WASHINGTON (UPI) -- U.S. President Obama's next budget would slow the expanding deficit by $1.1 trillion over a decade, mostly by spending cuts, but Republicans say more is needed.
The savings over 10 years would equal next fiscal year's projected $1.2 trillion deficit, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says.
The project for next year would be down $400 billion from the administration's record $1.6 trillion deficit projection for the current fiscal year, which is up $300 billion from last year's $1.3 trillion shortfall.
The CBO projected last month the current year's deficit would be $1.48 trillion.
The national debt stands at $14.1 trillion.
Two-thirds of the savings Obama's budget proposes would come from spending cuts, while a third would come from tax increases and tax-break closures, administration officials said in media briefings before Obama releases the budget Monday.
All told, the savings would eliminate about 14 percent of the projected $8 trillion in cumulative debt the United States would have by 2022 if no action is taken, the officials told The Wall Street Journal.
The budget also does not propose ways of tackling Social Security and Medicare, areas of major spending.
Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement programs will consume 60 percent of all federal spending, not counting interest on the debt, next year, or $2 trillion, the CBO said.
By 2021, they will eat up 68 percent and cost $3.3 trillion, the CBO said.
Obama's budget cuts $2.8 billion from low-income heating assistance and community-service block grants next fiscal year, starting Oct. 1, officials said.
More than $1 billion would be cut from airport grants and nearly $1 billion from grants to states for water-treatment plants and similar projects, they said.
The Army Corps of Engineers, agricultural subsidies, an Environmental Protection Agency state and local water-treatment fund and the Forest Service would also see significant cuts, the Journal said.
Pell Grants and other higher-education programs would be trimmed $100 billion over 10 years by doing things such as capping awards at $5,550. Another option is eliminating grants in the summer, making them available only during the academic year, White House Budget Director Jacob Lew said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday.
Overall, the budget includes a five-year freeze on domestic spending.
"You know, the notion that we can do this painlessly is -- it's not possible to do it painlessly," Lew said. "We are going to make tough choices."
Defense spending would not be subject to a freeze, but Obama's budget adopts $78 billion in savings proposed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a summary from Lew's Office of Management and Budget indicated.
The five years in savings would cut several weapons programs deemed unnecessary, such as the C-17 Globemaster III strategic airlifter, an alternative Joint Strike Fighter engine and a Marine Expeditionary Force vehicle, the OMB summary indicated.
Obama would also extend the tax cuts passed during George W. Bush's administration, but not for people whose taxable income is more than $250,000 a year, administration officials said.
The White House didn't include in its budget forecasts the projected $1.1 trillion in increased revenue resulting from the tax-cut change.
Obama's $1.1 trillion deficit reduction is less than the $4 trillion in cuts the White House's bipartisan deficit-reduction commission proposed in December. Obama's would bring the country's deficit to about 3 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product by 2017, an administration official said. The commission proposed 2.3 percent of GDP.
Republicans attacked Obama's budget as fraught with spending they said was unsustainable.
Obama proposes "to lock in spending at levels we all know are completely unsustainable," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement Sunday.
"Americans don't want a spending freeze at unsustainable levels," he said. "They want cuts, dramatic cuts."
"When are we going to get serious about cutting spending?" House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told NBC's "Meet the Press."
The United States is "broke," he said, yet Obama will present a budget "that will continue to destroy jobs by spending too much, borrowing too much and taxing too much."
In a plan released Friday evening, House GOP leaders proposed cutting $61 billion in federal spending in the remainder of the current fiscal year.
The Food and Drug Administration would be cut 8.7 percent under the House GOP plan, and the EPA would be cut 30 percent.
The 359-page measure would also cut $600 million from Internal Revenue Service enforcement and computer-modernization budgets and eliminate a program that puts thousands of police officers on local streets, The Washington Post reported.
Like Obama, Republican lawmakers do not address the rising costs of Social Security and Medicare, a review of their proposals indicated.
Copyright 2011 by United Press International
The savings over 10 years would equal next fiscal year's projected $1.2 trillion deficit, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says.
The project for next year would be down $400 billion from the administration's record $1.6 trillion deficit projection for the current fiscal year, which is up $300 billion from last year's $1.3 trillion shortfall.
The CBO projected last month the current year's deficit would be $1.48 trillion.
The national debt stands at $14.1 trillion.
Two-thirds of the savings Obama's budget proposes would come from spending cuts, while a third would come from tax increases and tax-break closures, administration officials said in media briefings before Obama releases the budget Monday.
All told, the savings would eliminate about 14 percent of the projected $8 trillion in cumulative debt the United States would have by 2022 if no action is taken, the officials told The Wall Street Journal.
The budget also does not propose ways of tackling Social Security and Medicare, areas of major spending.
Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement programs will consume 60 percent of all federal spending, not counting interest on the debt, next year, or $2 trillion, the CBO said.
By 2021, they will eat up 68 percent and cost $3.3 trillion, the CBO said.
Obama's budget cuts $2.8 billion from low-income heating assistance and community-service block grants next fiscal year, starting Oct. 1, officials said.
More than $1 billion would be cut from airport grants and nearly $1 billion from grants to states for water-treatment plants and similar projects, they said.
The Army Corps of Engineers, agricultural subsidies, an Environmental Protection Agency state and local water-treatment fund and the Forest Service would also see significant cuts, the Journal said.
Pell Grants and other higher-education programs would be trimmed $100 billion over 10 years by doing things such as capping awards at $5,550. Another option is eliminating grants in the summer, making them available only during the academic year, White House Budget Director Jacob Lew said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday.
Overall, the budget includes a five-year freeze on domestic spending.
"You know, the notion that we can do this painlessly is -- it's not possible to do it painlessly," Lew said. "We are going to make tough choices."
Defense spending would not be subject to a freeze, but Obama's budget adopts $78 billion in savings proposed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a summary from Lew's Office of Management and Budget indicated.
The five years in savings would cut several weapons programs deemed unnecessary, such as the C-17 Globemaster III strategic airlifter, an alternative Joint Strike Fighter engine and a Marine Expeditionary Force vehicle, the OMB summary indicated.
Obama would also extend the tax cuts passed during George W. Bush's administration, but not for people whose taxable income is more than $250,000 a year, administration officials said.
The White House didn't include in its budget forecasts the projected $1.1 trillion in increased revenue resulting from the tax-cut change.
Obama's $1.1 trillion deficit reduction is less than the $4 trillion in cuts the White House's bipartisan deficit-reduction commission proposed in December. Obama's would bring the country's deficit to about 3 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product by 2017, an administration official said. The commission proposed 2.3 percent of GDP.
Republicans attacked Obama's budget as fraught with spending they said was unsustainable.
Obama proposes "to lock in spending at levels we all know are completely unsustainable," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement Sunday.
"Americans don't want a spending freeze at unsustainable levels," he said. "They want cuts, dramatic cuts."
"When are we going to get serious about cutting spending?" House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told NBC's "Meet the Press."
The United States is "broke," he said, yet Obama will present a budget "that will continue to destroy jobs by spending too much, borrowing too much and taxing too much."
In a plan released Friday evening, House GOP leaders proposed cutting $61 billion in federal spending in the remainder of the current fiscal year.
The Food and Drug Administration would be cut 8.7 percent under the House GOP plan, and the EPA would be cut 30 percent.
The 359-page measure would also cut $600 million from Internal Revenue Service enforcement and computer-modernization budgets and eliminate a program that puts thousands of police officers on local streets, The Washington Post reported.
Like Obama, Republican lawmakers do not address the rising costs of Social Security and Medicare, a review of their proposals indicated.
Copyright 2011 by United Press International
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