STANFORD, California ¨C U.S. President Joe Biden insists that his $3.5 trillion ($5 trillion without the budget gimmicks) ¡°human infrastructure¡± bill ¡°costs zero dollars¡± ¡ª nothing, nil, nada. While every president makes foolish statements, this must be the most economically illiterate presidential utterance since Jimmy Carter¡¯s demand that the U.S. Federal Reserve lower interest rates in the midst of surging double-digit inflation. In Carter¡¯s case, the result was a dollar crisis. What will come of the Biden administration¡¯s foray into nonsense?
Biden, along with other Democratic leaders such as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, claims that the plan will be ¡°fully paid for¡± with tax hikes. Apparently, the administration thinks that only budget deficits impose costs (which runs contrary to the ¡°deficits are costless¡± argument offered by other ¡°progressives¡±). Yet it has long been clear that the bill would leave a $1.5 trillion to $3 trillion hole to be filled with debt even after the tax hikes.
In any case, Americans aren¡¯t buying it. Polls show that roughly half want less government and lower taxes, and that three-quarters of Americans doubt that the $3.5 trillion bill would make them ¡°better off.¡± Perhaps not surprisingly, a majority now disapproves of the Biden administration.
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