The Biden budget includes a $4.7 billion emergency fund that could be used if there is a migrant surge and maintains 34,000 beds in immigration detention centers

President Joe Biden’s budget proposal includes a new $4.7 billion emergency border fund that could be used if there is a surge of migrants at the border.

It also funds more border agents, provides improved technology and keeps the number of beds in detention centers at 34,000.

The new fund can only be tapped on one as necessary when the number of undocumented migrants crossing the southern border exceeds a certain threshold, which is not specified.

The president on Monday presented his $7.3 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2025. In total, it includes $11.8 billion in border spending.

Biden’s budget plan is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled House, but it serves as an important blueprint for the president’s policy agenda as he runs for a second term in the White House.

Immigration and border security have become a top political issue.

Republicans on Capitol Hill have already refused to fund Biden’s $13.6 billion emergency supplemental request to boost border security.

They say it doesn’t do enough. Biden responds that they only oppose it because Donald Trump, his 2024 Republican rival, does. The Trump team sees the border as a successful issue to use against the sitting president.

Biden’s plan includes $405 million to hire 1,300 additional Border Patrol agents; $239 million to hire 1,000 additional U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers to prevent fentanyl and other contraband from entering the United States; and $755 million to hire an additional 1,600 asylum officers and support staff to facilitate timely immigration responses.

His budget also includes shifts in his own policies. Biden had previously asked Congress to reduce the number of detention beds from 34,000 to 25,000.

However, lawmakers have resisted, and now Biden is leaving the number unchanged.

In December, border crossings reached a record high. The Border Patrol had 249,785 apprehensions that month, up 31% from 191,112 in November and up 13% from 222,018 in December 2022, the previous record high.

U.S. Border Patrol agents prepare migrants for transport to a processing facility on a remote section of the U.S.-Mexico border near Arizona

President Joe Biden’s budget is unlikely to pass Congress, but will serve as a key policy blueprint in the 2024 elections

Among Biden’s budget proposals are that the budget deficit will be reduced by $3 trillion over ten years, home buyers will receive a $9,600 tax credit and parents will receive a child tax credit.

The proposal provides about $900 billion for defense in fiscal year 2025, about $16 billion more than the base case.

It includes a 4.5% pay increase for members of the military, but no aid to Ukraine, which would require Congress to approve the additional national security request.

Biden’s plan also calls for Congress to apply its $2,000 cap on drug costs and $35 insulin to everyone, not just people who have Medicare. And he wants Medicare to have the ability to negotiate the prices of 500 prescription drugs, which could save $200 billion over 10 years.

The White House plans to pay for its ambitious agenda — including $3 billion for climate change resilience — by imposing about $5 trillion in new taxes on corporations and the wealthy over the next decade.

The president’s plan would raise taxes by a net total of $4.9 trillion, or more than 7% more than what the U.S. would collect. Meanwhile, Americans making less than $400,000 a year would get tax cuts totaling $750 billion. And those earning more than $400,000 a year would see higher taxes on wages, investment gains and self-employment income.

“We can make all our investments by asking those in the top 1 and 2 percent to pay more into the system,” Shalanda Young, the director of the White House Budget Office, said on a briefing call with reporters.

Biden’s plan likely won’t become law, given Republicans’ control of the House of Representatives, but it will This is an important message for voters as he tries to reassure them about his stewardship of the economy and his plans to reduce the budget deficit.

It will also serve as a contrast between his vision of the country and that of his rival Donald Trump.

Other items in the budget:

• $2.1 billion for weather satellites to maintain the existing fleet of satellites crucial for extreme weather forecasting and to invest in next-generation systems that could provide more accurate forecasts to combat the more powerful and frequent storms and extreme weather events caused by climate change
• $2.9 billion for the Secret Service, including $70 million for security related to the 2024 presidential campaign and inauguration and $16 million to begin security preparations for the 2026 World Cup
• $7.8 billion for the Artemis program, which would take astronauts – including the first women, the first people of color and the first international astronauts – to the moon’s surface as part of a long-term journey of science and research
• It also provides universal preschool education to all four million four-year-olds in America and gives states the “flexibility” to later expand preschool to three-year-olds
• Provides 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave.
• The president calls for strengthening the social security fund, but does not provide details.

He also targets the rich.

His plan would increase the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent.

Biden is also proposing a new minimum tax on big companies and a quadrupling of the tax on stock buybacks, aiming to raise more revenue from big companies and the wealthy to pay off the country’s debt.

Over the past three years, the national debt has risen from $27.8 trillion to $34.4 trillion.

The budget builds on what Biden outlined in his State of the Union address last week. And this week he’s hitting the road to three battleground states — New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Michigan — to sell his plan.

Biden’s budget includes a 25% tax on billionaires like Jeff Bezos – seen above with Lauren Sanchez at the 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar Party

Voters have repeatedly given Biden the thumbs down for his handling of the economy. An NBC News poll last month showed voters trust Trump 20 points more on economic issues.

And a CBS/YouGov poll in February found that 55 percent said Biden’s policies would make prices more expensive, while only 34 percent said the same about Trump’s policies.

His budget attempts to reassure a nervous electorate. The proposals are intended to appeal to the middle class, parents, students and those opposed to climate change.

Biden will portray Trump as the opposite: in favor of tax cuts for the wealthy.

“No billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a teacher, a sanitation worker or a nurse,” he said in his State of the Union address last week.

“Do you really think the rich and big corporations need another $2 trillion in tax breaks? Certainly not. I’ll keep fighting hard to make it fair!’ he noticed.

House Republicans have passed their own budget proposal that would massively cut government spending, undo the Inflation Reduction Act and destroy the Affordable Healthcare Plan.

And just as Biden won’t sign the Republican budget into law, they won’t pass his on Capitol Hill either.

Speaker Mike Johnson said the president’s budget is “yet another glaring reminder of this administration’s insatiable appetite for reckless spending and Democrats’ disregard for fiscal responsibility,” which is “a road map to accelerate America’s decline.”

Meanwhile, Congress is still trying to fund the government for this year.

On Saturday, Biden signed a $460 billion package to avert the closure of several federal agencies, but lawmakers are only about halfway through tackling spending for this fiscal year.