Biden Says ‘Fiscal Responsibility’ Is One Of The Values Of His Enormous $5.8 Trillion Budget Proposal

President Joe Biden unveiled his budget plan for fiscal year 2023 on Monday, claiming that the $5.8 trillion dollar proposal would slash the federal deficit and “build a better America.”

“Budgets are statements of values, and the budget I am releasing today sends a clear message that we value fiscal responsibility, safety and security at home and around the world, and the investments needed to continue our equitable growth and build a better America,” Biden said in a statement Monday announcing the plan.

In the statement, Biden claimed that his administration was “on track to reduce the federal deficit by more than $1.3 trillion this year, cutting in half the deficit from the last year of the previous Administration and delivering the largest one-year reduction in the deficit in U.S. history.” Biden added that his budget proposal would continue that progress by reducing the deficit further and supporting economic growth, while “ensuring that billionaires and large corporations pay their fair share.”

“At the same time, my budget will make investments in securing our nation and building a better America,” Biden continued. “We will secure our communities by putting more police on the street to engage in accountable community policing, hiring the agents needed to help fight gun crime, and investing in crime prevention and community violence intervention.” Biden also claimed that the proposal “makes the investments needed to reduce costs for families… including investments to cut the costs of child care and health care; help families pay for other essentials; end cancer as we know it; support our veterans; and get all Americans the mental health services they need.”

According to The Hill, the budget proposal includes $813 billion in defense and national security spending, including $773 in spending specifically for the Department of Defense. It also includes an extra $1 billion in additional funding for aid to Ukraine and $6.9 billion for the European Defense Initiative and NATO to support their efforts to counter Russian aggression. On the domestic front, the bill includes $30 billion in federal funding to state and local law enforcement and another $1.7 billion to fund a “firearm trafficking strike force” under the Department of Justice. The proposal also funds a number of other Biden priorities. It gives the Department of Health and Human Services $81.7 billion and the CDC another $9.9 billion to prepare for future pandemics; $3.3 billion for clean energy projects and $18 billion for “climate resilience.” The bill also contains the reported “Billionaire Minimum Income Tax” establishing a 20% minimum tax on households worth over $100 million, including both wages and other income like unrealized gains. It also includes an increase in the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%.

Biden has previously presented himself as a champion of fiscal responsibility, claiming that his budgets have reduced the federal budget deficit. “Last year… we reduced the deficit by 360 billion dollars,” Biden told House Democrats at the 2022 Issues Conference earlier this month. “We’re on track right now … to be the first president in history to lower the deficit by over 1 trillion dollars in one year,” he claimed. But the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget notes that the deficit is not declining because of anything Biden did, but because the $5 trillion in COVID-19 relief funds were disbursed in 2020 and 2021. The CRFB also notes that the downward trend will only continue in the short term, and deficits are expected to grow over the next decade.

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