In Philadelphia today, President Joe Biden unveiled the administration's budget proposal for the next fiscal year. Chances of it getting Congressional approval are right up there with the possibility of Tucker Carlson confessing that he’s an idiot.
It’s not going to happen, as is true with every presidential plan for as long as I can remember. The administration’s bean counters know it won’t happen, as do Republicans on Capitol Hill, along with informed opinion writers in most areas.
The budget is an aspiration. It's a roadmap for causes Biden’s team thinks need to be discussed. It’s also a foundational document for Biden’s soon-to-be-announced 2024 presidential campaign.
The White House perspective is that there’s no downside in throwing out ideas doomed to fall short in the Republican-controlled House. The fight is the point.
The Republicans can’t agree on a proposal of their own, due to ideas likely to be political death for vulnerable members. Hacking away at Social Security may sound like a ballsy proposal, but millions of Americans are bound to be fearful of the discussion, so now it’s off the table for other horrors.
It looks like they’re out to create a trickle down corporate nirvana off the backs of millions of not-wealthy Americans.
The only GOP proposal that’s semi-public is an outline created by former Trump administration budget director Russell T. Vought.
Via the New York Times:
The strategy suggested by Mr. Vought, who has become something of an intellectual and tactical guru to many of the hard-liners in the House Republican Conference, would enact deep spending cuts to what he called the “woke and weaponized government.”
The outline includes a 45 percent cut to foreign aid; adding work requirements for food stamp and Medicaid beneficiaries; a 43 percent cut to housing programs, including phasing out the Section 8 program that pays a portion of monthly rent costs for low-income people; cutting the F.B.I.’s counterintelligence budget by nearly half; and eliminating Obamacare expansions to Medicaid to save tens of billions of dollars.
Nearly 40 states have accepted federal funding for expansion under the Affordable Care Act, providing health care coverage for an estimated 12 million individuals living near or below the poverty line.
The proposal would also eliminate the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the Pentagon, cut $3.4 billion in State Department migration and refugee assistance, and make Pell grants available only to students whose families cannot contribute any money toward a college education.
Let’s take a gander at the Biden Administration’s aspirations heading into next year
The advance publicity: a pledge to reduce the national debt by $3 trillion over the next decade.
Note: Though they sound similar, deficit and debt are two different things. A deficit is a budget shortfall, whereas debt is the running total of all deficits and surpluses. Deficits add to the debt, while surpluses reduce it.
The actual headline (Washington Post): Biden calls for trillions in tax hikes and new domestic spending
The White House budget calls for more than $1 trillion in new spending on programs such as Medicaid, child care, prekindergarten, public housing and free community college. It includes a separate additional $1 trillion in tax credits and breaks aimed at lower- and middle-class Americans, such as reviving the expanded child tax credit that was only approved for one year as part of Biden’s 2021 American Rescue Plan. The expiration of that policy — once viewed as a potential key part of Biden’s legacy — led to a spike in child poverty, though Manchin and Republicans argued the higher credits exacerbated inflation.
Here are some of the details
Higher taxes for the ultra-rich: a 25% percent minimum tax on households worth more than $100 million.
Higher taxes for oil and gas companies: Ending the “special tax treatment.“
Partially reversing Trump’s 2017 corporate tax cut:, increasing the corporate income tax rate to 28% from 21%.
Saving money by negotiating down the cost of prescriptions: New prescription rules on the pharmaceutical industry, allowing Medicare to negotiate prices for more drugs and bring them into negotiation sooner.
Less money for Covid: The White House is preparing to wind down its emergency response operations.
Reducing costs for families
Including $22.1 billion for existing early care and education programs and expansion of the child tax credit.
Insulin price caps for all: Will make the insulin price cap for Medicare beneficiaries a universal program.
Trying again for paid family and medical leave. Money for family leave and the “care economy.”
Protect Medicare and Social Security
Hiking payroll taxes on Americans making over $400,000 annually, extending the solvency of a key Medicare program for another quarter century. See: “My Plan to Extend Medicare for Another Generation”
American “investments”
A defense budget of more than $835 billion, one of the largest peacetime defense budgets in history.
A Unity Agenda - Budget items the administration thinks won’t cause a lot of debate, namely, cancer research, veterans, mental health services & the opioid epidemic.
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"A defense budget of more than $835 billion, one of the largest peacetime defense budgets in history." I am horrified by this proposal. If anything we need to reduce the DOD budget which would release billions of dollars to be invested in that which promotes life. Such as the population of unhoused people. Such as the inequity in medical care between white people and those who are Black or POC. Not to mention making more money available for "A Unity Agenda - Budget items the administration thinks won’t cause a lot of debate, namely, cancer research, veterans, mental health services & the opioid epidemic. "