Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Biden details $1.52T spending plan
Proposal features sharp tilt toward domestic programs
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden proposed a vast expansion of federal spending on Friday, calling for a 16% increase in domestic programs as he tries to harness the government’s power to reverse what officials called a decade of underinvestment in the nation’s most pressing issues.
The proposed $1.52 trillion in spending on domestic discretionary programs would significantly bolster education, health research and fighting climate change. It comes on top of Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package and a separate plan to spend $2.3 trillion on the nation’s infrastructure.
Biden’s first spending request to Congress showcases his belief that expanding, not shrinking, the federal government is crucial to economic growth and prosperity. It would direct billions of dollars toward reducing inequities in housing and education, as well as making sure every government agency puts climate change at the front of its agenda.
It does not include tax proposals, economic projections or so-called mandatory programs like Social Security, which will all be included in a formal budget request the White House will release this spring.
Among its major new spending initiatives, the plan would dedicate an additional $20 billion to help schools that serve low-income children and provide more money to students who have experienced racial or economic barriers to higher education. It would create a multibillion-dollar program for researching diseases like cancer and add $14 billion to fight and adapt to the damages of climate change.
It would also seek to lift the economies of Central American countries, where rampant poverty, corruption and devastating hurricanes have fueled migration toward the southwestern border and a variety of initiatives to address homelessness and housing affordability, including on tribal lands. And it asks for an increase of about 2% in spending on national defense.
The request represents a sharp break with the policies of President Donald Trump, whose budget proposals prioritized military spending and border security, while seeking to cut funding in areas like environmental protection.
All told, the proposal calls for a $118 billion increase in discretionary spending in the 2022 fiscal year, when compared with the base spending allocations this year. It seeks to capitalize on the expiration of a decade of caps on spending growth, which lawmakers agreed to in 2010 but frequently breached in subsequent years.
Administration officials would not specify on Friday whether that increase would result in higher federal deficits in their coming budget proposal, but promised its full budget would “address the overlapping challenges we face in a fiscally and economically responsible way.”
As part of that effort, the request seeks $1 billion in new funding for the Internal Revenue Service to enforce tax laws, including “increased oversight of high-income and corporate tax returns.” That is clearly aimed at raising tax receipts by cracking down on tax avoidance by companies and the wealthy.
Administration officials said the proposals did not reflect the spending called for in Biden’s infrastructure plan, which he introduced last week, or for a second plan he has yet to roll out, which will focus on what officials call “human infrastructure” like education and child care.
Democratic leaders in Congress hailed the plan on Friday and suggested they would incorporate it into government spending bills for the 2022 fiscal year. The plan “proposes long overdue and historic investments in jobs, worker training, schools, food security, infrastructure and housing,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee.
Republicans criticized the proposal as skeletal in detail while calling it an overreaching expansion of the federal government. They also said the administration was not spending enough on defense to counter a growing threat from China.
“While President Biden has prioritized spending trillions on liberal wish list priorities here at home, funding for America’s military is neglected,” a group of top Republicans, including Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, said in a joint statement.
Progressives in the House made the opposite complaint: that Biden was spending too much on the military.
“A proposed increase of $13 billion in defense spending is far too much given its already rapid growth at a time of relative peace,” said Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis.
Biden also used the spending request to put in action his vision of having every Cabinet chief, whether they are military leaders, diplomats, fiscal regulators or federal housing planners, charged with incorporating climate change into their missions.
The proposal aims to embed climate programs into agencies that are not usually seen as at the forefront of tackling global warming, such as the Agriculture and Labor departments.