Biden’s $5.8 trillion budget blasted as ‘fiscally reckless’

NEWS AND OPINION:

There was once a popular bumper sticker that offered this terse advice about a certain president: “Don’t tell Obama what comes after a trillion.”

The eight words, of course, referred to then-President Barack Obama’s spending and the potential impact on the U.S. economy. The same advice could be directed at President Biden, who might be very interested in what comes after a trillion — which is a quadrillion. It has 15 zeros and looks like this: 1,000,000,000,000,000.

Which brings us to Mr. Biden’s spending at this very moment.

“The first line in President Joe Biden’s budget statement, released Monday, is ‘Budgets are statements of values, and the budget I am releasing today sends a clear message.’ Biden’s right that his $5.8 trillion budget sends a clear message. The message is that he will say and do anything, no matter how disconnected from reality it is. The rest of his statement is itself full of lies and half-truths,” declares an Issues & Insights editorial published 24 hours after Mr. Biden’s big reveal.

“For example, Biden brags that he’s cut the deficit in half in his first year, making it ‘the largest one-year reduction in the deficit in U.S. history.’ That’s technically true but completely irrelevant. Deficits ballooned as a result of the pandemic shutdown and the bipartisan rescue legislation enacted under President Donald Trump. Biden forgets that he added trillions more to the pile with his ‘rescue plan’ and the bloated infrastructure bill,” the editorial continued.

“Plus, it’s Biden’s own budget that calls for deficits to remain well above $1 trillion – and climbing – over the next decade. By 2032, Biden’s ‘fiscally responsible’ budget pegs the deficit at $1.8 trillion, or 4.8% of GDP – and still growing. (The post-World War II average is 2.6%),” it said.

The editorial cited many more examples that would put the new budget in a one-of-a-kind category.

“We could go on and on, but you get the picture. This is quite possibly the most fiscally reckless budget in history. That’s the real message Biden’s budget sends,” it concluded.

Find the editorial at IssuesInsights.com.

FORGET THAT LOW-HANGING FRUIT

Enreach UK, a British communications and technology firm has advice for business folk — and perhaps politicians, public relations advisors and policy strategists as well. Drop your jargon.

The organization polled 1,500 British office workers to determine the 25 most irritating words and phrases that are bandied about in meetings, memos and pep talks.

“Blue sky thinking” came in at No. 1.

“Think outside the box,” “low-hanging fruit,” “touch base” and “stay ahead of the curve,” made up the “top” five in the poll, according to a report in The Daily Mail.

“Game changer,” “Drill down,” “ballpark figure” and “playing hardball” were in the middle of the no-no list — along with “riding the wave” and “level the playing field.”

Meanwhile, “on your radar” was deemed the least offensive phrase, at No. 25.

And the most revealing finding of the research? The poll found that 90% of the respondents believe that people who use such jargon are trying to hide the fact that they don’t understand what they are talking about.

Half of the respondents also thought that jargon users were trying too hard to impress people.

PENCE’S HANDY SUMMARY

Former Vice President Mike Pence, also a possible 2024 presidential hopeful, offers a handy summary of the state of U.S. security during President Biden’s tenure in the White House.

“The reality is from the first days of the Biden administration you literally saw the reopening of the Iran nuclear deal, you saw an administration that stood silent while rockets showered down on our most cherished ally, Israel. You saw an administration shut down the Keystone Pipeline in our country and then approved the Nord Stream 2 pipeline for the Russians to Europe. And, of course, the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. I believe all send a message of weakness to the world — and weakness arouses evil,” Mr. Pence tells Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel.

He appeared Tuesday on “Real America,” her weekly podcast.

FOXIFIED

Fox News Channel finished the first quarter of 2022 as the cable realm’s most-watched network, drawing an average primetime audience of 2.6 million viewers during the three-month period.

The network is also marking the 81st consecutive quarter as the top-rated cable news channel, besting MSNBC, which has an average audience of 1.2 million primetime viewers, and CNN, which has 857,000 viewers.

Fox News also delivered 97 of the top 100 cable news telecasts for the quarter, according to Nielsen.

Among the standouts overall: “The Five” drew an average 3.7 million viewers, followed by “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (3.6 million), “Jesse Watters Primetime” (3.2 million) and “Hannity” (3.1 million).

Late-night talk show host Greg Gutfeld will mark his first year on the air on April 5; he averages 2 million viewers a night, outpacing such competition as ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”

POLL DU JOUR

• 45% of U.S. adults say the U.S. allocates “about the right amount of money” for defense spending; 37% of Republicans, 47% of independents and 52% of Democrats agree.

• 35% of those who voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020 and 50% of those who voted for President Biden also agree.

• 29% overall say the U.S. allocates “too much” for defense spending; 14% of Republicans, 28% of independents and 40% of Democrats agree.

• 12% of Trump voters and 42% of Biden voters also agree.

• 26% overall say the U.S. allocated “too little” for defense spending; 49% of Republicans, 25% of independents and 9% of Democrats agree.

• 53% of Trump voters and 8% of Biden voters also agree.

SOURCE: An Economist/YouGov poll of 1,500 U.S. adults conducted March 19-22.

• Follow Jennifer Harper on Twitter @HarperBulletin.