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Millions of Americans are getting “helicopter money” these days, as the economist Milton Friedman once called it: checks for $ 1,400, distributed by the state, just like that, without anything in return.

The direct payments to citizens are part of the corona aid that Congress decided last week.

Democrats and Republicans had long negotiated the package, after all it costs 1.9 trillion dollars, a gigantic sum even for the United States.

But President Joe Biden is already planning the next steps - and wants to spend significantly more money.

His second package should include at least four trillion dollars, as reported by the Bloomberg news agency.

Accordingly, it provides large sums for the fight against climate change, the expansion of the welfare state and the renovation of the American infrastructure.

It is ailing, every tenth bridge is ripe for demolition, two thirds of the streets need to be repaired.

Ex-President Donald Trump had promised to take care of the issue - but then did nothing for four years.

Biden now wants to try again.

But where should the money come from?

The current Corona aid is mainly financed through debt.

For the new measures, Biden has thought of something else: He is planning the first major tax hike in America in 30 years.

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Trump lowered corporate taxes from 35 to 21 percent at the end of 2017.

Now Biden wants to raise it to 28 percent.

In addition, all those citizens who earn more than $ 400,000 a year should pay more, which is roughly the top two percent of the population.

Inheritance tax and capital gains tax are also likely to rise.

No US president had dared to do this since Bill Clinton in 1993.

The heart of "bidenomics"

The tax hike is a central point in Biden's economic agenda, the heart of the “bidenomics”, so to speak.

During the election campaign, the Democrat announced that he would reverse Trump's reform on “the first day in the White House”.

In fact, the new rules will probably only apply in the coming year.

The government apparently finds it too dangerous to raise the rates now, at a time when the American economy is recovering from the Corona crisis.

Such a move could halt the upswing.

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Many details are still unknown.

The US bank Goldman Sachs expects Biden to reserve two trillion dollars - half of the package - for America's infrastructure.

A similar amount could therefore be used to combat climate change.

And Citigroup assumes that another trillion dollars is earmarked for expanding the welfare state.

With this, Biden would build on his Corona package.

This introduced child benefit for the first time in US history.

Families now get monthly checks: $ 300 for every child under the age of five, and $ 250 for children between the ages of six and 17.

Parents who earn less than $ 150,000 a year are entitled to the full amount.

The support is limited to twelve months, but Biden has already announced that he wants to pay it out permanently.

His planned four billion dollar package is apparently intended to provide the funds for this.

But it must first go through Congress, where it is likely to encounter resistance.

Negotiations will be difficult, especially in the Senate.

There the Democrats only have a wafer-thin majority.

And some moderate party politicians have already spoken out against the package.

The US will have to take on more debt

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One of them is Joe Manchin from West Virginia, who almost stopped Biden's Corona aid.

Some fear that tax increases will not be enough to fund the new measures - and that the US will have to borrow more. 

It should come like this.

The Washington-based think tank Tax Policy Center estimates that Biden's tax hikes over a ten-year period would generate $ 2.1 trillion in new revenue - significantly less than needed to fund the package.

New debt will be unavoidable.

Even though America's debt is already a staggering $ 28 trillion.

The debt level in relation to economic output has now exceeded 100 percent.

For comparison: In Germany the debt ratio is 75 percent.