Unpacking Biden’s budget: The president wants...

were proposed by the Congress,”

Eschtruth added. He was among a panel of speakers during an Ethnic Media Press briefing last week examining the president’s proposed budget.

Biden wants high-income workers to pay more taxes to ensure the nation’s popular Social Security program will have stable financial footing in the future. Social Security is the backbone of the retirement and disability income systems in this country, providing inflationadjusted benefits to more than 65 million people.

According to Eschtruth, based on incoming payroll taxes the program could continue to pay full benefits until 2035, at which point it would only be able to pay about 80% of benefits.

One potential option would be to remove the $160,000 cap on taxable income, which would take care of three fifths of the projected shortfall, says Eschtruth. Putting a flat tax of 1.7% on everybody, including employers, would eliminate it. Neither of those solutions are on the table.

Impossible to know what will happen

Under the Constitution, Congress has the power of the purse so the President can’t order them to pass his budget. He must persuade them, says one prominent economist who has worked on Capitol Hill for many years.

“President Biden has presented a visionary budget proposal which recognizes that meeting the needs of the United States in the 21st Century requires more revenues and bolder program initiatives than we currently have,” says Chad Stone, Chief Economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Last year’s budget was no walk in the park. “It wasn’t like the President said, ‘This is what I want’, and Congress said, ‘Here you are’. Even so, Stone says a lot