President Joe Biden's proposed 2025 budget includes some perks for millions of families and low-income workers as well as senior citizens, including reviving a program that lifted millions of children out of poverty during the pandemic.

U.S. President Joe Biden sketched his policy vision for a potential second four-year term on Monday, unveiling a $7.3 trillion election-year budget aimed at convincing skeptical Americans that he can run the economy better than Donald Trump.

Biden wants to raise taxes by trillions on corporations and high earners, his budget wish-list showed, to help cut the deficit and pay for new programs assisting those who make less cope with high housing and childcare costs. Congress is unlikely to adopt the measures as proposed.

The economy grew at a much more rapid pace than expected while inflation eased in the final three months of 2023, as the U.S. easily skirted a recession that many forecasters had thought was inevitable, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

Gross domestic product, a measure of all the goods and services produced, increased at a 3.3% annualized rate in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to data adjusted seasonally and for inflation.

The federal government’s debt grew more than twice the amount that the economy did in the fourth quarter of 2023, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP).

The U.S. economy expanded at a 3.3% annualized pace in the final quarter of 2023, the Commerce Department said on Thursday.

Why it matters: It's much stronger growth than economists expected and caps a year of economic resilience as the nation avoided a projected recession.

The economy moderated in the September-December period compared to the previous quarter's 4.9% growth, which got a notable boost from companies building up inventories.

Just moments after picking up the gavel, newly elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R–La.) endorsed an idea that manages to be both eye-roll-inducing and really important.

"The greatest threat to our national security is our nation's debt," Johnson said during his first speech from the speaker's dais in the House chamber. "We know this is not going to be an easy task and tough decisions will have to be made, but the consequences—if we don't act now—are unbearable."

The federal debt is as old as the nation, and adding to it is sometimes prudent. For governments confronting existential crises like wars or pandemics, borrowing makes sense as a way to mobilize national resources, as the economist Barry Eichengreen wrote in the 2021 book “In Defense of Public Debt.” Government borrowing and spending are necessary to stimulate the economy during recessions.

The U.S. national debt is sitting at nearly $33 trillion dollars.

Every year since 2001, the U.S. government has spent more money than it takes in, which means it has to borrow money to make up for the difference.

“Debt has many useful purposes,” said Kris Mitchener, professor of economics at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. “The public debt has always been used for emergencies. It’s easier to finance by borrowing than to burden the current generation with taxes.”

Washington is girding for a spending showdown, as Republicans and Democrats strategize on how to get more of what they want from a divided Congress. But whatever happens in the political drama, the budget reality not to forget is that the deficit for the fiscal year that ends this month is officially projected to be $1.7 trillion, or about $13,500 for every U.S. household.