Editorial from The Citizens’ Voice, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
President Joe Biden’s proposed $6.9 trillion budget is not built to pass Congress but to demonstrate to Americans the most salient fact: The argument is about numbers but the impact is on people.
Democrats have a narrow Senate majority; Republicans narrowly hold the House. The small but loud far-right minority of the Republican caucus demands major spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling — which must be raised to pay for spending that Congress has approved in past budgets.
They have not proposed a budget, but have demanded cuts in health programs and what they call “entitlements” to begin trimming the $31 trillion national debt.
Biden has responded by proposing to decrease the national debt by more than $2 trillion over the next decade while expanding health care and other safety-net programs. He would do so through significant tax increases on wealthy individuals and corporations.
Without a budget, House debt warriors have peddled the fantasy that they can reduce the debt and the annual deficit while reducing taxes even more than they did through massive tax cuts in 2017, about 80 percent of which benefited the wealthy corporations and individuals.
That same caucus approved trillions of dollars in additional spending during the Trump administration, increasing the debt, while voting three times to increase the debt ceiling.
Biden’s shrewd move was to ask the people themselves if they are more interested in a fight over numbers or a fight over America’s economic and social fabric.
