This article is from last year. The good news is that this spending plan was cut in half. The bad news is that it is still $1.7 trillion (to start with).
“[This is] a framework that will create millions of jobs, grow the economy, invest in our nation and our people," Biden said in a speech.But a new Ivy League analysis destroys the president's entire argument for his spending agenda.
It's hard to imagine the sheer amount of money being borrowed and stolen for this spending bill. The cost is greater than the cost of the New Deal when adjusted for inflation. The Biden administration is claiming that tax increases (which by the way would include making the U.S. have the highest top income tax rate among developed nations) will pay for this and all this spending will in fact add nothing to the deficit.
However, that is not what actual economists say. Actual economists say that under a best case scenario in which none of the short term spending authorizations are reauthorized (highly unlikely), it would still lead to a 2 percent increase in government debt. 2 percent sounds like small potatoes until you realize how big government debt already is. 2 percent amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars. And that is a best case scenario.
Under a more realistic scenario in which the real cost is closer to $4 trillion, government debt would increase by 25 percent. That is terrifying. In either case, this spending is certainly not all paid for. The problem with these tax hikes and extra borrowing is that this money ultimately has to come out of the economy elsewhere. It leads not to economic growth but to economic inefficiency. The result will be higher taxes and more inflation reducing the real income of most people, even those who do not see direct tax increases.