On March 11, 2024, U.S. President Joe Biden, during a visit to Goffstown, New Hampshire, speaks about reducing the cost of living for American families.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Biden's budget proposal includes $7.3 trillion in proposed spending, up from $6.9 trillion in 2024, but two proposals include calls for stronger Social Security, Medicare and tax increases for the wealthy. has been done.
This year, as the president is expected to face Donald Trump in a rematch in the general election in November, the budget bill also represents the Biden campaign's economic platform.
President Trump hinted at cuts to social security, Medicare, Medicaid and other benefits programs in an interview with CNBC on Monday morning.
“There's a lot that can be done in terms of curtailing rights, in terms of rights theft and mismanagement,” Trump said on CNBC's “Squawk Box.”
Biden repeatedly fired back at the comments in the hours since.
“This morning, Donald Trump said cuts to Social Security and Medicare are back on the table,” Biden said in a speech in New Hampshire after announcing the budget. “I will never allow that to happen.”
Taxation of the wealthy
According to the White House, the budget aims to reduce the federal deficit by $3 trillion over the next 10 years, primarily by imposing a minimum 25% tax rate on the unrealized income of the wealthiest households and restructuring the corporate tax code. The aims. Biden's budget proposal would increase tax rates on multibillion-dollar companies from 15% to 21% and raise the broader corporate tax rate to 28%.
“We can make all the investments by asking the top 1% and 2% to pay more into the system,” Shalanda Young, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said on a call with reporters Monday. Stated.
Biden will also seek to strengthen Medicare and Social Security by relying on new federal bargaining powers on Medicare prescription drugs and exploring other savings such as housing and health insurance.
Biden previewed many of the themes of his budget plan during Thursday's State of the Union address.
“Do you really think we need another $2 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations? I absolutely don't. I will continue to fight tooth and nail for fairness!” he told Congress. He spoke in a fiercely partisan speech.
Biden's populist, progressive funding plan to tax the wealthy is not a new proposal from the White House.
Since Biden took office in 2021, he and Democrats in Congress have repeatedly proposed raising taxes on the wealthiest to raise revenue. But even when Democrats took control of both houses of Congress, this idea made little progress.
Billionaire tax plans were frozen indefinitely after Republicans won the House majority in 2023.
House Republicans tried to pre-empt Mr. Biden's budget last week by passing their own 2025 budget resolution in partisan committee votes. The proposal would reduce the ballooning federal deficit by about $14 trillion over the next decade by repealing Biden's landmark anti-inflation law that has provided massive investments in clean energy and the green economy. The purpose is to
“The top line of Congressional Republicans is making rosy economic projections that don't match reality,” Young said Monday. “Congressional Republicans don't say what they're cutting or who they're harming.”
House Republican leaders, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), on Monday denounced Biden's budget request as a “roadmap to accelerate America's decline.”
“The price tag in President Biden's budget is yet another stark reminder of this administration's insatiable appetite for reckless spending and Democrats' disregard for fiscal responsibility,” Johnson and his House Republican colleagues said in a statement. ” he said.
Budget for FY2024 is not yet completed
The two competing budget proposals are not surprising in deeply divided Washington, where compromise is rare in 2024.
There has been back and forth disagreement in Congress, with lawmakers still unable to decide on a permanent budget six months into the fiscal year.
Over the past six months, fierce battles in Congress have brought the government to the brink of shutdown multiple times and cost former Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy his job.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) answers questions from reporters as he attends the House Republican Conference. There, he will discuss attempts by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) to oust him from the House of Representatives. Speaking at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on October 3, 2023.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Meanwhile, the government kept the lights on with extraordinary spending bills.
Finally, in late February, lawmakers reached an agreement on a $460 billion bill that would fund half of the government for the remainder of the fiscal year. The remaining half of the funds must be settled by March 22, or the government will be subject to a partial shutdown.
Despite its dysfunction, Biden did not weaken any part of his progressive budget request for 2025, which may have made it easier for a polarized Congress to swallow.
eye of november
This year's budget also represents the economic foundation for Biden's re-election campaign. As the president seeks re-election, his campaign to pressure wealthy interests shows no signs of slowing down.
“Republicans will cut Social Security and give even more tax cuts to the wealthy,” Biden declared in Thursday's State of the Union address. “I will protect and strengthen social security and make the wealthy pay their fair share!”
Recent polls suggest that voters' feelings about Biden's economy may be starting to brighten after months of lackluster approval ratings.
A Wall Street Journal poll conducted in February gave Biden the highest rating on the economy so far during the campaign. Forty percent of voters approve of his handling of the economy, up four points from the same question in December.
Still, Biden will need to catch up to counter voters' perceptions of what Trump's economy looked like.
Former U.S. President and 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives to speak at the “Get Out the Vote” rally at the Coliseum Complex in Greensboro, North Carolina, on March 2, 2024.
Ryan Corrado AFP | Getty Images
A CBS/YouGov poll also conducted in February found that 55% of survey respondents said Biden's policies would make things more expensive, but only a minority said the same about Trump's policies. It was 34%.
Meanwhile, Biden's re-election campaign is trying to convince voters that the rising cost of living following the pandemic is actually just the product of unfair corporate pricing tactics, the same ones the Biden administration has been cracking down on during the presidential campaign. I'm trying to convince you. last year.
Last week, Biden announced the creation of an Unfair and Illegal Pricing Strike Force jointly led by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice. The aim is to pressure companies to lower prices.
“President Biden is tired of corporate practices that unfairly raise costs for consumers,” National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard told reporters last week. “And he's taking action.”
