President Joe Biden is proposing a plan to raise the Medicare tax on high-income Americans and push for additional drug price negotiations to fund the program through 2050.
The plan would raise the tax from 3.8 percent to 5 for those earning above $400,000 per year. The proposal is a bid to get Republicans on board with a 2024 budget bill.
"Millions of Americans have been working their whole lives, paying into Medicare with every working day, and want to know that they can count on Medicare to be there for them when they turn 65," the White House said in a statement. "The President’s Budget extends the life of the Medicare Trust Fund by at least 25 years. It achieves these gains with no benefit cuts—indeed, while lowering costs for Medicare beneficiaries.
The proposal also calls for closing loopholes in existing Medicare taxes and leveraging the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) authority to negotiate prices for high-cost drugs.
The president is set to release his full budget plan on Thursday. Medicare and Social Security account one-third of federal spending, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Concerns about their future solvency are a perennial concern in Congress.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday called out ExxonMobil for withholding highly accurate predictions about the impact of climate change.
A chopper crash killed top Ukrainian lawmakers, Arizona fight over water, and the TSA found a record number of firearms last year. Here is everything you Need2Know for Wednesday, January 18, 2023.
A helicopter crash in a Kyiv suburb Wednesday killed 18 people, including Ukraine’s interior minister and three children, Ukrainian authorities said.
The world is in a “sorry state" because of myriad “interlinked” challenges including climate change and Russia's war in Ukraine that are “piling up like cars in a chain reaction crash,” the U.N. chief said at the World Economic Forum's meeting Wednesday.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the outlines for her “Green Deal Industrial Plan” at the World Economic Forum at Davos.
For the first time in decades, China has fewer people than it did at the start of last year, according to official figures released Tuesday.
Solomon Pena was arrested in connection with a recent series of drive-by shootings targeting Democratic lawmakers in New Mexico.
The request comes after the White House's weekend disclosure that more classified records were found at the president's Delaware residence.
The winter meetup of CEOs and heads of state is the first since 2020.
The U.S. Treasury notified Congress that the debt ceiling could hit next week.
