President Joe Biden plans to announce a $6 trillion dollar federal budget for fiscal year 2022 on Friday — a massive government spending plan driven by the president’s priorities to expand America’s infrastructure and fund domestic social programs.
“The levels of taxation and spending in Mr. Biden’s plans would expand the federal fiscal footprint to levels rarely seen in the postwar era to fund investments that his administration says are crucial to keeping America competitive,” reported The New York Times — who first broke the story of the president’s budget ahead of Friday’s planned release.
The White House said on Twitter Thursday, that “now is the time to make bold investments in our families, our communities, and our nation.”
- “We know from history that these kinds of investments raise both the floor and the ceiling of the economy for all of us,” the White House said.
What is in President Biden’s $6 trillion federal budget proposal?
The Wall Street Journal reported that presidential budget proposals are “largely symbolic” and are “generally seen as the opening salvo in the long process that leads to the government being funded.”
- “Officials said the goal is to make what they called long-overdue investments in core public services and agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency,” according to the Journal.
The White House plans to release details of the proposed 2022 budget on Friday, but here’s what we know about it already:
- The ambitious budget proposal includes funding for Biden’s American Jobs Plan — the administration’s originally proposed $2.3 trillion infrastructure package that is currently being negotiated with Congress — and the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan that would fund a wide-ranging package of social programs, according to The New York Times.
- The White House’s budget proposal “calls for total spending to rise to $8.2 trillion by 2031,” reported the Times.
- “The plan demonstrates that Biden shows little interest in taming the deficit, which would remain above $1 trillion through the next decade despite an expected economic recovery,” according to The Hill.
- The portion of the budget allocated for national defense is $753 billion, “including $715 billion for the Pentagon,” Defense News reported.
- With the exceptions of the American Jobs and Families Plans, the budget does not include additional significant proposals, The Hill reported.
- The budget “assumes” that the White House’s plan to “raise the top tax rate on capital gains to 43.4% from 23.8% for households with income over $1 million” took effect in April 2021, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The 2022 federal fiscal calendar begins Oct. 1, 2021, and ends Sept. 30, 2022.