Tax reform, border funds and Israel aid: Biden releases 2025 budget request

US president’s budget proposal has scant hope of passing but signals his priorities ahead of November’s elections.

United States President Joe Biden has unveiled a $7.3bn budget proposal that underscores his efforts to pursue several progressive objectives while pushing for more funding to combat crime, restrict immigration at the southern border and send aid to Israel and Ukraine.

Presidential budget proposals are typically seen as wish lists in which an administration lays out its policy priorities. Because passage requires support from the deeply divided US legislature, many of the requests are all but assured to fail.

The budget sent to Congress on Monday would cover the 2025 fiscal year beginning in October. It is particularly significant because it outlines Biden’s platform heading into November’s presidential election, in which he is on track to face former President Donald Trump, the man he defeated in the 2020 race.

“The President’s vision of progress, possibilities, and resilience is in stark contrast to Congressional Republicans, who have repeatedly fought to slash critical programs the American people count on,” the White House said in a statement, adding that Republican plans would increase the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars while benefitting “big corporations and wealthy tax cheats”.

The proposed budget broadly seeks to increase taxes on corporations and the wealthiest Americans to pay for an array of social programmes as matters of the purse weigh heavily on voters’ minds.