WASHINGTON, D.C. – In case you missed it, Senator Rick Scott sent a letter to White House Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young, ahead of her testimony in this week’s hearing in the Senate Committee on the Budget, to demand answers on Biden’s $6.8 TRILLION budget, which digs America deeper into debt and threatens higher inflation. In previous Budget Committee hearings, Director Young has been unable to answer Senator Scott’s simple questions regarding America’s budget and finances (see an example HERE). To ensure he receives answers to his questions this time, Senator Scott’s letter includes the exact questions he plans to ask during Wednesday’s hearing.

Read the full letter to Director Young below or HERE. Read the full story in Fox News HERE.

March 13, 2023

Dear Director Young:

I look forward to seeing you later this week in the U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget hearing. As you may recall from our previous discussions, I am gravely concerned with the Biden administration’s refusal to focus on debt reduction and insistence on supporting reckless spending of taxpayer dollars that makes it impossible for the federal government to live within its means. I want to be clear: America is in real danger due to decades of gross fiscal mismanagement, but President Biden has done nothing but make this situation worse and American families are facing the consequences every day.

As he prepared to release his proposed budget, President Biden had a golden opportunity to take stock in the painful position his policies have created for American families, from 40-year high inflation to skyrocketing interest rates, and present a responsible way forward. He could have presented a plan rooted in the reality our nation faces and proposed a way to balance the budget, begin paying down America’s more than $31 trillion debt which is $4 trillion higher than it was when he took office and show the American people he has heard them and is committed to bringing fiscal sanity back to Washington. Instead, President Biden proposed a $6.8 trillion budget that is 55% MORE than we spent in 2019. Hard to imagine why that is needed when our population only grew by 1.8% in the same period.

President Biden’s budget grows the debt to nearly $51 trillion over the next 10 years, raises taxes on millions of Americans making less than $400,000 per year and sticks taxpayers with more than $1.3 trillion in annual interest expense by 2033 due to the massive debt he seeks to create. This budget is a clear and blatant violation of the president’s pledge to spare small businesses and hardworking families from tax hikes, a promise he’s already broken several times with tax hikes in his grossly partisan American Rescue Plan Act and Inflation Reduction Act. Perhaps most ironically, President Biden’s budget does nothing to address the looming insolvency of Social Security. I suggest you and the president take a look at my Protect Our Seniors Act for ideas on how we can do more for this program and make certain that benefits are protected and preserved both today and in the future.

While I am clearly disappointed with what I’ve seen so far from President Biden’s proposal, I want you to be given the opportunity to explain these issues and to do so with as much transparency from me as possible. Included below are the exact questions I plan to ask you during the upcoming budget hearing. I hope this allows you to come prepared to give me, the Committee and the American people the answers we deserve:

1. Do you believe excessive government spending, especially deficit spending, causes inflation?

2. What was the average labor participation in 2019? What is it for the first two months of 2023?

3. Do you believe it is important to get more people back into the workforce?

4. What is the current federal debt and the current interest rate that the federal government is paying on that debt?

5. What is the total amount that the federal government is projected to pay on interest expense in current fiscal year?

6. How does President Biden’s proposed budget address the enormous burden that interest expense places on American taxpayers who receive zero benefit or return on dollars spent paying interest on the debt?

7. On average, how much money was the federal government spending per day on March, 15, 2019? If passed as proposed, how much money would the federal government spend on average per day on average under President Biden’s budget in its first fiscal year?
1. There are approximately 6 million more American citizens today than when President Biden took office. This population growth has been met with disproportionate spending growth, meaning that the federal government is spending about $400,000 for each of these 6 million new citizens. How does the administration justify this?

8. The trust fund which supports Social Security is projected to face major shortfalls in just 10 years. The threat of insolvency facing this critical program has been exacerbated by President Biden’s raging inflation crisis, which forced the largest Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) increase in history last year. With this in mind, how does President Biden’s proposed budget protect Social Security by mitigating or eliminating the threat of insolvency without cuts to benefits?

9. The federal debt has risen to more than $31 trillion, increasing more than $4 trillion since President Biden took office. Does President Biden’s proposed budget reduce the federal debt?

10. Is President Biden’s proposed budget balanced?
1. If not, why has he chosen to not challenge Congress to balance the budget and force the federal government to live within its means?

We must get serious about how we’re spending taxpayer dollars and ensure every dollar spent provides a positive return on investment for Americans. We cannot afford to mortgage the future of our children and grandchildren with shortsighted and dangerous financial decisions.

I look forward to our discussion later this week.

Sincerely,

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