Budgets in Washington seem about as meaningful as budgets for regular people.
You might have a budget in mind for yourself — a certain number of dollars per week for gas, food and lodging. But the budget, on its own, doesn’t exactly stop you from buying a latte you didn’t budget for. You don’t need the latte. You may not be able to afford the latte. And yet a latte you shall have. Think of that, in the inverse and on steroids, when you read about President Joe Biden’s $6 trillion budget proposal. Coffee drinkers might be blowing through their budgets on the back end, but Biden has made his budget for the US so massive that you can only imagine it shrinking as it approaches law. He needs the okay from Congress, which will have the opportunity in the coming months to write its own budget. It seems nearly impossible that Democrats have a majority in the Senate for anything close to what Biden is proposing — but it will be the starting point for negotiations. A massive investment in America. The President wants to build up roads and bridges, transition the country away from a fuel-based economy, granting kids more guaranteed education and helping parents pay for childcare. Unlike the latte, an unnecessary perk, Biden will say his priorities are investments in the future and the just rewards for Americans who work and pay the taxes that pay for these programs. This is how they’ll benefit from the spending: Educating kids will improve the workforce. Helping parents pay for childcare will make them more productive. Transitioning the country away from fossil fuels will battle climate change and make the US more competitive with countries like China. A list of priorities that have little chance of happening. Biden’s budget is important because it formally lays out his priorities, even though it has exactly zero chance of becoming law. Congress doesn’t even vote on it, although lawmakers will apply it to the appropriations process and consider elements in separate pieces of legislation. It’s an opening bid and will help put Democrats on Capitol Hill on the same page. Their argument is that a government working harder for more people is more important than keeping spending in check. The debt, in other words, is worth it. Massive. Trillions! There is not an appropriate word to describe the scale of this spending.
