2024-03-11 13:15:14
US President Joe Biden is expected today to outline his fiscal plans for the country, presenting a budget for the 2025 fiscal year starting in early October, Reuters reported.
The budget is likely to include pledges to cut spending to cover the nation’s deficit by $3 trillion over 10 years. That would slow, but not stop, the growth of the national debt, which is estimated at $34.5 trillion.
Biden also wants to raise the U.S. corporate tax rate, reduce exemptions on executive compensation and corporate jets, and allow the government to negotiate lower drug prices.
The extra money raised could fund new housing tax credits, expanded health care subsidies and contribute to better border controls.
On defense spending, Biden is expected to call for fewer F-35 fighter jets and Virginia-class submarines.
White House budgets are usually a kind of financial wish list, which is felt even more strongly in the current political climate. US government agencies are operating without a budget for the entire 2024 fiscal year after Republicans rejected an agreed spending level. The two main parties in the US, Republicans and Democrats, are sharply divided over how to spend the country’s annual budget, which is about $6 trillion.
The House of Representatives (the lower house of the US Congress) on Thursday unveiled a plan that aims to balance the federal budget within a decade by cutting $14 trillion in federal spending. Green energy subsidies, student loan forgiveness programs should be cut, while taxes should be cut. The White House described the plan as unfeasible.
Months after the October deadline, the US Congress has yet to pass comprehensive funding for federal agencies for the current year and has stalled Biden’s request for additional emergency funds to support Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
Biden’s budget proposal last year led to a standoff with some Republicans over the federal government’s current $6.13 trillion in annual spending. As a result, a two-year agreement to limit spending was signed, Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy was removed, and the Fitch credit rating agency stripped the country of its AAA rating, reports BTA.