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POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS

Friedman and Parrott: The President’s Budget Achieves Substantial Deficit Reduction and Largely Protects Low-Income Americans

| By CBPP

In a new commentary for the Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, CBPP Vice Presidents Joel Friedman and Sharon Parrott explain that President Obama’s budget proposal achieves meaningful deficit reduction while largely protecting the poor from increased poverty or hardship.  They also find that the budget’s package of spending cuts and revenue increases reduces the deficit in a way that seeks to protect the still-struggling economic recovery.  They caution, however, that policymakers should consider these deficit-reduction policies only as part of a package that replaces sequestration, stabilizes the debt as a share of the economy, and raises substantial revenue in a progressive way.

They conclude that:

The president proposes significant compromises in a serious effort to reach a budget deal. The budget takes important steps to protect low-income families and the still-struggling economy, but policymakers have little room to cut programs further without jeopardizing services for millions of families of modest means and shortchanging key building blocks of our economy.

Click here to read the full commentary.