Senate Republicans Take Aim at Biden’s ‘Bloated’ Budget

Senate Republicans are not approving of President Joe Biden’s 2024 budget plan and have accused the administration of reckless spending. Senator John Thune (R-NC) led a press conference stating that Republicans agreed that the president’s budget spends, taxes, borrows too much, and undervalues national security. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) added that Biden’s economic policies had already caused irreversible harm to the U.S., with families across the country living in a state of stress. Barrasso warned that Biden’s ‘bloated’ budget would only add to it and that the president and Democrats were ‘completely out of touch’ with the American people.

Democrats Up In Arms

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) strongly criticized House Republicans for hesitating to raise the debt ceiling during the confusion in the global banking system after the Silicon Valley Bank collapsed. Schumer claims that undermining the full faith and credit of the U.S. is supremely reckless and is threatening a global economic crisis over the debt limit. Schumer is urging the GOP to raise the debt ceiling ‘without strings attached.’ The national debt ceiling is currently at more than $31 trillion, and in January, the Treasury Department had to take ‘extraordinary measures’ to prevent default when the government reached the limit. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned of ‘catastrophic’ consequences if the debt limit is not raised by this summer. Republicans argue that significant spending cuts are necessary to ease the financial burden on future generations and have proposed capping discretionary spending for fiscal year 2024 at 2022 levels.

Senator Thune pushed back on Schumer’s accusations, stating that Senate Democrats had yet to present their budget proposal. Thune stated that they welcomed the opportunity to vote on the president’s budget, and the American people would hate it when they found out what was in it.