Obama to Unveil Deficit Cut Plan

Politico reports:

President Barack Obama will lay out a long-term deficit reduction plan this week, White House senior adviser David Plouffe said Sunday.

“The president will be laying out his approach to long-term deficit reduction later this week,” Plouffe said on NBC's "Meet the Press," adding that Obama’s budget for 2012 has already put forward a plan for reducing the deficit by a trillion dollars over the next 10 years.

White House communications director Dan Pfieffer later added that Obama would deliver the address on Wednesay.

Plouffe said that Obama has already put in place much of his deficit commission’s recommendations, but he plans to lay out additional steps that need to be taken in this week’s speech.

“For instance, freezing the pay of federal workers for a period of time…Fundamental reform of the government…We obviously then have to do more,” Plouffe said. “And that's what the president's gonna lay out.”

Plouffe indicated that Obama would address finding savings in Medicare and Medicaid, but would not endorse many of the proposals in the long-term deficit reduction plan offered by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee. 

“It may pass the House. It's it's not gonna become law,” Plouffe said. “I don't think the American people are gonna sign up for something that puts - most of the burden on the middle class, people trying to go to college, on senior citizens while not just asking nothing of the wealthy - giving them at least a $200,000 tax [break] and so that's a choice you're making.”

Plouffle also indicated that Obama would propose rescinding the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy as part of his deficit reduction plan.

“For upper income Americans he does believe that they need to contribute to deficit reduction in this country,” Plouffe said on Fox News Sunday.