Biden budget aims to cut deficits nearly $3 trillion
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's upcoming budget proposal aims to cut deficits by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade, according to an administration official.
That deficit reduction goal is significantly higher than the $2 trillion that Biden had promised in his State of the Union address last month. It also is a sharp contrast with House Republicans, who have called for a path to a balanced budget but have yet to offer a blueprint.
The White House has consistently called into question Republicans' commitment to what it considers a sustainable federal budget. Administration officials have noted that the various tax plans and other policies previously backed by GOP lawmakers would add more than $2.7 trillion to the national debt over 10 years.
Biden intends to discuss his budget proposal on Thursday in Philadelphia. The official familiar with Biden's budget plan was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter before the president's official announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity on Wednesday. The official said Biden also will propose cutting government spending that goes to major pharmaceutical and oil companies.
As part of the budget, the president already has said he wants to increase the Medicare payroll tax on people making more than $400,000 per year and impose a tax on the holdings of billionaires and others with extreme degrees of wealth.
It's a delicate time with the U.S. economy on edge because of high inflation. The government this summer is likely to exhaust its emergency measures to keep Washington running, setting up the risk of a default on payments along with cataclysmic series of job losses that could crash the economy.
Biden's package of spending priorities is unlikely to pass the House or Senate as proposed. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday that the plan "will not see the light of day," a sign that it might primarily serve as a messaging document going into the 2024 elections.
Republicans, newly in control of the House, are demanding sharp spending cuts. Biden has suggested that tax increases on the earnings and holdings of the country's wealthiest households can bolster government finances and also improve Medicare and Social Security.
The president contended in a Monday speech that there are 680 billionaires in the United States and that many of them pay taxes at a lower rate than do families who think of themselves as being in the middle class. Biden said not to hold him to the precise number of billionaires, but that they could afford to pay more for the good of the country.