In a much-anticipated speech today, President Obama will embrace the deficit-reduction strategy proposed by the Simpson-Bowles bipartisan fiscal commission last December.
But he will also repeat his own familiar themes, and he is likely to be longer on goals than on specifics.
Administration officials say Obama will call for a “balanced approach’’ to spending cuts -- one that protects government investments aimed at promoting future growth and doesn't place too much of the burden on the poor or the elderly.
They say he will propose to keep domestic spending low, which might simply be a continuation of his plan to freeze overall non-security discretionary spending.
The president will call for squeezing out more savings from health care through the kinds of measures incorporated in last year's health care reform law. Those measures included agreements with health care providers and pharmaceutical companies to limit their price increases, as well as efforts to wring more efficiency through better organization of health care delivery.
Obama will also call for additional cuts in defense spending and raising revenues by eliminating many special tax breaks. And, of course, he will repeat his call for letting the Bush tax cuts expire for households with incomes above $250,000.
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