The Biden administration has released a proposed budget that would boost federal spending to $7.3 trillion next fiscal year. To pay for it, they plan to raise taxes on the wealthy and large corporations.
And while there's virtually no chance of it passing given the current makeup of Congress (WSJ calls it 'largely symbolic'), it will give Biden a steady supply of talking points to read off teleprompters across the land during his re-election campaign.
According to the White House, the 2025 budget would cut the deficit by $3 trillion over the next decade, and raise taxes by a net of $4.9 trillion - a boost of roughly 7% in collections without any policy changes, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Other features of the proposed budget include:
- A boost in defense spending to $895 billion, up from $886 billion.
- Congressional approval for roughly $1.6 trillion in discretionary spending - slightly lower than the current year's budget.
- This will be offset by $1.6 trillion in spending caps which were agreed to last year by House Republicans and the Biden administration, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
- Medicare taxes and drug pricing are also included, with tax increases on people earning more than $400,000 per year (which we all know is total bullshit). The plan will also significantly expand the number of drugs subject to government price negotiation, to 50 per year, up from 20, and it would extend a $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket prescription drugs under Medicare.
- Immigration and international aid: The Department of Homeland Security would receive an additional $8.7 billion under the proposal - much of which would plug a budget hole created by the 'unexpected' surge in migrants last year. $2.9 billion of it would fund longer term investments, including hiring more Border Patrol agents and asylum officers.
- Ukraine: Of course, the budget proposal also reiterates Biden's supplemental request for $60 billion in emergency aid for his favorite country.
Other items of note: the budget calls for shoring up Social Security but does not specify a plan. It also calls for extending Trump-era tax cuts for most households after they expire in 2025, but does not detail how they should be paid for. It also calls on restoring the expanded child tax credit on a temporary basis.
Under his plan, families making less than $200,000 a year would be guaranteed subsidized child care, with the lowest income families paying nothing. The president proposed building or preserving more than two million housing units, and a series of tax credits to ease the high cost of purchasing a home. He calls for spending $12 billion to come up with strategies to reduce the cost of college, while expanding Pell Grants and offering tuition-free community college. And he again outlined a federal paid family and medical leave program. -WSJ
According to White House spox Olivia Dalton, the budget "invests in all of America to make sure everyone has a fair shot, we leave no one behind," adding that congressional Republicans "have made their values clear in the meantime; they have repeatedly fought to slash critical programs that the American people rely on."
House Republican leaders, meanwhile, said in a statement that "the price tag of President Biden’s proposed budget is yet another glaring reminder of this administration’s insatiable appetite for reckless spending and the Democrats’ disregard for fiscal responsibility."
The budget proposal comes less than eight months before Election Day and amid polls that show Trump with a narrow lead over Biden. As he shifts his focus to the general election, the president is expected to increasingly seek to draw a contrast with his presumed opponent, casting Trump as out of touch with voters’ priorities and a danger to democracy. Trump, in turn, has railed against the president, targeting his spending on issues such as clean energy. -WSJ
According to Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget, Americans are "going to have a robust tax debate at the end of 2025."
