Biden budget aims to bolster Social Security, raise taxes on stock buybacks, corporations

President Joe Biden on March 11 released his $7.3 trillion proposed budget for fiscal year 2025, which calls for protecting Social Security, raising the corporate tax rate and quadrupling the tax on corporate stock buybacks.

"Many of my friends on the other side of the aisle want to put Social Security on the chopping block," Biden said at his State of the Union address on March 7. "If anyone here tries to cut Social Security or Medicare or raise the retirement age, I will stop them."

In his budget, Biden specifically said he will work with Congress to protect and strengthen Social Security by opposing any bill that aims to cut benefits or privatize the program, working to raise the income tax cap and increasing the Social Security Administration's funding by 9% from the 2023 level, according to a White House fact sheet.

The main Social Security trust fund has a projected depletion date of 2033, and many lawmakers have floated proposals to extend its solvency. One of the most well-supported bills among Democrats in the House — Connecticut Rep. John Larson's Social Security 2100 Act — would provide a 2% increase in benefits across the board and tax all earnings above $400,000. As of 2024, Social Security's income tax cap is $168,600, so individuals do not get taxed on their earnings above that amount, according to the Social Security Administration.

As the presidential election looms closer, Social Security is an issue attracting more attention. In a March 11 interview on CNBC, "Squawk Box" Host Joe Kernen asked former President Donald Trump about his outlook on dealing with "entitlements," referencing Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

"There is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting and in terms of, also, the theft and the bad management of entitlements," Trump told Kernen.

The Biden campaign took the statement to mean Trump endorsed cutting Social Security, and posted a video clip of the interview on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, with the caption, "Trump: There is a lot you can do in terms of cutting Social Security and Medicare." Biden also wrote "Not on my watch" in a response post on X.

However, the Trump campaign pushed back on the Biden campaign, tweeting in response that "President Trump was talking about cutting waste."

Separately, Biden's budget also proposes raising the minimum corporate tax rate to 21% from 15%, which he called for in his State of the Union address.

The Inflation Reduction Act, which Democrats passed in August 2022, previously established a 15% minimum corporate tax rate and a 1% tax on stock buybacks. Under his new budget, Biden proposes quadrupling the stock buybacks tax to 4%, according to a separate White House fact sheet.

House Republicans immediately pushed back on the proposed budget in a statement posted by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on X.

"The price tag of President Biden's budget is yet another glaring reminder of this administration's insatiable appetite for reckless spending and the Democrats' disregard for fiscal responsibility," wrote Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., in the joint statement.