WASHINGTON (MNI) – The following text is the first part of a fact
sheet provided by the White House with details of President Obama’s plan
for deficit reduction that he will outline Monday:

Overview

The health of our economy depends on what we do right now to create
the conditions where businesses can hire and middle-class families can
feel a basic measure of economic security. In the long run, our
prosperity also depends on our ability to pay down the massive debt the
federal government has accumulated over the past decade. Today, the
President sent to the Joint Committee his plan to jumpstart economic
growth and job creation now – and to lay the foundation for it continue
for years to come.

The President’s Plan for Economic Growth and Deficit Reduction
lives up to a simple idea: as a Nation, we can live within our means
while still making the investments we need to prosper – from a jobs bill
that is needed right now to long-term investments in education,
innovation, and infrastructure. It follows a balanced approach: asking
everyone to do their part, so no one has to bear all the burden. And it
says that everyone – including millionaires and billionaires – has to
pay their fair share. Overall, it pays for the President’s jobs bill and
produces net savings of more than $3 trillion over the next decade, on
top of the roughly $1 trillion in spending cuts that the President
already signed into law in the Budget Control Act – for a total savings
of more than $4 trillion over the next decade. This would bring the
country to a place, by 2017, where current spending is no longer adding
to our debt, debt is falling as a share of the economy, and deficits are
at a sustainable level.

THE AMERICAN JOBS ACT

* Tax cuts to help businesses hire and grow

– Cutting the payroll tax in half on the first $5 million in
payroll, targeting the benefit to the 98 percent of firms with payroll
below this threshold.

– A complete payroll tax holiday for added workers or increased
wages up to $50 million

– Extending 100 percent expensing into 2012

– Reforms and regulatory reductions to help entrepreneurs and small
businesses access capital

* Putting workers back on the job while rebuilding and modernizing
America o A “Returning Heroes” hiring tax credit for veterans

– Preventing up to 280,000 teacher layoffs, while keeping cops and
firefighters on the job

– Immediate investments in infrastructure, school buildings, and
neighborhoods as well as a bipartisan National Infrastructure Bank

* Pathways back to work for Americans looking for jobs

– The most innovative reform to the unemployment insurance program
in 40 years and extension of emergency unemployment insurance preventing
6 million Americans looking for work from losing benefits

– A $4,000 tax credit to employers for hiring the long-term
unemployed

– Prohibiting employers from discriminating against unemployed
workers when hiring

– Expanding job opportunities for low-income youth and adults

* Tax relief for every American worker and family

– Cutting payroll taxes in half for 160 million workers next year

– Allowing more Americans to refinance their mortgages

* Fully paid for as part of the President’s long-term deficit
reduction plan

PAYING FOR OUR INVESTMENTS AND REDUCING THE DEFICIT

* The plan produces approximately $4.4 trillion in deficit
reduction net the cost of the American Jobs Act.

– $1.2 trillion from the discretionary cuts enacted in the Budget
Control Act.

– $580 billion in cuts and reforms to a wide range of mandatory
programs;

– $1.1 trillion from the drawdown of troops in Afghanistan and
transition from a military to a civilian-led mission in Iraq

– $1.5 trillion from tax reform

– $430 billion in additional interest savings

* To spur economic growth and job creation, the plan includes
one-time investment and relief in the American Jobs Act. That adds to
the deficit in 2012 but is fully paid for over 10 years, and deficit
reduction phases in starting in 2013, as the economy grows stronger.

* Deficit reduction is achieved in a balanced approach, with a
spending cut to revenue ratio for the entire plan (including
discretionary cuts) of 2 to 1.

-more- (1 of 2)

** Market News International Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **

[TOPICS: M$U$$$,MGU$$$,MFU$$$,MCU$$$,M$$CR$]