From the FINANCIAL TIMES:
There was new hope on Capitol Hill that a sweeping deal to increase US borrowing authority and slash the nation’s deficits by $3,700bn over ten years was within reach, after Barack Obama backed an agreement among a group of Democratic and Republican senators…
The deal proposed by the “Gang of Six” – which includes Dick Durbin, the number two Democrat in the Senate, and Republican Tom Coburn, a fiscal hawk who has challenged his own party’s support for tax breaks for certain companies – would stabilise US debt by 2014, possibly satisfying rating agencies who have threatened to downgrade the US debt rating.
Although details were scarce, a summary of the plan said it would include $500bn in immediate deficit cuts and create a framework for further savings. These changes would include a “fundamental reform” of the US tax code that would reduce marginal income tax rates; abolish the $1,700bn alternative minimum tax, which hits middle class Americans; and reduce tax deductions and other loopholes for certain industries and individuals. It would also reform Medicare and Social Security, the government health and pension schemes…
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EDITOR: We are going to “reduce marginal income tax rates”?
