President Biden on Tuesday proposed new taxes on the wealthy fund to help Medicare, saying the plan would help extend the solvency of the insurance program by 25 years and provide some middle-class stability to millions of older adults.

In his plan, Biden openly declares that the wealthy should bear a heavier tax. His budget would draw a direct line between those new taxes and the popular people’s health insurance program

65 and

older

over 65

basically asking those who have done best in the economy to subsidize the rest of the population.

Biden wants to raise the Medicare tax rate from 3.8% to 5% on income over $400,000 a year, including salaries and capital gains.

The White House did not provide specific savings estimates with the proposal, but t

The move would likely increase tax revenues by more than $117 billion over 10 years, according to earlier estimates in February by the Tax Policy Center.

This modest increase in Medicare contributions from those with the highest incomes will help keep the Medicare program strong for decades to come, Biden wrote in a New York Times essay Tuesday. He called Medicare a rock solid guarantee that Americans have counted on to be there for them when they retire.

More than 65 million people rely on the program, that

That

costs taxpayers about $900 billion annually. The number of Medicare enrollees is expected to continue to grow as the U.S. population ages. But funding for the program is a problem, with federal officials warning that, without cuts or tax increases, the Medicare fund may pay only 90% of benefits by 2028.

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Biden’s proposed Medicare changes are part of a fuller budget proposal he plans to release Thursday in Philadelphia. Pushing the bill through Congress is likely to be difficult, with Republicans controlling the House and Democrats holding only a slim majority in the Senate.

The proposal is a direct challenge to GOP lawmakers, who argue that economic growth comes from tax cuts like the one enacted by the former president

Donald

Trump in 2017. Those cuts disproportionately benefit wealthier households and businesses. They contributed to higher budget deficits, when growth failed to materialize as Trump had promised and then the economy was derailed in 2020 by the

COVID-19coronavirus

pandemic.

The conflicting worldviews of how

raise

taxes would

affect impact

the economy is part of a wider showdown. Biden and Congress

are already under pressure

to reach an agreement to increase the government’s borrowing power at some point this summer, or else the government could default and plunge the US into a debilitating recession.

Ahead of an expected budget feud and the 2024 campaign season, Democrats have stepped up talks on Medicare and vowed to fend off any Republican attempts to shut down the program, though the GOP, after sending mixed signals about the funding program, has vowed to avoid any cuts. Yet Republican lawmakers have reached little agreement on how to fulfill their pledge to put the administration on a path to balancing the federal budget over the next 10 years.

Last year, members of the House Republican Study Committee proposed raising the Medicare eligibility age to 67, which aligns with Social Security. But that idea has not progressed in a divided Congress.

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Republicans have denied that they intend to scrap the program. A proposal by Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.) that would require Congress to reconsider all federal laws every five years, including Medicare, has gained little traction.

Raising taxes on Americans who earn more than $250,000 to pay for Medicare has widespread support among older Americans, according to surveys conducted in recent years by the nonpartisan Senior Citizens League. However, raising the age of eligibility for Medicare is deeply unpopular, said Mary Johnson, a policy analyst for the organization.

Very clearly, they were very opposed to increasing fitness, Johnson said of recent surveys.

Politicians who try that route can lose supporters and it can backfire. You could also lose your office,” Johnson warned. ‘A very high percentage of seniors vote in elections.

Biden’s plan also aims to close what the White House describes as loopholes that allow people to evade Medicare taxes on certain income. In addition to taxes, Biden wants to expand Medicare’s ability to negotiate drug costs, which began with the Inflation Reduction Act. He signed the far-reaching legislation last year.

The White House said its budget plan would expand the pharmaceutical drug provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act. More drugs would be negotiated on price, other drugs would be negotiated sooner, and the scope of discounts would be expanded.

Taken together, Biden’s new proposals would help strengthen an important trust fund that pays for Medicare, which provides health care to older adults. According to the White House, the changes would keep the fund solvent until the 2050s, about 25 years longer than currently expected.

Changes would also be made to Medicare benefits. Biden wants to limit cost-sharing for some generics to as little as $2. The idea would lower out-of-pocket costs for treating hypertension, high cholesterol and other conditions.

In addition, the budget would end cost-sharing for up to three mental health or behavioral health visits per year.