Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young testified on March 29 about President Joe Biden’s proposed $5.8 trillion fiscal year 2023 budget, which was released a day earlier, more than a month after it was due on the first Monday of February.
Young spoke before a hybrid hearing of the House Committee on the Budget, which includes 21 Democrats and 16 Republicans.
According to that same poll, just 22 percent of respondents characterized conditions in the economy as excellent or good, while 35 percent described those conditions as “only fair” and 44 percent termed economic conditions as poor.
Democrats on the committee struck an optimistic tone on the economy’s performance under Biden.
“During President Biden’s first year in office, GDP grew at the fastest rate in nearly four decades,” said Committee Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.).
“By what amount is the deficit projected to fall?” Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) asked Young in regard to the FY 2023 budget.
She responded, “$1.3 trillion, the largest decline year over year.”
Boyle later added that the results of Biden’s economic policies are “a record to be proud of.”
Republicans such as Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) took issue with that narrative.
“I think it’s disingenuous to compare this budget to last year and say, ‘Well, the deficit’s down and growth’s up,’“ McClintock said. ”Deficits are down only compared to the most irresponsible spending spree in American history, that has produced the worst inflation rate in 40 years.
“Growth is up only compared to the Lockdown Left’s draconian COVID policies, that took a wrecking ball to our economy and utterly failed to slow the spread of the pandemic.”
The committee’s ranking Republican member, Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), also disputed the notion that Biden’s budget would be fiscally sound.
“This proposal over the next 10 years actually increases the national debt by $16 trillion, which is going to have more than a trillion-dollar deficit every year for the next 10 years, which is the highest sustained amount of deficits over the next 10 years,” Smith said, adding that the budget would lead to a $45 trillion national debt by 2032.
“Analysis of the tax increase in the president’s budget shows they will lead to fewer jobs in the country, and a reduction in wages,” Smith said later.
“I would be interested in seeing your analysis. The president has been very clear he will not subscribe to trickle-down economics,” Young responded.
Smith didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment about the source of his numbers.
As part of the exchange with Young, Smith pointed out that the budget projects low inflation over the next 10 years, even as inflation this year has accelerated to a four-decade high.
Young told Smith that inflation projections in the newly released budget were “locked in early November”—almost half a year ago.
A particularly heated exchange pitted McClintock against both Young and Yarmuth, after McClintock listed a number of his concerns about the budget.
“I’ve got just one question,“ McClintock said. ”This administration has admitted more than 1 million impoverished illegal immigrants into the interior so far, in addition to half a million gotaways. ... How much is this costing local, state and federal taxpayers?”
“Thank you for the diatribe,” Young responded.
“I beg your pardon?” McClintock replied.
After a few seconds of crosstalk, during which McClintock reiterated his single question, Yarmuth interrupted by chastising his GOP colleague.
“If you’ll let the witness respond, then we can move on, but you can’t continue to debate her when your time’s expired,” he said.
“I look forward to the support you have for the 5 percent increase at [Department of Homeland Security] that would allow us to manage this—” Young began.
She was interrupted by McClintock: “So it’s in your ‘don’t know, don’t care’ file. I get it. Thank you.”
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) praised Biden’s spending proposal.
“For the last 10 years, we’ve really had an austerity budget,” she said.
Schakowsky went on to suggest that Congress might move to grant the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) additional funding, even beyond the 16 percent additional funding for it in the new budget.
“The agency has really been starved of resources,” Smith said. “If Congress wants to start that rebuild faster, we’d be supportive.”
Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) noted that a baseline Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report hadn’t yet been produced, noting that CBO Director Phillip Swagel had met with him and others individually.
Burgess said the CBO told him it hadn’t yet generated a report because OMB hadn’t provided the numbers.
“Now, perhaps, that OMB has produced the president’s budget, we will get to hear from the Congressional Budget Office,” Burgess said.
Young confirmed one of Swagel’s statements to Burgess—specifically, that federal income tax collections under the Trump-era 2017 tax bill have been at all-time highs, even during the pandemic.
“Even under what people are describing as a dreadful and unfair taxing system, it is producing historic levels of revenue, more so than the pre-2017 tax law that had been in place for 31 years, greater than that produced—is that correct?” Burgess asked Young.
“We think the wealthiest did quite well during the pandemic,” she responded.
Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.), who represents a portion of northern Virginia near Washington, told Young she appreciated the budget’s significant increase in pay for the “tens of thousands of federal workers” in her district.
“I was pleasantly surprised to see that its 4.6 percent,” she said. “I along with a number of people from the Metro region have been advocating for 5.1 percent, but I think that 4.6 is the biggest increase in many decades, is that correct?”
Young responded: “I’ve been a federal worker in some form or another for 21 years. I can’t remember an increase this large in recent memory.”
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