President Obama's Plan to Avert the Sequester and Reduce the Deficit
A Balanced Plan to Avert the Sequester and Reduce the Deficit
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/02/21/balanced-plan-avert-sequester-and-reduce-deficit
Beginning March 1, harmful automatic cuts
are slated to take effect, threatening hundreds of thousands of jobs,
and cutting vital services for children, seniors, people with mental
illness and our men and women in uniform.
Only Congress can avoid this self-inflicted wound to our
economy and middle class families, and the only thing standing in the
way of a solution today is Congressional Republicans’ refusal to even
consider closing tax loopholes that benefit wealthy Americans and
well-connected corporations. The President and Congressional Democrats
have put forward solutions to avoid these cuts and allow time for both
sides to work on a long-term, balanced solution to our deficit
challenges.
The President is serious about cutting spending, reforming
entitlements and the tax code to reduce the deficit in a balanced way.
The question is, will Congressional Republicans come to the table to
get something done?
Let’s take a moment to look what we’ve done so far: The President has already reduced the deficit by over $2.5 trillion,
cutting spending by over $1.4 trillion, bringing domestic discretionary
spending to its lowest level as a share of the economy since the
Eisenhower era [see below]. As a result of these savings, together with a
strengthening economy, the deficit is coming down at the fastest pace
of anytime in American history other than the demobilization from World
War II.
And he's laid out a specific plan to do more.
His proposal resolves the sequester and reduces our deficit by over $4
trillion dollars in a balanced way- by cutting spending, finding savings
in entitlement programs and asking the wealthiest to pay their fair
share. As a result the deficit would be cut
below its historic average and the debt would fall as a share of the
economy over the next decade. Just two
months ago Speaker Boehner said there was $800 billion in deficit
reduction that could be achieved by only closing loopholes and reducing
tax expenditures. So we know we can get this done. Let’s be clear: the President’s proposal to Speaker Boehner is still on the table. Here it is again.
We can't just cut our way to prosperity. Even as we look
for ways to reduce deficits over the long term, we must grow the economy
in a way that strengthens the middle class and everyone willing to work
hard to get into it.
So the choice in front of Congressional Republicans today
is simple: will they let these devastating cuts happen that will cost
hundreds of thousands of jobs simply because they refuse to close one
tax loophole for the wealthy? Or will they compromise and work with us
on a balanced solution to get this done? We hope they come to the table
for the sake of middle class families, our national security and our
future today.
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