Obama Budget Will Seek Grand Bargain

President Obama “will offer cuts to Social Security and other entitlement programs in a budget proposal aimed at swaying Republicans to compromise on a deficit-reduction deal,” Reuters reports.

“Under a proposal that would cut the deficit by $1.8 trillion over 10 years, the president will offer to apply a less generous measure of inflation to calculate cost-of-living increases… That change would result in lower payments to some beneficiaries of the Social Security program for retirees and is staunchly opposed by many congressional Democrats as well as labor and retiree groups.”

“However, the president will only accept these spending cuts if congressional Republicans, for their part, agree to higher taxes… The president’s budget proposal is due to be laid out in full on Wednesday.”

New York Times: “The administration’s hope is to create cracks
in Republicans’ antitax resistance, especially in the Senate, as
constituents complain about the across-the-board cuts in military and
domestic programs that took effect March 1.”