Biden's budget plan is the wrong recipe for America

President Joe Biden frequently says, "Don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value." Well, as Biden's recently released budget proposal for next year makes clear, he is once again doubling down on the very same failed policies that are bankrupting America, waging war on U.S. energy, and fueling the most painful economic crisis in decades. There's no question that his budget plan is the wrong recipe for America.

Biden's budget proposal includes a $7 trillion tax increase -- the largest in U.S. history. By refusing to reauthorize former President Donald Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, individuals who make under $400,000 would get hit with crushing tax increases in 2025. His plan also calls for $100 billion in new death taxes, which would be devastating to family-owned farms and small businesses. And to make sure hardworking Americans pay up, he wants a $104 billion additional cash infusion for the Internal Revenue Service to help fund its already huge number of agents. To put that massive increase into perspective, that's more than seven times the amount than what the tax collecting agency had in its budget request for 2023 and even more than the historic $80 billion windfall Washington Democrats gave the agency in 2021.

His budget makes clear that he has no plans to abandon his radical, costly energy agenda. His call for $120 billion in new taxes on U.S. energy would kill jobs and drive-up costs for everything from the gas you put in your car and the fuel to heat your home to the products you purchase at the grocery or hardware store. The bottom line is that more American energy means more American jobs and lower costs for consumers.

Killing American-made energy isn't the only way his budget delivers for climate extremists and wealthy donors. Biden wants to deploy a 50,000-person Climate Corps, which amounts to a taxpayer-funded jobs program for Leftist activists. Taxpayers would have to foot the bill for ridiculous things like $4.4 billion for the Department of Homeland Security -- the agency in charge of keeping our nation safe -- for "climate resilience programs" and $11 billion for his administration's so-called commitment to international climate finance. But that's not all -- he also wants nearly a billion dollars to expand the Environmental Protection Agency, giving it additional resources to target and harass farmers, ranchers, and landowners.

Rather than make health care more affordable, Biden just offers false promises of Medicare solvency, inflated Obamacare subsidies for the wealthy, and Washington price controls that undermine American innovation and cut off access to life-saving medicines. And crucially, the president's budget projects that his lack of solutions will result in a $17 billion cut to the Social Security Trust Funds over the next decade. Yet despite this looming crisis, the president has proposed that the Social Security Administration, which is currently facing a more than 1.6 million disability claims backlog, manage a new Washington-run family and medical leave program.

The last thing America needs right now is painful tax increases, higher prices, and tens of trillions of dollars in more debt. While Biden's budget is dead on arrival thanks to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, it's an important reminder of what he and Washinton Democrats value more than anything else: delivering for the wealthy and the most radical members of their party. As your voice in Congress, I'll continue doing everything I can to stop the Left's costly agenda and relentless pursuit to expand government command and control over our rural communities.

Jason Smith (R-MO) represents the eighth congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives.