Biden presents the 2024 budget with his eye on the presidential elections.. Learn the details

Washington -

US President Joe Biden unveiled the federal budget proposal for the 2024 fiscal year, which begins on October 1, 2023, and ends on September 30, 2024.

The total size of the budget amounted to $ 6.8 trillion, in which Biden proposed increasing spending on the army and a wide range of new social programs while reducing the budget deficit in the future.

But Congress remains the body constitutionally authorized to approve the federal budget, and after the budget bill passes in the House of Representatives and the Senate by a simple majority, the amended legislative proposal is sent to the president for signature, and the president has the right to refuse to sign and use the presidential veto, which can be overcome by a two-thirds majority in Congress .

Traditionally, the budget proposal issued by the president reflects more programs, allocations, and proposals than will be agreed upon, hence Biden's ambitious budget that includes many programs, especially in internal issues and areas that will be reduced in both houses of Congress.

Biden's efforts to pass the budget will face challenges in Congress, as the Democrats lead in the Senate with 51 seats, compared to 49 for the Republicans, while the Republicans control only a slight majority in the House of Representatives.

Immediately after Biden announced the items of his budget, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy stated, "Biden cannot be serious about what he offered!"

The budget includes about $ 5 trillion in tax increases for the next decade on high income earners and companies (Getty Images)

An increase in taxes on the rich and corporations

The budget proposal focused a lot on reducing the fiscal deficit by relying on increasing taxes, and Biden proposed raising the minimum tax for those whose income exceeds $ 400,000 annually, and he also proposed a large increase in taxes for billionaires, and he said that the raise “will only apply to the richest 0.01 percent of American families.

The budget contains about $5 trillion in proposed tax increases for high-income earners and corporations over a decade, mostly to offset new spending programs aimed at helping the middle class and the poor.

The budget proposes raising the minimum corporate tax rate to 25 percent, up from 20 percent in last year's proposal.

As he has done before, Biden will propose raising the top individual tax rate to 39.6% from 37%, raising the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%, taxing capital gains on top income earners at higher rates and increasing taxes on overseas profits of US corporations.

Biden again called for higher taxes on oil and gas companies, totaling $31 billion.

Republicans and the expected objection

Biden's budget marks the beginning of a showdown with Republicans in the battle over the federal debt ceiling (the amount the Treasury Department is allowed to borrow to pay bills already incurred by the government).

Congress must raise or suspend the limit to avoid default, but Republicans want to cut future spending before agreeing to do so.

The White House revealed that the plan will include $ 3 trillion in deficit reduction measures over the next decade, indicating that Biden wants to emphasize his credentials on fiscal responsibility after two years of large spending during the Democrats' complete control of Congress.

Washington is focusing on fiscal issues for now, because Congress needs to raise the debt ceiling this summer or the US government will run out of cash to pay its bills.

Republicans have said they will work to extract spending cuts from the White House as a condition for raising the debt ceiling, as they say spending is out of control.

Commenting on the draft budget, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said, "I don't think that raising taxes is the solution. We analyze his budget, and then we will start working on our budget."

Washington is focusing on fiscal issues right now because Congress needs to raise the debt ceiling this summer or the US government will run out of cash to pay its bills.

 Set the budget for the 2024 elections

The budget for the third year of Biden's rule coincides with the start of preparations for the presidential elections next year.

The president's party lost the majority of the House of Representatives in the first congressional elections to be held during his tenure, which will hinder his ambitious spending plans.

The budget outlines President Biden's priorities for the next two years and highlights potential themes for his expected re-election campaign.

A number of new prescription drug proposals would save more than $200 billion over a decade by imposing new rules on the pharmaceutical industry, which is widely supported by American voters.

The budget plan would allow the government's health care program for the poor and elderly to negotiate prices for more drugs and bring them into negotiation sooner after launch.

The budget also proposes expanding commercial health insurance in climate and Medicare legislation and taxes that require drug companies to pay Medicare rebates on treatments whose prices are rising at more than the rate of inflation.

Biden has also focused on making massive provisions for social programs such as affordable childcare, combating climate change, and lowering health care costs.

Foreign and defense budget targeting China and Russia

The State Department's budget included $70.5 billion, an 11% increase over last year.

The budget emphasizes support for Ukraine by allocating an additional $1.7 billion to help defeat Russia.

The budget also included:

• Addressing the strategic competition with China by implementing the strategy of "investment, alignment and competition", including foreign investments and programs amounting to $7.1 billion.

•  Invest in alliances in the Indo-Pacific region by including $3.2 billion in discretionary funding to support implementation of the Indo-Pacific Strategy.

• Allocating $4.2 billion to the climate crisis.

• $1.2 billion for food insecurity.

• $10.9 billion for global health programmes.

• More than $10.5 billion to support global humanitarian needs, including resources to rebuild the United States Refugee Admissions Program and resettle 125,000 refugees.

Biden also called for allocating $3.4 billion to strengthen democracy around the world, by supporting new democracies, and building resilience against the efforts of authoritarian regimes.

The budget also brings military spending (the Pentagon's budget) to more than $842 billion, a 3.5% increase over last year's budget, making it among the largest peacetime expenditures in US history.

And Biden's goal is to reaffirm the United States' commitment to national security in light of escalating strategic rivalries with both Russia and China.

This may also be a contrast to Republicans, who are divided over whether and for how long to continue providing arms and other forms of military aid to Ukraine.