US President Joe Biden has announced his budget proposal for the next fiscal year. The 182-page proposal projected the federal government's spending of $6.9 trillion throughout fiscal year 2024, starting on October 1, 2023, and ending on September 30, 2024.
Biden said that his budget plan aims at reducing the deficit by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade "by making the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share", Xinhua news agency reported.
"We propose a billionaire minimum tax, requiring the wealthiest Americans to pay at least 25 per cent on all of their income, including appreciated assets," he said in a written message to Congress.
Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the US House of Representatives controlled by Republicans, responded on Thursday that he thinks Biden's budget request "is completely unserious".
"He proposes trillions in new taxes that you and your family will pay directly or through higher costs," McCarthy tweeted. "Mr. President: Washington has a spending problem, NOT a revenue problem."
Under Biden's budget proposal, the Pentagon's spending would surge to $842 billion in fiscal 2024, a $26 billion or 3.2-per cent increase from the 2023 enacted level. The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2023 allocated nearly 817 billion dollars to the Pentagon.
Andrew Lautz, director of federal policy for the National Taxpayers Union and National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF), wrote on Thursday that the NTUF is skeptical of the 2024 Biden defense budget request, and believes that "all taxpayers should be too".