The White House has consistently called into question Republicans’ commitment to what it considers a sustainable federal budget. Administration officials have noted that the various tax plans and other policies previously backed by GOP lawmakers would add more than $2.7 trillion to the national debt over 10 years.
Biden intends to discuss his budget proposal on Thursday in Philadelphia. The official familiar with Biden’s budget plan was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter before the president’s official announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity on Wednesday. The official said Biden also will propose cutting government spending that goes to major pharmaceutical and oil companies.
Biden’s package of spending priorities is unlikely to pass the House or Senate as proposed. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday that the plan “will not see the light of day,” a sign that it might primarily serve as a messaging document going into the 2024 elections.
The president contended in a Monday speech that there are 680 billionaires in the United States and that many of them pay taxes at a lower rate than do families who think of themselves as being in the middle class. Biden said not to hold him to the precise number of billionaires, but that they could afford to pay more for the good of the country.
“No billionaire should be paying a lower tax rate than a fire fighter — nobody,” Biden said at a gathering of the International Association of Fire Fighters.