WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday is releasing a budget plan aimed at capturing voters’ attention: tax breaks for families, lower health care costs, smaller deficits and higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations.
The House and Senate are unlikely to pass legislation, but the fiscal year 2025 proposal is an election-year blueprint for what the future could hold if Biden and enough of his fellow Democrats win in November. The president and his aides discussed parts of his budget in last week’s State of the Union address, with plans to release the fine print Monday.
If the Biden budget were to become law, deficits could be cut by $3 trillion over 10 years. Parents can receive an increased child tax credit. Homebuyers can receive a tax credit worth $9,600. Corporate taxes would increase, while billionaires would have to pay a minimum tax of 25%.
Biden also wants Medicare to have the ability to negotiate the prices of 500 prescription drugs, which could save $200 billion over 10 years.
The president will travel to Manchester, New Hampshire, on Monday, where he will call on Congress to apply his $2,000 cap on drug costs and $35 insulin to everyone, not just people who have Medicare. He will also seek to make permanent some protections in the Affordable Care Act that are set to expire next year.
All of this is an opportunity for Biden to try to define the race on the terms he wants, just as the almost certain Republican nominee, Donald Trump, wants to rally voters around his agenda.
“A fair tax code is how we invest in the things that make this country great: health care, education, defense and so much more,” Biden said during Thursday’s State of the Union address, adding that his predecessor had announced a $2 tax cut. trillion dollars had implemented in his country. In 2017, this disproportionately benefited the top 1% of earners.
Trump, for his part, would like to raise tariffs and pump out oil flows. He called for a “second phase” of tax cuts as parts of his 2017 overhaul of the income tax law would expire after 2025. The Republican has also said he would scrap government regulations. He has also pledged to pay off the national debt, although it is unclear how this would be done without outlining severe cuts.
“We’re going to do things that no one thought were possible,” Trump said after his victories in last week’s Super Tuesday nominating contests.
House Republicans voted out of committee Thursday on their own budget resolution for next fiscal year, saying it would cut deficits by $14 trillion over 10 years. But their measure would depend on rosy economic forecasts and sharp spending cuts, which would cut Medicare and Medicaid spending by $8.7 trillion. Biden has promised to end all cuts to Medicare.
“The House budget blueprint reflects the values of hardworking Americans who know that in tough economic times you don’t spend what you don’t have — our federal government must do the same,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Congress is still working on a budget for the current fiscal year. On Saturday, Biden signed a $460 billion package to avert the closure of several federal agencies, but lawmakers are only about halfway through tackling spending for this fiscal year.
