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US eyes refuge to 50,000 Afghans in 3 Central Asian states

Refugees from Afghanistan arrive at Skala Sikaminias, on the island of Lesvos, Greece(Xinhua/Marios Lolos/IANS)

Washington was in talks with Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan about letting in the at-risk Afghan citizens, reports Asian Lite News

Amid US troops withdrawal, thousands of Afghan translators and interpreters face threats from the Taliban as they assisted American troops for two decades during its war against terror in Afghanistan. The United States announced plans last week to seek refuge for thousands of vulnerable Afghans in countries outside Afghanistan so their US visa applications could be processed from safety, but Washington did not specify where they would go.

The Biden administration is exploring having three Central Asian countries temporarily take in thousands of Afghans who worked with the US forces and face threats from the Taliban now that the US troops are withdrawing after 20 years, three sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.

They said Washington was in talks with Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan about letting in the at-risk Afghan citizens. Two of the sources were US officials and all requested anonymity.

The three sources said an agreement did not appear imminent with any of the countries. The decision to move at-risk Afghans risks inflaming a sense of crisis in Afghanistan, as fighting between US-backed Afghan forces and the Taliban has surged in recent weeks, with the militants gaining control of large amounts of territory.

ALSO READ: Jordan king holds talks with Abbas ahead of Biden summit

On being asked about the issue, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki provided no further details. “One of the reasons that I am not going to get into security details about what third country they might go to, and how many, is exactly for that reason, but certainly our timeline is to relocate these individuals to a location outside of Afghanistan before we complete our military drawdown,” Psaki had said on Friday.

President Joe Biden has asserted those who helped the US will not be left behind, while a senior Republican lawmaker on Thursday had said plans to evacuate at-risk Afghans will include their family members for a total of as many as 50,000 people. “We are identifying a group of Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants who have served as interpreters and translators, as well as other at-risk categories who have assisted us. They will be relocated to a location outside of Afghanistan before we complete our military drawdown by September, in order to complete the visa application process,” a senior administration official said.

Meanwhile on Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met his Tajik and Uzbek counterparts. The State Department said in readouts of the meetings that Afghanistan was discussed but provided no further details. (ANI)

ALSO READ: Pompeo calls on Biden to strengthen policies against China

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Troop pull out will have consequences: Ghani tells Biden

US President Joe Biden met his visiting Afghan counterpart Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah at the White House, reports Asian Lite News

Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani on Friday (local time) said that he warned US President Joe Biden that Washington’s move of withdrawing troops will have consequences for both sides, though he did not ask Biden to delay the withdrawal.

“President Biden’s decision is a transformational decision that is going to have consequential results both for the people of Afghanistan and for the people of the United States in the region,” Ghani said during remarks in Washington, reported Sputnik.

Ghani further said that discussions with the US have been very productive and countries in the region should “bet” on the Afghan government to remain in power, not on other forces. He said that Biden has made clear that the United States will continue to provide security and humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.

Biden
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and chairman of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah meet US President Joe Biden at the White House. (SOurce twitter@DrabdullahCE)

Furthermore, the Afghan President announced that Afghan security forces have taken back a number of districts that had fallen to the Taliban in southern and northern Afghanistan. Ghani called on the Taliban for a ceasefire and to return to the political process.

“The Afghan government needs to manage the consequences that will emerge after the US withdrawal and the Afghan people must rise to the challenge,” he said.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and chairman of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah with US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin (Source twitter@DrabdullahCE)

Biden and Ghani met at the White House as US troops are leaving Afghanistan after over two decades of military operations there. The United States has already withdrawn more than half of its troops from Afghanistan and expects to largely complete by July, well ahead of the September 11 deadline, Sputnik reported.

The White House on Friday announced a series of measures to provide assistance to the South Asian country amid troop withdrawal, including donating three million doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine to the people of Afghanistan through the COVAX facility.

Additionally, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is also supporting Afghan efforts to respond to the critical shortfalls in oxygen and medical ventilation support by providing emergency and structural assistance. (ANI)

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300 mn jabs in 150 days: Biden’s new milestone

Biden said US is heading into a “very different summer compared to last year” after 300 million Covid-19 jabs in arms in the 150 days since he took office, reports Nikhila Natarajan

In the run up to Americas Independence Day weekend, US President Joe Biden struck a sunny note Friday declaring that the US is heading into a “very different summer compared to last year” after 300 million Covid-19 vaccines in arms in the 150 days since he took office.

