President Biden on Monday rolled out his sweeping, $7.3 trillion budget request for 2025, with a set of ambitious partisan proposals aimed at raising taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations.
The president calls for trimming the nation's deficits by $3 trillion in the next ten years, while doubling down on pitches to increase the corporate tax rate, enact a minimum tax on billionaires, quadrupling the stock buybacks tax, and others.
While the proposal stands no chance of becoming law in the divided Congress, it is a key tool for the president as he hits the campaign trail and can serve as a guide for Democrats as Congress begins to look at funding for fiscal year 2025, which begins in the fall.
The budget leans into measures the White House says are aimed at cracking down on “wealthy tax cheats,” targeting parts of former President Trump’s signature 2017 tax plan that Democrats have panned as tax cuts for the wealthy. The budget request also supports extending tax cuts for Americans making $400,000, but with additional reforms.
Biden’s proposal comes as he deals with lackluster polling numbers and persistent concerns about his handling of the economy — despite signs that the economy is on the mend, with cooled inflation, a booming stock market and lowered unemployment.
His ‘Bidenomics’ branding along the campaign trail fell flat amid recession fears last year, and polling suggests he’s still struggling to snag credit for the country’s economic recovery.
The president’s latest proposal echoes last year’s budget plan, which also aimed to lower the deficit by $3 trillion and up taxes on the wealthy. The White House has also been stalwart about protecting Social Security and Medicare, while Trump on Monday argued "there is a lot you can do" when it comes to entitlement programs.
Biden responded with a post on X, writing "Not on my watch."
During a State of the Union address last week that read to many as more of a campaign speech, Biden touted his administration’s economic moves and knocked those of his predecessor — who’s on track to win the Republican presidential nomination, teeing up a Biden-Trump rematch in November’s general election.
“Folks, I inherited an economy that was on the brink. Now, our economy is literally the envy of the world,” Biden told a raucous Congress, arguing the country is on a “comeback.”
But one recent CBS News/YouGov poll taken in the days before the State of the Union found more than half of voters thought the economy under Biden is bad, compared to less than a third who thought economic conditions were bad under Trump.
Biden during his speech last week pointed forward, foreshadowing his 2025 budget by laying out plans to lower costs for Americans and “make the tax code fair,” as the 2024 race revs up, and as the incumbent promises voters he’ll finish the job with another term in the Oval Office.
While lawmakers are still working to tie up funding for fiscal year 2024 this month, the president’s request provides a glimpse into where Democrats could be pressing for bigger increases when Congress begins its work for fiscal year 2025 funding in the coming weeks.
Some of the biggest increases proposed in the budget plan include jumps in funding for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) when compared to fiscal 2023 levels, the Social Security Administration and the Department of Energy. It also highlights proposed increases to offices like the Small Business Administration and the Transportation Department compared to fiscal 2021 levels.
White House officials on Monday sought to paint Biden’s proposal in stark contrast to congressional Republicans’ efforts, just days after the GOP-led House Budget Committee advanced its own budget proposal.
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Shalanda Young told reporters that Republicans’ “rosy economic projections” don’t “fit reality.”
In the budget proposal marked up by House Republicans on the budget panel days back, the party touts measures they say would put $14 trillion toward reducing deficits over the next decade – but not without measures to cut spending that have already prompted pushback from Democrats.
Among some of the proposals Republicans outline in the plan include measures aimed at beefing up work requirements for Medicaid, while reducing annual government spending and targeting economic policies passed when Democrats last led both chambers of Congress.
“Republicans hide behind high-level talking points about balancing. Well, who are you hurting in the meantime?” Young said on Monday.
Biden unveils sweeping budget blueprint for next term
2
0
11.03.2024
President Biden on Monday rolled out his sweeping, $7.3 trillion budget request for 2025, with a set of ambitious partisan proposals aimed at raising taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations.
The president calls for trimming the nation's deficits by $3 trillion in the next ten years, while doubling down on pitches to increase the corporate tax rate, enact a minimum tax on billionaires, quadrupling the stock buybacks tax, and others.
While the proposal stands no chance of becoming law in the divided Congress, it is a key tool for the president as he hits the campaign trail and can serve as a guide for Democrats as Congress begins to look at funding for fiscal year 2025, which begins in the fall.
The budget leans into measures the White House says are aimed at cracking down on “wealthy tax cheats,” targeting parts of former President Trump’s signature 2017 tax plan that Democrats have panned as tax cuts for the wealthy. The budget request also supports extending tax cuts for Americans making $400,000, but with additional reforms.
Biden’s proposal comes as he deals with lackluster polling numbers and persistent concerns about his handling of the........
© The Hill
visit website
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Rami G Khouri
Mort Laitner
Donald Low
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Nikkei Editorial
