President Biden on Thursday unveiled a $6.8 trillion budget blueprint that includes new spending on child care, education and health care and $5 trillion in proposed tax increases for wealthy Americans and businesses over the next decade.

Biden, who is widely expected to finish his 2024 re

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election bid in the coming weeks, in which he would present his plan for the next fiscal year in Pennsylvania, a critical battlefield state.

While budgets are typically released with little fanfare, Biden has attempted to use the annual petition to Congress as a contrast to Republicans on federal spending, paving the way for the 2024 race and a sweltering battle over raising the statutory debt ceiling of the country.

Republicans in the House of Representatives have demanded cuts in exchange for their cooperation in raising the federal borrowing limit, but Biden has refused to negotiate spending as part of debt ceiling talks. Failure to reach an agreement could result in the US defaulting on its debts, triggering a global financial crisis.

Prior to Biden’s speech, the White House announced that its budget would aim to reduce the deficit by $3 trillion over the next decade, as

the president

he is trying to burn his credentials with fiscal responsibility after two years of significant domestic spending. The president wants the country’s wealthiest to foot the bulk of the bill, an undeniable preview of a populist pitch to working-class voters.

However, Biden’s request is dead on arrival in a divided Congress, where Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said it “will not see the light of day.”

“The budget reflects our values ​​as a nation, a nation of good people, emerging into a new era of opportunity, and a beacon to the world,” Biden said in the plan’s introduction.

The budget focuses on four themes: reducing the deficit, cutting costs, investing in America, and protecting Social Security and Medicare.

Here’s a look at what’s inside:

Reduce the deficit by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade

The president renewed his pitch to fund his domestic priorities and reduce the deficit by raising taxes on high earners and corporations. His plan also calls for tackling wasteful spending and investing in fraud prevention.

The proposal would repeal some of the 2017 tax cuts signed into law by the former president

Donald

Trump and restore the top marginal tax rate to 39.6% on income above $400,000. The plan also calls for capital gains to be taxed at the same rate as wage income for households worth more than $1 million.

Biden’s so-called billionaire tax would target the wealthiest Americans, requiring households worth more than $100 million to pay a 25% income tax, including on valued assets.

The president reiterated a call to quadruple a new tax on corporate stock buybacks imposed last year under Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. The law requires companies to pay a 1% excise tax on the purchase of their own shares to discourage them from using a maneuver that sends profits to their shareholders and increases the share price.

Biden’s budget proposes ending lucrative tax breaks for oil and gas companies, which the White House says would generate a total of $31 billion in savings. It also claims to save $19 billion by holding a special tax credit for real estate investors.

The White House also expects to save more than $20 billion by targeting insurance companies that charge Medicaid excessively by demanding refunds from the government.

The White House

Taxing the wealthy to fund Medicare

Biden wants to extend Medicare’s solvency for 25 years by raising tax rates for people earning more than $400,000 a year. The Medicare tax rate would rise from 3.8% to 5% on earned and unearned income for the wealthy. The Medicare trust fund, which is paid for by payroll taxes, is expected to run out in 2028 below current tax and spending levels.

The plan also proposes limiting the price of certain prescriptions to $2 per month for Medicare recipients, including generic drugs used to treat chronic conditions such as high cholesterol and hypertension. Biden also wants to increase Medicare’s ability to negotiate lowering prescription drug costs, which the White House said will cut federal spending by $160 billion over a decade.

No changes to social security

The White House said it is committed to strengthening Social Security, but did not detail a solvency plan similar to the Medicare proposal. Instead, it allocated $1.4 billion (up 10%) to improve the agency’s staff and technology. Social Security changes are “not on the table,” Shalanda Young, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, told reporters in a conversation previewing the plan Thursday.

Biden has berated Republicans over Medicare and Social Security in recent months,

citing a Republican senator’s call in 2022 for all federal programs to be shut down every five years.

have Republican leaders

said

in recent weeks that the two popular law programs are off the table when it comes to cuts, yet have offered a plan of where they expect the cuts. Social Security and Medicare make up a large portion of the federal budget because of the country’s aging population and rising healthcare costs.

A larger child discount

The president revived his pitch for family-centered and “care economy” policies that

goods

core t

entenants

of his initial Build Back Better plan, but failed

win enough support to pass them on

Democratic-controlled Congress during his first two years in office.

He called for the reinstatement of the enhanced child tax credit, which nearly halved poverty as lawmakers gave the payment a pandemic-related boost in 2021. Biden wants to expand credit from $2,000 per child to $3,000 per child for children

six 6

years and older and up to $3,600 for children under

age six 6

. He also called for the extension of the Earned Income Tax Credit for childless workers to be made permanent.

Biden proposed making the expanded subsidies permanent for people who purchase their own health insurance from Affordable Care Act marketplaces, which were extended through 2025 in the Inflation Reduction Act.

He also allocated $325 billion to the national paid and sick leave program, $400 billion to child care grants,

other

$300 billion for universal kindergarten

program

and expanding free community college. The budget allocates $150 billion over 10 years to improve and expand Medicaid home and community services and $100 billion in funding and tax incentives to increase the supply of affordable housing.

More border agents and more money for the army

The president is asking for a $842 billion defense budget in fiscal year 2024, a 3.2% increase over fiscal year 2024, including $6 billion for continued support to Ukraine. The budget also allocates $25 billion for U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement and $535 million for border technology in and between ports of entry. It also includes funding to hire an additional 350 border agents.