White House ‘out on lockdown for 90 minutes’ as Secret Service rushed to ‘suspicious package in Lafayette Park’
THE WHITE House was placed on a brief lockdown on Monday after Secret Service officials responded to a suspicious package near the facility.
Secret Service officials discovered the package in Lafayette Square Park, just north of the president's residence, shortly after 10.30am.
Reporters at were rushed into the briefing room as officials secured the scene.
The Metro Police Department explosive ordinance disposal team also responded to the scene.
Officials shut down vehicle and pedestrian traffic on H street between 15th and 17th and Penn Ave as a precaution.
According to the Secret Service, one individual was arrested for felony threats, unlawful entry, false alarms and false reporst.
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The White House was given the all-clear just before noon after officials deemed the package safe.
The scare comes as President is set to announce his 2023 budget request.
Biden will unveil a new minimum tax targeting billionaires, proposing a 20 percent rate that would hit both the income and unrealized capital gains of the wealthiest Americans.
The Billionaire Minimum Income Tax would establish a 20 percent minimum tax on all US households worth more than $100million, or about 0.01 percent of Americans.
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The White House projected that more than half the revenue generated by the tax would stem from the country's 700 billionaires.
If enacted, the tax would reduce the deficit, which sits at $3trillion, by about $360billion over the next decade, and it represents more than a third of the Biden team's plan to trim the spending gap by $1.3trillion.
"President Biden is a capitalist and believes that anyone should be able to become a millionaire or a billionaire," the White House said in a statement.
"He also believes that it is wrong for America to have a tax code that results in America’s wealthiest households paying a lower tax rate than working families."
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