With his party facing potentially violent headwinds in the midterm elections, President Biden released a budget Monday that leans towar...
With his party facing potentially violent headwinds in the midterm elections, President Biden released a budget Monday that leans toward the political center, bowing to the realities facing Democrats at risk by bolstering defense and law enforcement spending and tackling inflation and the deficit reduction in the service of what he called a “bipartisan unity agenda.”
Under this plan, left-wing hopes of a peace dividend at the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would be dashed in favor of a new major power military budget that would bring The Department of Defense allocation at $773 billionan increase of almost 10% from the level of fiscal year 2021. Rather than cuts, Mr. Biden pledges to strengthen the country’s nuclear weapons program, including the three legs of the nuclear “triad” : bombers, land-based intercontinental missiles and submarines.
“We are at the start of a decisive decade that will determine future strategic competition with China, the trajectory of the climate crisis and whether the rules governing technology, trade and the international economy enshrine or violate our democratic values,” says the budget, justifying large increases to project American military and diplomatic strength around the world.
Far from defunding the police and abolishing immigration and customs enforcement, two popular slogans on the left, the budget solidly funds both. Customs and Border Protection would receive $15.3 billion, ICE $8.1 billion, including $309 million for border security technology – a well-funded effort to stop illegal migration. The two main immigration enforcement agencies in the country would see increases of around 13%.
The budget even includes $19 million for border fences and other infrastructure.
Federal law enforcement would receive $17.4 billion, a nearly 11% jump, or $1.7 billion from 2021 levels. And the president, acknowledging the widespread concerns driving Republican attacks against Democrats, pledges to fight rising violent crime.
The proposals follow some of the main lines of attack Republicans are using against Democrats heading into the November contests, as they portray Mr. Biden and his allies in Congress as weak on security, soft on crime and soft on crime. lavish with federal spending to the point of hurting the economy.
The Liberal Democrats would see some of their priorities addressed, including “substantial funding for climate programs and ‘environmental justice’ initiatives, as well as changes to incarceration policy.” But many on the left will be disappointed. Instead of broad student debt forgiveness, an executive order many Democrats have been calling for since Mr. Biden’s inauguration, the Department of Education’s student loan services would receive a whopping 43% boost. at $2.7 billion.
Democrats in the rotating district who have pressed Mr Biden to address widespread concerns about rising prices could point to a number of inflation-fighting programs, with the biggest issue weighing on their outlook. President promises large-scale efforts to remove supply chain bottlenecks that increase costs and large-scale deficit reduction that could chill the economy.
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