Obama urges balanced approach by 'super committee'

The New York Times: Obama To Press Committee On Jobs
As for deficit reduction, Mr. Obama suggested that he would call in his speech for the bipartisan 12-member Congressional committee that was created by his debt-reduction deal with Republicans this month to be more ambitious about deficit-reduction than its formal charge requires — including tax increases on the wealthy, which Republicans oppose. … "We'll have more spending cuts than we have revenue," he said, after expressing concern that Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio had named Republicans to the panel who oppose any tax increases. "But we're going to have to take a balanced approach," Mr. Obama said, without "drastic cuts" in Medicare and Medicaid — though he made clear that changes to those fast-growing programs must be on the table (Calmes, 8/17).

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This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.