Obama Unveils $4-Trillion Deficit Plan

With his government drowning in red ink, the president proposes military spending cuts and raising taxes for rich Americans.

U.S. President Barack Obama laid out a 12-year plan to reduce the government's growing deficit by $4 trillion in a speech looking forward to next year's election. Obama's plan would incorporate cuts to the military's budget, as well as tax increases on wealthy Americans, while avoiding major changes to Medicare. The details are to be hammered out by a congressional committee guided by Vice-President Joe Biden starting in May. However, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, which is very much opposed to the tax hikes, represents the first of what are likely many hurdles in starting the “adult conversation” on government finances that American citizens and lawmakers have allegedly sought.