Biden’s 2024 Budget Proposal: Tax Increases and Military Pay Raises, but No Chance of Passing Congress
President Joe Biden on Thursday unveiled his budget for fiscal year 2024, a sweeping blueprint that includes proposals to increase taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans, restore the expanded Child Tax Credit, increase defense spending and aim to cut the deficit by $3 trillion over a decade. Despite the ambitious spending plan, Biden’s budget has no chance of getting passed by Congress due to the Republican majority in the House.
The budget Biden proposed details trillions of dollars in new federal spending programs, offset by tax increases on high earners and corporations. It includes a minimum billionaires tax, a higher corporate tax rate, and the expansion of the Net Investment Income Tax to apply to business income as well as investments, wages and self-employment income.[0] It also proposes raising the Medicare tax from the current rate of 3.8 percent to 5 percent for individuals making over $400,000 per year.
Furthermore, Biden is calling for tax cuts for low- and average-income people and the establishment of a national paid family and medical leave program that provides up to 12 weeks of leave for eligible employees to take time off to care for and bond with a new child, care for a seriously ill loved one, heal from their own serious illness, address circumstances arising from a loved one’s military deployment, or find safety from domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking.[1] The budget also proposes a 5.2% raise for military pay, the largest boost since a 6.9% average military pay increase in 2002.[2] Taxes on large corporations, hedge fund managers, stock buybacks, and billionaires are also increased by this.[3]
The budget calls for raising the Medicare tax on income above $400,000, closing a loophole that has shielded some from paying that levy and allow Medicare to negotiate more prescription drug prices, pouring about $200 billion in savings into the program. The administration said the budget would decrease the country’s deficit by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade in part by proposing a new set of tax increases.[4]
Republicans are hoping to extract spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt limit. It is said that spending is out of control.[5] Although there is support from both parties to reduce the deficit, Republicans will not agree to the tax increases proposed by President Biden’s 2024 budget plan.[6] Meanwhile, Biden has argued that previous GOP proposals show they might cut Medicare or Social Security.[7]
0. “List of Tax Hikes in Biden’s Budget” Americans for Tax Reform, 9 Mar. 2023, https://www.atr.org/list-of-tax-hikes-in-bidens-budget
1. “What’s in Biden’s budget” CNN, 9 Mar. 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/09/politics/2024-budget-joe-biden-explainer/index.html
2. “5.2% pay raise, blocking future Schedule F and more from the 2024 budget request” Federal News Network, 9 Mar. 2023, https://federalnewsnetwork.com/budget/2023/03/5-2-pay-raise-blocking-future-schedule-f-and-more-from-the-2024-budget-request/
3. “Biden’s Budget Aims to Hit Republicans Where It Hurts” The New Republic, 10 Mar. 2023, https://newrepublic.com/article/171079/bidens-budget-doomed-still-matters
4. “Biden seeks Pell increase, renews calls for free community college” Inside Higher Ed, 10 Mar. 2023, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2023/03/10/biden-seeks-pell-increase-renews-calls-free-community-college
5. “Here’s what’s in Biden’s 2024 budget plan” NPR, 9 Mar. 2023, https://www.npr.org/2023/03/09/1161967948/biden-is-using-his-budget-as-a-cudgel-in-the-debt-ceiling-fight-and-for-2024
6. “15 budget asks that are actually Biden’s reelection pitch” POLITICO, 9 Mar. 2023, https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/09/biden-budget-reelection-campaign-00086452
7. “Biden 2024 budget proposal: What’s inside the plan to fund Medicare” Axios, 7 Mar. 2023, https://www.axios.com/2023/03/07/biden-medicare-proposal-debt-ceiling-talks
