Senate Democrats Finally Unveil Budget
in Federal Budget, Federal debt and deficit
After four long years, the Senate Democrats finally produced a budget this afternoon. They put it off as long as possible, but finally had to make the document public. What is striking about the budget is that it contains absolutely nothing that is new. It calls for more spending, higher taxes, more debt. It never comes close to balancing. It reforms nothing and changes nothing. It simply demands more money from the taxpayers, and spends all that and more. The Democrats are like a Neanderthal man found frozen in ice: unchanging, immobile, out of date and–intellectually, at least–dead.
Here is the summary of the budget that was passed out by Chairman Patty Murray:
For FY 2014, the Democrats propose to spend a little over $3.7 trillion, an increase of $162 billion over the current baseline for FY 2013, and $116 billion over the Democrats’ FY 2013 budget number, which contemplates new “stimulus” spending. The Democrats will yammer on and on about spending cuts, but the fact is that spending increases every year–$3.846 trillion in FY 2015, $4.053 trillion in FY 2016, and on up to $5.687 trillion in FY 2023, a 62% increase over the current level for FY 2013. The only thing that doesn’t increase is defense spending, which is $650 billion in FY 2013 and declines to $567 billion by FY 2015.
After four long years, the Senate Democrats finally produced a budget this afternoon. They put it off as long as possible, but finally had to make the document public. What is striking about the budget is that it contains absolutely nothing that is new. It calls for more spending, higher taxes, more debt. It never comes close to balancing. It reforms nothing and changes nothing. It simply demands more money from the taxpayers, and spends all that and more. The Democrats are like a Neanderthal man found frozen in ice: unchanging, immobile, out of date and–intellectually, at least–dead.
Here is the summary of the budget that was passed out by Chairman Patty Murray:
For FY 2014, the Democrats propose to spend a little over $3.7 trillion, an increase of $162 billion over the current baseline for FY 2013, and $116 billion over the Democrats’ FY 2013 budget number, which contemplates new “stimulus” spending. The Democrats will yammer on and on about spending cuts, but the fact is that spending increases every year–$3.846 trillion in FY 2015, $4.053 trillion in FY 2016, and on up to $5.687 trillion in FY 2023, a 62% increase over the current level for FY 2013. The only thing that doesn’t increase is defense spending, which is $650 billion in FY 2013 and declines to $567 billion by FY 2015.
The Democrats’ budget obviously contemplates tax increases, but it is hard to figure out what they are. The political document that accompanied the budget refers vaguely to closing loopholes that benefit the rich. Whatever those tax increases turn out to be, the Republican staff on the Budget Committee has calculated that they add up to around $1.5 trillion over the ten-year life of the budget.
If the United States is in the midst of a fiscal crisis, the Democrats apparently are unaware of it. Their budget happily piles trillions more in debt on our children’s backs. Maybe they figure their own kids are rich, so the debt won’t matter to them. In any event, they plan on a $693 billion deficit in FY 2014. Deficits of at least $407 billion continue thereafter, and rise in the out-years. But those projections are meaningless, as they depend on how the economy performs over the next decade. Which will be poorly, if the Democrats’ plans are put into effect. Still, if you take their word for it, they intend to add more than $7 trillion to the national debt.
It is easy to see why for four years, the Democrats didn’t want to put their plans on paper. Their budget reveals a party that has no ideas, no solutions, no commitments except an unwavering opposition to any sort of reform. A party that, unchecked, will lead the United States into bankruptcy.
UPDATE: As I noted above, budget projections after the first couple of years are generally worthless because on the revenue side, they depend entirely on GDP projections. Reader Mike McNary did the math on the Murray budget:
I ran the GDP numbers they provided:
(year, % GDP growth)
2014, 3.81%
2015, 5.92%
2016, 6.58%
2017, 6.20%
2018, 4.93%
2019, 4.52%
2020, 4.40%
2021, 4.32%
2022, 4.26%
2023, 4.23%
So the Democrats intend to add $7 trillion to the deficit, but that outrageous number gets even worse if the economy doesn’t perform like Lazarus, starting next year. Who do they think Barack Obama is, Ronald Reagan? Those projections are a joke.
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