Watchdog Slams Reckless $3.5 Trillion Budget Deal

For Immediate Release                                                                                              Contact: Courtney Mattison (202-525-7492)

August 9, 2021                                                                                                                 

Washington, D.C. – The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) strongly opposes the $3.5 trillion partisan budget proposed by Senate Democrats and supported by the White Hosue. This bill paves the way for profligate spending, harmful tax hikes, and will only exacerbate the nearly $30 trillion national debt.

In response, TPA President David Williams offered the following statement:

“In less than a week, the Senate has offered two massive spending bills that will be financed on the backs of hard-working Americans.  This $3.5 trillion budget resolution expands the size and scope of the federal government’s tax and spending power. It is a poor reflection on the Senate that this legislation will probably pass with hardly any substantive public debate.

“This legislation is no doubt a tool to be able to use the budget reconciliation process when it comes time to pass an accompanying spending bill. This is only for the sake of eliminating opposition and eliminating the need for bipartisan compromise in an evenly divided Senate. If Democrats pass this bloated piece of legislation, it will mean that ‘the world’s greatest deliberative body,’ is just a rubber stamp for more spending and higher taxes.

“On the heels of a destructive global pandemic, the focus of lawmakers at all levels should be on recovery and mitigating the damage that’s been done. Instead, this bill is filled with divisive agenda items that will only plunge the nation further into debt.

“The bill includes a Medicare expansion that would increase the size and scope of a program already approaching insolvency. It also comes along with a provision authorizing the government to ‘negotiate’ with drug makers on prices. No negotiation can be fair when one party – the government – has a monopoly on force. This will turn into government rate setting almost instantly.

“This monstrosity also entails one of the largest expansions of the social welfare state in recent memory. The bill includes half a trillion dollars on ‘free’ four-year education. This is just the latest in a series of misguided steps by the federal government to increase the cost of college education for students and families. Also included is a Pell Grant expansion that would further exacerbate the issue.

“The budget includes billions in tax credits for clean energy. Finding viable, cleaner sources of energy is indeed a worthy goal. In many cases, these technologies have found ways to compete in the marketplace. At this point, further tax credits and subsidies only serve to give them an upper hand and disadvantage those who rely on more traditional sources. This is no longer about clean energy. It is about picking winners and losers to benefit special interest groups.

“Unfortunately, the only efforts made to minimize the impact to the national debt are to implement a series of crippling tax hikes. These taxes will punish success, make America less competitive abroad, pick winners and losers in the energy sector, and disincentivize innovation and investment into the economy. These are hardly goals our elected leaders should be pursuing.

“Provisions like these should be considered on their own merit for the whole nation to see. Instead they will be lumped together into one massive mega-deal that few – if any – lawmakers will actually take the time to read. It is for these reasons – among many others – that elected officials and the American people should strongly oppose this budget package.”

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Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis and dissemination of information on the government’s effects on the economy.