It may be doomed to fail in a Congress where Republicans control the House of Representatives, but for the President of the United States, Joe Bidenand the budget project that he presented this Thursday, approval is not the only measure of success.
The ambitious accounts They resume the effort of the Democratic president to transform the US towards a more economically and socially just model. They also serve as a presentation of the central message for a campaign for re-election that has not yet been formally announced but is taken for granted AND with an intense focus on the tax increases for the highest incomes for protect retirements and public health while trying reduce the deficit, They put the ball in the Republicans’ court. They have not yet submitted their own budget proposal but, with their generic demands for draconian spending cuts as a condition of raising the debt ceiling, they are bringing the US economy to the brink of a nervous breakdown.
The setting chosen by Biden for the presentation of his budget plan is neither accidental nor does it leave room for doubt as to his intentions: a union local in Pennsylvania, one of the key hinge states in the elections, where he made some statements this afternoon. Nor does the content of the proposal leave room for doubt as to his goals, a Declaration of Principles and, in a way, a War declaration, Or at least battle.
Because the White House is aware that the accounts do not have no choice in congress, but neither is there any counterpart to putting Biden’s ambition on the table in detail and highlighting the contrast with the potential results of the ideas that the Republicans have launched for now in a generic way. And the beads further read as one Roadmap for the duel already open in the negotiations to raise the debt ceiling. With that ceiling already exceeded, the US is meeting its already committed obligations with extraordinary measures from the Treasury. Those tools will wear out in a few months. And if an agreement is not reached, the US would not be able to meet its payments, an unprecedented situation in its history that would cause a crisis with global repercussions.
Two ways
At a time when conservatives insist on reducing the role of government, Biden has presented a budget that would raise federal spending to 6.8 trillion dollars, increasing the items from Defense to social programs.
According to the White House, despite this it would achieve one of the ambitions and demands of the Republicans: the deficit cut, specifically reducing ttrillions of dollars in the next decade. And he would do it in ways opposite to those preferred by the conservatives, obtaining 5,000 million in 10 years through the raising taxes on the highest incomes and corporations and ending the tax cuts that Donald Trump passed in 2017 that Republicans want to make permanent.
I would also do it at the same time strengthens Social Security and Medicare, the public health care program for the elderly. Although the few Republicans who have tabled specific proposals to cut land have withdrawn them, the math of the conservatives it’s hard to get by without those snips which are tremendously unpopular. And in the document sent by the White House before Biden’s speech, they are attacked on that flank. “Until they produce a plan we can only look at a wide range of past and present budgets, statements and proposals that provide clear and consistent evidence that vital programs on which Americans depend will be on the cuts table,” it read.
It is a debate that also provokes internal tensions between the most moderate Republicans and the most extreme. And the former president is already exploiting it Trump, which in its run to 2024 insists on promising to fully protect Social Security and Medicare. In this way, he preemptively marks differences against potential rivals in the primaries and, especially, with Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida whom he sees as his greatest threat and who, although he now assures that the Republican Party will not touch these programs in his days of congressman backed cuts.
The numbers
Although they are not going to see the light as they are proposed, Biden’s budgets mark their way. In tax terms they would raise from 37% to 39.6% taxes on those who enter more than 400,000 dollars. They would also fix at 39.6% the taxes on capital gains of those who enter more than one million dollars and would establish a minimum rate of 25% for billionaires (above the 20% he proposed last year).
The corporate tax for corporations would rise from 21 to 28%. But it would also quadruple from the current 1% the share repurchase lien. Also I know they would eliminate tax subsidies for gas and oiland would close fiscal holes that are currently exploited by real estate, investment funds or cryptocurrencies. The mining of the latter would also face a new tax.
At the same time, Biden intensifies his commitment to social and environmental programs that he already tried to reinforce or launch in his ‘Build Back Better’ program, a legislative initiative that he had to water down to achieve the support of the most conservative Democrats such as Senator Joe Manchin for what ended up becoming the Inflation Reduction Act. And his accounts, for example, include more spending to support the child care, paid maternity leave, programs for free preschool educationof early education and elder careof help to living place or to expand Medicaidthe public health care system for the lowest income people.
Biden also proposes a 5.2% rise in the salary of federal civil servants. Raise to exceed 835,000 million dollars for Defense and include in their numbers 6 billion to help Ukraine.
republican reaction
As expected, the republicans have attacked Biden’s proposal immediately. Kevin McCarthy, leader of the Lower House, has accused her of “absolute lack of seriousness & rdquor; in a tweet, in which he stated: “Washington has a spending problem, not an income & rdquor ;.
President Biden just delivered his budget to Congress, and it is completely unserious.
He proposes trillions in new taxes that you and your family will pay directly or through higher costs.
Mr. President: Washington has a spending problem, NOT a revenue problem.
—Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) March 9, 2023
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