Republicans are already up in arms over the Senate Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget proposal, with some like Sen. Lindsey Graham even backing the Texas Democrats’ strategy of fleeing town to avoid the “rampant inflation” the spending package will bring.
And while $3.5 trillion is a ton of money, according to an independent analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the proposal will actually cost more. $5 trillion or higher over a decade, the group estimates.
The budget-resolution fact sheet Democrats circulated last week includes only a bare-bones description of the bill’s major programs for tax credits, new entitlements, healthcare, climate and housing. Some categories include this revealing caveat: “The duration of each program’s enactment will be determined based on scoring and Committee input.”
That’s Washington-speak for admitting the budget will be built on phony assumptions and gimmicks. Democrats know their proposed tax hikes and dubious “pay-fors” won’t come close to fully funding “every major program that President Biden has asked us for”—as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer claimed.
Their plan is to include every program but start small and pretend they’re temporary. This will let them skirt the budget-reconciliation rule that spending can’t add to the deficit outside a 10-year budget window without triggering a 60-vote threshold to pass. (WSJ)
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget also included policies that aren’t mentioned right now in the fact sheet but are “rumored to be part of the package.”
"Any way you add it up, Democrats are attempting to pass the biggest expansion of government since the 1960s with narrow majorities and no electoral mandate," The Wall Street Journal's editorial board writes. "No wonder they want to disguise its real cost."