Obama to Unveil 2014 Budget - East Idaho News
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Obama to Unveil 2014 Budget

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GETTY 41013 ObamaBudget1?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1365588256495SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — President Obama will finally release his 2014 budget Wednesday morning, outlining a “balanced” plan that the administration hopes will attract bipartisan support.

“We believe that what the budget helps do is break the false choice between deficits and job creation,” according to a senior administration official.

The White House claims the president’s budget would reduce the deficit by an additional $1.8 trillion over the next 10 years, bringing total deficit reduction to $4.3 trillion.

While the total amount of spending is not yet known, the budget includes many of the proposals outlined in Obama’s State of the Union address, including $50 billion in infrastructure investments, $1 billion for manufacturing innovation institutes, a “Preschool for All” initiative financed by raising the federal tax on cigarettes, and raising the minimum wage to $9 an hour.

All of the new investments are fully paid for and offset, according to an administration official, and the budget would reduce the deficit to 2.8 percent of GDP by 2016.

As previously reported, the budget formalizes the offer Obama made to House Speaker John Boehner during the “fiscal cliff” negotiations last December, including cuts to both Social Security and Medicare paired with tax increases.

Overall, the budget represents more than $2 in spending cuts for every $1 of new revenue from closing tax loopholes and reducing tax benefits for the wealthy, according to the White House.

“We don’t view this budget as a starting point in the negotiations… This is an offer where the president came more than half way towards the Republicans in an attempt to get a fiscal deal and get the era of ‘government by crisis’ behind us,” a senior administration official said.

“The question is, are Republicans going to be willing to come to us to do the serious things that they say are so important in terms of reducing our deficit,” the official said.

Obama will reveal his budget in remarks at the White House at 11 am Eastern time Wednesday.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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