[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 48 (Tuesday, March 19, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H1219-H1220]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                  THE BUDGET MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT

To the Congress of the United States:
  When I was elected President, a pandemic was raging and our economy 
was reeling. We were in the midst of the most devastating downturn in 
nearly a century. I came into office determined to fundamentally change 
things, by rebuilding our economy from the middle out and bottom up, 
not 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. We can give 
everyone a fair shot and leave no one behind.
  Our work started with the American Rescue Plan, which vaccinated the 
Nation, delivered immediate economic relief to people who badly needed 
it, and sent funding to States and cities to keep key services going. 
It continued with the biggest investment in our Nation's infrastructure 
since the 1950s. More than 46,000 new projects have been announced to 
date, rebuilding our roads, bridges, railroads, ports, airports, public 
transit, water systems, high-speed internet, and more. At the same 
time, we are making the most significant investment in fighting climate 
change in the history of the world. I have seen Americans' courage and 
resilience in the wake of devastating natural disasters, and I will 
always have their backs as we rebuild and boost resilience to extreme 
weather. We are building a cleaner, more resilient and sustainable 
power grid, and making America's biggest investment in rural 
electricity since the New Deal. We are revitalizing fence-line 
communities that have shouldered the burden of harmful pollution for 
generations. We are lowering energy costs for hardworking families and 
strengthening our energy security with clean energy breakthroughs. 
Across the board, we are supporting advanced manufacturing, ensuring 
the industries of the future are made in America by American workers.
  Our plan is working. Already, my Investing in America agenda has 
attracted $650 billion in private investment from companies that are 
building factories and moving production back to America. We are making 
things here in America again, with American union workers. We have 
ignited a manufacturing boom, a semiconductor boom, an electric-vehicle 
boom, and more. My agenda is creating hundreds of thousands of union 
jobs, so folks never have to leave their hometowns to find good-paying 
work they can raise a family on. Today, America once again has the 
strongest economy in the world. We have created a record 15 million 
jobs, with unemployment under four percent for the longest stretch in 
over 50 years. Growth is strong. Wages are rising and inflation is down 
by two-thirds, with costs having fallen for key household items from a 
gallon of gas to a gallon of milk. We have more to do, but folks are 
starting to feel the benefits. Consumer sentiment has surged more in 
recent months than any time in 30 years. Americans have filed a record 
16 million new business applications since I took office; each one of 
them is an act of hope.
  Importantly, we made these historic investments in a fiscally 
responsible way, while making our tax system fairer. In 2022, I signed 
a law that imposed a new minimum tax of 15 percent on the Nation's 
largest corporations, saved $160 billion by giving Medicare the 
authority to negotiate prescription drug prices and limit price 
increases, and boosted funding to the Internal Revenue Service to crack 
down on wealthy and corporate tax cheats. This is just the beginning. 
My Budget would do more to close loopholes. It would save another $200 
billion by enabling Medicare to negotiate prices on even more drugs and 
by limiting other drug price increases. It would cut wasteful subsidies 
to Big Oil and other special interests; and it would introduce a 
minimum tax on billionaires, which alone would raise $500 billion for 
the American people.
  So far, we have already cut the deficit by $1 trillion since I took 
office, one of the biggest, reductions in history, and I have signed 
legislation to cut it by $1 trillion more. My Budget would reduce it by 
another $3 trillion over the next 10 years as well, while continuing to 
pay for our investments in America.
  And we are just getting started.
  My Administration will keep fighting to lower costs for working 
families, on everything from housing to childcare to student loans. 
After decades of talk in Washington, we beat Big Pharma and capped the 
cost of insulin for seniors at $35 a month, down from as much as $400. 
Starting next year, no senior on Medicare will pay more than $2,000 a 
year in total out-of-pocket prescription drug costs, even for expensive 
cancer medications that now cost many times more. We are cracking down 
on price gouging by requiring drugmakers that raise prices of certain 
drugs faster than inflation to pay a rebate back to Medicare. At the 
same time, we have protected and expanded the Affordable Care Act, with 
a record 21 million Americans enrolled in marketplace plans this past 
year, while saving millions of Americans $800 per year on their 
premiums. Today, more Americans have health insurance than ever before. 
My Budget builds on those gains.

