Over the weekend, in the dead of the night, the Senate passed the omnibus after the House had already passed it on Friday despite some valiant objections from conservative members like Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT). It's been a wild month in spending for other ways, though. Biden also released a plan for his budget earlier this month for Fiscal Year 2025, which has been met with severe criticism from Republicans, in both chambers.
In a statement for Townhall, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) issued a warning about what's really behind Biden's budget. "Biden’s budget is not a real budget--it is a campaign messaging item. DEI is the cornerstone of Biden’s woke ideology, so it’s no surprise that his budget reflects his divisive ideology. Biden’s budget proposes $5 trillion in new taxes to fund these worthless woke programs," he warned.
"Despite Biden’s gaslighting at the State of the Union, Americans know that our economy is in trouble. The price of rent, groceries, gas, and utilities has skyrocketed with Biden’s inflation. The last thing our economy needs is more woke spending. This election, the American people have a choice: keep voting for financial policies that are bankrupting the country over worthless woke programs, or vote for jobs, opportunity, and security," Cruz added, speaking further on how the budget plays into the 2024 election.
Not only is it a presidential election year, with Biden running against Donald Trump in a rematch from 2020, but Cruz is running for reelection as well. As was predicted in the polls leading up to this month's Texas primary, he faces Democratic Rep. Colin Allred. Republicans have a good chance at taking back the majority when it comes to the seats they're both looking to pickup as well as defend, especially compared to 2022. Although Cruz's seat is a top target for Democrats, the race is nevertheless regarded as "Likely Republican."
When it comes to "divisive ideology," another concern is that despite how the pro-abortion Biden administration has tried and lost on this issue from the start, the president's budget seeks to get rid of the Hyde Amendment, which protects taxpayers from having to fund elective abortions. Hyde has passed as a budget rider with bipartisan support every year since 1976, and was even previously enthusiastically supported by Biden himself, especially when he was a senator from Delaware. Polls also show that Americans support the Hyde Amendment.
The more we hear about the budget, though, and from the people who are supposed to be selling it, the worse it looks.
During Thursday's House Budget Committee hearing, OMB Director Shalanda Young appeared to discuss the president's budget proposal, and it did not go well for her. She had a particularly embarrassing exchange with Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), especially as she couldn't even answer basic questions.
As Good highlighted, "this new budget proposes some $4 trillion more in spending, some $5 trillion more in taxes on the American people." This is an increase over last year's budget, the congressman pointed out, which was already a record high budget.
Although Good had assumed that Director Young would have learned her lesson and would not have had issues answering questions about the debt, as she did last time, this was not quite the case. When directly asked "the national debt is how much now," she answered "about $34 trillion." But, when she was asked "how quickly are we acquiring another trillion now," she was unable to come up with an answer, instead offering "I don't believe we take on debt by average a day," with the congressman jumping in to ask the question another way, asking "it's increasing by a trillion dollars every so, how often?"
The OMB director then tried to bring up interest rates, which prompted Good to ask his question yet another way, "the debt is going up a trillion dollars approximately how many days, or weeks, or months would you say, are you aware of that?" As Young tried to pivot to "cost drivers," Good had to insist he was "reclaiming my time" as he asked the question once more of "do you know how quickly the debt is going up by a trillion dollars."
"I just think that would be an important thing to know as the budget director," Good pointed out, before sharing that it's going up another trillion dollars every 100 days or so.
When it comes to further question about this specific budget, Young also could not answer what the debt for taxpayers would be with the president's projected budget. Young's non-answer involved a response as to how "we don't tax citizens for debt," despite that not being what the congressman asked about.
Good pointed out that "the president's projected budget is going to go from $35 trillion roughly to how much, the debt is going to go, by his projection... by his projection, in his proposed budget, how much is he proposing to take the national debt to over 10 years from the $34-35 trillion, to how much in 10 years?"
The exchange became even further intense, as another member demanding a parliamentary inquiry to complain about how Good was asking his questions. Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) had to direct Young to "answer [Good's] question to the best of your ability, if you don't know say 'I don't know' and then we'll keep going."
Good, who had to ask his question yet again, also pointed out that the number is actually in writing. "I just want a dollar, I don't want an explanation, just a dollar," he made clear. Given that Young still took too long to answer, the congressman had to once more reclaim his time to point out that it was $52 trillion.
"It's $52 trillion, $52 trillion is what his proposed budget," Good said when reminding that it was not his budget, but the president's budget and appeared in writing. He reminded he wanted to know what the amount would be per citizen, which he also pointed out "is a math question." Young was not so keen to answer that "math question," though, as she instead insisted it was "a false narrative," leading to the congressman to yet again have to reclaim his time.
Even as Good tried to ask the question again, though, to give Young another opportunity, she still insisted "I'm not playing into this narrative," thus forcing the congressman to again answer for her. "It's $150,000 per citizen is what the president is projecting... which equates to about $400,000 per household by his projection." The congressman then raised concerns about the unprecedented level of debt this represents.
"How would the president propose we respond to a major crisis, say World War III, or the next virus situation, with this level of debt? How would we respond?
Despite being asked such a critical and genuine question, Young still responded with a non-answer, asking a question of her own. "Mr. Good, are we not in a crisis situation now, with what's going on in Ukraine, with what's going on in the Middle East," she wanted to know, as she insisted "this president has put forth a plan to respond to both of those."
Although Good reclaimed his time yet again, Young still sought to speak over him, claiming Biden had a plan on the border, as she criticized how the House acted on those matters. Arrington had to remind the witness of how Good had reclaimed his time to get her to stop speaking over the congressman.
In calling Young's answer on Ukraine "interesting," Good, who made clear he did not have a question, also offered "I would submit that the president has created a debt crisis, unprecedented in our history, and he proposes to make it worse over the next 10 years because he wants to increase the debt by $18 trillion, by his own budget." Speaking to the border issue, Good also pointed out that Biden "has created a border crisis, which is further exasperated by this budget by the way, which does nothing to address the border crisis that he has created, yet when you speak of crises, you bring up Ukraine because the president wants to borrow, borrow, or print, what some $60 billion and send it over overseas to Ukraine?"
The congressman did point out that "I think it's great that you're illustrating for the American people what this president's priorities are, both illustrated by his budget today, and your inability to answer basic questions about the budget today, and your inability to answer basic questions about the budget today and the impact upon the American people by the debt that he is willfully creating, and you go right to Ukraine!"
As Good asked his last question about the impact Biden's budget has, Young went on to respond with a complete non-answer about Biden's supposed economic accomplishments as she also made remarks about "grandstanding" and pivoted to bringing up the disastrous border bill, which Good jumped in to refer to as "an amnesty bill."
Biden's “budget director” was scheduled to come before our committee to discuss Biden’s new budget proposal. She had one job. And yet, she could not answer basic questions. Maybe she was told there would be no math? pic.twitter.com/eCgsh8Tb6x
— Congressman Bob Good (@RepBobGood) March 21, 2024