With his 2024 budget, President Joe Biden displays his political priorities by mentioning “fentanyl,” twice and “queer,” seven times.
Biden presented his budget proposal in advance of a battle with the House GOP. It is now clear which priorities are receiving the most attention.
The President’s budget mentions equity 63 times, while “fentanyl”, the synthetic opioid that is destroying American communities, was only mentioned twice.
The scope of the mentions of equity in the document varies, from equity for veterans and equity in health care to equity for all races.
The document states that the President signed an Executive Order on his first day of office. It directed the Federal Government to implement an ambitious equity-racial justice agenda. This was not a one-year project but part of a long-term commitment to making America’s promise real for all Americans.
It continues, “Since then the Administration has made significant advances in equity across the Federal Government. This includes releasing a second Executive Order, which strengthens its capacity to create opportunities for communities or populations that have been previously underserved and continues to build an America where all can participate, prosper and reach their full potential.”
In addition, although the border was mentioned more than 30 times, the term “opioid” was only mentioned four times.
“Queer,” was mentioned seven times by the president in his budget, while “transgender,” appeared eight times.
As the Republicans in Congress prepare to fight the president’s agenda, Biden presented his multi-trillion dollar budget in a Thursday speech.
President Obama’s tax agenda would also include raising taxes and it would come in at $6.8 trillion.
Biden also took aim at former President Donald Trump during his speech before stating that the former GOP president could become the next man to the White House.
Biden joked that Trump might be the future president after he said it.
During his speech, Biden also made many comments about “MAGA Republicans”.
On Wednesday, Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary, stated to reporters that Biden’s budget would reduce the federal deficit by almost $3 trillion in the next 10 years. Jean-Pierre said that the budget would include tax reforms to ensure the rich and large corporations pay their fair share while cutting spending on special interests such as Big Oil and Big Pharma.
The White House previously discussed one of these reforms: quadrupling the tax on corporate stock purchase backs. However, the team claims that this will not raise taxes for anyone earning less than $400,000. Biden is also expected to propose a 20% minimum tax for people with a net worth of more than $ 100 million.
