Biden’s $6 trillion budget plan draws partisan scorn and praise

U.S. President Joe Biden released his 2022 budget on Friday, calling for $6 trillion in spending by stitching together his most ambitious spending proposals.

Republicans criticized the increase in government spending, Democrats applauded the funding of social programs, and many third party groups applauded the president for finding ways to pay for his agenda but criticized his failure to cut the debt.

Mara Rudman, executive vice president at the Center for American Progress, a liberal group: “The President’s agenda stands in stark contrast to the recent plans offered by Congressional Republicans. Their plan largely preserves the unworkable status quo by failing to invest in clean energy, and child care, home and community based services, while also protecting tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.”

Maya MacGuineas, president of the non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: “We are encouraged that the President continues to offer concrete proposals to pay for his legislative agenda over time, and we strongly support the administration’s insistence on offsetting new spending. Yet the President’s budget takes too long to pay for his initiatives and does little to address our high and rising debt, lower health care costs, or secure major trust funds headed toward insolvency.”

Michael Peterson, CEO of the non-partisan Peter G. Peterson Foundation: “As our nation continues to recover from the pandemic, this budget proposal outlines significant investments aimed at addressing a range of national challenges. Importantly, it identifies ways to offset that new spending over the long term with various forms of revenue increases. As this year’s budget season gets under way, lawmakers should hold firm to finding ways to pay for our priorities.”

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat: “A federal budget should be a statement of our national values. President Biden’s budget is an unequivocal declaration of the value that Democrats place on America’s workers and middle class families, who are the foundation of our nation’s strength and the key to Build Back Better.”

U.S. Senator Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina: “When then-candidate Joe Biden said he wanted to ‘transform’ the nation, he wasn’t kidding. What was presented to the American people today is the most far-reaching, big-government budget proposal we have seen in decades.”

Democratic Congressman Don Beyer of Virginia, chairman of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee: “President Biden’s budget provides a clear blueprint for building a more equitable economy in the wake of the global pandemic.”

U.S. Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference: “President Biden’s budget is a recipe for mounting debt and crippling deficits. This bloated $6 trillion proposal would take our nation to its highest levels of spending and debt since we fought World War II.”

House Budget Committee Republican Leader Jason Smith, of Missouri: “President Biden’s budget is an extreme show of disrespect for America’s working-class families… It will ignore how massive government spending will have Americans paying more to put food on their tables, gas in their cars, and clothes on their backs.”