So, everyone is fawning over how great and ambitious Biden's agenda is, going on about how much he's spending and how he has a "$6 trillion budget" including a "$4 trillion spending bill", and how it's all going to be paid for by taxes on the rich.
But, if you've been following me, you know Biden's plans aren't that impressive in practice. I mean, for the record, this year's budget is $4.8 trillion, not including the stimulus bill. 2020's was $6.5 trillion due to all of the pandemic stuff. And looking at 2019, before this began, it was $4.4 trillion.
Also, Biden's actual agenda, those two programs he's pushing, the infrastructure and childcare package? That's $4 trillion over 10 years. It's $400 billion a year, and while it's paid for by the rich, that's all he's spending.
To focus on the 2021 budget, where is this money going? Well, social security, medicare, and medicaid, take up a large portion of it, making up a combined $2.3 trillion of it, so almost half the budget. I'm sure the 2022 numbers will only go up. We spend $705 billion in military spending. $600 billion is in various welfare programs I mention cutting in my UBI plan (SNAP, TANF, EITC, etc). And then we spend several hundred billion on various departments that do various things.
$4.8 trillion. That's the baseline. Biden increases it to $6 trillion.
Only $400 billion are from his signature plans. Biden does raise spending for various things, a slight defense boost. Perhaps raising some budgets for various agencies. This CNN article mentions a bunch of small things he does which add up. Some of which is quite good. Stuff like beefing up the CDC, investing in research to try to cure certain diseases, stuff related to schools, and housing, etc.
But, in the grand scheme of things, and this is where I'm critical, I feel like many of these things just amount to band aid fixes here and there They seem to add up roughly to another $110 billion per year. So half a trillion dollars, less than 10% of the budget, that's Biden's grand agenda.
It's okay. Like, I know I'm overly critical of Biden, a lot of the stuff he's pushing for is stuff that arguably is good and needed. But at the end of the day, I'm not sure how much this actually amounts to anything. It just seems like standard democratic incremental fixes that people don't really notice in practice. And I just felt like calling that out.
Biden's administration is doing some nice things here and there, but I can't help but feel like he isn't really addressing the big problems of the day. He's doing things, but when I think about my top concerns, outside of the infrastructure thing and free community college (watered down from free 4 year college + student debt forgiveness), I cant help but feel like he isn't really touching my biggest priorities.
I know, i know, i'm weird, i'm independent, and I'm a bit of an ideologue. But I can't help but feel like on causes more near and dear to my heart, Biden is kind of flopping. And his agenda, despite being hyped up by the media as being the next FDR, is more FDR lite at best.
It's okay. Like, I gave his presidency like a C so far, and a C he maintains. Average. Not great, doesn't blow my socks off. Not a failure either. Just meh. And that's what I think of this budget. I just wanted to put everything he's doing into context. It's not a $6 trillion plan unless you account spending that would happen regardless. It's more like a $500 billion plan. But that doesn't sound as ambitious. But that's what it is.
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