President Obama on Wednesday proposed cutting the deficit by $4 trillion over the next 12 years, seeking to put his stamp on a raging debate over government spending while savaging a Republican budget plan he said would lead to a “fundamentally different America.” The president called for cuts in defense spending, the elimination of tax cuts for the richest Americans and the closing of tax loopholes but proposed no dramatic changes to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, which he acknowledged were the primary drivers of a runaway federal deficit.
In a speech at George Washington University, Obama framed his fiscal blueprint as a responsible alternative to a GOP proposal that would bring down the deficit largely through budget cuts and reduced entitlement benefits that Obama said would “abandon the fundamental commitment this country has kept for generations.”
“Their vision is less about reducing the deficit than it is about changing the basic social compact in America,” Obama said. “There’s nothing serious about a plan that claims to reduce the deficit by spending a trillion dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. There’s nothing courageous about asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it and don’t have any clout on Capitol Hill. And this is not a vision of the America I know.”
The president embraced many of the proposals made by his own fiscal commission but fell short of its full recommendation to slash $4 trillion in just a decade. Most of the president’s savings would come through spending cuts, though a quarter of the money needed to reduce the deficit would come from a tax increase.
Congressional Republicans have blamed Obama’s own initiatives, including a massive economic stimulus spending package, for the government’s record debt. But Obama laid the blame squarely at the feet of his predecessor, former President George W. Bush, a Republican who pushed through $1 trillion in tax cuts, started two wars and created a new prescription drug benefit for seniors.
The president called for bipartisan negotiations led by Vice President Biden beginning in May to tackle the debt. However, the issue will likely become a centerpiece of the 2012 presidential election. Obama announced his re-election plans last week.
“We don’t have to choose between a future of spiraling debt and one where we forfeit investments in our people and our country,” Obama said. “We will all need to make sacrifices. But we do not have to sacrifice the America we believe in. And as long as I’m president, we won’t.”
Republican leaders who met with Obama before his speech said any increase in taxes was out of the question.
To ensure the deficit is reined in, the president outlined a “failsafe” that would be triggered if the nation’s debt didn’t begin to shrink by 2014 — entitlement programs, however, would be exempt from the cap.
Democrats in recent weeks have grown increasingly wary of the president’s deficit blueprint, concerned he has offered too many concessions to Republicans.
However, speaking directly to his base, Obama said, “If we truly believe in a progressive vision of our society, we have the obligation to prove that we can afford our commitments.”
