It’s often said that a budget is a reflection of values. A budget is also about responsibility.
That is particularly true for the federal budget, which is a plan for allocating trillions of taxpayer dollars to provide for the common defense and general welfare of the of the entire country. President Joe Biden recently released his budget proposal for discretionary (i.e., non-entitlement) spending for fiscal year 2022. It is both irresponsible and unreasonable.
The Biden budget calls for a $124 billion increase in non-emergency spending above the current levels. That’s a huge increase considering the trillions of unbudgeted spending that was added over the last year. Where is the new money going?
The Environmental Protection Agency would see a 21% increase to help it issue more job-killing regulations in pursuit of what the administration calls an “environmental justice” agenda. The IRS would be slated for $13.2 billion — $1.2 billion above current funding levels. The Department of Education would receive an increase of more than 40%, on top of the unprecedented federal funding sent to the education establishment in the past year, even as teachers unions have opposed in-person teaching.
The budget proposes a 19% spending hike for the Title X Family Planning program. This reflects the fact that the Biden administration has begun reversing the Protect Life Rule put in place by the Trump administration to stop this program from funding abortion. Planned Parenthood relinquished approximately $60 million in annual Title X funds rather than comply with the rule.
The budget also proposes spending taxpayer funds to attack constitutionally protected Second Amendment rights. It would bankroll a new program to incentivize states to enact gun control laws.
Despite the spending profligacy on these liberal initiatives, the purse string gets tightened on important constitutional priorities like national defense. While non-defense spending would see a 16% spending increase, national security funding would see only a 2% bump-up — not even enough to keep up with inflation.
In a stark contrast to Biden’s fiscal priorities, President Donald Trump’s spending proposal would have reprioritized the federal budget to put the security and prosperity of America first. Increases in defense spending would have been offset by cuts to non-defense programs. Trump’s budget included hundreds of reductions for low priority programs and proposed eliminating dozens of unneeded, duplicative, and wasteful federal agencies.
For example, the Title 17 green energy loan guarantee program that gave us the infamous Solyndra scandal would finally be closed to protect taxpayers from more losses. Trump’s budget would have also cut $2.5 billion of annual spending on research and development subsidies for fossil fuels, nuclear energy, and renewables, a prime example of taxpayer funded corporate welfare for special interest industries. The National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities would have been eliminated, saving taxpayers nearly $300 million per year while allowing the arts to be funded by the private sector as is appropriate.
These are just a handful of the major savings and reforms put forward last year by the Trump administration.
In the battle of budget priorities, the Trump administration’s budgets were certainly more responsible than Biden’s big spending proposal.
That is not to say that Trump’s record on fiscal responsibility was overly praiseworthy, however. Even before the outbreak of COVID-19 and the $4 trillion in spending authorized by Congress and Trump in response, federal spending rose at an unsustainably high rate, adding trillions to the national debt. Many of the good policies in the Trump budgets never actually came to fruition.
Each household’s share of the national debt now amounts to $225,000, and that figure continues to rise, with no end in sight. We must turn the tide and rein in the federal budget. Programs that don’t carry out the most essential responsibilities of the federal government should be cut; some should be ended.
Instead of following Biden’s budget request, Congress should chart its own path — producing a budget that is fiscally responsible and sufficient to support the truly necessary functions of the federal government.
Matthew Dickerson is the director of The Heritage Foundation’s Hermann Center for the Federal Budget.
