US president Joe Biden plans to protect and strengthen Social Security with the 2024 fiscal budget. The White House released the 2024 fiscal budget on Thursday.
The president underlined his decision to oppose any proposed cuts to Social Security or Medicare with the budget. It also indicated that President Biden intends to collaborate with Congress to strengthen the programs.
President Biden always believed that economic growth should come from the middle and bottom-up rather than the top-down. Despite many challenges over the past two years, that fiscal plan has enabled the American people to make history.
The 182-page budget plan expects $6.9 trillion in federal expenses for the 2024 fiscal year. According to the White House, the proposal would increase taxes on the wealthy and businesses by trillions of dollars, including by imposing a 25% minimum tax on the top 0.01% of Americans in terms of wealth, while also increasing investments in child care, education, housing, and health care.
The president’s proposed budget will be a starting point for discussions with lawmakers, who ultimately draft and approve the spending legislation that funds the government.
Even when the opposing party controls one or both chambers of congress, the president’s proposed budgets are never what congress approves; but they are valuable for highlighting the administration’s priorities and expectations. Mr. Biden submitted this plan weeks after a deadline of early February, as he and other presidents have done in the past.
For both earned and unearned income exceeding $400,000, Biden has advocated increasing Medicare taxes from 3.8% to 5%. The modifications intend secure Medicare’s financial stability for at least 25 years.
Biden’s Plan To Protect And Strengthen Medicare And Social Security
The Medicare Trust Fund’s financial state is increased by at least 25 years in the Budget without any benefit reductions or beneficiary cost increases. It strengthens Medicare.
The budget proposes significant tax code modifications to guarantee that high-income earners contribute fairly to the Medicare HI trust fund.
Additionally, it transfers the Net Investment Income Tax proceeds to the HI trust fund as planned. Lastly, the budget shifts the savings from the Medicare medication improvements it suggests to the HI trust fund.
The Biden administration is devoted to safeguarding and enhancing Social Security and is opposed to any effort to reduce benefits for existing or future beneficiaries. The administration is eager to collaborate with Congress to responsibly strengthen Social Security by ensuring that high-income people contribute their fair share.
The budget allotted $1.4 billion, or 10% more than the level authorized in 2023, for enhancements to the Social Security Administration’s workforce, information technology, and other areas.
This funding would enhance the quality of service provided to retirees, people with disabilities, and their families at Social Security Administration field offices, State disability determination services, and teleservice centers.
Other Plans Proposed In Biden’s 2024 Fiscal Budget
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), whose enrollment in affordable health coverage is at an all-time high, has achieved remarkable success.
The Budget builds on this success by making permanent the average of $800 per year premium reductions through expanded premium tax credits that the inflation Reduction Act extended.
The Budget plan proposed $150 billion over ten years to enhance and expand Medicaid home and community-based services, such as personal care services, enabling seniors and people with disabilities to stay in their homes and maintain an active social life. This fund will also boost the standard of living for home care workers and improve the quality of their jobs.
The American Rescue Plan’s Child Tax Credit, which reduced child poverty in 2021 by half to an all-time low, is being called for by the president.
In the budget, the benefit would rise from $2,000 per child to $3,000 per child for kids over six and $3,600 per child under six, increasing it from its current level of $2000 per child. Additionally, the credit would be fully refundable as part of the Budget’s long-term reform.
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Too many American families don’t have access to high-quality, reasonably priced child care, which keeps parents from working and slows down the entire economy. According to the President’s Budget, more than 16 million young children will have additional options for childcare, which also reduces expenses so that parents can pay for their children to attend high-quality childcare.
The budget provides $59 billion in required financing and tax incentives to increase the availability of affordable housing, including for severely low-income households.
The Budget also includes mandatory spending of $10 billion to encourage State, local, and regional authorities to advance overcoming hurdles to building affordable housing, such as restrictive zoning.
The fiscal plan for the coming year proposed improves the affordability of colleges and the expansion of free community colleges.
According to the budget, the $13 billion provided by the Inflation Reduction Act is to reduce energy costs for families, expand clean energy, transform rural power production, and generate thousands of well-paying jobs for people across rural America. In addition, the Budget allocates $4.1 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
The budget includes nearly $15 billion to enable more states and schools to take advantage of Community Eligibility Program participation and offer healthy and free school meals to an extra 9 million students, as recommended by the National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children are estimated to benefit 6.5 million people, and the budget allots $6.3 billion to support them.
The budget proposed an investment of $375 million in the American manufacturing sector and $21 billion in innovations and cutting-edge research. According to the Budget, it provides national comprehensive paid medical and family leave. It expands workforce training which makes the people in the nation get into good jobs.
The 2024 Budget claims it will invest $20.5 billion in enhancing high-poverty schools. It proposed a plan for advancing maternal health, health equity, the Child Welfare System, and Cancer Moonshot Goals.
According to Biden’s proposal, they will prioritize activities to end gender-based violence in the nation. The plan states that it will support countries like Ukraine, European allies, and partners. These are only a few of the significant schemes proposed by Biden’s 2024 fiscal budget.
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