This makes it difficult to pinpoint the actual price tag of Biden’s actions. However, a federal budget expert told Fox News Digital that they estimate the costs to be north of $1 trillion.
“President Biden’s executive actions have cost taxpayers more than $1 trillion so far,” the Heritage Foundation’s Matthew Dickerson told Fox News Digital in an interview. “That’s taking into account the recent student loan executive action, which could cost up to $1 trillion.”
“But earlier this year, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office produced an analysis showing that less than ten of Biden’s earlier executive actions cost taxpayers already more than $500 billion,” Dickerson said.
“So it could be up to $1.5 trillion in cost to taxpayers just on executive actions, not legislation going through Congress and being signed into law and being debated,” Dickerson added. “It’s just pure executive actions taken by Biden costing taxpayers up to $1.5 trillion.”
Biden’s student loan forgiveness is a large chunk of the costs. In August, he announced plans to forgive $10,000 in student debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 annually, while Pell Grant recipients will receive $20,000 in handouts if their income falls below $125,000.
The student loan handout was initially estimated to cost taxpayers upwards of $500 billion, but a recent Penn Wharton Budget Model analysis shows it could reach upwards of $1 trillion.
Dickerson said the executive orders could also have an impact on inflation. “It would be significant because all of this new spending that the executive branch is doing, that Biden is doing by fiat,” he said.
“That means more money getting pumped out into the economy that’s being financed by the Federal Reserve, which means the printing presses are on, which means that it adds to the inflationary pressures,” Dickerson said. “The executive actions that Biden is doing are incredibly harmful for inflation because they are specifically aimed at reducing the supply of labor and goods and services.”
Inflation is even impacting the U.S. Army, which recently released guidance for soldiers as they fight inflation, including a suggestion that they take advantage of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps.