Biden presents the budget plan for 2024: more taxes for high incomes and a record cut in debt

MADRID, 10 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The president of the United States, Joe Biden, presented his budget for the next fiscal year on Thursday, in which he plans to cut the nation's deficit by three trillion dollars (2.83 trillion euros) in the next decade, in part by raising taxes on the highest incomes.

In the first two years of the current president's term, the White House reports in a statement, they have managed to reduce the deficit by more than 1.7 trillion dollars (1.6 trillion euros) and plan to reach the figure of 3 trillion " making the richest and big companies pay their fair share".

During an event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Biden has defended his proposal: "For too long people have broken their necks working, but the economy has left them behind, while those at the top get away with it and take it." they carry everything."

Among the most prominent measures by Biden himself, and which promise to make it more difficult for him to approve the budget when it requires the vote of Republican opponents, is the new tax policy.

The proposal includes a tax of at least 25 percent on fortunes of more than one hundred million dollars (94 million euros), as well as increasing the rate paid by companies from the current 21 percent to 28 percent, still very below the 35 percent it marked before the term of former President Donald Trump, which reduced it to the current level.

These increases, the White House promises, will not affect incomes of less than 400,000 dollars a year (377,000 euros).

Biden also requests an increase in the budget for defense programs: he budgets 880,000 million dollars (831,000 million euros), 3.3 percent more than the previous year's spending. It also increases spending on non-defensive programs by 7.3 percent, asking for 688 million dollars (649,000 million euros).

Spending on border control is also increasing, allocating more money to hiring personnel and fighting fentanyl trafficking, a drug from the opiate family, 50 times more addictive than heroin and which plays a central role in the devastating crisis facing the United States.

Ukraine also plays a relevant role in the US president's proposals: it will allocate six billion dollars (5.6 billion euros) to aid the country, including aid to NATO and other European allies, while 750 million (708 million euros ) will go directly to Ukraine to fight the Russian invasion.

Biden's proposed budget must be approved by the United States House of Representatives, currently with a Republican majority, and whose president, Kevin McCarthy, has already expressed his rejection of the plan: "President Biden has just presented his budget to Congress, and it is not serious enough. It proposes billions of new taxes that you and your family will pay, directly or through other higher costs. Mr. President, Washington has a spending problem, NOT a collection problem."

However, Biden has expressed this Thursday his intention to meet with McCarthy to advance the approval of his budget for the next fiscal year: "I am prepared to meet with the president (of the House of Representatives) at any time, tomorrow if he has his proposal for the budget. We see it, you tell me what you want, I show you what I want, we see what we can agree on, let's see what we can vote on."

The last budget was approved in the House with a still Democratic majority at the end of 2022.