Source: Breitbart
President Joe Biden released his first budget request to Congress on Friday, asking for big spending increases for domestic spending programs and leftist causes.
Biden’s budget requests a 16 percent increase in domestic spending from 2021, including a 41 percent increase for the Department of Education, a 28 percent increase for the Department of Commerce, and a 23.5 percent increase for the Department of Health and Human Services.
“These are just a handful of the significant new public investments that would result in a healthier, safer, more prosperous, and more just future for all Americans,” Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget Shalanda D. Young wrote in a letter to Congress.
The 58-page discretionary request released Friday details some of Biden’s budgetary priorities for the upcoming fiscal year. The administration is expected to release a more detailed budget later in the year.
The administration boasted an increase of more than $14 billion in spending requests to reduce climate change and “the largest direct investment in environmental justice in history.”
That includes $1.7 billion for “energy-saving retrofits” of schools, homes, and federal buildings, and $600 million for electric vehicles and charging stations for federal agencies. It also requests more than $10 billion in “clean energy” innovation. The request also calls for $936 million in spending toward a new Accelerating Environmental and Economic Justice Initiative at the Environmental Protection Agency.
Other spending priorities include $2.1 billion in funding to combat gun violence, as well as funding for states to incentivize “voluntary gun buyback pilot programs.”
The budget proposal also includes a massive increase in government Pell grants, including funds available to illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
The budget request calls for $861 million in assistance for Central American countries to address the “root causes” of migration from those countries.
The proposal calls for only small increases in funding for national security, including a 1.5 percent increase in funding for the Department of Defense, including funds “promoting climate resilience” and deterring China and Russia. The Department of Homeland Security funding request remains largely the same as 2021 funding.
