[House Document 112-55]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



112th Congress, 1st Session - - - - - - - - - - - - - House Document 112-55


 
 PRESIDENT'S PLAN ENTITLED ``LIVING WITHIN OUR MEANS AND INVESTING IN 
                              THE FUTURE''

                               __________

                                MESSAGE

                                  from

                   THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

                              transmitting


``LIVING WITHIN OUR MEANS AND INVESTING IN THE FUTURE'' THE PRESIDENT'S 
             PLAN FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH AND DEFICIT REDUCTION




 September 19, 2011.--Message and accompanying papers referred to the 
Committees on Agriculture, Armed Services, Education and the Workforce, 
  Energy and Commerce, Financial Services, House Administration, the 
 Judiciary, Natural Resources, Oversight and Government Reform, Rules, 
  Science, Space, and Technology, Small Business, Transportation and 
      Infrastructure, and Ways and Means and ordered to be printed
To the Congress of the United States:
    This continues to be a time of challenge for our country. 
We face an economic crisis that has left millions of our 
neighbors jobless, and a political crisis that has made things 
worse. Millions of Americans are looking for work. Across our 
country, families are doing their best just to scrape by--
giving up nights out with the family to save on gas or make the 
mortgage, or postponing retirement to send a child to college.
    These men and women grew up with faith in an America where 
hard work and responsibility paid off. They believed in a 
country where everyone gets a fair shake and does their fair 
share; they believed that if you worked hard and played by the 
rules, you would be rewarded with a decent salary and good 
benefits. If you did the right thing, you could make it in 
America.
    For decades now, Americans have watched that compact erode. 
They have seen the decks too often stacked against them. And 
they know that Washington has not always put their interests 
first. Too often, our Nation's capital has been consumed by 
partisanship. Too often, the needs of special interests or 
politics have been put ahead of what is best for the country.
    That is what must change. The American people work hard to 
meet their responsibilities. Now, as the Nation faces an 
economy that is not growing and creating jobs as it should, so 
must its leaders. While the continued recovery of our economy 
will be driven by the businesses and workers across our land, 
policymakers in Washington can take steps to help Americans 
right now and set the most favorable conditions we can for 
growth and job creation for years to come. We can live within 
our means and invest for the future.
    That is why last week I presented to the Congress and the 
American people the American Jobs Act, to provide a jolt to the 
economy and give companies confidence that if they invest and 
hire, there will be customers for their products and services. 
This jobs bill will put more people back to work and more money 
in the pockets of those who are working. It will create more 
jobs for construction workers, more jobs for teachers, more 
jobs for veterans, and more jobs for the long-term unemployed. 
It will provide a tax break for companies that hire new 
workers, and it will cut payroll taxes in half for every 
working American and every small business. It will create jobs 
for people to rebuild our aging infrastructure and repair and 
modernize at least 35,000 schools. Moreover, the proposals in 
the American Jobs Act are the kind of proposals that have been 
supported by Democrats and Republicans in the past.
    I am committed to paying for this jobs bill. The Budget 
Control Act that I signed into law last month will cut annual 
Government spending by about $1 trillion over the next 10 
years. It also charges the Joint Select Committee on Deficit 
Reduction with finding an additional $1.5 trillion in savings. 
As part of this jobs bill, I am asking the Congress to increase 
that amount so that it covers the full cost of the American 
Jobs Act. In addition, I believe that the Congress should seize 
the opportunity that this new Committee presents and do much 
more so that we can put the country on a sustainable fiscal 
path, which is critical for our long-term economic growth and 
competitiveness.
    For this reason, I am sending to the Congress this detailed 
plan to pay for this jobs bill and realize more than $3 
trillion in net deficit reduction over the next 10 years. 
Combined with the approximately $1 trillion in savings from the 
first part of the Budget Control Act, this would generate more 
than $4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade. 
This would bring the Nation to the point where current spending 
is nolonger adding to our debt and where our debt is no longer 
increasing as a share of our economy--an important milestone on the way 
to restoring fiscal discipline and moving us toward balance.
    This plan is a balanced one that asks everyone to do their 
part. It includes nearly $580 billion in cuts and reforms to 
mandatory programs, of which $320 billion is savings from 
Federal health programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. These 
changes are necessary to maintain the promise of Medicare as we 
know it.
    The plan also realizes more than $1 trillion in savings 
over the next 10 years from our drawdowns in Afghanistan and 
Iraq. And the plan calls for the Congress to undertake 
comprehensive tax reform that lowers tax rates, closes 
loopholes, boosts job creation here at home, cuts the deficit 
by $1.5 trillion, and observes the Buffett Rule--that people 
making more than $1 million a year should not pay a smaller 
share of their income in taxes than middle-class families pay.
    To assist the Committee in its work, I also included 
specific tax loophole closers and measures to broaden the tax 
base. Together with the expiration of the high-income tax cuts 
from 2001 and 2003, these measures would be more than enough to 
reach this $1.5 trillion target. They include cutting tax 
preferences for high-income households, eliminating tax breaks 
for oil and gas companies, closing the carried interest 
loophole for investment fund managers, and eliminating benefits 
for those who use corporate jets.
    In sum, the plan I am sending to the Congress today is a 
blueprint for how we can reduce this deficit, pay down our 
debt, and pay for the American Jobs Act in the process. I have 
little doubt that some of these proposals will not be popular 
with those who benefit from these affected programs. And some 
of these changes are ones that we would not make if it were not 
for our fiscal situation. But we are all in this together, and 
all of us must contribute to getting our economy moving again 
and on a firm fiscal footing.
    After all, we are all connected. No single individual built 
America on his or her own. We built it together. We have been, 
and always will be, ``one Nation, under God, indivisible, with 
liberty and justice for all.'' We have always been a people 
with responsibilities to ourselves and with responsibilities to 
one another. This means that as Americans work hard to find a 
job, keep their businesses afloat and grow, and provide for 
their kids, their representatives in Washington must meet their 
responsibilities and make the tough choices needed to get our 
economy back on track.
    This plan lives up to a simple idea: as a Nation, we can 
live within our means while still making the investments we 
need to prosper. It follows a balanced approach: asking 
everyone to do their part, so no one has to bear all the 
burden. And it says that everyone--including millionaires and 
billionaires--has to pay their fair share.
    These may be tough times for our country, but I have a deep 
faith in the American spirit, and we are tougher than the times 
we live in and bigger than the politics we have recently seen. 
If we all put partisanship aside and roll up our sleeves, I 
have no doubt that we can meet the challenges of the moment and 
show the world once again why the United States of America 
remains the greatest country on Earth.

                                                      Barack Obama.
    The White House, September 19, 2011.

    
    
