Biden budget plans to cut US deficit by $3 trillion over 10 years: White House | World news
President Joe Biden’s upcoming budget proposal aims to cut deficits by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade, the White House said Wednesday.
That deficit reduction goal is much higher than the $2 trillion that Biden promised in his State of the Union address last month. It’s also 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 repeatedly called into question Republicans’ commitment to what it considers a sustainable budget. Government officials have noted that many of the tax plans and other policies previously supported by GOP lawmakers will add more than $2.7 trillion to the national debt over 10 years.
Biden plans to discuss his budget proposal Wednesday in Philadelphia. The Associated Press reported the deficit reduction target early Wednesday, citing a government official speaking on condition of anonymity.
“This is something we think is important,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in confirmation of the president’s plan. “This is something that shows the American people that we take this seriously.”
As part of the budget, the president has already said that he wants to increase the Medicare tax on people who make more than $400,000 per year and increase the tax on the retirements of billionaires. and others with greater degrees of wealth.
Also read: Joe Biden plans higher taxes on the wealthy to help fund Medicare, report says
It is a delicate time with the US economy on edge due to high inflation. The government this summer may be eliminating its emergency measures to keep Washington running, setting the risk of defaulting on payments with a catastrophic series of job losses that could wreak havoc on the economy.
Biden’s package of spending priorities is unlikely to pass the House or Senate as planned. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday that the plan “will never see the light of day,” a sign that it could be the first as a messaging document heading into the 2024 elections.
Republicans, newly in control of the House, are demanding sharp spending cuts. Biden has suggested that increasing taxes on the earnings and assets of the nation’s wealthiest families could support government spending and also improve Medicare and Social Security.
The president argued in Monday’s speech that there are 680 billionaires in the United States and many of them pay lower taxes than families who consider themselves to be in the middle class. Biden said that he should not take it to the exact number of billionaires, but that they can be able to pay more for the good of the country.
“No billionaire should pay lower taxes than a firefighter — no one,” Biden said at a conference of the International Association of Fire Fighters.
