Defund Biden: The only way to put America on a budget

The spike in inflation is the flashing red warning sign that U.S. government spending must stop growing. The only reasonable answer is to reject any new spending and attempt to reduce current spending where possible. In short, the federal government must begin to grasp what every household in America understands — that unfamiliar, six-letter word: budget.

If not, the social consequences of inflation will become even more serious. To start with, inflation is a devastating economic attack by liberals and radical progressives on elderly, retired Americans living on fixed incomes, who know that the value of their money has been reduced sharply this year. In addition, all Americans know that the price of gasoline, food and other commodities has risen much more sharply than their incomes over the past eight months that Joe Biden has been in the White House. 

In short, contrary to his campaign promises, by reducing the value of money, Biden has inflicted a huge new tax on all Americans, which falls most harshly on the poor and middle class. Of course, the stock market, which adjusts more quickly to inflation, has risen in nominal terms, meaning that those apparent gains are not actually “real” dollars but, rather, inflated dollars with which you can buy less. Over time, the economic consequences of overspending and inflation will lead to political consequences and the Fed will be forced to act — i.e., raise interest rates. 

That, in turn, will lead to recession, rising unemployment and further social hardship. Compounding all of this is Biden’s sacrifice of America’s energy independence, putting the country again at the mercy of foreign oil producers. To get an idea of where America is headed, look no further than the economic collapse that happened under Jimmy Carter, the deepest and longest-lasting recession in the modern era. 

The Democratic leadership in the White House and Congress either don’t understand or they ignore the simple economic principle that you cannot spend more than you have. You cannot spend more than the economy (i.e., business) produces, and you cannot choke business through higher taxes and much more expensive energy costs and expect it to grow and produce more to support your spending. Middle-class and poor American households understand this; our leaders apparently do not. 

Neither Biden nor Vice President Kamala Harris, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) nor Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has ever run anything in the real economy. None of them has created a product, priced it, sold it, made payrolls or budgeted for spending. Consequently, they appear to have no real idea how the American economy works, where money comes from, nor how it must be invested to grow. The same holds true for Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and, most ironically, the acting director of the amusingly mis-named Office of Management and Budget, Shalanda Young. To these lifelong politicians, academics and apparatchiks, “budget” means nothing. They believe America is their ever-growing money tree, producing unlimited fruit for them to spend.

This must stop. It is time to “defund Biden.” 

What does that mean? It means that the mantra of all Republicans, independents and moderate Democrats must be: “No new spending.”

It means that Biden’s Build Back Better spending bill must be voted down. If the bill passes, the resulting inflation will hurt all Americans and represent a real reduction in Social Security and defense spending.

Second, there should be no increase in the debt ceiling. Politicians, bureaucrats and many in the mainstream media will scream that America will default on its debt obligations and claim that Social Security checks cannot be mailed out. They will be playing political “chicken.” There is plenty of money coming into the Treasury. All the politicians need to do is to budget, which means figuring out what wasteful spending must be cut. They need to make tradeoffs, the way that American businesses and households do. If America moves into default, it is the fault of the childish spenders — not the adult budgeters and cost-cutters. Republicans, independents and moderate Democrats should spare no effort spelling that out to working Americans, who will understand and support them.

Next, the congressional budget and appropriations processes should do what they’re supposed to do — budget — rather than play pork-barrel politics with the hard-earned money of American workers.

Finally, federal deductions of state and local taxes should be eliminated. If liberal states want to engage in wasteful spending, the voters who elected them should pay the full price and not be bailed out on their federal taxes.

The bottom line is: We Americans should defund Biden, defund Congress, defund high-spending states, and defund the liberals and progressive politicians.

Grady Means is a writer (GradyMeans.com) and former corporate strategy consultant. He served in the White House as a policy assistant to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller. Follow him on Twitter @gradymeans1.