Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas His speech was heavy on criticism of the House Republican budget & deficit-reduction plan made by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.); it was light on specific details of how he would achieve his goals or even why he chose to say that his proposed cuts would come over 12 years instead of the usual 10 years most use in making this kind of proposal. For the 4th time in 4 months President Barack Obama Wednesday presented a new & revised vision of how his administration would reduce the nations budget deficits by $4 trillion over the next 12 years.
This was a sharply worded address speech more appropriate Republicans said of the campaigner in chief than of a president trying to agree with Congress on how to curb the nations appetite for ever-increasing deficit spending.
President Obama delivered his lengthy almost 50 minute long speech before a live audience at George Washington University and televised to the nation.
According to The Hill Obama focused his criticism on the House Republican budget zeroing in on reforms it would make to Medicare and Medicaid. The president said these changes would fundamentally change the relationship between the government and citizens.
He said that one fourth of the reductions he proposed would come from increasing the taxes on Americans earning more than $250000 a year an issue he knows Republicans will oppose and one that is likely to play predominantly in his 2012 presidential re-election campaign.
This debate over budgets and deficits is about more than just numbers on a page more than just cutting and spending" Obama said. Its about the kind of future we want. Its about the kind of country we believe in."
The GOP vision is less about reducing the deficit than it is about changing the basic social compact in America" the president said. It was long and like most speeches full of numbers dull. At one point the television cameras focused on Vice President Joe Biden
who had his eyes closed; either asleep or pondering deeply on Obamas speech.
Once again Obama blamed the Bush administration and the GOP-led Congresses in the last decade for enacting tax cuts for the wealthy and an expensive prescription drug benefit without paying for either all at a time the nation was fighting costly wars overseas. This had caused a devastating deterioration on the nations checkbook he said.
At no point did he ever mention that in his two years in office the United States has operated with the two largest budget deficits in its history.
He said the cuts a new Republican-led House driven by Tea Party conservatives is now proposing paint a vision of our future thats deeply pessimistic."
The Hill said Republican leaders reacted angrily to Obamas words which some likened to a campaign speech. Ryan the House Budget Committee Chairman who introduced the budget resolution that was a target of Obamas sharpest criticism said the president offered an excessively partisan address coupled with an inadequate plan for reducing the nations deficit.
What we heard today was not fiscal leadership from our commander in chief; we heard a political broadside from our campaigner in chief" he said.
According to The Hill and to many of the analysts on several national and cable networks Obamas speech and the reaction to it from Republicans creates an inauspicious start for a new group of lawmakers who are to discuss a long-term deal to reduce the deficit.
Obama asked Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Nancy
Pelosi (D-Calif.) to tap four members from their caucuses to participate in negotiations to be led by Vice President Biden.
The negotiations will begin in early May the White House said with the goal of wrapping up by the end of June. That would dovetail with a new deadline for agreeing to raise the nations $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. The Treasury Department has set a July 8 deadline for the ceiling to be raised.
In his address Obama called for cuts to discretionary spending reforms to Medicare and Medicaid and increased taxes on the rich to reduce the budget deficit.
The Hill pointed out that the president had broken a campaign promise he made in December when he agreed to extend all of the Bush-era tax rates including those on the wealthy as part of a deal with the GOP.
In his speech he said he would refuse to renew the Bush tax rates a second time.
We cannot afford $1 trillion worth of tax cuts for every millionaire and billionaire in our society and I refuse to renew them again" Obama said. Republicans dismissed the calls for higher taxes and new talks.
Ryan accused Obama of ignoring his own fiscal commissions recommendations last year saying now he wants to delegate leadership to yet another commission to solve a problem he refuses to confront."
According to Obamas speech the $4 trillion in deficit reduction would come in part from reductions in discretionary and mandatory spending and savings from Medicare and Medicaid and interest saved by reducing the debt. Obama cautioned that the efforts should be phased in so as not to threaten the economic recovery.
Obama went further in proposing reforms to bring down the deficit than he did in his original 2012 budget. The new plan would reduce deficits by $3 trillion over 10 years
compared to $1.1 trillion in deficit reduction in Obamas 2012 budget which he presented only a few short weeks ago.
Ryans budget which is set for a House vote this week would cut $5.8 trillion in spending over the next decade and reduce deficits by $4.4 trillion compared to Obamas 2012 budget proposal.
The presidents proposal was seen by many analysts as a response to Ryan and a campaign speech more than as a plan that would guide Congress on how to increase the debt ceiling which must be done in the next one to three months depending on whose figures one uses in order for the nation not to default on its loans.
