BEYOND THE NUMBERS
A Closer Look at the President's Budget
To complement our statement on the President’s fiscal year 2014 budget, we’ve issued a report on its key elements. Here’s the opening:
The President’s 2014 budget is presented in two parts. One part includes the package of deficit- reduction policies that the President included in his last offer to Speaker Boehner during the “fiscal cliff” negotiations in December 2012. This package would reduce the deficit by $1.8 trillion over the next decade and go somewhat beyond stabilizing the debt as a share of the economy, setting it on a slight downward path. When coupled with the deficit-reduction steps that the President and congressional leaders already have enacted, this package would bring total deficit reduction achieved to $4.5 trillion over the decade.
The Administration has said that Congress could consider this deficit-reduction offer separately from the other proposals in the President’s 2014 budget.
While much attention in the coming weeks will focus on the deficit-reduction package, the rest of the President’s budget includes important proposals that also deserve serious consideration. These include proposals to expand access to high-quality early education, funding to upgrade the nation’s transportation infrastructure, and measures such as the “Pathways Back to Work” fund to help people struggling in today’s labor market to prepare for and find jobs. Taken together, the proposals are fully paid for and actually reduce the deficit slightly.