“We’re heading into a very different summer compared to last year,” Biden said. “A bright summer. Prayerfully, a summer of joy.”

The White House announced plans to host more than a 1,000 guests – mainly frontline workers and their families – on the South Lawn for a cookout on July Fourth. This is tipped to be one of the biggest in-person events of Biden’s presidency so far.

Biden was aiming to have 70 per cent of Americans at least partially vaccinated against Covid-19 by July 4. With the pace of vaccinations now dropping sharply off the highs in April, the current number stands at 65 per cent. Among adults alone, 55 per cent are fully vaccinated. Across America’s 50 states, 26 states and Washington D.C. have fully vaccinated 50 per cent or more of adults, according to White House data.

Based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data, 42.6 per cent of the US population is now fully vaccinated. Covid caseloads, hospitalisations and deaths in the US are down to their lowest levels since the start of the pandemic last year.

Despite the upside of strong vaccination numbers, the CDC is warning that the Delta variant of the coronavirus, first detected in India, is surging and will become the dominant strain in the US.

The CDC is telling Americans that those who get their shots will be “protected against this Delta variant.”

jabs

Three characteristics of the latest variant have doctors hitting the alarm bells again. It’s more contagious, more deadly and causing more breakout infections even among those who are partially vaccinated, according to Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.

“If you’re fully vaccinated, you’re actually pretty well protected. But even if you’re just partly vaccinated, we’re seeing a lot of breakthrough infections. So, this is possibly the worst variant we have seen, the most challenging variant throughout the entire pandemic,” Jha told NBC.

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Anthony Fauci is Joe Biden’s kryptonite

Fauci needs to be interviewed, not by media channels that fed their readers and viewers with disinformation about the pandemic, while excoriating those who spoke the truth, but by the FBI, writes Prof. Madhav Nalapat

Is there a middle class child in India who has not come across Superman, the hero who saves the world from disaster several times over because of his extraordinary powers? The only substance that can fell Superman is kryptonite, which therefore needs to be kept away from him if he is to continue his work. Joe Biden is no superman, he is simply a good human being, and this is what got him elected to the White House over Donald Trump in 2020.

He was chosen as the Vice-Presidential candidate by Barack Obama in 2008 because of his perceived ability to engineer a bipartisan consensus (between the Republican and Democratic sides) within the US Congress, a task in which he was a spectacular failure.

Despite this, he was repeated as Vice-Presidential pick by the US President in the 2012 Presidential election because by then, Michelle and Barack Obama had come to like and respect the obvious human qualities in Jill and Joe Biden. Needless to add, Vice-President Biden failed once again in managing to achieve a consensus in the legislative process.

The Republican side adopted a stance that appears to have been influenced by factors outside policy in opposing whatever Obama proposed, Biden’s efforts notwithstanding. Biden ensured his victory by nominating Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate, but in the process, turned off any appeal he may have had to a sizeable section of the US population whose primary regret is that the wrong side won the 1861-65 Civil War.

These are folks who in the Republican Party would have taken a noose rather than a Presidential nomination to Abraham Lincoln in 1860, and who saw Donald Trump as their blood brother, united in mind and heart with their Idea of America. Should the missteps being made by President Biden and the advisors around him continue, the 2022 elections may see a Republican chokehold on both the US Senate as well as the House of Representatives.

This would render the remainder of the term of President Biden a legislative wasteland, although the best thing that can happen to the Democratic Party would be for Donald Trump to get renominated as the Presidential candidate of the Republican Party in 2024.

ALSO READ: Biden looks to rebuild NATO shaken by Trump

Trump’s idea of a political party in a democracy is similar to that evident from the choices made by Indira Gandhi, which is that the top spot must always (naturally in the interests of the nation) belong to either her or her children, and afterwards to her grandchildren. It must be added that in many ways, Indira Gandhi caused both a cultural revolution in India as well as a geopolitical revolution in South Asia, which is why she will remain in the history book for centuries if not more, whilst most others will be forgotten, making ain footnotes.

Should the Democratic Party cede control of the House of Representatives to the Republicans in 2022, Joe Biden will not be able to even seek the nomination of his party for a second term. That his political skills are not exceptional is clear from the manner in which he has embraced Anthony Fauci, a stance that could cost his party substantially in 2022.

