Biden Has a Spending Choice: Guns or Butter
The last American President who tried to finance a war along with a new Great Society was Lyndon Johnson. It ended in inflation and retreat in Vietnam. President Biden now wants Congress to help allies win two wars abroad, and deter a third over Taiwan, yet he wants to continue spending on everything as if nothing in the world has changed.
He won’t be able to do both. Mr. Biden has asked Congress for $106 billion for arms to Ukraine and Israel, plus money for the U.S.
southern border and the Pacific theater. These are urgent priorities as two wars rage and the U.S. military isn’t remotely prepared to meet the growing threat of a Russia-Iran-China axis.
Border security is the price of entry for GOP votes. This will be hard enough to get through the GOP House, yet last week the White House asked Congress for $56 billion in “emergency" domestic spending. This is politically tone deaf, not least because the requests aren’t remotely emergencies.
They’re more of the social pork barrel that dominated the Biden Administration’s first two years. Mr. Biden wants $144 million to “expand substance use and mental health prevention and treatment services in areas affected by the Maui fires." This is on top of $16 billion already appropriated for disaster relief.
He wants $68 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to “build capacity for laboratory testing and biomonitoring." The Department of Housing and Urban Development would get $2.8 billion for “long-term recovery, restoration of infrastructure and housing, economic revitalization, and mitigation" for California, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Illinois. Much of this will flow to politically connected contractors. The White House also wants $310
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