WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has decided to get out of the White House to unveil his budget this week and instead promote it in Pennsylvania, a must-win state in 2024.
His trip to Philadelphia on Thursday is a sign that the president’s budget proposal will be a form of political messaging, not just an outline of the government’s finances.
The White House budget plan will be a “what if” document, aimed at telling voters what the federal government could do if Democrats were solidly in control of the White House and Congress. Right now, the Republican majority in the House opposes almost all of Biden’s ideas.
Biden hinted in a Monday speech that tax increases on the wealthy will be at the core of his budget plan, saying he will be proposing a tax that targets billionaires.
“Much of what we’re doing is about your right to be treated fairly, with dignity and with respect,” Biden said in his remarks to the International Association of Fire Fighters. “Part of that is making a tax system that’s fair. We can make all these improvements and still cut the deficit, if we start making people pay a fair share.”
Democrats and Republicans are jockeying to show the public who is the most fiscally responsible. It’s a key test as the White House and Congress will need to agree to lift the government’s borrowing authority at some point this summer, or else the government could default and send the U.S. economy into a severe recession.
Biden laid the groundwork for his upcoming budget in his State of the Union address last month and in other recent speeches. He’s pledged to trim deficits by a combined $2 trillion over 10 years, strengthen Social Security and Medicare and only raise taxes on people earning more than $400,000.
His proposal is in some ways far more ambitious than what he proposed in 2021, when his budget would have reduced the debt by $1 trillion over…
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