President Wants To Reduce Budget By $4 Trillion

The President has outlined his plan to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over the next 12 years. In the half-hour speech, he didn't directly talk about federal pay and benefits. Obama proposed both spending cuts and higher taxes, saying are essential to his bringing down the deficit. He promised to end to Bush-era tax cuts. While preserving Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security as they are structured now. The president calls his approach more balanced than the one proposed last week by Republican House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan. The president says his plan borrows from recommendations of his own deficit-reduction commission.