Under the Trump administration, it seems obvious that it was Fauci who persuaded the CIA and the National Security Council that the “Wuhan lab leak conspiracy” (as his acolytes termed it) was unlikely, when even in March 2020, it was clear from the public record that any investigation involving “science” (that much-abused word) would have before long reached the conclusion that there was no way except through a laboratory that a harmless-to-humans bat virus found in Yunnan could have evolved in a short period of time into SARS2.

Apparently, such an elementary conclusion was beyond the intellectual capacities of Fauci, who seems still to be unaware that the Wuhan Institute of Virology is (and has from the start been) a military enterprise. Any assumption that it was “science” that drove Fauci and others connected to the WIV to denying that the institute was the developer and incubator of SARS2 has melted away, except apparently in the mind of President Biden, who continues to stand by Fauci as the Vishwa Guru of health sciences.

This is the policymaker whose action and inaction helped cause the SARS2 pandemic. He needs to be interviewed, not by CNN, NYT, Washington Post and multiple other media channels that fed their readers and viewers with disinformation about the pandemic from early 2020 onwards, while excoriating those who spoke the truth, but by the FBI.

The impression is widespread that President Biden is not supporting the growing number of voices who call for an end to the cover-up of the cause of the present pandemic, something that could lead to a call for his impeachment by the US Congress before many months have passed.

Both 2022 and 2024 will be defined not just by economic policy but the approach of the White House towards China. And there is no better challenger for Henry Kissinger as the top apologist for the PRC than Anthony Fauci. The White House is on record that there will be no—repeat, no—circumstances that would make Biden send Fauci into retirement.

This stance is the best gift that Biden can give the Republican side, aside from not being able to get his Infrastructure Plan passed in the US Congress. This seems likely, as Biden seems to be managing the DINOs (Democrats in Name Only) the way he did Republican members of the US Congress during his tenure as Vice-President.

ALSO READ: China targets Fauci amid Wuhan lab controversy

ALSO READ: Biden, Erdogan hold ‘fruitful’ talks

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G7 To Counter China’s BRI

US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron (Credit twitter @POTUS)

The G7 leaders and their delegations were still negotiating the details of a communique expected to be released at the end of the summit, although it is unclear that the document will call out China by name, reports Asian Lite News

US President Joe Biden is pushing world leaders to call out China over allegations of forced labour in Xinjiang as the Group of Seven (G7) leaders prepare to unveil a global infrastructure plan meant to compete with Beijing.

According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Biden will join leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom for a session focused on China on the second day of the G7 summit. The main issue during the session will be how China has divided world leaders and Biden will be urging democratic nations to jointly confront Beijing and French President Emmanuel Macron calling for a more cautious approach.

The G7 leaders and their delegations were still negotiating the details of a communique expected to be released at the end of the summit, although it is unclear that the document will call out China by name.

“It’s an expression of our shared values to make clear what we won’t tolerate as the United States and as a G7, so we think it’s critical to call out the use of forced labour,” the official said.

ALSO READ – US Senate passes bill to counter China

This comes as human rights groups, along with leading countries, have alleged that Chinese authorities are committing genocide against ethnic Uyghur Muslims and using forced labour in the Xinjiang region. However, China has refuted these allegations, claiming to combat terrorism and improving livelihoods in Xinjiang.

G7 foreign ministers in a joint statement on May said: “In line with its obligations under international and national law, we call on China to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

G7
Prime Minister Boris Johnson chairs a Bilateral with the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European Council Charles Michel at the G7 Leaders Summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall. Picture by Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street

Under the current G7 summit theme ‘Build Back Better’, Biden administration officials said that the plan is to be an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global infrastructure effort aimed at binding China more closely to the rest of the world, reported WSJ.

However, some European leaders have warned against antagonising China, arguing that it is counterproductive and could complicate their efforts to seek Beijing’s cooperation on issues like climate change, trade and finance.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration officials said they were not trying to make China the overriding issue at the summit, according to WSJ.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson chairs a Bilateral with the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel at the G7 Leaders Summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall. Picture by Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street

“This is not just about confronting or taking on China; this is about providing a positive, affirmative vision for the world,” the official said.

The G7 summit began formally on Friday as the leaders of the world’s most advanced economies gathered on the Cornish coast for the first time since the outbreak of the global coronavirus pandemic.

The gathered nations will pledge to donate 1 billion COVID vaccine doses, with the US providing about half of those shots.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson chairs a Bilateral with the French President Emmanuel Macron at the G7 Leaders Summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall. Picture by Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street

The G7 summit was shaping up to potentially be one of the most consequential in recent memory with a pandemic raging in much of the world, a global economy still in shock and threats rising from Russia and China, CNN reported.

