Former Vice President Joe Biden is proposing that the federal government spend $7 trillion in new outlays — three times what former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proposed in new spending in her unsuccessful bid for president in 2016.
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Biden has developed a massive spending plan that includes policies aimed at dealing with racial inequality and “systemic racism”:
Mr. Biden’s plan to address what he frequently calls “systemic racism” is grafted onto nearly all aspects of the $7 trillion-plus in new federal spending that the former vice president has proposed for the next 10 years, according to campaign and think-tank estimates. That is triple the new spending that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton proposed in her 2016 campaign for president.
The Biden campaign has specified about $4 trillion in tax increases to help pay for his proposals, chiefly by raising rates on corporations, investments and high earners. President Trump has warned the big tax hikes would snuff out any signs of economic recovery from the coronavirus downturn. Other critics worry the plans will exacerbate the record government deficits resulting from Mr. Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and the massive pandemic spending.
Clinton’s plan, by contrast, proposed $2.2 trillion in spending on social programs and infrastructure, most of it paid for by raising taxes:
Clinton’s proposals call for $2.2 trillion in new spending over a 10-year period, with plans that would allow in about a million more immigrants a year. She’s looking to boost spending on infrastructure and education, as well as providing paid family and medical leave, increasing the minimum wage, and investing in economic development and research.
To pay for her proposals, she’s calling for a near-equal amount of taxation, with the burden placed primarily on the shoulders of corporations and those making more than $300,000 a year. Clinton’s plans rely primarily on Keynesian demand-side solutions, while Trumps’ are more focused on supply-side tax cuts.
The scale of Biden’s proposals underscores the radical aims of his economic agenda, which has veered sharply to the left under the Biden-Sanders “Unity” Platform.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, is available for pre-order. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.