Republicans are lashing out at President Joe Biden’s budget proposal, denouncing the spending framework as a legislative wish list for progressive Democrats.
Biden unveiled his proposed budget for fiscal 2024 on Thursday, requesting a total of $6.8 trillion to go toward legislative priorities such as lowering drug costs and combating climate change. Republicans scoffed at Biden’s top-line number, dismissing it as an unserious proposal that has no chance of passing the GOP-led House.
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Although the White House puts out a budget every year, the document is considered to be aspirational and reflects the goals of each administration. The document has taken on an even greater significance this year as Biden eyes a reelection bid in 2024 and battles with House Republicans over the looming debt ceiling crisis.
“It's not a serious budget. It's not going anywhere,” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) told the Washington Examiner. "These policies are a sort of genuflect to the radical Left, which has been his entire presidency. This budget is a further signal that he's way more interested in appeasing these radical elements of his own party than working on behalf of the American people."
Biden, on the other hand, has framed his budget as a “blue-collar blueprint” aimed at reducing the country’s deficit by $3 trillion over the next decade without increasing costs for middle-class taxpayers. It's an economic plan the president laid out earlier this year during his State of the Union address, in which he urged Congress to prioritize building an economy "where no one is left behind."
The focus on courting blue-collar voters comes as Biden has tacked toward the political center in recent weeks, most recently reversing his opposition to a GOP-led resolution repealing Washington's crime bill as well as his administration considering a return to Trump-era immigration policies.
Republicans have largely focused on the tax hikes in Biden's budget since its Thursday release. His plan, which suggests $5.5 trillion in new taxes on high-income earners, would implement a 25% minimum tax on those worth $100 million or more. The budget would also increase corporate tax rates from 21% to 28%.
"[Biden] proposes trillions in new taxes that you and your family will pay directly or through higher costs," House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said shortly after the budget was released. "Mr. President: Washington has a spending problem, NOT a revenue problem."
Schmitt also points to budget items that he says are overtly partisan, including investments in gender equity and environmental justice initiatives.
Biden has requested that $1 billion go toward programs aimed at ending gender-based violence as well as investments in legal assistance for victims of violence, transitional housing, and sexual assault services. The budget also seeks to spend $3.4 billion to advance democracy and gender equality globally.
House leadership on Thursday slammed the budget as a continuation of the "Leftist spending" of the Biden administration, alluding to the Democrats' $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill that passed in 2021 as well as the Inflation Reduction Act, a pared-down version of Biden's Build Back Better agenda.
"The budget proposal Biden delivered to Congress today is a total joke," House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) said in a statement. "It doubles down on the same Leftist spending that got us this record inflation and our current debt crisis. This is what Biden always does — just shrugs and ignores the serious crises we face. Unacceptable."
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Meanwhile, several Democrats came out in support of Biden’s budget proposal, lauding it as crucial to reducing the country’s deficit.
“It’s time for the House Republicans to drop their extremist agenda, break their allegiance to the wealthy and well-connected, and join Democrats in supporting the President’s proposal,” Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) said. “This is our moment to grow the economy from the bottom up and middle out by investing in the American people.”