Queen Elizabeth II and other senior members of the royal family also met G7 leaders and their partners at a reception in Cornwall. (ANI)

ALSO READ – G7 to unveil global anti-pandemic action plan

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Merkel to visit Biden at White House in July

German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives at Cornwall for G7 Summit (Photo: twitter@G7)

On Friday, President Joe Biden met Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G7 Summit at Carbis Bay in Cornwall, England, reports Asian Lite News

US President Joe Biden will host German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House on July 15, Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.

“Chancellor Merkel’s visit will affirm the deep bilateral ties between the US and Germany,” Psaki said in a statement on Friday.

“The leaders will discuss their commitment to close cooperation on a range of common challenges, including ending the Covid-19 pandemic, addressing the threat of climate change, and promoting economic prosperity and international security based on our shared democratic values,” she added.

Merkel
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie Johnson speak with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Eden Project during the G7 leaders Summit. Picture by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street

The announcement came as Biden is on his first foreign trip as President.

On Friday, he met Merkel at the G7 Summit at Carbis Bay in Cornwall, England.

The relationship between the two allies was strained under the previous Donald Trump administration over burden-sharing and the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project between Germany and Russia.

Calling Berlin’s “delinquency” on military spending, Trump had ordered to withdraw nearly 12,000 troops from Germany.

Biden reversed the pullout decision in February.

US President Joe Biden is currently at UK for the G7 summit. (Picture by Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street)

Last month, the Biden administration waived sanctions against a company and its CEO behind the pipeline project, citing the importance of relations with Germany and the difficulty to stop the nearly completed pipeline.

The 1,230-km Nord Stream 2 pipeline is designed to pump natural gas from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea and deliver 55 billion cubic metres annually.

Both Germany and Russia point out that the project is purely economic, while the US calls it a geopolitical manoeuver by Russia.

ALSO READ – G7 to unveil global anti-pandemic action plan

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Trump slams Biden for bowing down to China

Trump slams Biden for bowing down to China

Speaking at the North Carolin Republican convention, Trump said: “Always put America first. We don’t put America second….reports Asian Lite News

Taking a dig at President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump slammed the current administration for bowing down to China, calling it the ‘most radical left-wing administration in history’.

Speaking at the North Carolin Republican convention, Trump said: “Always put America first. We don’t put America second. As we gather tonight, our country is being destroyed before our own eyes. Crime is exploding, police departments are being ripped apart and defunded… Is that good politics, defund our police?”

“Illegal immigration is skyrocketing at a level we haven’t seen before. And this is over a period of few months. Gas prices are soaring. Our industries are being pillaged by foreign cyber attacks. That’s a lack of respect for our country and for our leaders. And speaking of our leaders, they are bowing down to China, America is being demeaned and humiliated on the world stage. Our freedom is being overtaken by left-wing cancel culture. And the Biden administration is pushing toxic critical race theory and illegal discrimination into our children’s race theory,” he added.

He also praised some of his former administration’s ‘America first’ policies.

“We were putting American first, ahead of China, ahead of all these countries… Before the pandemic came into our shores, were doing numbers — in history… And then we had this horrible thing come in from China… That was an easy one, Wuhan… We’ve done an incredible job. and so many things have happened. And we built the economy not once, we built it twice. We had the highest stock market ever, the best job numbers. Then we had to regroup. We became the ventilator factory of the world,” he said.

ALSO READ: Biden announces vaccine sharing plan

The former President further termed Biden and Democrats as the most ‘radical left-wing administration in history’, adding that the survival of America depends on electing Republicans at every level.

“…We’re not going to let it go any longer. We have to stand up for our values. And we’re going to take back our country and take it back at a level that is very, very good for our country. And it’s good for our citizens because we can’t allow bad things to happen to our country,” Trump said.

As he looks forward to mark his return in the 2024 presidential elections, Trump exuded confidence that the people of North Carolina will decisively reject Joe Biden and the “radical Democrats”.

He also praised some of his former administration’s ‘America first policies. “We were putting American first, ahead of China, ahead of all these countries… Before the pandemic came into our shores, were doing numbers — in history… And then we had this horrible thing come in from China… That was an easy one, Wuhan… We’ve done an incredible job. and so many things have happened. And we built the economy not once, we built it twice. We had the highest stock market ever, the best job numbers. Then we had to regroup. We became the ventilator factory of the world,” he said.

Trump made his first public speech after leaving the Oval Office in January, after Biden assumed the presidency of the United States.

