WASHINGTON, DC – President Biden’s budget puts patients and cures last while expanding Washington command and control over America’s health care economy. This budget ignores looming cuts to Medicare, doubles down on Democrats’ harmful cures-limiting plans, expands government-controlled health care, imposes hundreds of billions in new taxes on small businesses, and relies on budget gimmicks to fake Medicare solvency.
ONE-PAGER: President Biden Prioritizes Politics Over Patients, Budget Gimmicks over Beneficiaries
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) said: “President Biden’s budget puts politics over patients and messaging over medicine. The President is continuing his assault on Medicare and seniors’ access to life saving medicines while raising $650 billion in taxes on small businesses and spending $183 billion more on Obamacare for the wealthy. The truth is that Democrats’ reckless spending is currently threatening more than $500 billion in cuts over the next decade. President Biden is sweeping these cuts under the rug while promoting a plan that is held together by nothing more than gimmicks and tax increases on workers and businesses. The American people deserve accountability instead of more false promises from the Biden Administration.”
Sweeps Democrat Medicare Cuts Under the Rug
Biden’s budget includes the very same reckless spending that currently threatens more than $500 billion in cuts for current and future Medicare beneficiaries:
- More than $500 billion in cuts to Medicare benefits are already scheduled to happen due to record Democrat spending.
- Biden’s budget does nothing to prevent these cuts and in fact, it explicitly fails to account for them.
Chills Innovation in Life-Saving Medication, Raises New Drug Prices
Biden’s budget doubles down on the innovation-killing provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act that are already discouraging the development of new life-saving drugs:
- Less than one year after ramming through the “so-called” Inflation Reduction Act which experts projected could kill up to 342 cures, President Biden is proposing expanding these harmful policies further.
- Drug researchers have already terminated research and development on treatments for a rare eye disease and certain blood cancers, specifically citing the damaging effects of these Democrat drug policies.
- What’s more, CBO confirmed that Democrats’ price controls will actually increase future drug costs, reserving new cures to only the wealthiest Americans.
Expands Government-Controlled Health Care
Biden’s budget reproposes failed permanent extension of Obamacare subsidies to bailout health insurers:
- $183 billion in new spending that sends taxpayer dollars directly to Obamacare’s health insurance companies.
- These subsidies are untargeted and favor the wealthiest Americans. In fact, households making more than $600,000 annually can still qualify.
- Obamacare’s inflationary subsidies have consistently driven up health care costs since becoming law:
- Premiums have increased 160 percent;
- Deductibles have increased 200 percent; and
- Out-of-pocket costs have increased 140 percent since 2014.
New Taxes, Budget Gimmicks, And Biden’s False Promise of Medicare Solvency
Biden’s Budget adds hundreds of billions in real new taxes and uses false budget gimmicks to claim Medicare solvency:
- $650 billion in new tax hikes on small businesses and double counts revenue as both “deficit reduction” and a dishonest budget gimmick for Medicare “solvency”.
- In the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats also raided nearly $300 billion from Medicare funds to pay for Obamacare subsidies to the wealthy and green vehicle tax credits.
Prioritizing Politics Over Patients and Messaging over Medicine
Biden’s Budget shows how out of touch Washington Democrats are with the American people:
- "Climate" is mentioned 74 times more than "fentanyl".
- “Transgender” is mentioned more times than “transparency”.
ONE-PAGER: President Biden Prioritizes Politics Over Patients, Budget Gimmicks over Beneficiaries
March 10, 2023 - 
