The Biden budget's focus on deficit reduction, taxing billionaires is reportedly an overture to Joe Manchin

President Biden on Monday unveiled his budget blueprint for next fiscal year, and he promoted it on social media as "cutting in half the deficit from the last year of the previous administration and delivering the largest one-year reduction in the deficit in U.S. history."
The $5.8 trillion budget would cut the deficit by $1.3 trillion, the White House says. It raises defense spending by 4 percent and non-defense spending by 5 percent, but cuts pandemic emergency spending and raises about $2.5 trillion in new tax revenue, much of it from a new "Billionaire Minimum Income Tax" that would ensure a 20 percent tax on all income, including unrealized capital gains, for Americans with more than $100 million in assets.
"We can restore fiscal responsibility and safeguard our security at home and abroad while meeting the third value I call 'building a better America,'" Biden told reporters Monday. "I'm a capitalist," he said. "If you can make a billion bucks, great," but "firefighters and teachers" shouldn't "pay more than double" the rate America's wealthiest pay.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"Taxing the rich is widely popular among voters," The Washington Post reports, but it is also popular with one particular voter, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), the moderate who publicly thwarted Biden's Build Back Better proposal last year. The focus on deficit reduction especially "comes as Biden seeks to revive talks with Senate Democratic moderates such as West Virginia's Manchin on central elements of his now-defunct social spending bill," Politico adds.
Biden's "ambitious" budget blueprint is a "good peace offering" to restive centrists, but it's also "a return to Joe Biden 2020 — a centrist who won the Democratic nomination handily and then captured the middle to beat Donald Trump," Jim Kessler of the moderate think tank Third Way tells Politico.
White House Office of Management and Budget director Shalanda Young agreed that this is "a classic Joe Biden budget," but she declined to detail any conversations with lawmakers, saying an "easy way to not get anything done is to negotiate in public."
A president's budget frameworks are typically "overhauled by Congress before anything is enacted into law," the Post notes.
As for Manchin, he "remains seriously concerned about the financial status of our country and believes fighting inflation by restoring fairness to our tax system and paying down our national debt must be our first priority," said spokeswoman Samantha Runyon.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Judge blocks Trump's asylum ban at US border
Speed Read The president violated federal law by shutting down the US-Mexico border to asylum seekers, said the ruling
-
Thai court suspends prime minister over leaked call
Speed Read Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has been suspended, pending an ethics investigation
-
Senate passes GOP megabill after Alaska side deal
The pivotal yes vote came from Sen. Lisa Murkowski, whose support was secured following negotiated side deals for her home state Alaska
-
Trump sues LA over immigration policies
Speed Read He is suing over the city's sanctuary law, claiming it prevents local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities
-
Obama, Bush and Bono eulogize USAID on final day
Speed Read The US Agency for International Development, a humanitarian organization, has been gutted by the Trump administration
-
The last words and final moments of 40 presidents
The Explainer Some are eloquent quotes worthy of the holders of the highest office in the nation, and others... aren't
-
Senate advances GOP bill that costs more, cuts more
Speed Read The bill would make giant cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, leaving 11.8 million fewer people with health coverage
-
Canadian man dies in ICE custody
Speed Read A Canadian citizen with permanent US residency died at a federal detention center in Miami