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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
The fiscal and economic health of the country continues to deteriorate under President Joe Biden and a Democratic-led Senate that refuses to help the GOP-controlled House curb spending.
According to the U.S. Treasury, the government so far this fiscal year has run a budget deficit of $381 billion, which is a 13 percent increase over the same period of time last year, Just the News reported.
Congress approved a “laddered” continuing resolution in November, with a final expiration set for February 2. Some conservative House Republicans are advocating for cuts in federal spending to address the budget deficit.
However, the details of the proposed cuts are not yet clear. It’s believed that any spending reduction may face challenges in the Democratic-controlled Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has criticized past GOP efforts to cut domestic spending levels, Just the News added.
Scott Hodge, president emeritus and senior policy adviser at the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax policy 501(c)(3) nonprofit, expressed concern over the U.S. Treasury’s report noting the increase in the deficit compared to November 2022. He told Just the News that this indicates that the U.S. government is moving in the wrong direction in terms of fiscal policy.
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“It is being driven by federal spending, which is up by $152 billion, a 17% increase compared to the same month in 2022. The monthly deficit would have been worse if decent economic growth hadn’t boosted federal tax collections by $108 billion, or 19%,” Hodge said.
“The problem with the federal budget is basic math—the growth in spending continues to outpace the growth in tax collections. This is why our national debit is heading toward $34 trillion. It cannot go on forever without serious economic consequences,” he noted further.
Maya MacGuineas, head of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, agreed with Hodge.
“The longer we allow our debt to worsen, the less room we ultimately have to respond to the kinds of global emergencies we’re seeing in the world today,” she told the outlet.
“This leaves policymakers with a choice: make the hard choices today by paying for our priorities and putting the national debt on a sustainable trajectory, or saddle the next generation with an even worse situation,” she said.
Several recent polls have shown that a majority of Americans blame Biden for what they perceive as worsening personal finances.
In late October, for instance, one poll found that only 39 percent of voters in four key swing states—Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina—have confidence in the president’s ability to handle the economy, RealClearPolitics reported.
Steve Cortes, the chairman and founder of the League of American Workers, said in a column posted to the site that the reason 77 percent of the voters surveyed said that the nation is on the wrong track is because of the economy.
Of the 39 percent that had a favorable opinion of the president’s handling of the economy, a mere 9 percent said they gave him “strong approval.”
“So, despite the propaganda of media apologists and cherry-picking of a small set of data points that appear temporarily uplifting, voters clearly understand their tough economic slog and place blame squarely upon Biden and his allies,” the author said.
“In fact, in separate polling from Gallup going back seven decades, Republicans have never before enjoyed a larger edge on the primary issue of the day, the economy. Combining that survey with this new LAW poll in battleground states, the harsh reality of economic anxiety becomes clearer, especially for citizens of modest means,” he said.
“Our new poll revealed, for example, just how worried workers are about the erosion of their earning power and their subsequent inability to pay soaring housing costs for rents or mortgages.
