Obama Announces Plan to Cut Deficit


Washington: President Barack Obama Monday presented a plan to reduce the US budget deficit by $3 trillion and called for all Americans, including the wealthy, to contribute "their fair share" toward meeting that goal. "I will not support - I will not support - any plan that puts all the burden for closing our deficit on ordinary Americans," he said in the White House Rose Garden. Obama announced that an important part of the adjustment amount will come from higher taxes on those with the highest incomes in accord with the application of a very simple principle: "Warren Buffett's secretary shouldn't pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett." The billionaire investor - one of the world's richest individuals - has repeatedly pointed to the discrepancy in tax rates between himself and his secretary. The president also warned that he will veto any deficit reduction bill that is based solely on cutting federal spending. Obama denied that his intention to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans amounts to class war, as some leaders of the Republican Party have claimed. "This is not class warfare. It's math," the president said. The plan the president presented Monday will be submitted to the 12-member bipartisan congressional "Super Committee", which has the task of coming to an agreement on reducing the deficit by at least $1.5 trillion by the end of November. The proposals made public Monday include saving $1.3 trillion by ending the US military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, reforming farm subsidies and Medicare, but they leave Social Security intact. Last week, Obama presented a roughly $450 billion plan to create jobs and said Monday that Congress "should pass it right away".
Source: IANS