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Wednesday, December 11, 2013

UNITED STATES. There will be no new fiscal crisis in January !

The United States seemed to have found a solution Tuesday, December 10 to avoid a repeat in January paralysis federal, thanks to a budget agreement hailed by Barack Obama as a first step towards a return to normal.

The proposed budget , unveiled Tuesday to Congress after weeks of negotiations between Democratic Senator Patty Murray and Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, sets the level of expenditure and revenue of the federal government for the next two fiscal years (2014 and 2015) while mitigating the impact of budget cuts called "automatic" , implemented in March and criticized for their indiscriminate nature .

Barack Obama welcomed this " good first step " and hoped that the agreement would mean that " Americans do not have to bear a new paralysis of the federal state in the next two years ."

"This agreement does not include everything I would have liked , and I know a lot of Republicans think the same thing. This is the nature of compromise. But it is a good sign that the Democrats and Republicans in Congress were able to find common ground and break the cycle of short-sighted decisions and under the threat of crises to complete this issue, " he added.

No tax increase


" With this agreement , we will not have federal paralysis in January. We do not have federal paralysis in October ," assured Paul Ryan at a press conference.

The agreement marks a remarkable improvement of relations between Republicans and Democrats , which respectively control the House of Representatives and the Senate , and had been unable since 2011 to reach a compromise on the issue of federal spending and taxes - blocking which culminated in October when the first partial shutdown of the federal government since 1996.

Paralysis 16 days was the result of this dialogue of the deaf. Congress had been unable to pass a budget on time , Republicans have insisted in vain for the inclusion of measures aside a part of the reform of the health system of Barack Obama.

This time, both sides said they had made ​​concessions , but the most pressing reforms were carefully avoided : the major social programs, including retirement (Social Security) , and corporate tax loopholes .

"The key is that no one has had to sacrifice its basic principles ," said Paul Ryan. " Our basic principles are : do not raise taxes, reduce the deficit ."

Vote in the House and Senate

Under the compromise , spending called " discretionary " ( current spending, defense ... ) of the federal state will amount to 1.012 billion dollars for fiscal year 2014 and 1.014 billion in 2015 , midway between the proposals Democratic and Republican , an increase in value of spending compared to 2013 (988 billion), while expenditures were down this year.

Automatic budget cuts, switched earlier this year under a law of 2011, which had disrupted federal, will be partially canceled ( 63 billion over two years on the originally planned 218 billion ) , which already caused the stir in the conservative ranks .

The deficit should pursue its downward trajectory (4.1% of GDP in 2013 against 7 % in 2012 ), according to elected officials but they did not provide projection proportion of GDP.
The framework agreement on Tuesday will vote in the House this week, and will then be endorsed by the Senate. It will then declined in several finance laws , which must be passed in identical terms by each chamber before the deadline of January 15.

This budget called " discretionary " that Congress must approve each year , only about one- third of federal government spending. Thereto are added expenses "compulsory " (retirement, health , some social assistance ... ) which are expected to reach 2.196 billion in 2014, according to the latest estimate of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO ) .

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