Biden’s $6T budget proposal is a ‘responsible’ plan, says Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg
Don’t worry about the hefty price tag of President Biden’s proposed budget, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Sunday, arguing that spending and taxes are being handled “responsibly.”
The $6 trillion proposal has programs aimed at helping the poor and middle class and incorporates Biden’s previously proposed infrastructure plan, which has stalled in Congress.
“This is a responsible budget, and importantly, all of the proposals for spending and investment in this budget are paid for,” Buttigieg said on “Fox News Sunday.”
The budget includes major subsidies for care of children and the elderly, big tax credits for struggling Americans and free community college.
The transportation secretary defended the budget’s proposed increase in the corporate tax rate, to 28% from 21%, and hikes for top earners as well.
“We have many corporations [that] recently made billions of dollars in profits and pay zero in taxes,” Buttigieg said. “The American people know that doesn’t make sense.”
For Americans in the top personal tax bracket, taxes on capital gains and dividends would increase to 39.6%. They also would get hit with a 3.8% Medicare surtax.
Between the tax hikes and the huge debt increases outlined in Biden’s budget, some Republicans have been screaming bloody murder.
“It is insanely expensive,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said last week. “There will be serious discussions about government funding. But the Biden budget isn’t serious and it won’t be a part of those discussions.”
Earlier this year, the president proposed $2.3 trillion in infrastructure spending. GOP backlash prompted him to trim the scale of the legislation by about half a trillion dollars.
The spending package still includes money to fix the country’s network of highways, boost broadband internet, upgrade the electrical grid and fund so-called “human infrastructure,” such as care for older Americans.
“There’s certainly been major movement and a lot of good conversations” with Republicans, Buttigieg said on ABC’s “This Week.” “There’s movement in the right direction.”
Both the House and Senate are out of session until June 7.
“Between now and when Congress comes back … this is not going to be a break,” Buttigieg said. “The conversations will continue with the president, with members of Congress. And we remain very hopeful that we can get to a good place.”
The lead Republican negotiator on the infrastructure package seemed to echo that sentiment.
“I think we can get to real compromise, absolutely, because we’re both still in the game,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said, also on “Fox News Sunday.”
But she reiterated Republicans’ objections about the scope of the legislation, saying it still includes items that they do not view as infrastructure-related.
“We disagree on the definition of infrastructure and we’ve been working with the president to bring it back to the physical core idea of infrastructure that we’ve worked so well on in the past,” Capito said.
With News Wire Services
