US President Barack Obama has told Congress he will announce on September 19 a new over-arching plan laying out how he intends to reduce America’s ballooning budget deficit.
“A week from Monday, I’ll be releasing a more ambitious deficit plan – a plan that will not only cover the cost of this jobs bill, but stabilise our debt in the long run,” Obama said, unveiling a $US447 billion ($A423.06 billion) jobs initiative.
His comments came on the same day as a congressional “SuperCommittee” took up its mission to reduce US debt by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years, facing a tight schedule for success in a poisonous political climate.
The 12-member Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, forged in the angry summertime debt-limit fight, has 11 weeks to nail down an elusive compromise to avert draconian automatic cuts to health care and the military.
“The agreement we passed in July will cut government spending by about $1 trillion over the next 10 years. It also charges this Congress to come up with an additional $1.5 trillion in savings by Christmas,” Obama said.
“Tonight, I’m asking you to increase that amount so that it covers the full cost of the American Jobs Act,” the president said, knowing that his hugely ambitious jobs plan will face stiff Republican opposition in Congress.
Obama had sought a roughly $3-4 trillion “grand bargain” on deficit reduction this summer with Republican House Speaker John Boehner, only to see it collapse in the face of Republican opposition to raising taxes.
The embattled president, seeking to rein in 9.1 per cent unemployment which has derailed the recovery and threatens his 2012 reelection bid, was unveiling a make-or-break jobs plan Thursday before a joint session of Congress.
AFP
