President Joe Biden’s budget proposal includes billions in new funding for social and climate programs and attempts to address some political liabilities ahead of the midterm elections.
Presidential budgets are often aspirational documents that say more about an administration’s political agenda than about how the government will actually be funded in the coming fiscal year.
Biden’s fiscal year 2023 budget is no different, laying out elements of a sprawling liberal agenda that Democratic lawmakers may struggle to unify behind.
Here are some of the top takeaways from the budget.
BORDER PROTECTION TAKES A HIT
Despite presiding over historic levels of illegal immigration since 2021, the Biden administration proposed cuts to U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s budget.
CBP would receive $15.3 billion under the new budget. For fiscal year 2021, Congress appropriated $16.2 billion for the agency.
Last year alone, Border Patrol agents stopped more than 2 million people attempting to enter the country illegally.
The budget requested only a modest increase in funding for the Department of Homeland Security overall, boosting DHS funding levels by just 5.4% from 2021 levels.
Much of the requested increase in DHS funding would go toward matters other than border security, such as natural disaster recovery resources and a pay bump for airport security workers.
ANTI-ABORTION MOVEMENT TAKES A HIT
Biden’s budget proposal includes a 40% boost to a federal program that provides low-income women with birth control and other family planning services.
Shortly after taking office, Biden moved to undo Trump-era changes to the program, known as Title X, that prevented clinics from receiving federal funding if they referred patients for abortions.
Former President Donald Trump’s rule change had forced Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers out of the Title X program, which conservatives considered a victory.
But with Biden’s reversal in effect, the White House is proposing pouring an additional $400 million into a program that can now help facilitate abortions for women.
REFUNDING THE POLICE
Likely in response to criticism of Democrats’ “defund the police” rhetoric, from which Biden has attempted to distance his party, the budget proposal requests an increase in funding for federal and local law enforcement.
Biden asked Congress to boost federal law enforcement funding by $1.7 billion over fiscal year 2021 levels — including investments in gun trafficking units and other Justice Department law enforcement operations.
The proposal also asked for more than $30 billion in grants and other resources for state and local police departments and other “community violence intervention” programs.
CLIMATE CHANGE TAKES CENTER STAGE
Biden’s budget proposal focuses on clean energy and climate programs and puts forward little in the way of strengthening traditional domestic energy production.
The words “clean energy” appear 56 times in the budget proposal, with Biden proposing $65 billion to “accelerate our transition to a zero-emission economy” through investments in new green energy technology, among many other climate-related initiatives.
Biden and Democrats have faced scrutiny for energy policies that critics say hamper domestic production and contribute to the rising cost of fuel.
Biden’s budget proposal does little to address those concerns but does include investments in electric cars and “environmental justice.”
Green energy programs in Biden’s proposal include $100 million for an initiative to “decarbonize low income homes,” $200 million to build more solar panels, and $12 million to coordinate an effort known as “Justice40” that is set to ensure 40% of the many forthcoming climate-related government contracts go to disadvantaged communities.
INCREASED DEFENSE SPENDING
Biden’s budget proposal cited the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a reason for such a high figure for defense funding — requesting $773 billion for the Pentagon’s budget in 2023.
The White House also pointed to the threat from a rising China as a reason for the $69 billion increase in funding over the 2021 level.
The requested boost in military spending ruffled some feathers on the Left. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, for example, criticized the administration for pursuing a “massive increase” in money for the Pentagon.
TAXING THE RICH
The White House said much of Biden’s requested increases in funding would be paid for by hitting the country’s wealthiest with higher taxes — an approach on which Democrats failed to reach consensus last year during negotiations over the Build Back Better Act.
Biden proposed raising the corporate tax rate to 28%, up from the current 21% rate.
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Last year, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a centrist Democrat, said he opposed the prospect of hiking the corporate tax rate to 28% and said he would instead support a more modest increase, to 25%.
The budget also proposes a 20% minimum tax rate on multimillionaires and billionaires who, according to the White House, “so often pay indefensibly low tax rates” due to loopholes in the tax code. The new wealth tax would apply only to households worth $100 million or more.
