Biden is pushing for higher taxes on the rich and corporations. Now Portugal also has its right-wing populists

US President Joe Biden is pushing to raise taxes on big corporations and the super-rich in the United States. These are his government’s draft plans for the coming fiscal year, which starts in October. The draft budget was published on Monday. Meanwhile, there is still no full agreement on the current budget; In recent months, new transitional measures have made it possible to finance public companies.

Biden’s new draft proposes, among other things, a minimum tax of 25 percent for people with assets of more than $100 million, as well as tax cuts for lower and middle-income groups. The US federal deficit must be reduced by about three trillion dollars (about 2.7 trillion euros) in ten years. The draft also includes financial support amounting to US$482 million (approximately €441 million) for Ukraine. Currently, however, a much larger and more urgent relief package worth billions of dollars is stuck in Congress. A domestic political blockade there is preventing the delivery of military supplies from the US to Kiev. The US State Department emphasized on Monday that this crucial aid could not wait until the 2025 budget year.

Biden had already announced his budget plans during his State of the Union address on Thursday (local time). However, it is considered impossible that the Democrat’s design will be implemented in this form in the near future.

Congress has the power

The release of the draft budget is just a start, as the power to approve the budget lies with the US Congress. There, Biden’s Democrats have a narrow majority in the Senate, but the Republicans have a narrow majority in the House of Representatives. For the current budget year until the end of September, Biden’s plans are far from being implemented – a required minimum tax of 25 percent for the super-rich has already failed once.

Recently, there were only short-term solutions in Congress. There has not yet been a full agreement for this financial year. After an agreement was reached last week on the financing of part of government activities until the new budget year, the deadline for a new legislative package expires on March 22. This means that the outstanding financing from various federal governments for this financial year must be clarified. If no agreement is reached, there is a risk of a so-called shutdown, i.e. the cessation of affected government activities. However, this political bickering over the budget is not unusual in the US.

Transitional budget probably

It’s not uncommon for Congress to first settle for approving an interim budget, then a few months later to argue again over the financing of government operations. Agreements are often only reached at the very last minute. It can be assumed that this will also be the case for the coming financial year. Shortly before Biden’s State of the Union address, the Republican-led Budget Committee in the House of Representatives already adopted a counterproposal for the coming year.

To implement his plans, Biden would first have to win the presidential election. The majority in Congress should also shift in favor of his Democratic Party. This November, the US won’t just be voting on who will enter the White House. This also concerns all seats in the House of Representatives and a third of the seats in the Senate.

After former President Donald Trump defeated all serious competitors in the Republican primaries, nothing stands in the way of a repeat of the 2020 match: Biden against Trump. Research shows that it will be a neck-and-neck race. (sda/dpa)