On April 13, President Obama unveiled the administration’s long-term plan for deficit reduction. Stating that “most Americans believe we should invest in…medical research,” Obama outlined a plan that will result $2 trillion in savings and reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over the next 12 years. While the plan calls for deficit reduction partially through cuts to domestic discretionary spending, Obama pledged to protect “investments in the future,” including those in medical research.
“The first step in our approach is to keep annual domestic spending low by building on the savings that both parties agreed to last week. That step alone will save us about $750 billion over 12 years. We will make the tough cuts necessary to achieve these savings, including in programs that I care deeply about, but I will not sacrifice the core investments that we need to grow and create jobs. We will invest in medical research.”
-President Barack Obama, April 13, 2011
Details on the administration’s deficit reduction framework, as well as a transcript of the president’s address, are available at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/04/13/president-obama-s-framework-4-trillion-deficit-reduction
A fact sheet on the framework is available at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/04/13/fact-sheet-presidents-framework-shared-prosperity-and-shared-fiscal-resp