AMAC Exclusive – By Claire Brighn
For over a year now, Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats have worked at a furious pace to write and pass radical policies and legislation. Biden’s proposed 2023 budget marks the latest continuation of that trend. Totaling $73 trillion in spending and $58 trillion in taxes – an 80% increase over 10 years – it represents one of the most massive expansions of the federal government’s power and purview in American history. While Democrats have already tried to ram through their progressive agenda by brute force or by sneaking it into other legislation, Biden’s budget seeks to fund and enforce some of the most radical portions of that agenda permanently, as Democrats work to make good on their promise to “remake America” before they are likely booted from office this fall.
Here’s a look at just a few of the more radical items in Biden’s budget.
1. Equity, Equity Everywhere
“Equity” is a major theme in Biden’s budget, garnering 74 mentions throughout the document (for comparison, “inflation” is mentioned just 6 times). The woke buzzword in practice seeks to replace equality of opportunity with equality of outcome, and is perhaps the most pernicious aspect of the far left’s social agenda.
Ultimately, the budget paves the way for the federal government to enforce equity in every part of American society. For example, nearly $17 million goes toward the Department of the Interior’s “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility” programs. $20 million is for the Department of Transportation to promote “equity and inclusion.” Even more – $2.6 billion – is for advancing gender equity and equality globally.
But the push for equity doesn’t stop with just direct allocations. According to Biden Budget Director Shalanda Young, all taxpayer money would be distributed through an “equity” lens. At a House hearing on the budget plan last week, Young referred to one of Biden’s earliest executive orders (EO13985), which states that the federal government must “incorporate equity in all that we do: racial equity, rule equity… so when we do procurement, we want to make sure that our dollars are spent with socially disadvantaged companies.”
In practice, that means the government will be dishing out hundreds of billions of dollars to woke corporations to push their left-wing agendas. In effect, Biden’s budget aims to reorient every power structure in American society toward the concept of equity, abandoning the fundamental American value of equality in the process.
2. Peace Corps, AmeriCorps – Green New Deal Civilian Climate Corps?
Alongside equity, “climate” takes center stage in Biden’s budget, mentioned 187 times. Funds are provided to establish the Civilian Climate Corps, a concept first introduced by Biden and advocated for by far-left environmentalists like the Sunrise Movement, one of the leading activist groups behind the Green New Deal.
The Civilian Climate Corps targets youth employment and operates under a mission of climate “justice.” Apart from its dubious purpose of fighting the “existential” threat of climate change, the Civilian Climate Corps would exist to address what Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called an “interlocking” of a climate crisis and economic crisis. In other words, the Civilian Climate Corps is envisioned as the enforcer of the far left’s climate and economic agenda. Perhaps this might explain why “environmental justice” and “equity” often appear side by side in Biden’s budget.
3. Identity Politics 2.0, Transgender Edition
The Biden administration no longer hides its embrace of radical left-wing gender ideology; just last week the President endorsed youth sex-change operations and hormone therapy. That shines through in the budget, which evinces a singular focus on divisive identity politics. “Transgender” is mentioned more times than pressing issues like “border security,” “Iran,” and “inflation.”
4. Obliterating U.S. Gas and Oil Production
At a time of soaring gas prices, Biden’s budget proposes roughly $43.5 billion in tax hikes on U.S. gas and oil production, saying in its official explanation of revenue proposals that these practices are “detrimental” to long-term energy security. And while most Americans can’t afford an electric vehicle (which cost an average of $55,000) as the President so callously suggested when asked about record-high gas prices, Biden’s budget would ensure federal agencies are provided with $757 million for a zero-emission vehicle fleet. So rest assured that the federal government will no longer be concerned about rising fuel costs.
5. Welfare State Gets Bigger – And Woke
Instead of providing tax relief to make Americans more financially independent, Biden’s budget proposes an increase in funding for SNAP, the Department of Agriculture’s food stamp program, to make even more Americans reliant on the program. Back in August, the program fed 42 million Americans per month, and it was around this time that the Biden administration quietly increased monthly maximum food stamp benefits to around 20 percent than they were before the pandemic – permanently. Nowhere in the budget is a plan to help these recipients actually become more financially stable so that they can provide for themselves and their families.
