(CNS News) -- When asked if President Joe Biden or Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) would ever balance the budget, Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said, “That’s what they’re working on.”
At the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 23, CNS News asked the senator, “The federal deficit from the first 11 months of this fiscal year was $2.7 trillion and the federal debt is now over $28 trillion -- will President Biden or Speaker Pelosi ever balance the budget?”
Padilla replied, “That’s what they’re working on.”
In a follow-up question, CNS News asked, “Will they take any action to?”
“That’s what they’re working on,” Padilla repeated.
According to the U.S. Treasury, the total outstanding public debt on Sept. 23 was $28.42 trillion.
Despite the deficit and the debt, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) pushed the $3.5 trillion spending blueprint through the House in late August, reported the Wall Street Journal. The Democrat victory was a party-line vote, 220-212.
Due to the bill’s passing, the Democrats are now in the reconciliation process, which allows them to pass a “broad package of healthcare, education and climate provisions in the Senate without GOP support, so long as all 50 Democratic senators back it” wrote the Journal.
However, keeping the support of all 50 Democratic senators may prove difficult, as Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kirsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have expressed concerns about the bill’s price tag.
The continuing resolution passed last week is separate legislation, and will fund the government only through Dec. 3. The $3.5 trillion package is still being hashed-out in the Senate, although approximately $1 trillion for infrastructure has been agreed upon.