When Joe Biden was inaugurated as President back in January there was much talk of his proposed stimulus package for the US economy. The figure generally talked about was $1.9tn (£1.36tn), an eye-watering sum of money. To give you a comparison, the National Audit Office in the UK is currently saying that the Government has spent £372bn on Covid-19, with £150bn of that going towards support for businesses.
By May, however, $1.9tn was looking like small change: when Joe Biden presented his Budget he revealed $6tn (£4.3tn) of spending commitments, largely funded by tax rises for wealthy Americans and business. Unsurprisingly the spending plans were condemned by the Republicans as “insanely expensive,” with claims that they would lead to record levels of debt.
So what is the President planning to spend the money on? How will he pay for it? And, most importantly, will the huge level of spending work?
Joe Biden’s budget is aimed at growing the US economy “from the bottom up and the middle out.” It includes more than $800bn for the fight against climate change, free school places for all three and four year olds, two years of community college for all Americans and massive investments in both physical and digital infrastructure.
As we have noted above the plans have been fiercely criticised, and there is a chance that some members of the President’s own party may side with the Republicans over some of the proposals. The chief criticism, though, has centred on debt, with estimates that the proposals could add $14.5tn of debt over the next decade, taking US Government debt to 117% of GDP by 2031 – a level not even reached during the Second World War.
Will the plans work? Your opinion on that almost certainly depends on your view of Joe Biden. Republicans are fiercely critical of something they see as taking US debt to a whole new level and – very possibly – driving up inflation. The Biden administration argues that inflation will stabilise at around 2% and that the higher taxes will see the whole programme paid for within 15 years.
In 1996 Bill Clinton famously said that the “era of big Government is over.” Joe Biden appears to have brought it back. While his plans still have to go through Congress and the Senate, it seems certain that enough of his spending commitments will remain to make the fiscal hawks in both parties wince.
