President Joe Biden released his budget for the next fiscal year on Thursday, outlining the policy priorities that could underpin his reelection bid should he choose to run for a second term.
Biden claimed his budget proposal would cut the deficit by $3 trillion over the next decade, although he requested spending increases across virtually every part of the government.
BIDEN PROPOSES NEARLY $7 TRILLION TAX-AND-SPEND BUDGET THAT WOULD NOT STABILIZE THE DEBT
Presidential budget documents are typically aspirational rather than realistic; the proposals reflect an administration's wish list, not necessarily what Congress will do.
But the budget can offer insight into what Biden is prioritizing as he nears a public announcement about whether he intends to run again in 2024 and breathes new life into a standoff between the president and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) over the debt ceiling.
Here are some top takeaways from the proposal.
TAX THE RICH
Biden’s budget lays out several tax increases aimed at wealthy Americans and large corporations, the revenue from which would help him achieve his deficit reduction promises.
Households worth $100 million or more would face a 25% minimum tax under the proposal.
Individuals or families earning $400,000 or more would also see a tax increase thanks to a hike of the top tax rate from 37% to 39.6%.
The Trump-era tax cuts for big businesses would disappear if Biden had his way; the corporate tax rate jumps from 21% to 28% in the proposal. While that isn’t as high as the corporate rate before the 2017 tax cuts, it would still represent a significant increase.
Rich investors would feel the pinch of a significant increase in the capital gains tax, which investors pay when they sell their assets. The capital gains rate would rise to 39.6% from the current rate of 20%.
BUILD BACK BETTER IS BACK
Some elements of Biden’s budget proposal mirror what the White House included in its failed Build Back Better plan.
That legislation died in 2021 after centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he could not support a bill with such a high price tag. But Biden appears to have revived some of his favorite ideas in his latest budget.
The 28% corporate tax rate included in the budget is the same rate Biden requested in the Build Back Better Act, for example.
A proposal in the budget to close tax loopholes for the oil and gas industry was also a revenue-generating provision in Build Back Better.
Free and universal preschool was a feature of Build Back Better; Biden’s budget set aside funding for a federal-state partnership offering free preschool. Biden also proposed restoring the pandemic-era expanded Child Tax Credit, which was also a key provision in Build Back Better.
COVID CLOSURE
Unlike Biden’s previous budget proposals, this year’s requests do not include money specifically for the COVID-19 pandemic.
As recently as November, the White House was asking Congress to appropriate more money for COVID-19 relief; the administration requested $10 billion in emergency pandemic funding at the end of the last year.
The new budget adds funding to offices within the Department of Health and Human Services to prepare for future pandemics but, for the first time, does not push for funding for the last one.
NO BOOST FOR THE BORDER
Despite a migration crisis at the border that has drawn criticism even from some Democrats, Biden proposed cutting the Department of Homeland Security budget heading into next year.
His budget requests $60.4 billion for DHS, a 1% decrease from current funding levels. Aside from the Department of Transportation, the DHS was one of only two Cabinet-level agencies to face any budget cuts in the proposal.
Last year, Biden requested $15.3 billion for Customs and Border Protection in his budget. That was a decrease from CBP’s funding levels the year before, when Congress gave the agency $16.2 billion for fiscal 2021, even though migration levels posed a significant problem for the administration then as well.
Congress ultimately pushed to give CBP more than Biden proposed, with lawmakers setting aside nearly $17 million for the agency in the fiscal 2023 omnibus they wrote last year.
But the White House did not appear to release a specific amount for requested CBP funding this year, instead providing a figure for both CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency within DHS responsible for enforcing immigration laws inside the country.
Together, CBP and ICE would receive $25 billion under Biden’s budget, which the White House said was a modest $800 million increase over current funding levels “when controlling for border management amounts.” That would be just a 3.2% increase in funding for the border security agencies, despite the number of migrants crossing into the U.S. reaching the highest level in history last year.
Biden’s budget proposes hiring 350 new Border Patrol agents. However, CBP data showed the agency had a shortage of 1,000 officers last year, and the number of people pouring over the southern border has only climbed since then.
The White House proposed hiring even more officials to process migrants entering the U.S. at the border, with a proposed funding boost to add 460 processing assistants.
And it floated a higher funding increase for the office responsible for processing asylum claims, given that most of the migrants at the border attempt to claim asylum once they reach U.S. soil.
Biden requested $865 million for United States Citizenship and Immigration Services; in his budget proposal last year, Biden requested $765 million. That means Biden asked for a higher percentage increase — a 13% raise versus a 3.2% raise – for processing migrants into the U.S. than for securing the border.
UKRAINE AID
Congress has already sent $113 billion to Ukraine, and only half of that has provided military aid.
The rest has gone toward Ukrainian government programs, support for the country’s budget, and humanitarian assistance — some of which Republicans have said the U.S. should not be funding.
Biden’s budget continues to push for massive amounts of aid to Ukraine, requesting $753 million to assist the country directly in its war against Russia.
The budget sets aside $6 billion for supporting Ukraine, European partners, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to counter Russian aggression.
CLIMATE CASH
Biden doubled down on his commitment to climate change throughout his budget; the word “climate” appears 148 times in the document.
The president already secured nearly $370 billion in funding last year for Democratic climate and energy priorities through the Inflation Reduction Act, which Congress passed on a partisan basis last year.
But his budget would invest billions more into climate change and clean energy projects through nearly every federal agency.
The Department of Energy, for example, would receive $66 million specifically for “the Department’s environmental justice mission,” which includes a team to ensure “equity” is a focus of all DOE projects.
A $1.8 billion influx of funding to the Environmental Protection Agency would, in part, be used to “advance racial equity.”
Biden proposed sending $1.6 billion and $1.2 billion to international climate funds run through the United Nations and World Bank.
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And billions more would go toward progressive wish list items such as building electric car charging stations and speeding up wind energy production.
By percentage, the EPA would receive the highest budget increase of any agency under Biden’s proposal.