WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden on Friday released his fiscal year 2022 budget request to Congress, the first official budget for his presidency and a radical departure from his predecessor, Donald Trump.

Biden’s budget incorporates his two national signing proposals, the US Family Plan and the US Jobs Plan, neither of which have yet been seriously debated by Congress.

It also illustrates how Biden’s various priorities are from Trump. For example, he asks for a 41% increase for the Ministry of Education compared to last year, plus 23% more for the Ministry of Health and Social Services and 22% more for the Agence de Environmental Protection.

Funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which implemented Trump’s aggressive immigration policies, would decrease by a tenth of a percent. Another Trump priority, the Defense Department, would see a funding increase of just 2%.

On a personal level, Biden sees his budget as a reflection of his values. He often quotes his own father as saying, “Don’t tell me what you like. Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you like.”

The main budget request for 2022 is $ 6 trillion. But of that amount, only $ 300 billion is new spending requested for next year. Instead, like any presidential budget, the vast majority of the money it contains will be spent on programs the government is legally required to fund, such as Medicare, Social Security, and interest. on the national debt.

In total, approximately $ 1.5 trillion will be spent on discretionary items, which include funding for all federal agencies. About half of this amount is already earmarked for the Ministry of Defense.

On the payment side, Biden’s budget incorporates a wide variety of tax code changes that the White House says can fund his multi-trillion-dollar domestic spending plans. The main ones are an increase in the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, as well as an increased application of the IRS and higher taxes for the wealthier taxpayers.

The tax changes also include a set of “Made in America” ​​tax changes that penalize American companies for offshoring jobs, particularly to make products that are then resold to American consumers.

Like most presidential budgets, the White House relies on optimistic projections of unemployment rates and GDP growth to argue that expensive spending plans will pay for themselves in increased growth.

Unemployment, according to White House plans, will fall to 4.7% by the end of the year, 4.1% in 2022 and 3.8% the following year. After that, they predict it will stay at 3.8% for the next seven years.

Biden’s budget also predicts that inflation will not hit more than 2.3% per year over the next 10 years, reflecting the administration’s belief that some economists’ concerns about soaring inflation are overblown. .

Speaking to reporters ahead of the plan’s release on Friday, Cecilia Rouse, chair of Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers, said historically low interest rates now make the perfect time for the federal government to take on additional debt for modernize the economy and develop. the social safety net.

The White House predicts that over time, Biden’s proposals would increase productivity and consumer spending enough to pay for itself, and eventually reduce the deficit within 15 years.

Biden’s budget has already been scrutinized by some progressives, who note that it does not include a public health option, which was one of Biden’s campaign pledges.

White House officials said Biden would instead look to Congress for help in creating a public option and passing a bill that would allow Medicare to negotiate with drug companies over drug prices.

Like all presidential budgets, Biden is a one-part plan and one-part wishlist, meant to illustrate the president’s political priorities as well as brief the appropriators of Congress.

Depending on Congress to actually pass, Biden’s budget is likely to be altered large and small before being ultimately appropriated by Congress. But with Democrats controlling both houses this year, Biden has a much better chance of seeing his top priorities reflected in the end result than most of his recent predecessors.

In a statement accompanying the budget release, the president said the document was “a budget for what our economy can be, for whom our economy can serve and how we can rebuild it better by putting needs, goals, l ingenuity and strength of the American people front and center. “

You can read the president whole budget here.