Biden budget aims to cut deficits nearly $3T over 10 years

President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, in Washington, as Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Calif., listen. (Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's upcoming budget proposal aims to cut deficits by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade, according to an administration official.

That deficit reduction goal is significantly higher than the $2 trillion that Biden had promised in his address last month. It also is a sharp contrast with House Republicans, who have called for a path to a balanced budget but .

The White House has consistently called into question Republicans' commitment to what it considers a sustainable federal budget. Administration officials have noted that the various tax plans and other policies previously backed by GOP lawmakers would add more than $2.7 trillion to the national debt over 10 years.

Biden intends to discuss his budget proposal on Thursday in Philadelphia. The official familiar with Biden's budget plan was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter before the president's official announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity on Wednesday.

It's a delicate time with the U.S. economy on edge because of high inflation. The government this summer is likely to exhaust its emergency measures to keep Washington running, setting up the along with cataclysmic series of job losses that could .

Republicans, newly in control of the House, are demanding sharp spending cuts. Biden has suggested that on the earnings and holdings of the country's wealthiest households can bolster government finances and also improve Medicare and Social Security.

The president contended in a Monday speech that there are 680 billionaires in the United States and that many of them pay taxes at a lower rate than do families who think of themselves as being in the middle class. Biden said not to hold him to the precise number of billionaires, but that they could afford to pay more for the good of the country.

“No billionaire should be paying a lower tax rate than a fire fighter — nobody,” Biden said at a gathering of the International Association of Fire Fighters.

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