Keith Hennessey explains why President Obama’s claims regarding his plan for deficit reduction merit closer scrutiny.
First, the Obama White House is using a 12-year timeframe rather than the standard 10-year timeframe for achieving $4 trillion in deficit reduction. Hennessey cites a passage from Bob Woodward explaining that Gene Sperling, director of the National Economic Council and a veteran of the Clinton White House, made the case that the public wouldn’t pay close attention to the use of a 12-year timeframe rather than a 10-year timeframe, and so the president could make his $4 trillion deficit reduction proposal sound comparable to proposals that achieve the same amount of deficit reduction over a decade, despite the fact that his proposal anticipates achieving $2.9 trillion over that period of time.
Second, Hennessey explains that the president is including deficit reduction measures that have already been approved in his $4 trillion total.