The White House is billing the budget as a document which proves that the need to cut voluminous deficits does not need to be achieved by savage cuts in government spending and social programs envisaged by Republicans.
Officials say the plan includes $1.8 trillion of deficit reduction over 10 years and would raise $580 billion dollars in new revenue by curbing income tax breaks for the rich, without raising rates.
Republicans however dispute the deficit reduction figures, arguing that since the budget would dispense with $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts, known as the sequester which began in March, its real deficit reduction figure would only be $600 billion in savings.
“We hear it contains tax hike upon tax hike upon tax hike — and, in fact, all of the deficit reduction … would be derived from myriad tax increases rather than spending reductions,” said Senate Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell Tuesday.
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http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-unveils-plan-to-cut-the-deficit-by-18-trillion-2013-4#ixzz2Q47xQbOY
Obama Wants To Pay For Free Preschool By Raising Taxes On Cigarettes
Here are the details:
? To build a foundation for success in the formative early years of life, increases access to high- quality early childhood education with a Preschool for All initiative.
o In partnership with the States, provides all low- and moderate-income four-year-olds with high- quality preschool, while encouraging States to serve additional four-year-olds from middle class families. The initiative also promotes access to full-day kindergarten and high-quality early education programs for children under age four.
o The Preschool for All initiative is financed by raising the Federal tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products, which would also have substantial public health impacts, particularly by reducing youth smoking.
o The Budget makes companion investments in voluntary home visiting programs, preserving child care access, and expanding high-quality care for infants and toddlers through new Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships.
http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-free-preschool-taxes-cigarettes-2013-4#ixzz2Q489v29O
The Obama Budget Proposal: Tax Increase on Charity
President Obama’s long-awaited budget proposal, to be released today, does not come right out and say that intends to reduce contributions to charity—but that is almost certainly what would happen were it to become law. Here’s why. The White House has effectively doubled down on a tax change it has been pushing for four years that would limit the value of the charitable tax deduction. The Administration has, since 2009, pushed unsuccessfully to allow only 28 cents on a dollar donated to charity to be deducted—even though the top tax rate for the wealthy donors who make most use of the deduction has been 35 percent. In the budget released today, the President again proposes to cap the charitable deduction at 28 percent—despite the fact that the top rate on the highest earners has increased to 39.6 percent. Think of it this way: the White House proposal would raise the cost of giving to charity from 60 cents per dollar to 72 cents per dollar. That’s a 20 percent increase in what can be called the “charity tax.”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/howardhusock/2013/04/10/the-obama-budget-proposal-new-tax-on-charity/
Early analysis: Obama’s 2014 budget numbers are based on bad math, phantom revenues, imagined spending cuts and a middle-class tax hike
- White House promises $1.8 trillion in deficit reduction, although similar previous claims have been debunked
- New method of measuring cost-of-living increases will lower benefit payouts and push middle-class earners into higher tax brackets
- Speaker Boehner’s spokesperson: ‘Any deficit reduction will come exclusively from tax hikes’
- Administration’s formula depends on cost savings from Obamacare, which may be more costly to implement than previously thought
‘Every new initiative in the plan is fully paid for, so they do not add a single dime to the deficit,’ the White House pledges.
An initial walk through the budget proposals, however, suggests that Republicans in Congress will need some convincing.
The budget will hit congressional offices less than 24 hours after the government’s top watchdog agency declared that nearly $100 billion was wasted last year in duplicative and overlapping programs stretching into every corner of the Washington bureaucracy.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2306688/Obama-2014-budget-analysis-Numbers-based-imagined-spending-cuts-middle-class-tax-hike.html
The budget would cut entitlement spending by $230 billion
For the first time, Obama’s budget counts revenue from a “Buffett Rule” requiring that households with annual income over $1 million pay at least a 30 percent tax rate after charitable deductions. The rule is named after investor Warren Buffett and was only a suggestion in the last Obama budget.
The budget would cut entitlement spending by $230 billion by adopting a new formula known as “chained consumer price index” that would more slowly increase benefits for Social Security and other programs for inflation.
Unlike the House Republican budget, Obama’s budget would not balance, though it would reduce the deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product to 1.7 percent by 2023.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/292851-obama-to-unveil-1058t-budget#ixzz2Q48kkUaz
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