Obama proposed a new budget for the 2016 fiscal year that has many Republicans calling it a political move.
President Obama proposed a $3.99 trillion budget for the 2016 fiscal year. The budget, according to Obama, aims to eliminate unnecessary austerity while promoting spending to improve the American economy.
Congress will most likely reject the President’s proposal, however. Obama’s plans to increase spending will be funded by increased taxes for rich U.S. citizens and corporations. The Republican majority does not agree with the method of funding.
The plan calls for a one-time tax of 14 percent on profits created and stored by companies such as General Electric and Microsoft. In addition, the plan requires a 19 percent tax on future foreign profits made by U.S. companies.
Obama’s plan hopes to restructure taxes in order to spread wealth to the middle and lower classes. Under the proposed budget, there will be increased government spending on social programs. These programs include improvements to infrastructure for roads ($478 billion) and education. The budget also calls for an increase in military spending.
Though the goals of the proposal are pleasant, many criticize that the plan is more political and utopian, rather than economically pragmatic. One of the main points of criticism is the failure to address major sources of continual debt for the United States, such as Social Security and Medicare.
“When ... he devotes his time and energy to talking about the new tax-and-spend policies that progressives like and Republicans universally oppose, he signals to Congress that he is once again looking to argue rather than to legislate,” said a former economic adviser to Republican President George W. Bush, Keith Hennessey.
In an interview with NBC on Sunday, President Obama stated that there would be issues that the Republicans may not agree with, but “There are going to be areas where we get big disagreements, but what I want us to focus on is the areas ... we have in common.”
