President Biden Unveils FY 2023 Budget Request
The White House on March 28, 2022, released President Joe Biden's $5.8 trillion proposed budget for federal spending in fiscal year (FY) 2023. The president's budget proposal serves as a fiscal blueprint for the administration's policy priorities and signals to Congress on what the White House hopes to accomplish over the coming years. It also provides a detailed look at how the president's spending and revenue proposals would affect federal deficits and debt. It includes the administration's assumptions about how those policies would affect economic growth, inflation and interest rates.
The budget calls for $5.8 trillion in spending in FY 2023, or 24.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). The proposal would raise taxes on billionaires and corporations, and increase spending on both military and domestic priorities; it includes $1.6 trillion in discretionary funds – $813 billion for defense and $769 billion for non-defense. Notably, the budget omits the president's climate and social spending package, the Build Back Better Act, Ukraine aid and additional COVID-19 relief.
- Spending: By the end of the budget window, the budget would increase spending by nearly $1.4 trillion over the next 10 years, compared to Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) baseline. As a share of GDP, spending would reach 23.9 percent of GDP, more than 3 percentage points higher than the 50-year average by 2032. Over the next decade, spending would average 23.4 percent of GDP.
- Deficits: The budget assumes projected deficits totaling $14.4 trillion over the next decade. OMB estimates the deficit will increase from $1.4 trillion this year to nearly $1.8 trillion in 2032. Deficits are projected to exceed $1 trillion every year over the next decade.
Nevertheless, Congress controls the purse strings. With the release of the president's full budget, Congress will now begin drafting spending bills. The government is funded through 12 appropriations – or spending – bills that need to be passed by both chambers and signed into law by the president. Those spending bills can be passed along party lines in the House, where Democrats control a slim majority. But they need 60 votes in the Senate, which is split 50-50.