Credit: Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg / Getty 

President Biden is using the release of his $6.8 trillion budget for fiscal year 2024 to challenge House Republicans to produce their own tax and spending blueprint without cutting Medicare or Social Security.

Why it matters: Biden’s plan, which has little chance of being enacted by Congress, amounts to the clearest distillation of his political priorities as he prepares to mount a re-election campaign by running against congressional Republicans.

  • “I want to make it clear: I’m ready to meet with the Speaker [Kevin McCarthy]) anytime — tomorrow if he has his budget,” Biden said in Philadelphia.
  • “My budget is going to give working people a fighting chance,” he said. “We have made a lot of progress in the first two years.”
  • The message to the wealthiest Americans was clear: “You have to begin to pay your fair share,” Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, told reporters. “We are happy to have that debate.”

By the numbers: Biden is proposing $885 billion in overall defense spending to help fund the war against […]

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