President Joe Biden, joined by Vice President Kamala Harris, lawmakers and guests, signs the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act Bill on Thursday, June 17, 2021, in the East Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Chandler West)
Making the middle class more dependent on government seems to be Biden’s not-so-hidden agenda. Americans need to understand that the proposed entitlements from agenda Biden will result in a destructive long-term economic threat. More than one-half of Americans would be on the Federal dole. As the WSJ warns, even more disturbing is the Democrat Party’s attempt for an economic, social, and fiscal transformation via Joe Biden without a mandate from voters.
Tax increases can be repealed by a future Congress. Spending on infrastructure will slow as funding falls. The courts may block his racial preferences. But entitlements that spend automatically based on eligibility are nearly impossible to repeal, or even reform, and they represent a huge tax-and-spend wedge far into the future.
Government Reach into Family Life
Scholars John Cogan and Daniel Heil of the Hoover Institution document nearby the entitlement expansions of the Biden Families Plan. In this important piece, the authors list how far the progressive left wants to go in expanding government’s reach into American family life.
- Federal child care
- Government paid family leave
- Free community college
- Tax credit of $3,600 per child
- Permanent expansion of ObamaCare premium subsidies
- Universal pre-K, permanent expansion of the earned-income tax credit to workers without children
Dishonesty about Costs
Entitlements always start small but then soar, and The Biden Families Plan is even more dishonest than usual.
For example, Biden’s plan pretends the child tax credit ends in 2025, so its cost is $449 billion over the 10-year budget window that is used for reconciliation bills that require only 51 votes to pass the Senate.
But a future Congress will never repeal the credit. An honest accounting would show how the credit will cause the deficit to explode in year 11 and beyond and thus require 60 Senate votes to pass.
Not a Safety Net for the Poor or the Needy
(The programs) are explicitly designed to make the middle class dependent on government handouts.
Sen. Bernie Sanders and the left understand that “universal” benefits are more politically durable. The only entitlement to be reformed in our lifetimes was Aid to Families with Dependent Children, also known as welfare, in 1996. But cash welfare was never a middle-class program, and the work requirement in that reform is nowhere in the Biden Families Plan.
The WSJ recommends Mr. Cogan’s 2017, “The High Cost of Good Intentions.” Mr. Cogan book is not only “a superb history of American entitlements,” but also a harrowing read for those who fear America’s decline.
Entitlements always grow over time, as politicians add benefits and increase eligibility.
Joe Biden claims his plan is part of a budget that is “putting the nation on a fiscally responsible path.” Hardly so, continues the WSJ.
If passed, it would accelerate the pace of entitlement expansions that began in the late 1960s. Improving the safety net is one thing, but spending more than $1 trillion on mainly middle-class entitlements and financing this expenditure with debt robs future generations while enriching today’s.
Joe Biden promises his plan “doesn’t add a single penny to our deficits.” Contrary to this, warns Messrs. Cogan and Heil, Biden’s Families Plan would add more than $1 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.
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