Obama Proposes US$ 4-Trillion Budget for 2016

Washington (PNA/Xinhua) — U.S. President Barack Obama announced a record US$ 4 trillion budget proposal for 2016 on Monday, as he sought to boost spending on infrastructure, education and research to make the country more competitive and strengthen the lackluster middle-class.

The US$ 3.999 trillion budget represents an increase of 6.4 percent from the previous year, and deficit will decline to US$ 474 billion, or 2.5 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), lower than the 3.2 percent recorded in the fiscal year 2015.

In the new budget outlined for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, Obama budgeted US$ 605 billion for defense spending and US$ 563 billion for non-defense spending. Welfare expenditures including social security and Medicare and Medicaid totaled US$ 2.54 trillion.

The budget will cash US$ 478 billion into renovating the nation’s obsolete roads and bridges, help provide two years of free community college, boost spending on research and development, and reverse sequestration, or the across-the-board, automatic budget cuts that have slammed the Pentagon and nearly every government department.

To increase fiscal revenue, the budget proposed to tax the wealthy and close corporate tax loopholes. The proposal will boost federal spending by US$ 74 billion, of which US$ 38 billion will be spent on defense.

The Obama administration projected the deficit will remain under US$ 500 billion a year through 2018, but would rise to US$ 687 billion by 2025. But it noted the levels of deficit could still be considered manageable when measured against the size of the economy. (PNA/Xinhua) LGI/EBP