Republican leaders released a counter offer to President Obama’s deficit-reduction proposal that would raise $800 billion in new tax revenue and calls for $600 billion in automatic tax increases and reductions to federal health care programs in 2013, the Washington Post reports.
The proposal would generate savings by increasing the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 and reducing benefits for high-income beneficiaries. The proposal also would save an estimated $200 billion over a decade by altering the way the government calculates inflation, which would slow benefit increases in federal programs, including Medicare. The GOP plan would result in about $4.6 trillion in savings over 10 years.
White House officials criticized the proposal for being unbalanced, saying the cuts to federal entitlement programs would outweigh higher taxes.
