On March 9, the Biden administration unveiled its $6.8 trillion 2024 budget proposal (pdf). Here are key takeaways from the proposal.
Most notable is that the proposed budget would increase the national debt to nearly $51 trillion over the next 10 years, saddling American taxpayers with more than $1.3 trillion in annual interest by the year 2033. The plan would also increase government spending by 8 percent in 2024 and by nearly $2 trillion over the next decade.
Under the proposed budget, the Trump-era Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will be allowed to expire, eliminating the standard deduction of $7,000 for single filers and $14,000 for married filers. While the proposal claims that “no one making under $400,000 per year will pay more in new taxes,” data published by the IRS shows that not only did all income brackets benefit substantially from the Trump-era tax cuts, the biggest beneficiaries were not the top 0.01 percent, but rather working-class and middle-income Americans. Americans with an adjusted gross income of $15,000 to $50,000 began enjoying an average tax cut of 16–26 percent when the Trump-era tax cuts first went into effect in 2018. Those who earned between $50,000 and $100,000 in adjusted gross income received a 15–17 percent tax break. Those earning between $100,000 and $500,000 in adjusted gross income saw a reduction of around 11–13 percent….