Biden proposes spike in federal spending in $1.5T budget proposal

WASHINGTON — President Biden’s first annual budget proposal calls for a surge in federal spending on climate change, civil rights, IRS tax collections and the worsening border crisis on top of his massive, just-passed stimulus package and pending $2.3 trillion infrastructure bill.

The budget proposal calls for a 16 percent increase in domestic spending and a 1.7 percent increase in Pentagon spending in fiscal 2022, according to a letter to Congress from acting White House budget director Shalanda Young. The combined price tag tops $1.5 trillion for discretionary spending, which doesn’t include obligatory spending on entitlements like Social Security or interest on the national debt.