Joe Biden possible presidential campaign, 2016/Budgets

	; ; Possible presidential candidate; Joe Biden
	Political offices: ; Vice President of the United States; (2009-2017); U.S. Senator; (1973-2009)
	Biden on the issues:
	Taxes • Government regulations • International trade • Budgets • Agricultural subsidies • Federal assistance programs • Labor and employment • Foreign affairs • Federalism • Natural resources • Healthcare • Immigration • Education • Abortion • Gay rights
	Democratic candidates:
	Hillary Clinton • Bernie Sanders
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This page was current as of the 2016 election.

In February 2015, Joe Biden spoke at the Rudman Center for Justice, Leadership, and Public Policy in New Hampshire about the success of President Barack Obama's successes in reducing the deficit. According to The Portsmouth Patch, "Biden said the president and Congress’ decision to come together and allow the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to expire a couple of years ago had brought in more than $600 billion in revenue. Cutting $716 billion out of Medicare, while expanding coverage, and cutting $23 billion out of farm subsidies, were 'the right thing to do' in order to end wasteful spending. Ending the wars early will eventually save $1.4 trillion, he noted. Biden said having Republicans at the table, working on compromises, helped accomplish this. Those actions, he said, reduced the deficit by two-thirds since he and the president were sworn into office six years ago."^[1]

Biden introduces the Campaign to Cut Waste in July 2011.

Biden helped President Obama launch the Campaign to Cut Waste in July 2011. According to an op-ed Biden wrote, the initiative would implement a Government Accountability and Transparency Board to monitor government spending for waste, fraud, and abuse, encourage federal employees to innovate on efficiency through the President's SAVE Award and reduce no-bid federal contracting.^[2]

In a speech at the Brookings Institution in September 2009, Biden advocated for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Biden said, "The Recovery Act has played a significant role in changing the trajectory of our economy, in changing the conversation about the economy in this country. Instead of talking about the beginning of a depression, we're talking about the end of a recession eight months after taking office." According to The Washington Post in February 2014, the stimulus bill was a success if measured by its purpose "to provide a temporary bump to the economy."^[3]

In 2008, Biden voted against an amendment to the congressional budget that would "establish an earmark moratorium for fiscal year 2009."^[4]^[5]

When asked during the Democratic primary debate in Iowa in 2007 if it would be his priority to balance the federal budget each year, Biden responded, "You don't have to make a choice of balancing the budget and/or leading with the priorities that most of us feel strongly about, from health care, to education, to the environment. And I'll just put it in real stark terms: It's about priorities... Just by eliminating the war, eliminating the $200 billion in tax cuts that aren't needed for–goes to the top one percent, if you add it all up, and by cutting somewhere in the order of $20 billion a year out of the military for special programs, from star wars, to a new atomic weapon, to the F-22, to the Nimitz-Class Destroyer, you can save $350 billion. That would allow me to do everything I want to do–my priorities on education, health care and the environment–and still bring down the deficit by $150 billion. It would cost less than half–so, the Republicans are trying to sucker us into this, 'You either have to balance the budget and do nothing to make people's lives better, or you're going to balloon the deficit.' They have ballooned the deficit with their bad priorities."^[6]

Biden discusses balancing the budget at a debate in Iowa in 2007.

Biden voted in favor of H R 5140 - Economic Stimulus Act of 2008. The bill became law on February 13, 2008.^[7]

Biden picked up $67 million in earmarks in 2007, according to The Hill. In 2008, CNN reported that Biden requested 116 congressional earmarks totaling $342 million.^[8]^[9]

In 2006, Biden voted against H J Res 47, which became law in March 2006 and increased the debt limit by $781 billion.^[10]

In 1995 and 1996, Biden voted in favor of H J Res 1, which would have amended the Constitution to require a balanced federal budget. According to The New York Times, Biden supported the amendment because it "would force the Republican Congress to confront the need for broad spending cuts and tax increases, not merely cuts in unpopular social programs" and "prevent the Federal debt from consuming the resources for programs of every political stripe."^[11]^[12]

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