Weekly Remarks by our President

Coburn hails GOP budget, warns of debt crisis; Obama hails his deficit plan, dislikes GOP's

This week, I laid out my plan for our fiscal future.  It’s a balanced plan that reduces spending and brings down the deficit, putting America back on track toward paying down our debt. 

We know why this challenge is so critical. If we don’t act, a rising tide of borrowing will damage our economy, costing us jobs and risking our future prosperity by sticking our children with the bill.

At the same time, we have to take a balanced approach to reducing our deficit –- an approach that protects the middle class, our commitments to seniors, and job-creating investments in things like education and clean energy. What’s required is an approach that draws support from both parties, and one that’s based on the values of shared responsibility and shared prosperity. 

Now, one plan put forward by some Republicans in the House of Representatives aims to reduce our deficit....
...by $4 trillion over the next ten years. But while I think their goal is worthy, I believe their vision is wrong for America.  

It’s a vision that says at a time when other nations are hustling to out-compete us for the jobs and businesses of tomorrow, we have to make drastic cuts in education, infrastructure, and clean energy – the very investments we need to win that competition and get those jobs. 

It’s a vision that says that in order to reduce the deficit, we have to end Medicare as we know it, and make cuts to Medicaid that would leave millions of seniors, poor children, and Americans with disabilities without the care they need.  

But even as this plan proposes these drastic cuts, it would also give $1 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthiest 2% of Americans – an extra $200,000 for every millionaire and billionaire in the country.   

I don’t think that’s right. I don’t think it’s right to ask seniors to pay thousands more for health care, or ask students to postpone college, just so we don’t have to ask those who have prospered so much in this land of opportunity to give back a little more. 

To restore fiscal responsibility, we all need to share in the sacrifice – but we don’t have to sacrifice the America we believe in.

That’s why I’ve proposed a balanced approach that matches that $4 trillion in deficit reduction. It’s an approach that combs the entire budget for savings, and asks everyone to do their part. And I’ve called on Democrats and Republicans to join me in this effort – to put aside their differences to help America meet this challenge.That’s how we’ve balanced our budget before, and it’s how we’ll succeed again.

We’ll build on the savings we made from last week’s bipartisan budget agreement, while protecting the job-creating investments that are critical to our future. 

We’ll find additional savings in our defense budget.  Over the last two years, the Secretary of Defense has taken on wasteful spending that does nothing to protect our troops or our nation, saving $400 billion in current and future spending.  I believe we can do that again.   

We’ll reduce health care spending, and strengthen Medicare and Medicaid through common-sense reforms that will get rid of wasteful subsidies and increase efficiency. 

We’ll reduce spending in our tax code with tax reform that’s fair and simple –- so that the amount of taxes you pay doesn’t depend on how clever an accountant you can afford. And we should end the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, too.  Because people like me don’t need another tax cut.

So that’s my approach to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over the next 12 years while protecting the middle class, keeping our promise to seniors, and securing our investments in our future. I hope you’ll check it out for yourself on WhiteHouse.gov.  And while you’re there, you can also find what we’re calling the taxpayer receipt.  For the first time ever, there’s a way for you to see exactly how and where your tax dollars are spent, and what’s really at stake in this debate.

Going forward, Democrats and Republicans in Washington will have our differences, some of them strong. But you expect us to bridge those differences. You expect us to work together and get this done. And I believe we can. I believe we can live within our means and live up to the values we share as Americans.  And in the weeks to come, I’ll work with anyone who’s willing to get it done. Thanks for listening.  Have a great weekend.

Obama unveils plan to cut deficit by $4 trillion

'We will all need to make sacrifices,' President Obama says in detailing his 2012 budget package, which includes tax reform, cuts in domestic and defense spending, entitlement savings and a promise to preserve Medicare and Medicaid.

Obama lays out deficit reduction plan

The president talks of tax hikes and military spending cuts while adamantly defending healthcare for the elderly and poor. He assails the GOP spending plan unveiled last week.

Reporting from Washington— 

President Obama vigorously defended government's responsibility for the nation's most vulnerable citizens and castigated Republican plans to "end Medicare as we know it" as he moved to shape the burgeoning national debate over the federal deficit with his own mix of tax increases and spending cuts.

Hitting themes likely to figure prominently in his reelection campaign, Obama cast the debate with the Republicans in a moral framework. The GOP plan unveiled last week by Rep.Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) offered a "deeply pessimistic" vision of the country that would fundamentally change the nation's social compact, he said. It would tell seniors and the poor, "tough luck — you're on your own."

While Ryan's approach would achieve its savings exclusively through deep cuts in the scope of government, Obama said he would narrow the deficit by closing tax loopholes and raising taxes on upper income Americans. Obama also wants to cut more deeply into military spending and would aim to hold down the cost of healthcare programs.

The president also argued for preserving what he termed "investments" in schools, highways, bridges and research — spending that he said was necessary to keep the U.S. competitive with countries such as South Korea and China.

Obama delivered the speech under pressure from two sides. He has been pushed by Republicans and moderate Democrats to show his seriousness about reining in huge deficits, but also by liberal supporters wanting evidence that he would stand up to GOP efforts to dramatically change basic aspects of the nation's healthcare safety net. Polls show deficit reduction has popular support, though the public is less certain how to go about it.

Obama used some of the strongest language of his presidency in laying out the competing plans coming from the White House and the Republican Party. He vowed to stop opponents' plan to convert Medicare into a voucher program.

Republicans, he said, have put forward "a vision that says America can't afford to keep the promise we've made" to care for seniors.

"It says, instead of guaranteed healthcare, you will get a voucher," Obama said. "And if that voucher isn't worth enough to buy the insurance that's available in the open marketplace, well, tough luck — you're on your own."

He also promised to end the George W. Bush-era tax cuts. During the lame duck congressional session late last year, Obama reluctantly agreed to extend the tax cuts for Americans earning more than $250,000 a year, saying the only alternative was to accept a tax increase for struggling middle-class Americans.

But on Wednesday, he said: "We cannot afford $1 trillion worth of tax cuts for every millionaire and billionaire in our society. We can't afford it. And I refuse to renew them again."

Those arguments are certain to resound through the 2012 election.

Obama spoke at George Washington University before an audience that included students, members of the administration and congressional leaders. Also listening were Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, who co-chaired a deficit reduction commission Obama created in February 2010. At one point, television footage showed, Vice President Joe Biden appeared to start falling asleep.

Obama acknowledged differences with conservative critics and liberal allies, once again staking out a centrist position and portraying himself as a reasonable adult in a difficult debate.

Republicans quickly denounced the president's plan and accused him of hyper-partisanship.

"More promises, hollow targets and Washington commissions simply won't get the job done," said House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio).

Ryan, who was in the audience, later called the speech "excessively partisan, dramatically inaccurate and hopelessly inadequate."

To achieve the $4 trillion in deficit reductions, Obama would raise revenues by $1 trillion; cut $2 trillion in spending; and avoid $1 trillion in debt payments.

Obama wants to cut $400 billion from national security spending over 10 years. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates' staff said the secretary learned about that goal only on Tuesday.

Should the deficit reduction efforts miss their targets, Obama would step up the pace through a "debt fail-safe" mechanism that would be designed to trigger across-the-board spending cuts.