More than a month after federal law requires, President Biden finally submitted his budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2025 to Congress. The $7.3 trillion price tag alone is reason enough to throw this budget in the trash where the rest of President Biden’s trillion-dollar spending packages should have also gone. Unfortunately, Democrats approved President Biden’s reckless spending that fueled the worst inflation crisis in more than 40 years, forced families to dip into their savings to make ends meet, and shell out more money at the gas station and the grocery store to buy basic necessities. The president’s budget proposal will only make matters worse and continue his wasteful spending policies and grow the size of the federal government at an unsustainable rate.

As is the case with all of President Biden’s economic policies, and his liberal agenda at large, American taxpayers will be forced to pick up the tab for this expansion of government. His budget proposes tax hikes on our families, farmers, and businesses to the tune of $5.5 trillion and, if enacted, would balloon our national debt to $45 trillion in a decade. It would also leave our country with a $1.8 trillion budget deficit for Fiscal Year 2025 – a far cry from the balanced budget that our country needs to begin to address our serious debt crisis and precarious fiscal foundation.

While the topline spending levels and tax hikes are disastrous, the fine print is even more alarming. Under President Biden’s bloated proposal, American energy producers would face $37 billion in new taxes, small businesses would be assessed a top tax rate of 39.6 percent, and our businesses would face a tax rate higher than China’s. His budget also devotes an additional $104.3 billion to the IRS – which does not include the $80 billion that Democrats authorized for the IRS to hire an army of 87,000 auditors to target our families, farmers, and small businesses – and includes $8 billion in taxpayer dollars to expand his so-called “Climate Corps” by an additional 50,000 people and advance his Green New Deal agenda.

Additionally, President Biden proposes significant changes to stepped-up basis, which is a vital tool for our producers to pass their farms and operations on to the next generation without facing a massive tax bill from the federal government. By nearly eliminating this long-standing provision, family farms would be forced to close for good because the taxes alone would wipe them out. While President Biden seeks new ways to extract more taxes from hardworking families, I introduced legislation to permanently repeal the death tax, which burdens our family farms and small businesses with more costs, more red tape, and more headaches when a loved one passes away.

Our national debt is increasing by $1 trillion about every 100 days and American families are spending an extra $1,000 every month to keep up with rising prices at the gas station and the grocery store compared to just three years ago. That’s why we cannot continue to print money out of thin air, borrow money that we can’t afford, and spend money that we don’t have. As a strong, fiscal conservative, it is my mission to end wasteful government spending and finally balance our budget to build a stronger and more prosperous economy for our children and grandchildren.

U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, represents Iowa’s Fourth Congressional District.