A planned boost in the federal budget, an infrastructure counteroffer, falling unemployment claims, and support for cutting supplemental unemployment are among the top business news items this morning.
National
President Joe Biden is preparing to introduce a budget calling for $6 trillion in federal spending in the 2022 fiscal year with annual spending rising to $8.2 trillion by 2031, according to the New York Times. The budget reportedly calls for investments in education, infrastructure, and health care as well as higher taxes on corporations and high earners.
Republican senators have raised their counteroffer on infrastructure spending to $928 billion, although this remains considerably below the downwardly revised White House offer of $1.7 trillion. Partisan divides also remain over issues such as how the plan will be funded, with Democrats wary of Republican proposals to redirect COVID-19 aid for this purpose.
Initial jobless claims continue to fall, dropping to 406,000 last week. Continuing claims fell to 3.68 million, and 15.8 million remain on some sort of unemployment benefit.
Business trends
A Quinnipiac University poll finds that 54 percent of Americans support ending the $300-a-week supplemental unemployment benefit being offered by the federal government. Many Republicans and business leaders have blamed this supplement for contributing to challenges in filling available job openings, with about two dozen Republican-led states planning to end supplemental benefits early.
