The Obama administration will revisit a failed proposal to cut the deficit by $ 1.2 T and will prod lawmakers to come to an agreement despite the failure of the supercommittee to do so last year. So far, it seems like this proposal won’t go through as such significant changes don’t happen during election year.
In describing the importance of approving these measures, a senior administration official says, “We have a sequester coming less than a year from now unless Congress acts. We’re going to ask Congress to do now what we think Congress should have done in December, which is enact more than $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction, turn off the sequester and maintain the (spending caps).”
The aforementioned sequester is essentially the nine year across the board $ 1.2 T spending cuts that has not been popular with Republicans in Congress, and which is being revised by the White House. The Republicans, however, are currently focusing only on a one-year extension of the payroll tax cut and supplemental jobless benefits that the President listed as a part of his jobs plans last fall.
Experts expect this year to be no different from last year’s political deadlock as an agreement between Obama and Republicans were only reached when they were faced with a government shutdown or a default when it came to U.S obligations.
With the elections only a few months away, this new proposal (which will be submitted on February 6, 2012) seems to be doomed to failure considering the obstinacy of the opposition to reach a compromise.