ALSO READ: Biden reinvigorates tariff war against India

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Biden eyes narrowing racial wealth gap

US President Joe Biden (Photo @POTUS - Twitter)

Biden detailed a raft of policies intended to bolster homeownership and help minority-owned small businesses and entrepreneurs….reports Asian Lite News

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced a series of measures aimed at narrowing the wealth gap among racial groups in a speech commemorating the 100th anniversary of Tulsa massacre, one of the most atrocious racial violence in US history.

In less than 24 hours between May 31 and June 1, 1921, a mob of white attackers killed over 300 Black Americans in the Greenwood neighbourhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and burned down 35 square blocks of that business district built by Black Americans — so prosperous at the time that it was then referred to as Black Wall Street. Roughly 10,000 Greenwood residents were displaced and the community has never come close to recovering, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Yet, Tulsa officials, in efforts to cover up the massacre, framed the atrocity as “riot,” and the mass killings received scant mentions in media reports, school curriculum and civil and governmental conversations in the decades that followed. It wasn’t until recent years that the horrendous events were eventually included in American history textbooks.

“My fellow Americans, this was not a riot. This was a massacre. Among the worst in our history,” Biden said in his speech as the audience rose to their feet. “Some injustices are so heinous, so horrific, so grievous they can’t be buried no matter how hard people try,” the president said earlier during the speech.

Biden detailed a raft of policies intended to bolster homeownership and help minority-owned small businesses and entrepreneurs.

ALSO READ: Biden’s $6tn budget plan draws mixed reviews

The measures include using federal purchasing power to invest more money into minority-owned businesses and allocate $10 billion in infrastructure funds to rebuild disadvantaged neighbourhoods across the country.

The first President to come to Tulsa and commemorate the massacre, Biden also plans to enhance the Fair Housing Act in ways that the Department of Housing and Urban Development will “more vigorously enforce” the law, according to a senior administration official, who added that the goal is to increase Black homeownership.

Flames across the Greenwood section of Tulsa(WIKIPEDIA)

Missing in the Biden initiative, however, was a plan to cancel student debt, which disproportionately affects Black students. The rollout also failed to address the issue of reparations for relatives of massacre victims, who said the federal payments could restore what was erased during the attacks.

Biden in his speech also announced that Vice President Kamala Harris will lead the administration’s efforts on protecting Americans’ voting rights. The White House has accused the restrictive voting laws recently enacted in several Republican-leaning states of making it harder for Americans to cast their ballots.

Biden on Monday proclaimed May 31, 2021, to be a “Day of Remembrance: 100 Years After The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.” He said in the proclamation that the “Federal Government must reckon with and acknowledge the role that it has played in stripping wealth and opportunity from Black communities.”

ALSO READ: Biden vows to press Putin on human rights at Geneva meet

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Biden’s $6tn budget plan draws mixed reviews

US President Joe Biden

The budget unveiled on Friday calls for total spending to run above $6 trillion throughout the next decade, and rise to $8.2 trillion by fiscal year 2031…reports Asian Lite News

President Joe Biden’s $6 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2022 has drawn mixed reviews from lawmakers and analysts, setting the stage for a potentially heated debate in Congress.

The proposal, which included Biden’s plan to increase investment in infrastructure, education, health care and beyond, would push federal spending to the highest sustained levels in decades.

The budget unveiled on Friday calls for total spending to run above $6 trillion throughout the next decade, and rise to $8.2 trillion by fiscal year 2031.

Deficits, meanwhile, would stay above $1.3 trillion in the next 10 years.

Biden argued that the budget plan reforms America’s “broken tax code” to reward work instead of wealth, while also fully paying for the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan over 15 years, referring to the revised 1.7-trillion-dollar infrastructure plan and the $1.8 trillion spending proposal focusing on childcare and education.

The White House’s budget proposal sparked praise and criticism among lawmakers, whose views are largely divided along party lines.

“President Biden’s budget is an unequivocal declaration of the value that Democrats place on America’s workers and middle class families, who are the foundation of our nation’s strength and the key to Build Back Better,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement, noting that the Biden budget makes “historic” investments in the American workforce and economy.

“Congressional Democrats look forward to working with the Biden-Harris Administration to enact this visionary budget, which will pave the path to opportunity and prosperity for our nation.”

Richard Neal, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said committee Democrats will consider the administration’s proposals carefully. Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said the committee will soon be holding a hearing on the president’s budget “as a first step”.

