Why Kevin McCarthy’s budget would 'increase rather than decrease' government spending

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has been warning that President Joe Biden, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) have only half a month left to work out some type of budget agreement — as the United States could default on its debt obligations as soon as June 1. A default, according to Yellen, would be an "economic and financial catastrophe."

The GOP-controlled U.S. House of Representatives has passed a budget bill that calls for major spending cuts, but Schumer has said that the bill is dead on arrival in the U.S. Senate and called its provisions "nonstarters."

McCarthy insists that his proposed budget cuts are necessary to tackle the United States' federal deficit, saying, "We owe it to our children." But journalist Timothy Noah, in an article published by The New Republic on May 15, lays out some ways in which his budget "increases rather than decreases government spending."

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Noah explains, "Congressional Republicans say they're resisting an increase to the debt ceiling because government spending is out of control…. But McCarthy's claim that all his party wants to do is bring down government spending isn't entirely true…. As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities pointed out, if McCarthy intends not to cut funding for the Veterans Administration, then discretionary spending on all other domestic programs next year will have to be cut not 27 percent, but 33 percent."

The journalist adds, "It's sheer fantasy to conceive that you can cut spending by anything close to this magnitude without doing severe damage to government functions and creating a public uproar."

Noah argues that McCarthy's proposed budget would "claw back $71 billion of the $80 billion Congress included in last year's climate bill to boost funding for the IRS" — a move that "would cost the federal government $186 billion in lost tax revenue over the next decade," according to Congressional Budget Office (CBO) figures. And McCarthy's budget, Noah adds, would reduce revenue from oil companies.

"We do not 'owe it to our children' to charge oil companies less for leases on federal land or to enable tax cheating by the rich," Noah writes.

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The New Republic's full article is available at this link.