As U.S. Budget Talks Resume, Biden Slams Rich Crypto Traders

Updated: 22 May 2023

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President of the United States Joe Biden concluded his time at the Group of Seven (G7) forum in Japan by criticizing “wealthy tax cheats and crypto traders” as undeserving beneficiaries of Republican lawmakers with whom his administration is attempting to negotiate a new budget, without which the United States may default on its debt obligations on June 1.

Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States participate in multilateral discussions and negotiations at the G7 intergovernmental political conference. On top of the almost $3 trillion in deficit reductions that his administration had previously suggested through a combination of spending cuts and new income, Biden said in a news conference held to close the conference that his most recent budget proposal would slash spending by more than a trillion dollars.

“Before I left for this trip, I met with all four congressional leaders, and we agreed the only way to move forward was in a bipartisan agreement,” Biden stated. I’ve done my part; now it’s time for the other side to rethink their extreme viewpoints since a lot of what they’ve already suggested is, to put it bluntly, unacceptable.

After that, Biden launched into a list of items he claimed Republicans supported as opposed to Democratic positions.

He said:

Let me be clear, I’m not going to agree to… a deal that protects wealthy tax cheats and crypto traders while putting food assistance at risk for nearly 1 million Americans

We have previously reported that Biden recently denounced wealthy crypto investors for having access to tax loopholes, an accusation that is unsubstantiated and false. He blamed that once again on “MAGA House Republicans” who allegedly favor these kind of tax loopholes but oppose food safety inspections.

These verbal attacks come to follow a furry of legal actions that the Biden administration supported, through the agencies CFTC and SEC, against legitimate crypto business, among which some of the biggest exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase and Bittrex. In what has been termed “Operation Choke Point 2.0“, the government started claiming that crypto tokens are securities and that the exchanges have been operating illegally – despite the fact that the government offered no clarity and no clear laws to regulate the sector or define what constitutes a security.

More finger-pointing at Republicans

With regards to the budget talks, other unacceptable trade-offs mentioned by Biden included $200 billion in “excess payments” to the pharmaceutical industry and $30 billion in tax incentives for the oil business, rather than protecting Medicaid, 100,000 teaching jobs, or 30,000 law enforcement positions.

Republicans need to understand that a solution can’t be reached exclusively on their party terms, according to Biden.

His comments confirmed a string of “this or that” tweets from earlier in the month that claimed “MAGA House Republicans” supported “tax loopholes that help wealthy crypto investors” and opposed food safety inspections.

Biden has emphasized the need to “modernize rules, including those for digital assets” in his $6.9 billion budget proposal. He has also called for “applying the wash sale rules to digital assets and address related party transactions,” essentially making crypto assets subject to the same regulations as more conventional investments.

While advocating for a 30% excise tax on the cost of electricity used for bitcoin mining, Biden’s White House has received criticism from some senators.

The Washington Post reported today that as Biden arrived back in Washington, D.C., he and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy decided to resume talks on Sunday in an effort to avert “an economic catastrophe as few as 11 days away.”

“Default is not an option,” Biden said, and added that talks will pick up while he is in the air returning to the United States. In one of the few positive statements he uttered that made sense, he said that: