President Obama to Release Deficit-Cutting Plan

 　　As President Barack Obama prepares to announce a plan to slash¹ U.S. government deficits³ by trillions of dollars, a powerful Republican lawmaker is already criticizing key components⁴ reportedly contained in the proposal. Efforts to get more federal revenue from the wealthy and large corporations is likely to be a focus of partisan⁵ debate between now and next year’s general election.

　　The president’s deficit² reduction plan will be released Monday. News reports quote White House officials as saying Obama will propose spending restraints and revenue enhancements to slow the growth of the national debt in coming years.

　　The president has already stated his willingness to trim domestic spending and contain rising costs for programs that provide health care for retirees and the poor. He has also advocated ending tax breaks for favored corporate⁶ sectors⁷, and raising taxes paid by America’s wealthiest citizens.

　　Speaking in North Carolina last week, Obama said the nation has decisions to make.

　　“Do you want to keep tax loopholes for oil companies, or do you want to renovate⁸ more schools and rebuild more roads and bridges so [that] construction workers have jobs again? Do you want to keep tax breaks for multi-millionaires and billionaires, or do you want to cut taxes for small business owners and middle class families?”

　　The president’s plan reportedly contains a so-called “millionaires tax.”  Many of America’s richest earn investment income that is taxed at a lower rate than most wages and salaries. Legendary⁹ investor¹⁰ Warren Buffet¹¹, one of the world’s richest men, has pointed¹² out that he pays a lower tax rate on billions of dollars of investment income each year than his salaried personal secretary.

　　Obama has repeatedly stated that everyone must “pay their fair share” of taxes to improve America’s finances and fund badly-needed infrastructure¹³ projects and other programs.

　　But Republicans oppose any tax hikes, particularly during a time of economic weakness. Paul Ryan, chairman of the Budget Committee in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, said “If you tax something more, you get less of it. If you tax job-creators more, you get less job creation. If you tax investment more, you get less investment.”

　　Ryan spoke¹⁴ on the Fox News Sunday television program. He said the president’s debt reduction plan, as it is currently being reported, will pit groups of Americans against each other and harm an already-fragile U.S. economy.

　　“It looks like the president wants to move down the class warfare¹⁵ path. Class warfare will simply divide this country more. It will attack job creators.”

　　The congressman¹⁶ did give Obama credit for a willingness to extract savings¹⁷ from Medicare and other so-called “entitlement programs.” But he said, so far, the president’s ideas do not go far enough to cut costs and put those programs on a sustainable budgetary path.

　　A fellow Republican, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, recently suggested that areas where Democrats¹⁸ and Republicans cannot agree will likely be set aside until after next year’s election. President Obama says, at a time of economic weakness and stubbornly-high U.S. unemployment, there is no excuse for delay.

　　“A faction¹⁹ in Washington may be content to wait until the next election to do anything. But I have news for them: the next election is 14 months away. And the American people do not have the luxury to wait that long.”

　　Earlier this month, the president unveiled a new jobs plan that would cut taxes paid by wage earners and employers that hire new workers, and boost domestic infrastructure spending. If no new sources of federal revenue are agreed to, Obama has suggested adding the $447 billion dollars needed to fund his proposal to the work of a bipartisan congressional deficit committee already charged with trimming the deficit by $1.2 trillion dollars over the next 10 years.

1 slash   

vi.大幅度削减；vt.猛砍，尖锐抨击，大幅减少；n.猛砍，斜线，长切口，衣衩

参考例句：

• The shop plans to slash fur prices after Spring Festival.该店计划在春节之后把皮货降价。
• Don't slash your horse in that cruel way.不要那样残忍地鞭打你的马。

2 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

3 deficits   

n.不足额( deficit的名词复数 )；赤字；亏空；亏损

参考例句：

• The Ministry of Finance consistently overestimated its budget deficits. 财政部一贯高估预算赤字。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Many of the world's farmers are also incurring economic deficits. 世界上许多农民还在遭受经济上的亏损。 来自辞典例句

4 components   

（机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分

参考例句：

• the components of a machine 机器部件
• Our chemistry teacher often reduces a compound to its components in lab. 在实验室中化学老师常把化合物分解为各种成分。

5 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。

6 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

7 sectors   

n.部门( sector的名词复数 )；领域；防御地区；扇形

参考例句：

• Berlin was divided into four sectors after the war. 战后柏林分成了4 个区。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Industry and agriculture are the two important sectors of the national economy. 工业和农业是国民经济的两个重要部门。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 renovate   

vt.更新，革新，刷新

参考例句：

• The couple spent thousands renovating the house.这对夫妇花了几千元来翻新房子。
• They are going to renovate the old furniture.他们准备将旧家具整修一番。

9 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

10 investor   

n.投资者，投资人

参考例句：

• My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
• The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。

11 buffet   

n.自助餐；饮食柜台；餐台

参考例句：

• Are you having a sit-down meal or a buffet at the wedding?你想在婚礼中摆桌宴还是搞自助餐？
• Could you tell me what specialties you have for the buffet?你能告诉我你们的自助餐有什么特色菜吗？

12 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

13 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

14 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

15 warfare   

n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突

参考例句：

• He addressed the audience on the subject of atomic warfare.他向听众演讲有关原子战争的问题。
• Their struggle consists mainly in peasant guerrilla warfare.他们的斗争主要是农民游击战。

16 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

17 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

18 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 faction   

n.宗派，小集团；派别；派系斗争

参考例句：

• Faction and self-interest appear to be the norm.派系之争和自私自利看来非常普遍。
• I now understood clearly that I was caught between the king and the Bunam's faction.我现在完全明白自己已陷入困境，在国王与布纳姆集团之间左右为难。