05/27/2021

White House to Propose $6 Trillion Budget Plan

The spending is driven by the president’s two-pronged Build Back Better plan

The White House is set to propose a $6 trillion budget plan tomorrow that reflects President Joe Biden’s plans to invest in infrastructure, health care, education and the social safety net.

According to documents obtained by The New York Times, Biden’s first budget request as president would take the United States to its highest sustained levels of federal spending since World War II, while running deficits above $1.3 trillion through the next decade. The spending is driven by the president’s two-pronged Build Back Better plan to upgrade the country’s infrastructure, drive job creation and lift more Americans into the middle class.

The budget comes as the White House continues to seek compromise from congressional Republicans on an infrastructure package. Republican lawmakers have objected to the large-scale spending and expansive nature of Biden’s plan.

The Biden budget plan projects the U.S. economy will grow by about 5 percent in 2021 as businesses continue to reopen after the COVID-19 pandemic. Next year, the budget projects a slightly slower pace of 4.3 percent growth before leveling off at around 2 percent for the rest of the decade. Taxes are expected to increase by more than $3 trillion over the decade, in keeping with Biden’s calls for higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy.

The budget reportedly does not include new money for any other major additional policies beyond those already outlined by the White House, but Biden will call on Congress to create a public option for health care, give Americans as young as 60 the option to enroll in Medicare and expand Medicare to cover dental, vision and hearing services.

“The President’s budget will focus on advancing the historic legislative agenda he’s already put forward for this year,” said Rob Friedlander, a spokesman for the White House budget office, in a statement last week. “The budget won’t propose other new initiatives but will put together the full picture of how these proposals would advance economic growth and shared prosperity while also putting our country on a sound fiscal course.”

This article was provided to OSAE by ASAE's Power of A and Inroads.