Hold on to your pensions: Obama calls for half-trillion more in cuts
September 9th, 2011 | 2012 Budget | Posted by Stephen Losey
(Alex Wong / Getty Images)
The Supercommittee’s work is about to get a lot tougher. It was already supposed to find about $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction, which is no easy task. But last night, President Obama asked the Supercommittee to find another $447 billion to pay for the jobs bill he proposed to a joint session of Congress:
The agreement we passed in July will cut government spending by about $1 trillion over the next ten years. It also charges this Congress to come up with an additional $1.5 trillion in savings by Christmas. Tonight, I’m asking you to increase that amount so that it covers the full cost of the American Jobs Act. And a week from Monday, I’ll be releasing a more ambitious deficit plan — a plan that will not only cover the jobs bill, but stabilize our debt in the long run.
If the bill gets passed — and with ironclad Republican opposition to anything that smacks of more stimulus, that’s a gargantuan “if” — that means the Supercommittee will have to cut the deficit by nearly $2 trillion. And upping the ante makes it even more likely that federal pensions, pay and other benefits will be on the chopping block.
President Obama earlier this year put federal pensions on the table as part of the so-called “grand bargain” he was pursuing with House Speaker John Boehner, including a high-five, increased contributions, and a change to pensions’ future cost-of-living adjustments. That deal collapsed, but I would not be surprised if some or all of those proposals come back in that deficit plan Obama promised to release Sept. 19.
Tags: benefits, Congress, deficit reduction, President Obama
Comments
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tom cavuoto Says:
September 10th, 2011 at 6:51 pmStop given money to other countries an worry about the people of this country first, the tax money you give to these other countries would balance the budget.
Could you give and answer why we can’t do this. -
Jim Says:
September 13th, 2011 at 3:56 pmPretty easy to chop our retirement benefits when the prez and congress are set for life after they “serve” their country. Have they no shame?