As Phil Klein notes, Joe Biden’s two big spending proposals (one on infrastructure and one on social programs), combined with the “COVID relief” package he already passed, amount to $5.95 trillion in new spending — more than the entire pre-pandemic federal budget. Unfortunately, unlike the Bionic Man from the TV show that debuted back when Biden arrived in the Senate, the Six Trillion Dollar Man will not be “better, stronger, faster.” Biden’s seemingly inexhaustible supply of things his dad told him does not seem to have included the old fatherly staple, “Joey, money doesn’t grow on trees.” How do we put $5.95 trillion in context? I previously estimated the scale of Biden’s spending spree on a per-person and per-household basis. Now that we have updated figures, we can do that again.
The 2020 Census found 331,449,281 people in the United States — including children. Biden’s spending, if passed, would amount to $17,951.46 for every man, woman, and child in the country. The most recent Census estimate puts the number of U.S. households around 128,451,000 (that’s 2.58 persons per household, if you’re keeping score). Biden’s new spending — remember, this is in addition to the existing federal, state, and local budgets — comes to $46,321.17 for each and every household in the United States. That is over 70 percent of median household income. Biden wants to blow through 70 percent of the typical family’s annual income just in spending proposed in his first 100 days in office. Nothing remotely like this has ever been done in American history. If you were setting out to purposely bankrupt the country, I’m not sure what you would do differently.
