Biden $1.5T budget proposes major hike in social programs
By Niv Elis - 04/09/21 11:00 AM EDT President Biden on Friday proposed a $1.5 trillion annual budget for 2022 fiscal year, $118 billion higher than the regular 2020 appropriations, featuring a significant 16 percent boost in non-defense spending.
The $769 billion non-defense budget, which covers government departments such as Transportation, Health and Human Services, Justice, and Education, is a $105.7 billion increase from the current level.
Administration officials, who say that the government has underinvested in domestic spending for years, noted that it would be roughly in line with the 30-year non-defense average of 3.3 percent of GDP.
Defense spending, which some budget watchers expected to stay flat in the proposal, would increase by $12.3 billion, or 1.7 percent, to $753 billion, though none of that spending will take place through a decades-old “emergency†bucket of spending that many derided as a budget gimmick and slush fund.
In a stark reversal from four years of budget requests from President Trump, which sought to slash funding for major agencies but were routinely dismissed by Congress, the Biden proposal beefs up government agencies, including a 40.8 percent increase for Education, a 27.7 percent increase for Commerce, a 23.1 percent increase for Health and Human Services, and a 16 percent increase for Agriculture.
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https://thehill.com/policy/finance/547341-biden-15t-budget-proposes-major-hike-in-social-programs
