US President Joe Biden has released his first annual budget – a $6tn (£4.2tn) spending plan that includes steep tax increases.
The bumper proposal would include huge new social programmes and investment in the fight against climate change.
But it needs approval from Congress, where Republican Senator Lindsey Graham condemned it as ‘insanely expensive’.
Under the plan, debt would reach 117% of GDP by 2031, surpassing levels during World War Two.
That would be in spite of at least $3tn in proposed tax increases on corporations, capital gains and the top income tax bracket.
The Biden budget includes a $1.5tn request for operating expenditures for the Pentagon and other government departments.
It also incorporates two plans he has previously publicised: his $2.3tn jobs plan and a $1.8tn families plan.
Biden said his budget ‘invests directly in the American people and will strengthen our nation’s economy and improve our long-run fiscal health’.
This budget promises:
- More than $800bn for the fight against climate change, including investments in clean energy
• $200bn to provide free pre-school places for all three and four-year-olds
• $109bn for two years of free community college for all Americans
• $225bn for a national paid family and medical leave programme – bringing the US in line with comparable wealthy nations
• $115bn for roads and bridges and $160bn for public transit and railways
• $100bn to improve access to broadband internet for every American household
Top White House economic adviser Cecelia Rouse acknowledged the economy was now seeing inflation spikes.
Some economists, including Larry Summers, who advised Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, have warned such massive government spending could drive up inflation, forcing the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates, which would in turn raise the risk of a collapse of the world economy
The Biden budget projects an additional $14.5tn would be added to US debt over the next decade.
Stop arming Israel–demo orders Boeing
HUNDREDS of pro-Palestine protesters gathered outside Boeing International Headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, on Saturday in protest against a State Department decision granting Boeing permission to sell $735 million worth of precision guided missiles to Israel.
The demonstrators chanted slogans in protest at the deal and said the company was profiting off the deaths of Palestinians.
According to the New York-based Fox News satellite channel, the protesters urged the US administration not to allow the weapons to go through in the wake of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.
The aggression, which ended on May 21, resulted in the killing of at least 264 Palestinians, predominantly civilians.
Earlier this month, the US State Department granted the Boeing weapons manufacturer a commercial licence to sell Joint Direct Attack Munitions and Small Diameter Bombs to Israel, media reports said.
While the Biden administration had formally notified the Congress of the sale on May 5, it was not publicised until four days later after the Washington Post broke the story.
