Awwal 10, 1432 / April 14, 2011, SPA -- President Barack Obama on Wednesday announced a $4 trillion deficit-reduction plan and denounced Republican plans for massive spending cuts as threatening American society. "The debate about budgets and deficits is about more than just numbers on a page, more than just cutting and spending," Obama said in Washington. "It's about the kind of future we want, it's about the kind of country we believe in." Obama, facing a 2012 re-election vote in which the country's debt and annual budget deficits are major concerns for voters, promised to put the country on a gradually improving fiscal path. He set a time frame of 12 years or less to reach the goal of $4 trillion in deficit reductions and called for new talks between Democratic and Republican lawmakers to create a detailed plan. The U.S. president warned that steadily rising debt could cost jobs, harm the broader economy, and force the country to borrow more money from other countries. "If our creditors start worrying that we may be unable to pay back our debts, it could drive up interest rates for everyone who borrows money, making it harder for businesses to expand and hire, or families to [have] a mortgage," he explained. Obama proposed lowering future deficits with a package that includes reducing spending on politically sensitive healthcare programs and raising taxes on rich Americans. Specifically, he recommended trimming the growth of Medicare spending, cuts in defense, an overhaul of the tax system to eliminate many loopholes enjoyed by individuals and corporations, and an end to Bush-era tax cuts for wealthy Americans. "We have to live within our means, we have to reduce our deficit, and we have to get back on a path that will allow us to pay down our debt," Obama said in a speech at George Washington University. Obama sharply criticized a Republican deficit-reduction plan, saying it would cut spending by slashing healthcare programs for the poor and elderly while rewarding the richest Americans with tax cuts. Such cuts, he said, "paint a vision of our future that's deeply pessimistic." "The fact is, their vision is less about reducing the deficit than it is about changing the basic social compact in America," the president said. "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."
