouse went on to claim that \u201cwe expect that\u2026as we continue to work through the challenge of the pandemic, that we will keep economic activity going, supply chain pressures will ease, the extraordinary measures [i.e., the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/11\/17\/how-the-federal-reserve-keeps-stoking-inflation\/\">Federal Reserve printing money<\/a>] will start to roll off as well, and we expect the economy to normalize.\u201d This is exactly what the Biden administration predicted this time last year, but it didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>No Meaningful Entitlement Reform<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2016\/05\/medicare-insolvency-entitlement-crisis-2016-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-bernie-sanders\/\">already effectively insolvent<\/a> and faces losses of an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cms.gov\/files\/document\/2021-medicare-trustees-report.pdf\">estimated<\/a> $457.8 billion between now and 2030. Yet Biden proposed few if any meaningful reforms either to Medicare or Social Security, other than the typical rhetoric about reducing fraud\u2014an important issue, but not one that will prevent politicians from having to make tough political choices.<\/p>\n<p>Any long-term budget and fiscal proposal, whether by a Republican or a Democrat, that does not tackle our entitlement crisis\u2014particularly Medicare and Social Security\u2014cannot pass the credibility test. On that count, Biden\u2019s budget doesn\u2019t even try.<\/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>Surprise, surprise: Joe Biden\u2019s budget wasn\u2019t worth the wait. The administration finally submitted some of its fiscal proposals to Congress last week\u2014seven weeks after the statutory deadline of the first<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"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-1425032","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\/1425032","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\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1425032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425032\/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=1425032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1425032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1425032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}