Obama's budget plan this week will cut health care provisions for the elderly and the poor.
The Telegraph reported:
Barack Obama will this week propose cuts in health care provision for the elderly and the poor as he seeks to reach agreement with Republicans on bringing America's record levels of debt under control.
Aides said that in a major speech on Wednesday the US president will lay out plans that will include reform of Medicare and Medicaid, the major subsidised health care schemes that are among the main causes of the country's $14.25 trillion (£8.7 trillion) national debt.
"The president will be laying out his approach to long-term deficit reduction," said David Plouffe, a senior adviser at the White House, adding that the president would call on both sides to compromise.
"If we are going to make progress the parties are going to have to come together to find common ground," he said.
Mr Obama was last week forced into accepting $38.5 billion (£23.5 billion) in cuts demanded by Republicans for other types of spending in order to secure a last minute deal to keep the government running for the rest of the financial year.
That's sad. The bill does not even go into effect until 2014 and already they're cutting services to the elderly.