US President Joe Biden

ALSO READ: Stage set for Biden-Putin summit

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, meanwhile, lashed out at the budget plan, arguing that “Americans are already hurting from far-left economics that ignore reality”.

Republican lawmakers have previously lashed out at Biden’s multi-trillion-dollar spending proposals, calling them “liberal daydream”, and arguing that the tax hikes would lower wages, kill jobs and shrink the US economy.

The budget proposal for fiscal year 2022 was released as recent negotiations over Biden’s infrastructure plan failed to yield a deal.

The White House last week lowered the overall price tag of Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan to $1.7 trillion, but Senate Republicans then proposed a $928 billion counteroffer, just over half of the President’s revised figure.

Outside Capitol Hill, the newly unveiled budget plan also prompted heated discussion.

“Having followed Presidents’ budgets for 40 years, I think it’s fair to say that while I might modify some things in the new Biden budget, it would, if enacted, do more to reduce poverty and inequality than any other budget in modern US history,” Bob Greenstein, founder of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said on Twitter on Saturday.

“We are pleased that President Biden has put forward important details of his budget plan, that his economic assumptions are reasonable, and that he is proposing to offset new costs over time while modestly reducing long-term deficits,” the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a watchdog group, said on Saturday.

The group, however, argued that the budget adds “too much” to already record-level debt over the next decade and “does far too little” to address rising structural deficits over the long term.

According to the group’s estimation, US debt would rise from 100 per cent of GDP at the end of fiscal year 2020 and a record 110 per cent at the end of 2021 to 117 per cent by the end of fiscal year 2031.

In nominal dollars, debt would grow by $17 trillion, to over $39 trillion by the end of fiscal year 2031.

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation, also a fiscal watchdog group, said in a statement on Saturday that the administration proposes increasing revenues to cover the cost of their longer-term initiatives; “however, those costs would not be fully offset during the traditional 10-year window, rather over a 15-year period”.

“The underlying structural imbalance between revenues and spending that existed before the pandemic budget would remain, leaving an unsustainable fiscal outlook,” the foundation said.

ALSO READ: Biden pitches mammoth $6 trillion budget

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-Top News Defence USA

Biden pitches mammoth $6 trillion budget

US President Joe Biden (Photo @POTUS - Twitter)

The budget for the year starting October 1 earmarked USD 715 billion for the Defense Department, including USD 5.09 billion to enact an initiative to bolster deterrence in the Indo-Pacific region facing China’s assertiveness, and plans to procure 85 F-35 fighter jets, reports Asian Lite News

The United States has proposed a USD six trillion budget for the coming fiscal year, which pitches massive investment plans to rebuild infrastructure and position the country to better compete with China.

America’s budget for the year starting October 1 earmarked USD 715 billion for the Defense Department, including USD 5.09 billion to enact an initiative to bolster deterrence in the Indo-Pacific region facing China’s assertiveness, and plans to procure 85 F-35 fighter jets.

“China poses the greatest long-term challenge to the United States,” the Pentagon said in its budget overview, adding that Beijing’s military modernisation activities in recent decades have “sought to erode the ability of US forces to project power in the region.”

budget
F-35 fighter jet

“If left unimpeded, this continued erosion could fundamentally challenge our ability to achieve US defense objectives and to defend the sovereignty of our allies,” Kyodo News quoted the Pentagon.

According to the news agency, the budget request for the Defense Department represented a 1.6 per cent rise over the fiscal 2021 enacted level.

The president’s budget request, which seeks USD 6.01 trillion in total outlays, reflected his USD 2.3 trillion infrastructure investment proposal and USD 1.8 trillion education and child care investment plan — the former spanning eight years and the latter 10 years.

“Together, these plans reinvest in the future of the American economy and American workers and would help the nation out-compete China and other countries around the world,” the White House said in a document explaining the budget request.

United States President Joe Biden

The Hill reported that President Joe Biden’s first budget during his tenure proposed a budget that would entrench deficits in excess of one trillion US Dollars for the next decade, pushing the nation’s debt burden to record highs.

The blueprint released by the White House ties together three major spending proposals already announced by Biden: the USD 2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan, the USD 1.8 trillion American Families Plan and USD 1.5 trillion in discretionary spending for fiscal 2022.

Combined with mandatory spending programs, the 2022 budget would spend six trillion US Dollars, about USD 300 billion more than current projections for the year, with much of the spending going toward education, health, Science research and infrastructure. (ANI)

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