Obama’s long-term deficit plan

President Obama laid out a plan to cut $4 trillion from the federal deficit over the next 12 years with a mix of tax hikes and spending cuts.

What happened

President Obama set the stage for an epic ideological struggle with Republicans this week, laying out his own plan to cut $4 trillion from the federal deficit over the next 12 years with a mix of tax hikes and spending cuts. Under the president’s plan, Medicare and defense spending will be trimmed, and Bush-era tax cuts for Americans earning $250,000 and over will be scrapped. Obama also used his speech at George Washington University to tear into a budget blueprint released last week by Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, which proposed $4 trillion in savings by privatizing Medicare and making major cuts in Medicaid for the poor, while cutting the top tax rate from 35 to 25 percent. “There’s nothing serious about a plan that claims to reduce the deficit by spending a trillion dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires,” said Obama.

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