Saving $1 trillion by wrapping up the Iraq and Afghan wars
Obama hopes his proposal will form the basis of a deficit reduction herve leger cheap dresses package that Congress ultimately approves. Failing that, it would give him an issue to use in the 2012 campaign.
His plan for lopping $3 trillion from the deficit is on top of the approximately $1 trillion in spending cuts that he signed into law in August, after reaching a deal with Republican congressional leaders to lift the nation’s debt ceiling and avert a potential default. Obama pledged to unveil the plan this month, when he called for a $447-billion jobs bill as he addressed a joint session of Congress.
Breaking down the numbers Sunday night, White House advisors said they would reach the deficit target by:
• Raising $1.5 trillion by a tax code overhaul. About $800 billion of that would come from the expiration of the George W. Bush-era tax cuts for upper-income Americans — families who earn more than $250,000 a year and individuals who earn more than $200,000. The other $700 billion would consist of revenue increases achieved by closing loopholes, limiting deductions for high earners and ending tax breaks for oil and gas companies. As part of any changes to tax law, the White House wants lawmakers to follow a principle it calls the “Buffett rule”: No one earning more than $1 million a year should be taxed at a lower rate than middle-income households.
• Saving $1 trillion by wrapping up the Iraq and Afghan wars. Obama’s aim is to steadily withdraw herve leger swimwear U.S. forces from Afghanistan and transfer combat responsibilities to the Afghans by 2014.
• Cutting $580 billion from various federal programs, including the major healthcare entitlement programs Medicare and Medicaid.
The Buffett rule — named for Obama supporter Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who complains that his effective tax rate is less than the rate his secretary pays — drew heated comments on the Sunday talk shows, along with GOP vows to oppose it on grounds that it would hurt economic growth.
“Class warfare … may make for really good politics, but it makes for rotten economics,” House Budget Committee Chairman Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said on “Fox News Sunday.” “We don’t need a system that seeks to prey on people’s fear, envy and anxiety. We need a system that creates jobs and innovation and removes these barriers for entrepreneurs to go out and rehire people.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called the proposal a political move that would do little to reduce the deficit.
“The truth of the matter is, if you raise taxes on billionaires and millionaires it adds a de minimis amount of money to the Treasury to pay off the debt,” Graham said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” He too accused Obama of waging class warfare.
But Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the Senate’s second-ranking Democrat, said Republicans risked the public’s wrath if they opposed raising taxes on people like Buffett.
“I wonder if [House Speaker] John Boehner knows what it sounds like when he continues to say the position of the Republican Party in America is that you can’t impose one more penny in taxes on the wealthiest people,” Durbin told CNN. “I wonder if he understands how that sounds in Ohio to working families who are struggling paycheck to paycheck.”
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