Rep. Jason Smith: Joe Biden’s Budget Will Expose His Plan to ‘Significantly Raise Taxes on Working-Class Americans’

Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), the House Budget Committee ranking member, sent a letter to Joe Biden transition chair Ted Kaufman, noting Biden’s first budget will expose the 46th president’s plans to raise taxes on working-class Americans.

In his letter to Kaufman, Smith noted the statutory deadline for the incoming administration to submit the fiscal year 2022 budget is February 1.

Recent media reports have suggested the Trump White House has “refused to direct staff and resources to help with the incoming Biden administration’s spending plans.” However, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought has fought back against these accusations.

“Our system of government has one President and one Administration at a time,” Vought noted in a December letter to Kaufman.

Smith noted in his letter to Kaufman that the OMB has “fully complied with the laws in advising” the Biden Transition Team (BTT), including:

• Providing all pertinent, factual information on ongoing programs as requested by the BTT, in addition to taking over 45 meetings with BTT staff.
• Fully apportioning the requested $9.9 million for transition activities by the General Services Administration (GSA) within hours of the GSA providing ascertainment on November 23, 2020.
• Briefing BTT on funding streams concerning Operation Warp Speed and other COVID [Chinese coronavirus] relief efforts.

Further, Smith noted Biden’s planned proposal will be the “first true chance for the American people to see how the Biden Administration plans to pay for campaign promises and its plan to significantly raise taxes on working-class Americans to fund its agenda.”

As the highest-ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, Smith has called out Democrats’ removal of a budgetary restraint on government spending, known as the pay-as-you-go provision, or PAYGO. This would enable Democrats to spend further on climate change proposals such as the Green New Deal.

“On only day two of the 117th Congress, House Democrats are already attempting to strip Americans of the transparency they deserve in order to push through an expensive progressive wish-list,” Smith said.

“This exemption was designed as a mechanism to ram through socialist policies like the Green New Deal and other ideas aimed at hurting American workers, families, and farmers,” he added.