Obama Plan Preview: $3T Savings, $1.5T Tax Boost

'Washington Post' bares early details of president's plan
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 19, 2011 1:14 AM CDT
Updated Sep 19, 2011 7:32 AM CDT
Obama Plan Preview: $3T Savings, $1.5T Tax Boost
The president will outline a series of saving over the next decade, coupled with an increase in tax revenues.   (Getty Images)

Details of President Obama's new debt-reduction plan to be unveiled this morning are emerging—and it's not a pretty sight for the rich. The president will likely outline a plan to cut the federal debt by $3 trillion over the next decade, with half of that coming from an increase in tax revenues, sources tell the Washington Post. Nearly half of the new tax revenue is expected to emerge from next year's expiration of former president Bush's tax cuts for the rich. Most of the rest will spring from a special new tax for the wealthy, and axing or cutting back on loopholes and deductions, according to administration officials.

Obama doesn't plan to call for Social Security changes, but will consider Medicare and Medicaid cuts, reports the Post. Under the plan, Medicare benefits wouldn't be cut until 2017, and the eligibility age won't be raised. The president will demand tax revenue boosts before he'll agree to any cuts in entitlements, sources say. Other savings will come from reducing military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to officials. The plan may also involve reductions in public contributions to federal pensions, cuts in farm subsidies, and changes in cost-of-living hikes. Obama's evolving plan is already infuriating Republicans, and promises to be part of a political vista that will offer voters in 2012 "a clearer contrast than I think we’ve ever seen before," the president vowed recently. (More Barack Obama stories.)

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