Madeline Donley

Obama Urges Congress to Act to Stave Off Cuts This article is about how president Obama on tuesday called on congress to pass a new package

of limited spending cuts and tax increases to head off substantial across the board reductions to domestic and military spending set to begin March 1 but his appeal from more revenue was dismissed by the republicans. Obama says that congress should delay the reductions for at least a few months to give lawmakers a chance to negotiate a full deficit reduction package that permanently resolves the threat of a so-called sequester. He says they should do this because it will delay the economically damaging effects of the sequester for a few more months. Obama says theres no reason to put the jobs of Americans at risk. He thinks that it is possible if we can finish the job with a balanced mix of spending cuts and more tax reform. Because he is seeing progress. The president said that the economy is slowly recovering.

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, mocked the president’s demands to close tax loopholes, calling them “gimmicky tax hikes” and said, “It’s time for
Washington Democrats to get real.” House Republicans noted that they had already passed their own plans to avoid the sequester. Each party is blaming each other for consequences that could include thousands of layoffs at military contractors, service reductions in programs for the needy and a new economic slump. The president provided no details about the tens of billion of dollars in spending cuts and tax adjustments that he wants Congress to pass quickly. More specifics could come when he delivers his State of the Union address next Tuesday. “While it’s critical for us to cut wasteful spending, we can’t just cut our way to prosperity,”

the president said, returning to fiscal issues after several weeks focused on gun control and immigration. “I still believe that we can finish the job with a balanced mix of spending cuts and more tax reform.” Democrats in the Senate are divided on how to proceed in the coming fiscal negotiations with Republicans. While the budget office forecast that annual deficits will decline significantly as the economy recovers, the budget office once again emphasized that the deficit will rise later in the decade, beginning in 2016, and continue to do so as the population ages and health care prices rise.
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