Expectations vs Reality President Biden's Proposed Budget

President Biden’s Proposed Budget: Expectations vs. Reality

Prior to conducting in-depth research on exactly how much money President Joe Biden wants to spend, I was somewhat convinced that it would stay under the $5.5 trillion mark. I was largely basing my assertion on the record $4.8 trillion Trump budget for 2021. As a matter of fact, I was largely convinced that owing to Biden’s little interest in immigration restructuring, the budget would not be significantly inflated. It would be prudent to note that in his last budget proposal, President Trump had allocated significant sums of money to the Southern Border wall. Further, he had also allocated significant amounts to the development of state-of-the-art weaponry. These do not appear to be President Biden’s pet projects.

I was, thus pleasantly surprised to learn of President Biden’s $6 trillion proposal. An informed assessment of this particular proposal indicates that the current president is keen on doing things differently. For instance, Biden has in the proposal opted to increase tax for wealthy citizens. This, in my opinion, is a progressive move that would come in handy in efforts to reign in the prevailing income and wealth inequality. Some of those who have been in favor of a wealth tax in the past are inclusive of, but they are not limited to, Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger. In the words of Rogers (2020), “Warren Buffett believes expanded tax credits for working Americans and higher taxes for the 1% are needed to close the United States' wealth gap.” I concur.

It should also be noted that Biden’s budget appears to be huge on not only the war on climate change, but also on diverse social investment and programmes. A total of $800 billion has been assigned to fighting climate change. This is yet another crucial move in my opinion owing to the fact that multiple scientific studies have indicated that climate change is a reality, and that its impact could be dire.

One other aspect of the budget that I found interesting relates to the further enhancement of every American household’s broadband internet access. A total of $100 billion was allocated for this endeavor. I found this interesting due to the increasing role of technology and the internet in our daily lives. If the United States is to continue being competitive in a global scale, there is need to ensure that its citizens are well-equipped on these fronts.

However, I am of the opinion that the President went overboard in as far as debt is concerned. This is more so the case given that the proposal “would increase the national debt to a percentage of the economy higher than it was in World War II” (Groppe, 2021). I am also concerned that to a large extent, the proposal is firmly rooted upon massive government spending. According to Tankersley (2020), a total of $1.52 trillion has been set aside for federal spending. I have a feeling that this could, in the long term, trigger a recession. This is more so the case given that such spending is likely to result in inflation – which could in turn result in an increase in interest rates by the Federal Reserve.

There are those who are convinced that the proposal is somewhat expensive. Indeed, according to Groppe (2021), this is an argument that could be deployed by Republicans opposed to the said budget. However, I am convinced that Biden’s administration could counter such allegations by indicating the need for the nation to recover from the adverse effects of the ongoing pandemic. In the final analysis, the budget appears solid and comes across as a deliberate move to uplift the wellbeing of Americans.