President Joe Biden released his proposed federal budget on Thursday, pledging to cut the federal deficit and raise taxes on the rich.
His proposed budget for the fiscal year 2024 would increase the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% and place a minimum 25% wealth tax on “those with wealth of more than $100 million.”
The White House claimed that the $5.8 trillion budget will reduce the federal deficit “by almost $3 trillion over the next decade by asking the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations to finally pay their fair share.”
The increase in tax revenue would be used to fund Medicare and Social Security, according to the White House. Biden’s proposal would also allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices and put a $35 cap on insulin for all Americans.
The spending priorities outlined in the budget include early childhood education, child care, and free community college. The plan would also raise the net investment income tax from 3.8% to 5% for earnings higher than $400,000.
However, the White House claimed that “no one earning less than $400,000 per year will pay a penny in new taxes.”
While the president can recommend federal spending priorities, the final budget must still be approved by Congress, and Congressional Republicans have been expectedly critical of Biden’s proposed plan.
Rep. Jodey Arrington, Texas Republican and House Budget Committee Chair, said this budget “is more of the same bloated bureaucracy at the expense of working families, while sticking our grandchildren with the bill,” reported Reuters.
“[Biden’s] policies have led to 40-year record inflation, soaring interest rates, and the prospect of a sustained economic recession,” said Arrington.
“President Joe Biden’s budget is a reckless proposal doubling down on the same Far Left spending policies that have led to record inflation and our current debt crisis,” said Republican leaders Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Steve Scalise (R-LA), Tom Emmer (R-MN), and Elise Stefanik (R-NY) in a joint statement.
Democrat legislators, however, have expressed support for the president’s budget proposal.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries posted on social media that the plan “protects Social Security, strengthens Medicare and invests in our children,” adding that “House Republicans continue to hide their extreme plans from the American people.”
“The president’s budget is set to be a bold, optimistic, and serious proposal for strengthening our economy and creating opportunities to climb into the middle class, as well as helping people stay there once they get in the middle class,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, per Reuters.
On Thursday, President Biden said he is prepared to meet with Speaker McCarthy to discuss their differences regarding the upcoming federal budget.
“We’ll sit down and we’ll go line by line, and we’ll go through it and see what we can agree on, what we disagree on, and then fight it out in the Congress,” he said, per CNBC. “I’m ready to meet with the Speaker anytime, tomorrow if he has his budget. Lay it down, show me what you want to do, I’ll show what I want to do. We can see what we can agree on, see what we don’t agree on and we vote on it.”
