Obama: My budget is not "ideal," it's a "compromise" [View all]

[dajoki]

ByJake Miller / CBS News/ April 6, 2013, 10:48 AM
Obama: My budget is not "ideal," it's a "compromise"
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57578261/obama-my-budget-is-not-ideal-its-a-compromise/

President Obama said in his weekly address Saturday that his 2014 budget, due to be released Wednesday, is "not my ideal plan" but "it's a compromise I'm willing to make in order to move beyond a cycle of short-term, crisis-driven decision making."

His plan, Mr. Obama said, would balance investments with spending cuts, allocating money for infrastructure, domestic energy, education and job training while simultaneously reducing the deficit by closing tax loopholes for the rich and implementing spending cuts, including adjustments to Social Security and Medicaid.

Though the budget is yet to be released, Republicans have preemptively slammed the president for the plan's new spending proposals. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, rejected the budget, said it was "no way to lead and move the country forward" and called on the president to reform entitlement programs without demanding additional revenue in return.

Even some liberals have raised objections about the plan's entitlement reforms, which include a reduction in Social Security beneficiaries' annual cost-of-living adjustments. "I am terribly disappointed and will do everything in my power to block President Obama's proposal to cut benefits for social security recipients," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with the Democrats, in a statement on Friday.

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