Biden proposes $6 trillion budget

Washington: The United States has proposed a $6 trillion budget for the coming fiscal year, which pitches massive investment plans to rebuild infrastructure and position the country to better compete with China.

America's budget for the year starting October 1 earmarked $715 billion for the Defence Department, including $5.09 billion to enact an initiative to bolster deterrence in the Indo-Pacific region facing China's assertiveness, and plans to procure 85 F-35 fighter jets.

"China poses the greatest long-term challenge to the United States," the Pentagon said in its budget overview, adding that Beijing's military modernisation activities in recent decades have "sought to erode the ability of US forces to project power in the region."

"If left unimpeded, this continued erosion could fundamentally challenge our ability to achieve US defense objectives and to defend the sovereignty of our allies," Kyodo News quoted the Pentagon.

According to the news agency, the budget request for the Defense Department represented a 1.6 per cent rise over the fiscal 2021 enacted level.

The president's budget request, which seeks $6.01 trillion in total outlays, reflected his $2.3 trillion infrastructure investment proposal and $1.8 trillion education and child care investment plan -- the former spanning eight years and the latter 10 years.

"Together, these plans reinvest in the future of the American economy and American workers and would help the nation out-compete China and other countries around the world," the White House said in a document explaining the budget request.

The Hill reported that President Joe Biden's first budget during his tenure proposed a budget that would entrench deficits in excess of $1 trillion for the next decade, pushing the nation's debt burden to record highs.

The blueprint released by the White House ties together three major spending proposals already announced by Biden: the $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan, the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan and $1.5 trillion in discretionary spending for fiscal 2022.

Combined with mandatory spending programmes, the 2022 budget would spend $6 trillion, about $300 billion more than current projections for the year, with much of the spending going toward education, health, Science research and infrastructure.