EDITORIAL: Biden proposes another massive spending spree

Ronald Reagan once said that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help. We’ll add that, these days, the seven most ludicrous words in the English language are: I’m Joe Biden, and I’m fiscally responsible.

The Biden administration this week unveiled its budget blueprint for fiscal 2025. It raises taxes, hikes spending to pandemic-era levels and embraces a federal public sector that devours more than a quarter of gross domestic product. And yet Mr. Biden wants taxpayers to believe this represents a prudent financial path forward.

Indeed, the president claims his spending plan will trim deficits by $3 trillion over the next decade. And if you believe that, we’ve got some tony beachfront property in Gabbs to show you.

In fact, “the level of borrowing under the president’s budget,” the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget pointed out, “would be unprecedented outside a war or national emergency.”

Mr. Biden seeks to spend $7.3 trillion, an 18 percent increase over two years. For perspective, Washington burned through $3.65 trillion in fiscal 2015, about half the amount this administration proposes to spend next year.

Yet the president desperately tries to couch this spending blowout as an example of restraint, bragging about deficit reduction. His own projections, however, call for $16.3 trillion of red ink over the next 10 years and a $1.8 trillion hole in fiscal 2025. Only in the Neverland world of Washington could a president pat himself on the back for borrowing “only” $16 trillion in the coming decade.

“The White House should have the intellectual honesty,” Reason’s Eric Boehm wrote, “to tell the American people that it expects them to continue financing an unstable pile of debt that will burden their children and sap long-term economic growth.”

It’s worth noting that the administration’s numbers are based on optimistic growth projections and low inflation. In other words, if future Biden tax hikes pass Congress and put a crimp in investment — as they are likely to do — the rosy scenarios evaporate and the raging river of red ink turns into an ocean.

“The price tag of President Biden’s proposed budget,” a House Republican statement argued, “is yet another glaring reminder of this administration’s insatiable appetite for reckless spending,” adding that the president’s proposal is a “road map to accelerate America’s decline.”

Mr. Biden’s budget has no chance of passing this Congress. But for Mr. Biden to claim his proposed spending spree is the work of a deficit hawk is an affront to common sense and the American taxpayer.