![]() ![]() This budget, in contrast, reflects the President’s position at a stage of the negotiations after several rounds of offers had been made. Typically, the President’s budget would include policies that are more akin to an opening bid in a negotiation - that is, the President’s budget generally reflects his preferred policies. It is unusual for a President to include these kinds of compromise policies in his budget. ![]() The proposals in the offer - such as substantial savings in Medicare, the adoption of an alternative cost-of-living adjustment affecting Social Security, and further cuts to non-defense discretionary programs - were made in the context of negotiations where both the President and Speaker Boehner were making significant concessions. The deficit-reduction package reflects a compromise position. ![]() Deficit-Reduction Package Includes Significant Concessions Taken together, the proposals are fully paid for and actually reduce the deficit slightly. These include proposals to expand access to high-quality early education, funding to upgrade the nation’s transportation infrastructure, and measures such as the “Pathways Back to Work” fund to help people struggling in today’s labor market to prepare for and find jobs. While much attention in the coming weeks will focus on the deficit-reduction package, the rest of the President’s budget includes important proposals that also deserve serious consideration. The Administration has said that Congress could consider this deficit-reduction offer separately from the other proposals in the President’s 2014 budget. When coupled with the deficit-reduction steps that the President and congressional leaders already have enacted, this package would bring total deficit reduction achieved to $4.5 trillion over the decade. This package would reduce the deficit by $1.8 trillion over the next decade and go somewhat beyond stabilizing the debt as a share of the economy, setting it on a slight downward path. One part includes the package of deficit- reduction policies that the President included in his last offer to Speaker Boehner during the “fiscal cliff” negotiations in December 2012. The President’s 2014 budget is presented in two parts. ![]()
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