House Budget Chair Yarmuth: $3.5 Trillion in Spending ‘Is Pretty Inconsequential’ – ‘Government Can Afford Anything’

On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “OutFront,” House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth (D-KY) said that $3.5 trillion in spending under the reconciliation bill “is pretty inconsequential when you consider all the benefits to the American people,” and “The federal government can afford anything that it feels it needs to do.”

Yarmuth said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) “has no understanding of how the federal government monetary system works. When he compared it yesterday to his household income, that has no relevance to what we can do. It’s not a question of what we can afford. The federal government can afford anything that it feels it needs to do. And right now, that’s what we ought to be focused on.”

He added, “It’s $3.4 trillion over 10 years. We’re going to spend twice as much during that time on defense. If you take the entire — add up all of the things that we’re proposing to do, it would be essentially about 5% more than we will spend otherwise. We’re going to spend $61 trillion over the next 10 years. So, to add another $3.4 or [$3.5] trillion to it, is very — I think is pretty inconsequential when you consider all the benefits to the American people, and these are benefits that will last for decades.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett