WASHINGTON, May 29. /TASS/. US President Joe Biden on Friday unveiled the $6 trillion budget request for 2022 fiscal year beginning October 1, 2021.
According to USA Today, US state debt peaked at 106% of gross domestic product in 1946. Under Biden's plan, debt is projected to rise to 117% of the size of the economy by 2031.
Among other things, the US government suggests increasing taxes on corporations (from 21% to 28%) and on the wealthiest citizens.
"America is getting back on track. We are beginning to turn the tide on the pandemic. The economy is growing and creating jobs," the White House said in a statement, published on Friday. "For all of the hard-won progress our country has made in recent months, America cannot afford to simply return to the way things were before the pandemic and economic downturn, with the old economy’s structural weaknesses and inequities still in place."
"It [the budget] includes the two historic plans the President has already put forward—the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan—and reinvests in education, research, public health, and other foundations of our country’s strength," the statement says. "The Budget also calls on Congress to take action this year to lower prescription drug costs and expand and improve health coverage."
The full set of proposals would allow reducing the annual deficit by the end of the ten-year budget window and every year thereafter, and in the second decade, the proposals would cut deficits by over $2 trillion, the US administration said.
Republican criticism
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy criticized the budget for being too irresponsible.
"Today, President Biden submitted the details of a budget that promises higher taxes, higher prices, crushing debt, and less security. It is the most reckless and irresponsible budget proposal in my lifetime," he said.
A similar opinion was voiced by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who warned of looming debts, deficit and inflation.
"Democrats want to borrow and spend on a scale that America has not seen since we had to fight and win World War II. Our debt burden would break all records, eclipsing even the 1940s," he said.
The budget proposal outlines the incumbent US administration priorities. After that, members of the House of Representatives and the Senate develop and adopt their own version. The final document is either approved or rejected by the US leader.