The US president announces a budget that looks like a campaign program
“A budget is a reflection of our values,” said US President Joe Biden on Wednesday when unveiling his plan. (File photo)
Social promises and taxes on the rich: Joe Biden on Thursday presented a draft budget that looks like a campaign program for 2024, the strongest measures of which, however, have little or no chance of passing the barrier of the Congress.
Budget 2024 plans to reduce the deficit by nearly US$3 trillion over 10 years, the White House announced.
For this, the American president wants to introduce a minimum tax of 25% for billionaires, i.e. the richest 0.01% of Americans.
The Democrat also wants to raise the corporate tax rate at 28%, down from 21% today, but still lower than the 35% that was in effect before former President Donald Trump's reform in 2017.
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At the same time, Joe Biden intends to reduce certain expenditure deemed unnecessary, targeting in particular Big Pharma, that is to say the pharmaceutical sector, and < em>Big Oil, the oil industry.
My budget will ask the wealthy to pay their fair share so that the millions of workers who helped build this wealth can retire with the health insurance for which they contributed, he had indicated on Twitter Wednesday evening.
In this austere exercise as possible that is the presentation of the budget, the American president hopes to find additional political momentum.
The 80-year-old Democrat – who officially only intends to run again in 2024, but appears to be campaigning already – will outline his plan in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, an electorally strategic state.
However, he has no illusions about his ability to materialize his proposals: since the beginning of the year, he has only controlled the Senate. The other house of Congress, that of Representatives, is now dominated by Republicans, determined not to let any tax increase pass.
The Republican president of House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy has called this budget a reckless proposal that replicates the same far-left spending policies that have led to record inflation and our current debt crisis. /p>
On the contrary, he said in a statement, we must reduce unnecessary public spending.
Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy assures that his troops will not vote to raise the debt ceiling until Joe Biden succeeds in containing public spending. (File photo)
Because with this additional income, Joe Biden estimates that he can ensure for 25 additional years the financing of a health insurance plan benefiting Americans over 65, Medicare, and this, without touching benefits.
But also increase the salaries of federal civil servants by more than 5%, says the Washington Post.
All this, as the White House assured Thursday, by cutting the federal deficit by nearly $3 trillion over the next 10 years as Republicans regularly accuse the president of slack spending.
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A budget is a reflection of our values, Joe Biden tweeted on Wednesday.
It is also, in l& #x27;case, a political weapon.
The Democrat is trying, with his proposals, to embarrass the Republican Party, which is calling for more budgetary rigor, but has so far not explained exactly what expenses he intended to cut.
Joe Biden is therefore happy to constantly accuse the right of wanting to undermine social systems such as Medicare – which the conservatives defend against.
This budget presentation comes against the backdrop of a standoff between Democrats and Republicans over another financial issue, more pressing than the 2024 election: the so-called raising of the debt ceiling.
The United States, the only industrialized power in this case, must regularly increase, by a vote of Congress, the debt capacity of the government.
It takes a congressional vote to raise US debt. (File photo)
However, this vote, which has long been a formality, is increasingly politicized. House of Representatives boss Republican Kevin McCarthy says his troops won't vote to raise the debt ceiling until Joe Biden rein ins government spending.
The Democratic president, for his part, has so far refused to negotiate, arguing that the debt accumulated over the years by the country is a shared responsibility.
The issue is not small: if the tussle goes too long, the United States would be under the threat of a default, never before seen, from July.
The debt of the world's largest economy reached 31,400 billion US dollars on January 19, i.e. the ceiling beyond which the country can no longer issue new loans to finance itself, and therefore cannot no longer honor their payments. Temporary emergency measures have been taken to continue paying.
