EXCLUSIVE: A Republican senator on Congress’ Joint Economic Committee says President Biden is presenting a "woke agenda" in his new budget proposal, and said Biden's plan shows he is "not serious" about working with Republicans on spending cuts to offset a debt limit increase.
"I think this is a slap in the face to people who want to seriously deal with the difficult questions that we have to address in this country," Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital on Friday. "Spending billions of dollars on these woke and weaponized agencies to do more things that people don't like, they're… out of touch with where people are at… It's not serious. So it's not a starting point."
The White House said Biden’s long-awaited proposal for the next fiscal year would reduce federal budget deficits by nearly $3 trillion over 10 years, primarily through tax hikes on corporations and wealthy Americans.
However, Republicans have refused to consider tax increases as a way to lower the deficit and warned that raising financial penalties by Biden’s proposed amounts would throw an already fragile economy into turmoil.
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They are also taking issue with progressive policy nuggets within the proposal’s pages, including a $1.8 billion expenditure for the Environmental Protection Agency geared toward "advancing racial equity and securing environmental justice."
Another section of Biden’s proposal, made public by the White House on Thursday, calls for "more than $3 billion to advance gender equity and equality globally."
Schmitt also blasted Biden’s plan of only calling for 350 new Customs and Border Patrol officials.
"We have a crisis at the southern border, millions and millions and millions of people are coming across the border illegally. And he's proposing 350 new border agents, but yet 87,000 more people at the IRS, over 1,000 new lawyers at the Department of Justice to go after Americans?" he said.
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Schmitt said it showed Americans, including in his home state of Missouri, that Washington was "out of touch" with their needs. He said his constituents think "Washington has lost its mind, and Joe Biden is leading this ridiculous parade."
"Joe Biden is doubling down on this woke agenda that the American people don't support… It doesn't represent the priorities of working families. These are elites in Washington that get together in their cocktail parties and decide they're going to spend tens of billions of dollars… on their climate alarmist agenda," Schmitt said.
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While the budget calls for $2 trillion in tax hikes on the country's wealthiest, according to Americans For Tax Reform, Biden’s plan would result in $4.7 trillion in new tax hikes on individuals and companies.
While Biden has promised not to levy new taxes on Americans making less than $400,000 per year, Schmitt argued that the steeper costs would inevitably fall back onto everyday Americans.
"It'll cut out innovation. For working families, this is why they're paying more at the grocery store, and they understand that you just can't keep spending money," the senator said. "You can't tax your way into prosperity, and this you know, this budget is loaded with tax increases."
