Last Hour Budget Discussions

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Last hour budget discussions
avoided a partial government
shut-down and President Barack
Obama will lay out his plan for
long-term deficit reduction
demanded by conservatives this week.

White House Senior Adviser David
Plouffe was on Sunday talk shows
to reveal Obama's intentions and
deliver the administration's message
that more deals like the one reached
last Friday night with House Speaker
John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada,
will be necessary as Congress and the
administration face more major budget
decisions in the coming months.

Obama's plan would address rising costs
of Medicare, Medicaid, cut defense
spending and raise revenue by ending
tax breaks for the wealthy, Plouffe.

"He does believe that to grow economically,
to be a strong country, we can't sustain
this fiscal situation," Plouffe explained
on CNN. Acknowledging some dissent among
the president's liberal base, Plouffe
continued, "there are some that don't
agree with that, but he believes strongly
that we do have to engage in serious
deficit reduction."

Last week, Obama and congressional leaders
reached an agreement to cut $38.5 billion
in non-military discretionary spending for
the rest of the current fiscal year, ends
on September 30.

The deal came about an hour before funding
authorization for the government was scheduled
to expire, and would have partially shut down
government operations.

Source: http://newsblaze.com/story/20110412045658writ.nb/topstory.html