Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) slammed President Joe Biden’s proposed $6.8 trillion budget Sunday, saying that the only way he knew how to improve it was “with a shredder.”
Kennedy also rejected claims that the president’s budget proposal would solve any of the country’s financial problems.
JOBS BOLSTER BIDEN, BUT HIS BUDGET IS DOA
“The president says that his budget will solve our financial problems in Medicare and Social Security; that is not true. Anything seems possible when you don’t know what you are talking about,” he said during an interview on Fox News Sunday.
On Thursday, Biden rolled out nearly $3 trillion in new spending on social programs, pushed for increased military spending, and proposed reducing deficits by raising taxes on high earners and corporations. The plan drew criticism from congressional Republicans.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), the top Republican on the Budget Committee, called the budget plan “a road map for fiscal ruin.”
The House Freedom Caucus called for slashing funding by $131 billion from current levels as a condition for lifting the debt ceiling. Biden’s Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young swiftly rejected the negotiation on Sunday, telling CNN that the president wants the debt ceiling to be raised but “not tied to any other discussions.”
On Sunday, Kennedy said that Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has “prevented” work on the budget in the Senate.
“House is on track to put together a budget. The Senate needs to be doing its work on the budget. Sen. Schumer has prevented that,” said the Louisiana senator. “I am on the Appropriations committee. We should be meeting right now … We should be meeting right now, talking about how we should reduce the rate of growth of spending and debt accumulation, but Sen. Schumer will not allow us to meet.”
Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream pressed Kennedy about a New York Times article that said Republicans don’t have “clean hands” when it comes to spending cuts and deserve “equal blame as Democrats” for federal debt growth.
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“How do you convince your party to stop spending in the same way that Republicans criticize Democrats are doing?” Bream asked him.
“That criticism you just read is correct. There have been any number of bills passed with Republican support in the Senate that added to spending. I didn’t vote for them,” he responded.
