Brookhaven Daily Leader
Mississippi senators pan Biden’s proposed budget
Published 3:04 pm Thursday, March 9, 2023
By Brett Campbell
President Joe Biden, who has spoken at the National Prayer Breakfast the past two years, is set to do so again.
U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), of Brookhaven, and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) have panned President Joe Biden’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget plan that relies on massive tax increases, more federal spending, and bogus deficit cutting gimmicks, according to Hyde-Smith.
“The best thing about President Biden’s 2024 budget wish list is that it’s dead on arrival,” Hyde-Smith said. “It is not the serious fiscal blueprint that we need as a nation to deal with the national debt, deficits, national defense, and other critical problems facing the American people. Instead, the President and his administration seem to be divorced from reality by producing a budget plan that doubles down on the runaway spending and taxes that characterized the first half of the Biden presidency.”
Hyde-Smith, who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, introduced a constitutional balanced budget amendment in February.
“In real terms, this budget will do nothing to help produce fiscally responsible spending bills or a credible plan for tackling our debt issues,” she said. “I hope more reasonable heads will come together as we begin work on the budget and appropriations process for FY2024.”
Wicker said the budget proposes significant new taxes.
“President Biden’s budget proves that his priorities are increasingly out of touch with reality,” Wicker said. “A $2 trillion tax hike would be a wet blanket for our economy and cost jobs. His so-called deficit reduction plan is a cynical ploy to distract from his administration’s inflationary tax and spending sprees.”
Wicker, who is ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the proposed budget fails to invest adequately in national defense.
“The President’s defense budget is woefully inadequate and disappointing. It does not even resource his own National Defense Strategy to protect our country from growing threats around the world,” he said. “This defense budget is a serious indication of President Biden’s failure to prioritize national security.”
Accounting for inflation, the President has asked Congress to cut military spending for three years in a row, despite a worsening threat environment. Wicker, along with overwhelming bipartisan majorities in Congress, has voted twice to override the President’s defense budget and align it with the United States’ national strategy.
“This budget has no chance of becoming reality,” Wicker said.
Read a “Fast Facts: Tax Hikes in President Biden’s FY2024 Budget” paper produced by the Senate Finance Committee here.