From NOTICE News Daily for March 13, 2023
Last week, President Biden laid out his proposal for the federal government’s budget: $6.9 trillion on important things like social security and healthcare, and he wants to raise taxes on rich people and big companies to help pay for it. But Republicans in Congress don’t agree with the president’s plan and want to cut spending instead. >> Full story
MORE INFO:
- Go deeper: This article from CNN lists in detail what is in Biden’s budget proposal
- The other side: Republicans slam Biden’s budget proposal they say is jam-packed with spending: ‘Taxes, taxes, and more taxes’ (Fox News)
- Primary source: This press release from the White House lays out the President’s proposed budget in detail
- The basics: How the Federal Budget Process Works (Investopedia)
TRANSCRIPT
Jonathan: Here’s a really big number: $6.9 trillion dollars. That’s how much the federal government proposes spending in the upcoming year according to the president’s annual budget proposal released last week.
While nearly 7 trillion dollars in spending sounds like a lot — and it is — Biden’s budget also plans to reduce the deficit by 3 trillion dollars.
A deficit happens when the government spends more money than it takes in, and Biden’s plan to reduce that amount would come from raising taxes on the rich and huge corporations.
Biden: “No billionaire should be paying a lower tax than somebody working as a school teacher or a firefighter or any of you in this room. So my plan is to make sure the corporations begin to pay their fair share.”
The budget proposal also calls for strengthening social security, funding universal preschool, and using tax increases on anyone making more than four hundred grand a year to fund Medicare – which is government run health insurance for the elderly – for another 25 years.
Biden: “For too long, working people have been breaking their necks, the economy’s left them behind – working people like you – while those at the top get away with everything”
Every year, the president gives Congress a budget for the forthcoming fiscal year on how the government plans to spend the taxes we all pay. For the government, the 2024 fiscal year begins July 1, 2023, and ends in June 2024.
But these budgets are not set in stone. They’re typically outlines of ideal policies and serve as starting points for negotiations.
Republicans firmly oppose much of what the president has laid out, and instead are preparing to propose 150 billion dollars worth of spending cuts, including 25 billion taken out of the Department of Education.
Biden says he’s ready to negotiate.
