The $7.266 trillion budget request, which increases taxes on the affluent, funds overseas partners, and expands the child tax credit
Biden's $7.266 Trillion Budget Proposal [Credit: Fox Business]
Biden’s $7.266 Trillion Budget Proposal: President Joe Biden’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2025 would maintain a number of administration goals, including increasing aid to American allies abroad, raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations, and lowering costs for the majority of families.
The $7.266 trillion budget request, which increases taxes on the affluent, funds overseas partners, and expands the child tax credit, proposes a number of new or revised programs. Congress will have the responsibility to either approve or deny Biden’s initiatives in the future months.
U.S. President Joe Biden unveiled his objectives for federal spending in 2025 in a proposal valued at $7.3 trillion, which is improbable to prevail in the politically polarized Congress. While delivering a speech in New Hampshire, where he proposed an increase in taxes on the most affluent citizens, Biden advocated for this notion to win over voters in a crucial swing state. Biden’s budget, which is scheduled to be implemented on October 1st, contains numerous liberal wish lists put forth by Democrats.
The budget proposes a number of policy modifications and increases to social programs in an effort to reduce expenses for the majority of households.
A few of these provisions are as follows:
Access to low-cost child care from birth to kindergarten is guaranteed for families earning less than $200,000 per year, according to a new program proposed in the budget request. The program’s expenses would be billed to consumers according to a tiered scale, whereby the lowest-income households would pay virtually nothing.
In addition to the over 16 million children who would have access to the program, an additional 2 million would be assisted through increased funding for Child Care and Development Block Grants.
The proposal calls for the reinstatement of the child tax credit at the temporary level that Congress set during the pandemic. The modification would qualify 18 million low-income families for the maximum tax credit, as stated in a fact sheet from the White House.
Housing: The budget allocates $258 billion for the construction or preservation of over 2 million housing units.
The Home Investment Partnerships Program, a state and local block grant initiative designed to develop and repair affordable housing, is allocated $1.3 billion in the plan.
In addition, a new tax credit for first-time homebuyers and sellers is proposed in the budget. “Middle-class families” were eligible to apply for the $10,000 rebate either when purchasing or selling their starter property.
Healthcare: The budget proposes accelerating the implementation of a provision from the Inflation Reduction Act that would grant Medicare the authority to negotiate prices for pharmaceuticals. The Democrats’ tax, climate, and policy legislation for 2022 establishes a timetable for the federal government to engage in pricing negotiations for specific pharmaceuticals. The proposed budget would accelerate that schedule.
The same legislation limited Medicare recipients to $35 per month for insulin. In August 2022, Republicans eliminated a provision from that legislation that would have mandated the commercial market to employ the identical limit. The budget request submitted on Monday pertains to the imposition of a limit on insulin acquired from private sources.
In addition, “Medicaid-like coverage” would be made available to residents of states that have not yet expanded Medicaid under the budget. Furthermore, it would furnish states that have already expanded Medicaid with monetary incentives to sustain those expansions.
The budget strategy of increasing taxes on select companies and the wealthiest individuals is intended to mitigate the government deficit. The Republican-controlled Congress passed the 2017 tax code, which had a 21% rate, during President Donald Trump’s administration. To arrive at the budget’s proposed 28% corporate tax rate, divide the 21% rate by the 35% rate of the previous law.
Additionally, the budget would increase the corporate minimum tax from 15% to 21% in accordance with the Inflation Reduction Act.
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A few provisions in the budget are intended to fortify the social safety net and safeguard families.
Increased family and medical leave: The proposed budget would mandate that eligible employees take a minimum of 12 weeks of paid leave following the birth of a child, to attend to the needs of a family member, recover from personal medical issues, adjust to a family member’s military deployment, or “find safety from domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.”
Additionally, the budget proposes that all employees be granted seven days of paid medical leave.
The proposal aims to allocate $7.7 billion in order to “fully fund” the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, which is administered by the U.S. Agriculture Department.
Secretary Tom Vilsack and others have warned for months that if funding is not increased, eligible families risk losing access to WIC. With the proposed level of funding, the program could expand from serving 6.2 million to 7 million participants in 2021.
Homelessness: destitute Assistance Grants, amounting to $4.1 billion in the budget, are intended to provide support to an estimated 1.2 million individuals who are destitute.
The budget request submitted on Monday includes both new and sustained funding to support climate initiatives.
The budget calls for the expansion of the American Climate Corps, which was established with 20,000 employees last year. The proposal calls for mandatory financing for the program and calls for the expansion of the corps to 50,000 personnel by 2031.
The proposal allocates $1.6 billion for programs of the Department of Energy that support renewable energy initiatives nationwide. The allocated funds would be used for residential retrofitting, the production of renewable energy components, and the maintenance of a more dependable and secure electric grid.
Climate resilience: $23 billion is allocated in the budget for climate adaptation and resilience, which are intended to mitigate the impacts of climate change-related catastrophes such as wildfires, droughts, and floods.
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Biden included items from the administration’s October request for supplemental funding for Ukraine, Israel, Indo-Pacific regional partners, and the U.S.-Mexico border in Monday’s full-year budget request, following the rejection of that request by Republicans in the U.S. House.
The fact sheet states, “The Budget includes the unmet needs from the October supplemental request; therefore, it reaffirms the necessity for those needs.”
Included in the renewed request are:
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