President Biden’s upcoming budget proposal aims to reduce deficits by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade, the White House said Wednesday.

That target to reduce the deficit is significantly higher than the $2 trillion Biden pledged in his State of the Union address last month. It also stands in stark contrast to House Republicans, who have called for a path to a balanced budget but have not yet offered a blueprint.

The White House has consistently questioned Republicans’ commitment to what it considers a sustainable federal budget. Government officials have noted that the various tax plans and other policies previously supported by GOP lawmakers would add about $3 trillion to the national debt over a 10-year period.

This is something that we think is important, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said of the plan Biden plans to discuss in Philadelphia on Thursday. “This is something that shows the American people that we take this seriously.

As part of the budget, the president has already said he wants to raise the Medicare payroll tax for people making more than $400,000 a year and tax the property of billionaires and others with extreme wealth.

Senate committee approves Garcetti’s appointment as ambassador to India

The proposal would seek to close the “carry interest” loophole that allows wealthy hedge fund managers and others to pay their taxes at a lower rate, and prevent billionaires from setting aside large amounts of their holdings on tax-advantaged retirement accounts, according to The plan also provides for savings of $24 billion over 10 years by eliminating a tax subsidy for cryptocurrency transactions.

The official who provided the details spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the plan before it was officially released.

It also includes:

Expanding Medicare’s ability to negotiate pharmaceutical drug prices, with estimated savings of $160 billion over a decade. Auctioning rights to the radio spectrum, which would raise $50 billion. Steps to reduce identity theft and unemployment insurance fraud. Targeting insurance companies that overcharge Medicaid, with expected savings of $20 billion from government reimbursements. Ending $31 billion in subsidies to oil and gas companies. Scrapping a $19 billion tax break for real estate investors.

It is a delicate time as the US economy is on edge due to high inflation. The government will likely exhaust its emergency measures this summer to keep Washington afloat, posing the risk of default and a catastrophic streak of job losses that could crash the economy.

Biden’s package of spending priorities is unlikely to pass the House or Senate as proposed. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday the plan will not see the light of day, “a sign that it could serve primarily as a messaging document for the 2024 election.

Schiff’s attempt to bolster his progressive credentials for the Senate run has met with some resistance

Rohit Kumar, a former McConnell aide who is now an executive at the tax consultancy PwC, said Biden’s plan matters when it comes to getting ideas out there. of negotiations in 2025 on the expiring provisions in the 2017 tax cuts dat

Than

-President

Donald

Trump signed the law.

Given the scope of the deficit reduction in Biden’s proposal, Kumar said it was unlikely that the president’s plan would specify which portions of the expiring tax cuts he intends to keep, as the president has pledged not to make tax increases for anyone who earns less than $400,000. But while the White House has claimed that Republican plans will increase deficits by $3 trillion, about $2.7 trillion of that total will come from renewing all of the Trump-era tax cuts that disproportionately benefited the wealthy.

In February, the impartial Congressional Budget Office estimated that public debt will grow by more than $20 trillion over the next decade. National debt, reflecting the cumulative impact of annual deficits, would equal 118% of US gross domestic product, up from 98% this year. Biden’s budget would reduce debt, although it would still be high compared to historical levels.

Republicans, who recently lead the House, are demanding major cuts. Biden has suggested that tax increases on the income and assets of the nation’s wealthiest households could strengthen public finances and also improve Medicare and Social Security.

The president argued in a Monday speech that there are 680 billionaires in the United States and many of them pay lower taxes than families who think they are middle class. Biden told him not to stick to the exact number of billionaires, but that they could afford to pay more for the good of the country.

No billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a firefighter, no one, Biden said at a meeting of the International Assn. of firefighters.