[[Page H1220]]

  I also know that for too many hardworking families, it costs too much 
to find a good home, so we are working to lower costs and boost supply 
of housing nationwide. My Budget will make monthly mortgage payments 
more affordable for middle-class first-time home buyers by providing a 
$5,000 annual mortgage relief credit for two years. My Budget will 
expand rental assistance to hundreds of thousands of additional 
families, continuing the largest expanstion in 20 years. It will also 
help to ease America's longstanding shortage of affordable housing, 
including by cutting red tape, so that more builders can get Federal 
financing to build more affordable housing. Important progress is 
underway: more families own homes today than before the pandemic; rents 
are easing; and a record 1.7 million housing units are under 
construction nationwide.
  My Budget also makes key investments in childcare and education, so 
every child in America can have the strong start they need to thrive. 
It restores the Child Tax Credit expansion I signed into law, which cut 
child poverty nearly in half in 2021; and it guarantees the vast 
majority of families high-quality childcare for no more than $10 a day, 
while boosting pay for childcare workers. It offers universal free 
preschool for all four million of America's four-year-olds. Building on 
the American Rescue Plan's investment in public education, the biggest 
in history, it also helps States expand tutoring, afterschool, and 
summer programs; and boosts recruiting to ease teacher shortages.
  At the same time, I am keeping my promise to ease the crushing burden 
of student debt. Despite legal challenges, we have canceled some $138 
billion in student debt for nearly four million Americans, including 
more than 750,000 teachers, nurses, firefighters, social workers, and 
other public servants. That is freeing people to finally consider 
buying a home, having a child, or starting that small business they 
always dreamed of.
  We are also working to secure our border. In October, I sent an 
emergency request for more funding; my Budget renews that request for 
additional resources, including for 1,300 more Border Patrol agents, 
375 immigration judges, and 1,600 asylum officers, and for cutting-edge 
technology to help detect fentanyl. We need to pass the Senate's 
bipartisan border deal as well, which would make urgent additional 
investments to secure the border and help to fix our broken immigration 
system.
  Today, the world is facing an inflection point in history, at home 
and abroad. My Administration has restored America's leadership on the 
world stage, rallying more than 50 nations to support Ukraine in the 
face of brutal Russian aggression, strengthening and expanding NATO, 
revitalizing our alliances and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific--
including with Japan, South Korea, and Australia--and strengthening 
democracy across the globe. But we need to do more to prove that 
America can once again be relied on to stand up for freedom. In 
October, I submitted a national security supplemental request to cover 
urgent needs, including support for Ukraine and Israel, and 
humanitarian aid and relief for Palestinians. My Budget reiterates that 
request and continues other critical support for NATO allies and 
partners around the world. It strengthens our deterrence capacity in 
the Indo-Pacific, expanding our capabilities in the region. It also 
works to keep our military the best-trained, best-equipped fighting 
force in the world, integrating advanced innovation technologies, and 
improving overall readiness. My Budget also takes important steps to 
honor our Nation's most sacred obligation--to protect and equip our 
troops when they are in harm's way, and to care for them and their 
families throughout and after their service. Since I took office, I 
have signed over 30 significant bipartisan bills to support veterans, 
including the PACT Act, the biggest-ever expansion of benefits for 
servicemembers exposed to toxic burn pits during their service; and I 
have issued the most comprehensive executive actions to date to boost 
economic security for military families. My Budget builds on that work.
  The story of America is one of progress and resilience, of always 
moving forward and never giving up. It is a story unique among Nations. 
We are the only Nation that has emerged from every crisis we have 
entered stronger than we went in. While my Administration has seen 
great progress since day one, there is still work to do. My Budget will 
help make that promise real.
                                                 Joseph R. Biden, Jr.  
The White House, March 2024.

                          ____________________