The President’s 2013 budget proposal to Congress requests more than $800billion for job creation and infrastructure investment, while urging a minimum 30 per cent ‘Buffett Tax’ on millionaires.
In a big opportunity before the November election to convince voters that he deserves a second term, President Obama, 50, earmarked billions of dollars for roads, railways and schools.
We built this budget around the idea that our country has always done best when everyone gets a fair shot,’ President Obama said, while also proposing tax breaks should be extended to spur hiring.
He wants the budget to benefit those ‘who have done fantastically well over the last few decades’ and also ‘the middle class, those fighting to get into the middle class and the economy as a whole’.
He added that it rejects economics that have increased the gap between rich and poor. Republicans meanwhile want to paint him as a tax-and-spend liberal while attacking his track record on jobs.
‘This isn't really a budget at all,’ Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said. ‘It's a campaign document. The President is shirking his responsibility to lead and using this budget to divide.’
Republican Representative Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, also slammed President Obama for ducking ‘the responsibility to tackle this country's real fiscal problems’.
The proposal also would raise $41billion over 10 years by eliminating tax breaks for oil, gas and coal companies and it claims significant savings from ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
'This is not about class warfare. This is about the nation's welfare'
President Barack Obama
But critics said it double-counted deficit reductions approved last summer and claimed $848billion in savings from ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan even though this would not have been spent.
It would save $25billion over 11 years through cutting costs in the U.S. Postal Service, including eliminating Saturday mail delivery.
‘This is not about class warfare,’ President Obama said. ‘This is about the nation's welfare.’
OBAMA'S BUDGET IN NUMBERS
Tax increases: $1.5trillion for deficit reduction
Banks tax: $61billion to recover cost of financial bailout and help homeowners
Tax breaks: No more for oil, gas and coal companies, raising $41billion
Postal Service: Cost cutting and no more Saturday delivery, saving $25billion
Medicare/Medicaid: $360billion savings
Transport: $476billion more spending on projects including inner-city rail
Education: $30 billion to modernise at least 35,000 schools
Services: $30billion to help states hire teachers and emergency workers
But the President, who casts his rivals as the party for the rich, is proposing steps to add more than $300billion to the economy this year as he seeks re-election on November 6.
Deficits would remain high this year and next before starting to decline, and this borrowing will add well over $6trillion to the national debt over the next decade.
Congress can ignore the plan and Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, say it will be dead on arrival as they prepare an election battle over taxes, spending and government size.
‘Obama's budget is an insult to the American taxpayer,’ said Mitt Romney, the current frontrunner for the Republican nomination to face President Obama in November.
Rep. Ryan is preparing an alternative similar to a measure the House approved last year.
But it failed in the Senate where many lawmakers objected to a major overhaul to Medicare.
Tax increases: $1.5trillion for deficit reduction
Banks tax: $61billion to recover cost of financial bailout and help homeowners
Tax breaks: No more for oil, gas and coal companies, raising $41billion
Postal Service: Cost cutting and no more Saturday delivery, saving $25billion
Medicare/Medicaid: $360billion savings
Transport: $476billion more spending on projects including inner-city rail
Education: $30 billion to modernise at least 35,000 schools
Services: $30billion to help states hire teachers and emergency workers
(SOURCE)
