President Obama unveils his vision for America today in the form of a 2013 federal budget. The President calls for $3.8 trillion in spending next year - including new investments in our roads and infrastructure, education, and manufacturing sector. Also included in the budget are a yearlong extension of emergency unemployment benefits, and of the payroll tax cut holiday for 160 million working Americans.
On the deficit-reduction side - the President's budget cuts the deficit by $4 trillion over the next ten years by raising taxes on corporations and the very wealthy - like letting the Bush tax cuts expire for top income earners. It also trims down federal entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid - and cuts the Defense Budget by 5% over the next decade. Of course - the President's budget with its massive investments in infrastructure, education, and manufacturing by making millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share in taxes will be just one vision laid out for the nation.
The Republicans will unveil their vision soon, which will likely call for even lower taxes for the super-rich - more investments in dirty oil rather than clean energy - and the destruction of Medicare as we know it. So which road should our nation take? The one that invests in creating a more competitive nation? Or the same one that, thanks to 30 years of Reagan, Bush, and Clintonomics, brought us to where we are today - becoming a rapidly "undeveloping" superpower?
-Thom
(Which way will America go? Tell us here.)
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