BUDGET

Rubio: Obama's Plan Isn't Even a Plan

Updated: April 14, 2011 | 8:49 a.m.
April 14, 2011 | 8:48 a.m.

What does Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., think of President Obama’s plan to reduce the deficit? So little, he doesn’t even consider it a plan.

“How can you call it a debt reduction proposal when it adds $8 trillion to the debt?” Rubio said Thursday morning on Fox and Friends. “All he's basically saying is he thinks it's a bad idea to add $12 trillion, instead we should add 8 and we need to raise taxes on job creators. The plan won't work, and it's not even a plan.”

Rubio said he was disappointed by the way budget negotiations have gone so far, adding that the short-term budget resolution coming up for a vote in Congress “takes us in the wrong direction.”

Rubio’s comments came a day after Obama spoke at George Washington University about how to reduce the long-term budget deficit. In his speech, the president called for a combination of deep cuts in military and domestic spending combined with higher taxes on the wealthy.

The director of Obama’s National Economic Council, Gene Sperling, also appeared on Fox and Friends, and had a different takeaway than Rubio.

“I think what's important is that you have a sense of balance when you have comprehensive debt reduction,” Sperling said. “Of the president's $4 trillion debt reduction plan, there are three dollars of spending cuts for every one dollar of revenue. I think what he's really saying is that you have to have a sense of shared sacrifice. If you're asking Americans across the board to tighten their belt, they need to believe that those savings, that sacrifice, is going to pay down our debt. Not simply to afford continuing tax relief to the most well off.”

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