US President Barack Obama will Tuesday unveil short term spending reductions and tax reforms designed to avert punishing multi-billion dollar automatic budget cuts due to kick in on March 1.
A White House official said the president would make a statement at 1:15 pm (1815 GMT) on plans to avoid “deep, indiscriminate cuts to domestic and defense programs” known as the sequester.
The sequester was agreed by the president and Congress last year to be so punishing that it would force Washington’s warring political factions to forge an agreement on deficit cuts.
But no agreement is in sight, and the cuts have already been put off once, by a short-term deal agreed between Obama and Republicans late last year.
“Given that the budget process in Congress won’t likely be completed by March 1st, the president on Tuesday will call on Congress to pass a smaller package of spending cuts and tax reforms to avoid the economically harmful consequences of the sequester for a few months,” the official said.
Obama to unveil plans to avert budget cuts
