President Barack Obama wants Congress to dodge a potentially disastrous hit on the still weak U.S. economy and will ask lawmakers on Tuesday to construct a package of tens of billions of dollars in short-term spending cuts and tax revenue to put off the automatic across-the-board cuts now scheduled to kick in March 1, UPI reported. Fearing that hard-core Republican budget-cutters in Congress are prepared to let the automatic cuts take effect, a move that some economists fear would send the country back into recession, Obama will request an interim series of cuts that would take effect in the coming months. The automatic cuts were supposed to take effect Jan. 1. But Obama and congressional Republicans struck a New Year's deal that extended Bush-era tax rates for all but the wealthiest Americans and put in place about $24 billion in deficit reduction. That delay effectively postponed the automatic reductions to March 1. If the automatic cuts are allowed to kick in on the March 1 target, they would reduce Pentagon spending by 7 percent and domestic programs by 5 percent. Food stamps and Medicaid, that help provide food assistance and medical care for the poor, would be exempt. The Medicare health insurance program available to Americans at age 65 could see a 2 percent cut. While taking a huge bite out of the economy, the cuts would inevitably lead to job losses at a time when unemployment is still at 7.9 percent nearly 4 1⁄2 years after the financial crisis that sent the United States into its deepest downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Obama will ask for a targeted way to reduce the deficit, now running at more than $1 trillion a year, in the short term, perhaps several months. White House officials said that Congress needs more time to work out a 10-year plan worth more than $1 trillion in deficit reduction. Obama is not placing a time span or a dollar amount on the short-term plan. Officials said he will leave that to Congress. The accumulated U.S. debt has grown to more than $16 billion.
