U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON : 

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68–354 2011

112th Congress, 1st Session – – – – – – – – – – – – – House Document 112–55 

PRESIDENT’S PLAN ENTITLED ‘‘LIVING WITHIN OUR 

MEANS AND INVESTING IN THE FUTURE’’ 

MESSAGE 

FROM

THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 

TRANSMITTING

‘‘LIVING WITHIN OUR MEANS AND INVESTING IN THE FUTURE’’ 

THE PRESIDENT’S PLAN FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH AND DEFICIT 

REDUCTION 

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011.—Message and accompanying papers referred to the 

Committees on Agriculture, Armed Services, Education and the Workforce, Energy and Commerce, Financial Services, House Administration, 

the Judiciary, Natural Resources, Oversight and Government Reform, 

Rules, Science, Space, and Technology, Small Business, Transportation 

and Infrastructure, and Ways and Means and ordered to be printed 


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To the Congress of the United States: 

This continues to be a time of challenge for our country. We face 

an economic crisis that has left millions of our neighbors jobless, 

and a political crisis that has made things worse. Millions of Americans are looking for work. Across our country, families are doing 

their best just to scrape by—giving up nights out with the family 

to save on gas or make the mortgage, or postponing retirement to 

send a child to college. 

These men and women grew up with faith in an America where 

hard work and responsibility paid off. They believed in a country 

where everyone gets a fair shake and does their fair share; they believed that if you worked hard and played by the rules, you would 

be rewarded with a decent salary and good benefits. If you did the 

right thing, you could make it in America. 

For decades now, Americans have watched that compact erode. 

They have seen the decks too often stacked against them. And they 

know that Washington has not always put their interests first. Too 

often, our Nation’s capital has been consumed by partisanship. Too 

often, the needs of special interests or politics have been put ahead 

of what is best for the country. 

That is what must change. The American people work hard to 

meet their responsibilities. Now, as the Nation faces an economy 

that is not growing and creating jobs as it should, so must its leaders. While the continued recovery of our economy will be driven by 

the businesses and workers across our land, policymakers in Washington can take steps to help Americans right now and set the 

most favorable conditions we can for growth and job creation for 

years to come. We can live within our means and invest for the future. 

That is why last week I presented to the Congress and the American people the American Jobs Act, to provide a jolt to the economy 

and give companies confidence that if they invest and hire, there 

will be customers for their products and services. This jobs bill will 

put more people back to work and more money in the pockets of 

those who are working. It will create more jobs for construction 

workers, more jobs for teachers, more jobs for veterans, and more 

jobs for the long-term unemployed. It will provide a tax break for 

companies that hire new workers, and it will cut payroll taxes in 

half for every working American and every small business. It will 

create jobs for people to rebuild our aging infrastructure and repair 

and modernize at least 35,000 schools. Moreover, the proposals in 

the American Jobs Act are the kind of proposals that have been 

supported by Democrats and Republicans in the past. 

I am committed to paying for this jobs bill. The Budget Control 

Act that I signed into law last month will cut annual Government 

spending by about $1 trillion over the next 10 years. It also charges 

the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction with finding an 


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additional $1.5 trillion in savings. As part of this jobs bill, I am 

asking the Congress to increase that amount so that it covers the 

full cost of the American Jobs Act. In addition, I believe that the 

Congress should seize the opportunity that this new Committee 

presents and do much more so that we can put the country on a 

sustainable fiscal path, which is critical for our long-term economic 

growth and competitiveness. 

For this reason, I am sending to the Congress this detailed plan 

to pay for this jobs bill and realize more than $3 trillion in net deficit reduction over the next 10 years. Combined with the approximately $1 trillion in savings from the first part of the Budget Control Act, this would generate more than $4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade. This would bring the Nation to the point 

where current spending is no longer adding to our debt and where 

our debt is no longer increasing as a share of our economy—an important milestone on the way to restoring fiscal discipline and moving us toward balance. 

This plan is a balanced one that asks everyone to do their part. 

It includes nearly $580 billion in cuts and reforms to mandatory 

programs, of which $320 billion is savings from Federal health programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. These changes are necessary to maintain the promise of Medicare as we know it. 

The plan also realizes more than $1 trillion in savings over the 

next 10 years from our drawdowns in Afghanistan and Iraq. And 

the plan calls for the Congress to undertake comprehensive tax reform that lowers tax rates, closes loopholes, boosts job creation here 

at home, cuts the deficit by $1.5 trillion, and observes the Buffett 

Rule—that people making more than $1 million a year should not 

pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than middle-class families pay. 

To assist the Committee in its work, I also included specific tax 

loophole closers and measures to broaden the tax base. Together 

with the expiration of the high-income tax cuts from 2001 and 

2003, these measures would be more than enough to reach this 

$1.5 trillion target. They include cutting tax preferences for highincome households, eliminating tax breaks for oil and gas companies, closing the carried interest loophole for investment fund managers, and eliminating benefits for those who use corporate jets. 

In sum, the plan I am sending to the Congress today is a blueprint for how we can reduce this deficit, pay down our debt, and 

pay for the American Jobs Act in the process. I have little doubt 

that some of these proposals will not be popular with those who 

benefit from these affected programs. And some of these changes 

are ones that we would not make if it were not for our fiscal situation. But we are all in this together, and all of us must contribute 

to getting our economy moving again and on a firm fiscal footing. 

After all, we are all connected. No single individual built America 

on his or her own. We built it together. We have been, and always 

will be, ‘‘one Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice 

for all.’’ We have always been a people with responsibilities to ourselves and with responsibilities to one another. This means that as 

Americans work hard to find a job, keep their businesses afloat and 

grow, and provide for their kids, their representatives in WashVerDate Mar 15 2010 04:26 Sep 20, 2011 Jkt 068354 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\HD055.XXX HD055

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ington must meet their responsibilities and make the tough choices 

needed to get our economy back on track. 

This plan lives up to a simple idea: as a Nation, we can live within our means while still making the investments we need to prosper. It follows a balanced approach: asking everyone to do their 

part, so no one has to bear all the burden. And it says that everyone—including millionaires and billionaires—has to pay their fair 

share. 

These may be tough times for our country, but I have a deep 

faith in the American spirit, and we are tougher than the times we 

live in and bigger than the politics we have recently seen. If we all 

put partisanship aside and roll up our sleeves, I have no doubt that 

we can meet the challenges of the moment and show the world 

once again why the United States of America remains the greatest 

country on Earth. 

BARACK OBAMA. 

THE WHITE HOUSE, September 19, 2011. 


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