President Barack Obama sent the 2013 budget to Congress on Monday. The budget of approximately $3.8 trillion for the next fiscal year is expected to reduce the national deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade.
MSNBC reporter Martin Crutsinger quoted the Obama administration, which said, “We must transform our budget from one focused on speculating, spending and borrowing to one constructed on the solid foundation of educating, innovating and building.”
While the budget calls for cuts to military spending and tax increases on the wealthy, it is also designed to support and improve national education and transportation by increasing spending in those areas.  The budget is said to include $2.2 billion for improvements to bus and railway rapid-transit systems across 15 states.
The proposed tax increases on the wealthy moved many GOP members to unite and rally against the budget proposal in its early stage. While those suggested tax increases, according to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, primarily stem from an expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts and imposing new taxes on two percent of the nation’s wealthiest families, Republicans are no more supportive. Some GOP members are planning to submit their own budgets.
“We’ve been waiting for over three years for this president to put forward credible solutions to challenges before us. President Obama has presided over four straight trillion-dollar deficits, breaking promise after promise when it comes to job creation, deficits and the debt,” Crutsinger quoted Rep. Paul Ryan, chairperson of the House Budget Committee. Ryan is one of the GOP members preparing an alternative budget.
Fox News quoted Ryan, who said, “President Obama’s irresponsible budget is a recipe for a debt crisis and the decline of America.” Needless to say, Ryan aligns himself with the GOP’s traditional position on fiscal matters: cut spending. According to Fox, republicans are primarily calling for a more aggressive reduction to Medicare and Medicaid costs.
While the GOP prepares to challenge the administration’s proposal, some leaders in Washington support the strategic cuts here and increases there.
On Tuesday, Leon Panetta, secretary of defense, went to Congress in support of the proposal in spite of the reduced allotment to his department of $614 billion. The new budget will call for a decrease in the size of the Army and Marine Corps, a reduction on military fleet production and suspension in the purchasing of new weaponry, MSBC reporter Donna Cassata wrote.
Pannetta was joined by Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Dempsey also supported the $32 billion reduction to defense spending, maintaining that it is a clear indicator of strategic military departure from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Nevertheless, an agency-by-agency guide published by MSNBC further outlines the budget’s changes to major government departments.