Biden Is Set to Detail Nearly $3 Trillion in Measures to Reduce Deficits
White House officials said this week that the budget would include an increase and expansion of an investment tax on high earners, which would be directed to the Medicare trust fund. That tax proposal, plus the proposed savings from additional Medicare negotiations on prescription drugs, would reduce deficits by about $900 billion on net, according to Treasury Department estimates shared by the White House.
The president is also expected to continue proposing some tax increases to offset the cost of portions of his agenda that have not yet passed Congress. That agenda includes efforts to expand access to child care and reduce its cost, provide federally guaranteed paid leave for workers, establish universal prekindergarten and enable students to attend community college for free.
Mr. Biden’s plans to trim the deficit are unlikely to mollify Republicans. He has refused to negotiate over the debt limit and has said he will not cut benefits for Social Security or Medicare, two popular safety net programs. But he has said repeatedly that he is open to reducing deficits by raising taxes on corporations and the rich.
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The total of nearly $3 trillion was first reported by The Associated Press. It is an increase from the deficit reduction that Mr. Biden previewed in his State of the Union address, saying that “the plan I’m going to show you is going to cut the deficit by another $2 trillion” without cutting “a single bit of Medicare or Social Security.”
The federal government has run deficits every year since 2000, spending more money than it receives in tax revenue. The deficit ballooned under President Donald J. Trump after the onset of the pandemic recession, which spurred Congress to approve trillions of dollars in relief for individuals, businesses, and state and local governments. Mr. Trump also signed tax cuts into law that are projected to add $2 trillion to deficits over the course of a decade.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/us/biden-deficit-reduction.html