WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After promising the American people his team has already found $2 trillion in budget savings by scouring the federal budget, President Obama is planning to lay out some of the potential spending cuts in great detail when he unveils his first blueprint on Thursday, according to senior administration officials familiar with the budget plans.
President Obama told Congress on Tuesday that his administration had found $2 trillion in cuts in the federal budget.
"My administration has also begun to go line by line through the federal budget in order to eliminate wasteful and ineffective programs," Obama said Tuesday in a speech to a joint session of Congress. "... We have already identified $2 trillion in savings over the next decade."
A list of some of the proposed spending cuts obtained by CNN shows that the programs on the chopping block range from outdated farm subsidy programs to pricey Pentagon weapons programs and the so-called "carried-interest" loophole on Wall Street.
Each program, however, has political patrons on Capitol Hill who will fight to save the budget items, setting the stage for major political battles as the details of the budget are debated by lawmakers in the months ahead.
One high-profile proposal involves closing the loophole that has allowed some Wall Street investment managers to pay lower tax rates than their low-paid assistants. Wall Street lobbyists have fought such changes in the past and won, but the current political environment is so sour on financial executives that the proposal could garner more support now.
"Under current law, investment managers have been exploiting a loophole in our tax code to pay 15 percent on their earned income, the same rate that a middle-class family making $80,000 a year pays. The budget calls for closing the so-called 'carried-interest' loophole," says the administration's list, without being specific about how much revenue that will bring in to the federal government.
Sources: Weapons, subsidies, loopholes among budget cuts - CNN.com
President Obama told Congress on Tuesday that his administration had found $2 trillion in cuts in the federal budget.
"My administration has also begun to go line by line through the federal budget in order to eliminate wasteful and ineffective programs," Obama said Tuesday in a speech to a joint session of Congress. "... We have already identified $2 trillion in savings over the next decade."
A list of some of the proposed spending cuts obtained by CNN shows that the programs on the chopping block range from outdated farm subsidy programs to pricey Pentagon weapons programs and the so-called "carried-interest" loophole on Wall Street.
Each program, however, has political patrons on Capitol Hill who will fight to save the budget items, setting the stage for major political battles as the details of the budget are debated by lawmakers in the months ahead.
One high-profile proposal involves closing the loophole that has allowed some Wall Street investment managers to pay lower tax rates than their low-paid assistants. Wall Street lobbyists have fought such changes in the past and won, but the current political environment is so sour on financial executives that the proposal could garner more support now.
"Under current law, investment managers have been exploiting a loophole in our tax code to pay 15 percent on their earned income, the same rate that a middle-class family making $80,000 a year pays. The budget calls for closing the so-called 'carried-interest' loophole," says the administration's list, without being specific about how much revenue that will bring in to the federal government.
Sources: Weapons, subsidies, loopholes among budget cuts - CNN.com