Biden’s budget also goes even further by proposing $100 million for government spending to retrofit new appliances in low-income housing. The newly established “Office of the Administration for Children and Families” is tapped to help carry this out and rope in the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program as part of the “transition to clean energy economy.”
Of course, any claim of empathy for low-income Americans is a farce. This past winter, Biden’s energy policies forced many low-income families to choose between food or heating. Furthermore, Biden and Democrats’ $1.9 trillion stimulus from last year fueled inflation and essentially paid Americans not to work when businesses were trying to reopen.
6. Open Borders
While Biden’s budget provides funding increases for DHS, ICE, and CBP, upon closer inspection, much of these funds will not go toward securing the border, but rather processing more migrants. DHS Secretary Mayorkas said as much, noting that Biden’s budget would provide “funding that will allow us to process asylum claims more efficiently as we build a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system.”
The budget actually cuts ICE funding for 5,000 adult detention beds and totally eliminates all 2,500 family beds. Instead, $494 million is set aside for “noncitizen” processing and care costs. Moreover, on a much larger scale, $26 billion of DHS funds would go toward efforts like mitigating the effects of “climate change through community partnerships.”
If there is any doubt as to where Democrats’ priorities lie, during a recent hearing on the budget, Young admitted that $1.9 billion in funding previously appropriated for construction of the border wall is going toward “environmental restoration” and “community consultation.”
7. Radical Progressive Tax Schemes
It’s no secret by now that Biden’s multiple legislative proposals would sock Americans with higher taxes, drive down earned income, and raise the business tax rate higher than in communist China. One new tax in Biden’s budget, however, is especially concerning. It seeks to tax unrealized gains, which is not only likely unconstitutional but would dramatically empower the IRS – which has a history of targeting Republicans – and smacks of previous tax proposals put forward by radical progressives like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. It’s also wildly unpopular: 75% of Americans oppose taxing unrealized gains.
8. Politicized Education Gets a Big Boost
The Biden Department of Education would get a sizable chunk of money – $88.3 billion, a 20 percent increase over the 2021 enacted level – under the proposed Biden budget. This increase, if the past year is any indication, is a bad sign for parents. As a reminder, this is the same Department of Education that prioritized grant funding to push the work of Ibram X. Kendi and other prominent Critical Race Theory scholars, and it is the same Biden administration that insinuated parents were domestic terrorists for wanting a say in their children’s education.
Incredibly, Biden’s budget does not once use the word “parent.” In all of Trump’s budgets, for comparison, “parent” was indeed used to make clear that Department of Education funding should cater to the needs of parents and students, not teachers’ unions and woke school boards.
9. Abortion Advocates Rejoice
Biden’s budget once again left out the Hyde Amendment, the longstanding bipartisan prohibition on taxpayer dollars going toward abortion procedures. A majority of Americans, according to a recent Columbus/Marist poll, oppose taxpayer funding of abortions. Regardless, the Biden administration continues the Democratic Party’s shameful record on paving the way for the murder of the unborn.
10. Federal Election Takeover Attempts Continue
In Biden’s budget, under the sub-header “Protects U.S. Elections and the Right to Vote,” is a proposal for $10 billion for “new elections assistance,” which would essentially expand mail-in voting. After the election integrity woes of the last presidential contest and then the multiple attempts by Democrats to federalize elections ever since, this type of funding raises serious concerns for election integrity advocates.
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All told, Biden’s proposed fiscal year 2023 budget is a thicket of extremism, even by the standards of today’s Democratic Party. For many voters across the country, already none too happy with the far-left policies Democrats have signed off on thus far, it is yet another example of a party that is out of touch with the American people.
Claire Brighn is the pen name of a conservative researcher and writer with previous domestic and foreign policy experience in the Executive Branch.