About an hour before the Friday midnight deadline, Congressional leaders compromised on the budget for the 2011 fiscal year, narrowly avoiding a government shutdown. However, the national debt remains sky-high and Republicans and Democrats continue to disagree on what should be done.
In a speech Wednesday, President Obama will lay out his own proposal to reduce federal spending. Obama’s plan is expected to cut back on entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid, end tax cuts for those earning over $250,000 and address changes to social security.
Watch: Video of Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget proposal.
According to The Washington Post, the president is releasing his own plan for debt reduction to offer an alternative to Republican proposals for much bigger cuts in government spending.
The question hanging over Obama’s speech is whether it will contain specific new ideas for reducing spending, be a broad but not detailed endorsement of deficit reduction or just offer principles for working with Congress. Simply by putting Medicare and Medicaid on the negotiating table, the president appears to be taking a more comprehensive approach to deficit reduction than he has before.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the architect of the House Republican plan to cut government spending, said that if the president “does choose to follow with serious proposals that address the drivers of our debt and the anchors holding back our economy, the door is open.”Read more about reducing the nation’s spending on The Washington Post. What do you think should be done to reduce the nation’s debt?
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