US President Joe Biden unveiled a $6.8 trillion government spending plan for 2024 on Thursday that calls for dozens of new policy initiatives and higher taxes for corporations and the wealthy. But opposition Republicans immediately said that has no chance to obtain congressional approval.
Biden, a first-term Democrat in the White House who is expected to seek re-election next year, called for more funding to counter China’s economic and military influence, increased spending on health care for Americans young and old, new educational enterprises and a stronger staffing for the country’s Environmental Protection Agency.
“China is the only competitor to the United States both with the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, with the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological might to do so,” the White House argues in a budget summary.
The release of the budget plan comes as the US faces a looming highly partisan debate over how to increase the country’s debt ceiling $31.4 trillion: the limit on the amount of money the government can borrow to pay its bills.
If Biden and Congress cannot agree on a debt ceiling increase in the coming months, the US could default on its financial obligations for the first time, a financial catastrophe that could hit global markets and drive up unemployment at home.
Biden’s opponents in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives have called for big funding cuts, not increases, in future annual spending plans, like the one Biden submitted for the 12 months starting Oct. 1, to control chronic budget deficits that now total more than $1 trillion annually.
Republicans say government spending is out of control and individual programs need to be drastically cut or eliminated.
By contrast, Biden is calling for higher taxes on high earners, those who earn more than $400,000 a year, and on corporations to fund their new or expanded programs. Republicans have yet to explain which programs they would remove, but say they will do so next month.
After presenting his budget plan in a speech at a union hall in the eastern city of Philadelphia, Biden pressed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to present his plan so the two can go “line by line.” line” to see what you can agree on. “I am ready to meet with the speaker at any time,” Biden said.
For the White House, Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Cecilia Rouse, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, told reporters that Biden’s budget plan seeks to build on what they see as the successes of the first two years of his administration.
“It will boost American manufacturing, provide paid national leave, lower taxes for working families, make our communities safer, drive medical advances, deliver for our veterans and much more,” Young said. “That’s the right way to continue to grow our economy.”
“Republicans in Congress keep saying they want to cut the deficit. But they haven’t come up with a comprehensive plan showing what they’re going to cut,” Young said. “We don’t know until they come up with a plan. We look forward to seeing their budget so the American people can compare it to what we’re coming up with.”
The revelation of Biden’s budget priorities sets the stage for months of debate.
US budgets are rarely passed before the start of October 1 of each new fiscal year, with Congress and the White House, regardless of which party controls the presidency or the legislative branch, usually agreeing to continue spending at levels until they finally reach an agreement on the future of the funds.
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