Biden’s Spending Plan Biggest Since McGovern

Joe Biden’s proposed $5.4 trillion spending binge is “the largest proposed spending increase by a presidential nominee since George McGovern,” according to a new analysis.

Biden received the Democratic Presidential nomination by appearing to be the most moderate candidate amid a pool of radical socialists. However, don’t be fooled: Biden’s big government economic plans would push Washington spending to its highest level in decades, according to a new analysis conducted by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

“The former vice president has proposed a total of $5.4 trillion in new spending over the next 10 years, according to an analysis published Monday by the Penn Wharton Budget Model, a nonpartisan group at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. That includes historically high allocations for sectors from education and health to child-care and housing.

Mr. Biden’s proposed budget is more than double that of Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic nominee. It is a fraction of the $30 trillion to $50 trillion spending plans that progressive Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren laid out during the Democratic primary. But since effectively sealing the nomination in March, Mr. Biden’s plan has grown in response to the pandemic, the lockdowns, and the resulting recession.

The plan also reflects a nod to Mr. Sanders, who has prodded Mr. Biden to move closer to his agenda to help solidify the support of the progressive wing. “I’ve talked to Joe on a number of occasions and I think he recognizes the suffering that is taking place out there right now,” says Mr. Sanders. “I believe he is prepared to respond to that pain once he’s elected president.”

If enacted, the Biden budget would elevate federal spending to 24% of gross domestic product by 2030, according to the Wharton study. Outside the two big crisis-driven spending spikes—the budgets swollen by the 2009 financial crisis and the 2020 pandemic—that would be the biggest federal budget going back more than half a century, according to Wharton.

“This is the largest proposed spending increase by a presidential nominee since George McGovern,” says Kent Smetters, a Wharton economics professor who oversees the budget model project. He was referring to the losing 1972 Democratic presidential candidate who ran on a liberal platform that included a guaranteed minimum income for all Americans.

The Wharton team based its estimates on the Biden campaign’s public proposals, and on discussions with Biden aides. Other analysts have come up with higher tallies for Mr. Biden’s proposed total spending, but those appear to double-count campaign proposals repeated at different times for different purposes. The Wharton estimates attempt to adjust for that duplication.

The Biden campaign said it couldn’t confirm the accuracy of the Wharton numbers, nor would it make public its own cost estimates.”

As Vice President, Joe Biden oversaw the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression and eight years of stagnant wage growth. Despite his record of failure, Biden is promising to repeat his mistakes, doubling down on his failed, old, liberal ideas of raising taxes, more red tape, smothering American-made energy and sacrificing jobs. President Trump is the only candidate who knows how to fire up our country’s economic engine policies that ensure economic prosperity, that are pro-worker and that put America first.