The time Joe Biden proposed sunsetting every federal program — even Medicare
Timothy P. Carney
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In the summer of 1975, U.S. News & World Report informed its readers about a new breed of Senate Democrat.
“Many younger Democrats — as well as some of their elders — are increasingly disillusioned with Great Society-type programs. Senator Joseph R. Biden. Jr., of Delaware, elected in 1972, told U.S. News & World Report: ‘We newer liberal Democrats are rejecting the theory of our more senior colleagues, which was that if you spend enough money you can solve any problem.’”
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That week, Biden proposed his budget reform: S. 2067, “A bill to limit the authorization of new budget authority and to require comprehensive review and study of existing programs for which continued budget authority is proposed….”
Biden took to the Senate floor to deplore the size of the federal budget and its growth rate. “It took this country 185 years to reach an annual expenditure from the federal budget of $100 billion,” Biden explained. “Just nine years later, we had reached the $200 billion level, and after four more years, we have exceeded $300 billion.” (Adjusted for inflation, that would be $544 billion, less than 10% of our current federal expenditures.)
Biden called for reform: “One thing we have all observed is that once a federal program gets started, it is very difficult to stop it … regardless of its performance in the past. It is time for us to require, on a regular and continuing basis, that both the administrators of these programs and we legislators who adopt the programs examine their operations with care and detail.”
His bill, he explained, “limits to 4 years the length of any spending authorization for a program. … The purpose is to assure a uniform scrutiny of all programs on a regular basis.”
U.S. News & World Report lauded this bill, cosponsored by Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield and Pat Leahy of Vermont. “It gets to the heart of the problem of Big Government.”
This happens to be very similar to the proposal of Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) that Biden made the centerpiece of his partisan attack in his State of the Union.
Here was Biden’s attack:
Some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset. I’m not saying it’s the majority. Let me give you — anybody who doubts it, contact my office. I’ll give you a copy — I’ll give you a copy of the proposal. That means Congress doesn’t vote — I’m glad to see — no, I tell you, I enjoy conversion. You know, it means if Congress doesn’t keep the programs the way they are, they go away.
Biden’s 1975 bill wouldn’t have automatically terminated any program that wasn’t renewed, but it would have reduced funding down to zero without a committee review and a new authorization. It’s the same idea.
Thanks to Chris Jacobs for bringing this Biden oldie to the fore.
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