WASHINGTON: US president Joe Biden on Thursday unveiled $6.9 million budget for 2024 that proposed hefty taxes on the rich, massive spending on social measures, and investment in building key infrastructures which included more than $7.1 billion in funding for the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau. His proposal according to the White House reflected how the former could relieve the burden on hard-working Americans.
” To support working parents my budget expands access to affordable child care for millions of families it. And it’s going to invest in paid family medical leave, Biden said adding that his budget also invests in elder care and home care and restores the child tax credit, said Biden. He claimed that his latest budget is going to reduce the deficit by nearly USD 3 trillion over 10 years.
An allocation of $ 63.1 billion for the state department and the US Agency for International Development was also proposed. Further, the defense department’s portion of the budget request was $842 billion, which would focus on ramping up the US military presence in the Indo -Pacific region. The payments were part of its strategy to “out-compete China” and strengthen America’s alliances and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific. But apart from direct military programs, they are the largest single budget line for the region in the spending plan, as per the White House press statement.
Termed a ‘non-starter’ by Republicans, US Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has slammed US President Joe Biden for his annual budgetary proposals. While criticizing the US president, the Indian-American said that the proposals were “socialist in nature and a disaster for America”.