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Economic Policy

Biden budget seeks to flip script on Trump administration’s spending priorities

The White House wants more money for all the programs Trump had sought to slash.

Analysis by
Staff writer
April 9, 2021 at 11:20 a.m. EDT
President Biden, accompanied by Vice President Harris, right, and Attorney General Merrick Garland, second from right, departs after speaking about gun violence prevention in the Rose Garden at the White House on Thursday. (Andrew Harnik/AP)

President Biden’s first budget request to Congress includes $1.5 trillion in federal spending that turbocharges funding for education, health and environmental protections — flipping the script on the very programs the Trump administration long ridiculed and sought to slash.

The split is also laid bare in defense spending, which ramped up during the Trump years but would stay essentially flat under Biden’s pitch.