Digging Deeper Into Obama's 2013 Budget

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February 14, 2012

President Obama laid out his proposed federal budget for 2013 at a community college in Virginia on Monday. The $ 3.8 trillion plan calls for new government spending, including stimulus-style spending on roads. It also seeks to achieve $4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade

The spending plan would save a projected $364 billion from the Medicare and Medicaid. But as NPR's Julie Rovner reports, none of the proposals for those savings are new.

The Pentagon will cut $259 billion from planned spending over the next five years. NPR's Tom Bowman looks at what's getting trimmed and what's not.

Obama's budget would increase spending on transportation slightly — but by far less than the president has previously requested. NPR's Brian Naylor reports the president wants "job-creating infrastructure investments."

The proposed budget also calls for more investment in green energy. As NPR's Elizabeth Shogren reports, three different agencies want to work together to research the environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing.

In NASA's 2013 budget, there's still money for the new James Webb Space Telescope that will replace the Hubble Space Telescope. There's also funding for Earth Observation spacecraft, and a new deep-space crew capsule. But funding for future planetary missions is sparse. NPR's Joe Palca has more.

 

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