WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is sending Congress a $3.77 trillion spending blueprint Wednesday that seeks to achieve an elusive "grand bargain" to tame runaway deficits by raising taxes further on the wealthy and trimming popular benefit programs such as Social Security.
The president's proposal includes an additional $1.8 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade, bringing total deficit savings to $4.3 trillion. It projects that the deficit for the 2014 budget year, which begins Oct. 1, would fall to $744 billion. That would be the lowest gap between spending and revenue since 2008.
But instead of moving Congress nearer a grand bargain, Obama's proposals so far have managed to anger both Republicans, who are upset by higher taxes, and Democrats upset with cuts to Social Security benefits.
