Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg's performances on the Sunday shows can be cringeworthy. This week on "Fox News Sunday" was no different. Host Shannon Bream--filling in for Chris Wallace--started off the segment by raising concerns from Larry Summers, who served in the Obama-Biden administration, about the spending and inflation involved in this $6 trillion budget proposal. The first thing Sec. Buttigieg said was to claim "this is a responsible budget," with a straight face.
Buttigieg went on to offer that's because "all of the proposals for spending and investment are paid for." Moments later, after trying to sell the need for infrastructure, he emphasized that same talking point.
"So yes, this is a bold budget, with major investments, in the American people, but it's also a responsible one, because the president has put forward how to pay for every penny of it in the long-term," the secretary said.
It's also supposed to be "responsible budgeting" in that it will be paid for over 15 years, long after President Biden is in office.
But, as Bream read from AP's Friday report, "the government must borrow roughly 50 cents of every dollar it spends this year and next." That doesn't sound like "a responsible budget," where it's all "paid for."
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg dodges on Biden's $6 trillion budget breaking promise to not raise taxes on middle class Americans pic.twitter.com/cZ4XhD7XRV
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 30, 2021
And of course, we must not forget the raise in taxes, with wealthy Americans and corporations being expected to "pay their fair share," something even President Obama warned about when it comes to a higher marginal rate.
It turns out we learned once Biden was already in office, that "wealthy Americans" aren't considered individuals who make more than $400,000 a year, but entire families.
Even The New York Times acknowledged that the Trump tax cuts will expire in 2025, which Matt covered. Buttigieg dismissed and deflected, with his non-answer being a matter of we'll see what the policy choices are at that time."
Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is unable to give a definition of "infrastructure" pic.twitter.com/nBKNwOgt0i
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Viewers were also reminded just what the Biden administration and its allies think includes infrastructure, in this case adult home day care centers.
"Look, if you have a different category you'd like to put it in, that's fine, we should still do it, and we should do it as part of the American Jobs Plan," the secretary said, admitting that their proposals include what many wouldn't consider infrastructure, even when they're billed as such. "We think of it as infrastructure because infrastructure is the foundation that lets people participate in the economy," he continued.
It's worth reminding that polls show Americans are concerned about the spending involved, as Reagan highlighted in citing a poll from Echelon Insights and Winning for Women.
A Fox News poll I analyzed also revealed that a strong plurality of registered voters, at 47 percent, think Biden is "proposing too much of an increase in government spending." And, on another question, a plurality, also at 47 percent, acknowledge that "the Biden administration's spending proposals" are "intended to transform the country with liberal social policies."