In its never-ending effort to spend all that it takes from American taxpayers and more, the Biden administration has just launched a plan to create “affordable” housing.

The plan would support the conversion of commercial property to residential. Currently, there is a surplus of commercial property nationwide and a lack of residential.

The White House claims the plan “will encourage zero emissions conversions and transit-oriented development that increase housing supply and cut climate pollution.”

One promising aspect of the plan is that it would promote the sale of surplus federal property for conversion to residential use.

The rest is problematic.

One reason is that Florida already has a plan, called the Live Local Act, that has the same intent.

The difference is that Florida has a balanced budget and the federal government does not.

The United States government has snarled the nation in debt surpassing $31 trillion, and a higher ratio of debt to gross domestic product than the end of World War II, which had been the record high. In addition, it is adding a trillion dollars a year to that debt while paying a trillion dollars in interest on the debt each year.

That is a far worse problem than the so-called “climate crisis.”

One Northeast Florida developer thinks the Biden plan could help developers overcome local government obstacles to providing affordable housing.

“All in all, it is a great way to get more housing and combat these local jurisdictions like Nassau County who put ridiculously low limits on density,“ he said.

However, he also noted that it is expensive to retrofit commercial buildings into residential. That seems to work against housing that is less expensive, i.e., “affordable.”

The only way the Biden plan, or any other federal spending proposal, can possibly be acceptable is if it is revenue-neutral. That is, whatever it proposes to spend must be accompanied by a reduction in some other federal spending.

That is called setting priorities and it is what prudent people do.

If the White House thinks it is important to provide less expensive housing, it should find something less important and shift the spending from that function.

We should not overlook the fact that one reason housing – and everything else – is more expensive is inflation, which is the result of other federal government policies.

You can’t spend your way out of a problem caused by excess spending.