Biden’s DOA DEI Budget

The numbers of President Joe Biden’s budget, increasing federal spending from $6.5 trillion to $6.9 trillion, offend. More so do the letters.

The word “equitable” appears 34 times, some variant of “fair” 57 times, “equity” 63 times, and “justice” 74 times not in reference to the Justice Department.

Sometimes, perhaps as a means of obtaining more bang for its buck, the budget offers a combination of terms overloaded with general symbolism but devoid of specific meaning.

In a section titled “Advances Equity and Environmental Justice,” the Biden administration boasts of spending $1.8 billion for, among several priorities, “environmental justice for communities that bear the brunt of toxic pollution and impacts of climate change” and “$66 million to implement the Department’s Justice40 efforts and strengthen the Department’s environmental justice mission, including $54 million for the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity and $12 million for Legacy Management.”

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) receives “$1.1 billion above the 2023 enacted level to fully fund the TSA pay equity initiative. Enhancements to TSA pay support the President’s commitment to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Federal workforce.”

Under “Advances Gender Equity and Equality Around the World,” the budget notes, “The Administration remains steadfast in its commitment to invest in opportunities for women and girls and support the needs of marginalized communities, including the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex community. Reflective of that commitment, the Budget requests more than $3 billion to advance gender equity and equality across a broad range of sectors.”

Every page or so offers some oblation to the social justice gods.

For taxpayers who think the government needs more diversity, equity, and inclusion officers, this budget bests any ever suggested by a president to Congress. For those alarmed about the extraordinary burden of taxation and debt, the budget frightens.

Consider that federal spending, which averaged 21 percent of GDP over the last five decades, last fiscal year reached nearly 25 percent of GDP. This proposed budget increases spending by more than 6 percent over that budget already above the norm rather dramatically.

While “equity” and “justice” feel almost ubiquitous, certain words traditionally appearing quite frequently in discussions surrounding budgets vanish completely. For instance, the word “cut,” at least when used to indicate a decrease in funds directed to a government program, appears only when the Biden administration notes its opposition. The document promises no “cutting any benefits” for Medicare, “opposes any attempt to cut Social Security benefits,” and, for effect, repeats this no-cut pledge a half-dozen other times. It never uses “cut” to call for an actual cut in spending.

In fairness, the 184-page document mentions a 1 percent “decrease” for Homeland Security funding, and minus signs do preface some numbers on the budgetary charts. But nowhere in the document does the word “cut,” “slash,” or “abolish” appear in reference to spending less money on this or that government program.

DEI-jargon words plus numbers higher than any seen in any budget ever equals higher taxes. Those include increasing the top income-tax rate from 37 percent to 39.6 percent, Medicare taxes for people earning over $400,000 jumping from 3.8 percent to 5 percent, and the corporate rate skyrocketing from 21 percent to 28 percent.

This means some individual earners who find no shelters or dodges will pay more than half of their annual incomes in taxes to all levels of government in most states.

Like the programs pushed, many of the taxes target specific groups and exclude other groups. All of it seems like a recipe for resentment by artificially and deliberately pitting the interests of some groups of citizens against other groups of citizens. We are not, clearly, all in this together.

The people paying the check demand a budget more equitable, fair, and just.

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