Deficit Reduction, Lower Costs Cornerstone of Biden Budget

No government or corporation in the world raises and spends as much money as the United States government. That makes the annual budget proposed by any President, no matter the party, a very big deal. 

Now, to be very clear, the budget process in Congress is a mess. Seriously, don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise. Between continuing resolutions, appropriations versus authorizations, omnibus “catch-all’s” and the budget reconciliation process, tracking – much less understanding – the way the federal government adopts and enacts a budget each year is no small feat.

But it is really, really important. As President Biden himself has recounted for more than a decade, his father was fond of saying, “Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.”

Well, let’s take a look at what President Joe Biden values based on his proposed budget for the next fiscal year:

• Deficit reduction: After nearly $300 billion in deficit reduction during his first year in office, current projections show the largest ever deficit reduction in American history ($1.3 trillion). The Biden Budget would build on that success by decreasing the deficit by another $1 trillion over the next ten years. 

• Tax Fairness: The Biden Budget is able to decrease the deficit in large measure by making the tax code fairer. In short, the top .1 percent of taxpayers — the extremely, uber wealthy billionaires — would be subject to a minimum tax and profits on corporations would once again be taxed at 28%.

• Lower Costs: In the midst of inflation and rising costs hitting working and middle class families the hardest, The Biden Budget proposes concrete steps to make many of the costs borne by American families a little easier to bear, including for prescription drugs, health insurance premiums, child care, and college. 

Amid an information environment seemingly stuck on hyper-speed, intransigent Republicans set on denying the Biden Administration wins, and entirely understandable exhaustion with politics, it’s essential that American taxpayers understand what, and who, their President and the Democratic majorities are fighting for.