WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is coming out Monday with his opening bid on long-term debt reduction. But the White House wants to keep the focus on jobs and avoid getting sucked into another budget fight with lawmakers.
Administration officials see the task of attending to long-term deficits as necessary, but not necessarily urgent when compared with the need to revive the economy and increase employment.
So when Obama announces about $2 trillion in new deficit reduction measures on Monday, he’s not expected to offer all the compromises he reached with House Speaker John Boehner in July before those talks broke off.
The plan will be presented to a special joint committee of Congress given the job of recommending how to reduce deficits by $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion over 10 years.
