PRESIDENT Joe Biden sketched his policy vision for the United States on Monday (Mar 11), unveiling a US$7.3 trillion spending wish list that is as much an election-year pitch to voters as a policy proposal.

Biden wants to sharply raise taxes on corporations and high earners in his second four-year term, the document showed, to help cut the federal deficit and pay for new programmes to assist those who make less cope with high housing and child care costs.

Biden’s budget for the 2025 fiscal year that starts in October includes raising the corporate income tax rate to 28 from 21 per cent, hiking rates on people making over US$400,000, forcing those with wealth of US$100 million to pay at least 25 per cent of their income in taxes, and letting the government negotiate to bring more drug costs down.

Meanwhile, the government would bring back a child tax credit for low- and middle-income earners, fund childcare programmes, funnel US$258 billion to building homes, provide paid family leave for workers, and spends billions on violent crime prevention and law enforcement.

It promises to cut annual deficit spending by US$3 trillion over 10 years, slowing but not halting the growth of the US$34.5 trillion national debt. Deficits would total US$1.8 trillion in the 2025 fiscal year, or 6.1 per cent of GDP, before falling to under 4 per cent over the decade, the White House forecast.

Biden also renewed his demand for funding on border security, Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan and other national security issues that has been stalled by Republican congressional leadership for months.

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The budget was released days after the Democrat’s State of the Union address, where he sharply assailed the values of his expected Republican opponent in November’s election, Donald Trump.

Biden travels to the competitive election state of New Hampshire on Monday. Trump, whose signature legislative accomplishment as president was a major tax cut, has said he wants to sharply increase tariffs on imported foreign goods and cut regulations on energy producers.

The White House forecast 1.7 per cent real GDP growth in 2024, and 1.8 per cent in 2025, rising to 2.2 per cent by 2030. Consumer price inflation for 2025 was forecast at 2.3 per cent, with 4 per cent unemployment, a figure that falls to 3.8 per cent later in the decade.

The forecasts were set in November, and officials said the figures would be more optimistic if they were set today.

Democratic manifesto

White House budgets are always something of a presidential wish list, but that is even more so in the current political climate. US agencies are operating without a full-year 2024 budget, after hardline Republicans rejected an agreed-upon spending level, and Republicans and Democrats are sharply divided over how to spend some US$6 trillion in annual funding.

Democratic polling shows voters are concerned about debt-fuelled government spending, high costs and the economy in general, and illegal border crossings, as well as broad support for taxing the wealthy.

The US government spends more than it takes in each year, and the majority goes to so-called mandatory programmes and military programmes, which lawmakers are unlikely to cut.

On Thursday House Republicans issued a plan that aims to balance the federal budget within a decade by cutting US$14 trillion in federal spending, including green energy subsides and student loan forgiveness, while reducing taxes.

The White House called the plan unworkable.

Months after its October deadline, Congress has yet to pass full funding for federal agencies for the current year.

Last year’s standoff between Biden and hardline Republicans over the federal government’s current-year spending of US$6.13 trillion resulted in a two-year agreement to cap spending, the ouster of House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the credit rating agency Fitch stripping the country of its AAA rating.

Biden’s defence budget calls for fewer stealthy F-35 fighter jets and Virginia-class submarines, first reported by Reuters, after a meagre 1 per cent increase allowed under those caps left fewer than expected funds. REUTERS