[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 56 (Tuesday, March 28, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H1516-H1517]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




THE BUDGET MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT--MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE 
                   UNITED STATES (H. DOC. NO. 118-3)

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Lawler) laid before the House the 
following message from the President of the United States; which was 
read and, together with the accompanying papers, referred to the 
Committee on Appropriations and ordered to be printed:

To the Congress of the United States:
  When I took office 2 years ago, COVID-19 was raging and our economy 
was reeling. Millions of workers had lost their jobs, hundreds of 
thousands of businesses closed, supply chains were snarled, and schools 
were still shuttered. Families across the Nation were feeling real 
pain. But today, 230 million Americans have been vaccinated. We have 
created a record 12 million jobs, and unemployment is at a more than 
50-year low, with near-record lows for Black and Latino workers and 
women. Wages are rising, inflation is slowing, manufacturing is 
booming, and our economy is growing. More Americans have health 
insurance than ever before, and a record 10 million Americans have 
applied to start a small business--each application an act of hope. Our 
economic plan for the Nation is working, and American families are 
starting to have a little more breathing room.
  I ran for President to rebuild our economy from the bottom up and 
middle out, not from the top down--because when the middle class does 
well, the poor have a ladder up and the wealthy still do well. We all 
do well. For too long, though, the backbone of America, the middle 
class, has been hollowed out. Too many American jobs were shipped 
overseas. Unions were weakened. Once-thriving cities and towns have 
become shadows of what they were. My economic vision is about investing 
in those places and people who have been forgotten. That is what we 
have done in these historic past 2 years.
  Together, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, CHIPS and Science Act, 
and Inflation Reduction Act are among the most significant public 
investments in our Nation's history, expected to draw more than $3.5 
trillion in public and private funding for infrastructure and 
industries of the future--including clean energy. It is simple: you 
cannot be the number one economy in the world unless you have the best 
infrastructure in the world. So we are finally rebuilding our roads, 
bridges, railways, ports, airports, water systems, and more to keep our 
people safe, our goods moving, and our economy growing. We have already 
announced over 20,000 projects and awards, creating tens of thousands 
of good-paying union jobs while requiring that all construction 
materials are made in America. Americans everywhere can take pride in 
seeing shovels in the ground for that work.
  Meanwhile, the CHIPS and Science Act is making sure America once 
again leads the world in developing and manufacturing the 
semiconductors that power everything from cellphones to cars. The 
United States invented those chips, and it is time that we make them at 
home again so our economy never again relies on chips manufactured 
abroad. Private companies have already pledged $300 billion in new 
investments in American manufacturing, many thanks to this law, and 
they are breaking ground on facilities that will employ tens of 
thousands of Americans with good jobs and breathe new life into 
communities across the United States.
  At the same time, we are taking on powerful special interests to cut 
costs for working families--for example, lowering healthcare and 
prescription drug costs by extending Affordable Care Act subsidies and 
capping insulin prices and out-of-pocket drug costs for seniors on 
Medicare. The Inflation Reduction Act also gives Medicare the power to 
negotiate drug prices, lowering prices for Americans and saving 
taxpayers billions of dollars a year. It makes the world's most 
significant investment in fighting the existential threat of climate 
change--lowering families' utility bills, building cleaner and more 
resilient water systems, investing in rural communities, and leading 
the world to a clean energy economy.
  Throughout, we have delivered on our commitment to fiscal 
responsibility, cutting the deficit by more than $1.7 trillion in the 
first 2 years of my Administration--the largest reduction in American 
history. I have signed into law additional deficit reduction by finally 
making the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share, including 
with a new 15 percent minimum tax on billion-dollar corporations, many 
of which had been paying zero in taxes. We have also stood firm in our 
commitment to not raise taxes on anyone earning less than $400,000 a 
year.
  Now, it is time to finish the job, building on the ambitious progress 
we have made with new investments in America's future. My 2024 Budget 
is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America in a fiscally responsible 
way that leaves no one behind. The Budget continues lowering costs for 
families--with new measures to expand health coverage, cap prescription 
drug costs, invest in quality child care, build affordable housing, 
reduce home energy bills, make college more affordable, and more. This 
Budget protects and strengthens Social Security and Medicare--lifelines 
that tens of millions of seniors have paid into their whole lives with 
every paycheck so they can retire with dignity. It rejects any cuts to 
these programs, extends the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund by at 
least 25 years, and invests in service delivery so that seniors and 
people with disabilities can access the benefits they have earned. This 
Budget also keeps growing our economy by investing in the foundation of 
its strength: the American people. That means helping families by 
providing paid family and medical leave and restoring the full Child 
Tax Credit, which cut child poverty in half in 2021 to the lowest level 
in history. It means expanding small business loans; standing up for 
workers and their fundamental right to organize; investing in science 
and innovation; expanding access to preschool: and improving pathways 
to community college, career-connected high schools, and other high-
quality job training. It also means working hard to make our 
communities safer, expanding access to mental healthcare, ending cancer 
as we know it, and much more.
  In addition, this Budget cements our commitment to confronting global 
challenges and keeping America safe. It outlines crucial investments to 
out-compete China globally and to continue support for Ukraine in the 
face of unprovoked Russian aggression. It also continues our work to 
restore America's global leadership--reviving key alliances and 
partnerships, strengthening our military, fostering democracy and human 
rights, protecting global health, honoring our veterans, fixing our 
immigration system at home, and advancing cybersecurity through 
implementation of the National Cybersecurity Strategy I just signed.
  Importantly, my Budget does all of this while lowering deficits by 
nearly $3 trillion over the next decade. We more than fully pay for 
these investments in our future by asking the wealthy and big 
corporations to pay their fair share. We propose a billionaire minimum 
tax, requiring the wealthiest Americans to pay at least 25 percent on 
all of their income, including appreciated assets--because no 
billionaire should ever pay a lower tax rate than a school teacher or a 
firefighter. This Budget also proposes quadrupling the tax on corporate 
stock buybacks, so companies invest more in production to improve 
quality and lower prices, and less in buybacks that only benefit 
shareholders and CEOs. This Budget closes tax loopholes for the wealthy 
and cracks down on tax cheats, and it once again ensures that no one 
earning less than $400,000 a year will pay a penny more in new taxes, 
period.

[[Page H1517]]

  Today, our Nation is at an inflection point that will determine our 
future for decades to come. But because of the investments that we have 
made, the United States of America is better positioned to lead than 
any Nation on Earth. The Budget reflects our values as a Nation--a 
Nation of good people, growing in a new age of possibilities, and 
standing as a beacon to the world. Together, let us put those values 
into practice and prove that democracy delivers as we keep building a 
stronger, fairer economy that leaves no one behind.
                                                 Joseph R. Biden, Jr.  
The White House, March 2023.

                          ____________________