President Barack Obama on Monday dispatched a $3.8 1E+12 budget request to Congress that would narrowing the federal deficit by curbing 120 federal programs but set divagation $100 billion to tackle unemployment.The budget plan, which would verify effect when fiscal assemblage 2011 begins on October 1, projects a record fiscal deficit of $1.56 1E+12 this assemblage but predicts the flushed ink module subside to $1.27 1E+12 in 2011 and half that in 2012.
Following is a glance at top items in the White House request, which lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate module today examine as they impact to amend a budget resolution for spending.
LOW PROFILE FOR SOME OBAMA PRIORITIES
* The spending plan reflects the perils of Obama's climate change and healthcare reform initiatives, two domestic priorities that have run into roadblocks in Congress.
The request drops $646 billion in projected revenue from a cap-and-trade climate bill, signaling doubts about the measure's future, and targets smaller efforts to improve the healthcare system such as more use of generic medicines and boosting electronic medical records.
REVERSING NEAR-RECORD UNEMPLOYMENT
* With the U.S. unemployment rate at a near-record 10 percent, the White House budget's biggest job-creation item is $33 million in tax cuts for small businesses that expand their payrolls.
* The plan also classifies a $6 billion investment in clean energy as a jobs initiative and sets aside $4 billion to create a National Infrastructure Innovation and Finance Fund to finance regional and national projects.
* Also classified as jobs-creation spending is more than $7 billion for education programs that provide scholarships and support teacher recruitment as well as elementary and secondary school curriculums.
CHARTING A SMALLER DEFICIT
* The spending plan aims to cut the fiscal deficit by $1.2 trillion over 10 years.
* The biggest deficit-cutting item is $678 billion in taxes over the coming decade as tax cuts for Americans earning over $250,000 a year are allowed to expire. The tax cuts were granted under Republican George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003.
* $90 billion would come from imposing a fee on Wall Street firms to recoup money from the government's financial bailout.
* Savings of $250 billion would come from a three-year spending freeze on non-security domestic spending, and $23 billion in 2011 savings would come from cut to 120 programs including elimination of NASA's program to return to the moon.
THE FISCAL PRICE OF WAR
* The White House seeks about $200 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as U.S. military operations in other foreign theaters including Pakistan and Yemen.
That includes a $159.3 billion budget request for ongoing operations in 2011 and a $33 billion supplemental request for this year to cover the cost of sending 33,000 extra U.S. troops to Afghanistan. Obama also wants $8.8 billion for the families of soldiers forced to cope with repeated overseas deployments.
