Republicans grill top White House official over Biden’s 2024 budget
Cami Mondeaux
Video Embed
GOP senators tore into President Joe Biden’s budget for fiscal 2024, accusing the president of being too vague in his proposals without addressing several of the country’s top fiscal concerns.
Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee grilled Biden official Shalanda Young on Wednesday, pressing the director of the Office of Management and Budget to clarify the proposals included in Biden’s budget request.
Released on Thursday, the budget reignited a standoff between the Republican-led House and Biden over the looming debt ceiling crisis. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has demanded 2024 spending cuts to lift the federal borrowing limit, while the White House insists on a clean debt ceiling increase.
The impasse has raised fears that the country will default if the two parties cannot reach a compromise before a summer deadline.
The senators at Wednesday’s hearing criticized Biden’s top-line budget number of $6.9 trillion as being unrealistic and putting the country at risk of worsened inflation.
BALANCING BUDGET OVER NEXT DECADE MAY REQUIRE CUTS TO FEDERAL PROGRAMS, CBO SAYS
“Do you believe excessive government spending and running big deficits causes inflation?” asked Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL).
“I believe one thing does not cause inflation, and our base of —” Young answered before being cut off.
“That’s all right, ‘no’ is an answer,” Scott interjected. “So, that’s a no.”
Scott pressed further, questioning Young on whether she believed Biden’s proposal would balance the budget and eliminate the country’s deficit over the next 10 years. The Florida senator then criticized Biden for proposing a 55% budget increase compared to pre-pandemic levels, calling it a “staggering” number.
“Even if you go back to 2019, the GDP has not gone up 55%,” Scott said. “The population is only up 1.8%, and your budget is up to 55%.”
Several senators specifically targeted Biden’s proposals to increase taxes for the wealthiest taxpayers.
His plan, which suggests $5.5 trillion in new taxes on high-income earners, would implement a 25% minimum tax on those worth $100 million or more. The budget would also increase corporate tax rates from 21% to 28%.
“You said the wealthy ‘were going to begin to pay their fair share.’ At what point will you consider the wealthy paying their fair share?” asked Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI). “Step away from rhetoric. At what point will you be satisfied that the top 1% are paying their fair share?”
As part of his budget plan, Biden also proposed a plan to increase “modestly” the Medicare tax rate for taxpayers earning an annual income of more than $400,000 from 3.8% to 5%. Those increases would go toward extending Medicare’s solvency for 25 years without cutting any of the program’s benefits or increasing its costs, according to the White House.
The proposal comes as Biden has accused Republicans of seeking to cut spending for Medicare and Social Security benefits, hoping to use the attack as fodder in the 2024 election cycle.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) homed in on those claims, accusing Biden of using Social Security as a political attack while doing nothing himself to protect the insurance program.
“I’m not aware of anyone in this category, but are you aware of any one of the elected officials we have in the federal government or Congress or anywhere else that currently proposed cutting benefits for Social Security of any kind?” Romney asked.
“Senator, I have heard of proposals —” Young began before Romney cut in.
“No, no. You’ve heard of proposals from a current senator, currently, a congressman proposing to cut benefits to Social Security?” he asked.
“Yes,” she replied. “Have they changed their position? Maybe.”
Biden, in particular, has focused on a plan released by Scott that would sunset all federal legislation unless reauthorized by Congress every five years. The senator, who insists he never intended to put Medicare and Social Security on the chopping block, amended his plan last month to exclude those programs explicitly.
Romney pushed back on Young’s assertion, calling such claims from the Biden administration “simply wrong” and “offensive in the extreme.”
Going further, the Utah senator pressed Young on how Biden would save the Social Security program from going insolvent over the next decade, arguing his proposed budget fails to outline a plan.
“Why does the president’s budget not lay out how you would protect Social Security?” Romney asked. “Why have you not proposed any plan to protect Social Security?”
“We look forward to seeing a plan that suggests that Social Security is off the table,” Young said. “This president believes the biggest threat to Social Security is those who want to cut it.”
The tense exchanges come as GOP lawmakers seek to balance the federal budget and eliminate the country’s deficit over the next 10 years.
Democrats and Republicans have butted heads on how to rein in federal deficits, with GOP lawmakers pushing for spending cuts as a solution. However, Republicans’ vow not to cut spending for Social Security or Medicare has put lawmakers in a tough spot as they consider what areas of the budget to slash.
In the case that lawmakers decide not to cut any Social Security spending, the government would need to reduce its noninterest spending by 41% over the next decade, according to a report by the Congressional Budget Office released earlier this week. Shielding both Social Security and Medicare from spending cuts, however, would result in the government needing to cut its noninterest spending by another 16% on top of that.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Democrats have hit Republicans’ posturing in the budget standoff, arguing their math “doesn’t add up.”
Democrats have similarly vowed not to cut spending for Social Security and Medicare, instead calling for tax increases on the wealthy to help pay for the programs. Republicans have lashed out against those proposals, maintaining the country’s budget proposal is a “spending problem” rather than a revenue one.