President Barack Obama on Monday offered a plan to reduce the nation's deficit by $3.6 trillion, almost half of which would come from tax increases, including a new tax on millionaires.
"Either we ask the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share in taxes, or we're going to have to ask seniors to pay more for Medicare. We can't afford to do both," Mr. Obama said in a speech from the Rose Garden. He said later, "This is not class warfare. It's math. The money is going to have to come from someplace."

Republicans were quick to denounce the president's plan. "Pitting one group of Americans against another is not leadership," House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) said in a statement
This administration's insistence on raising taxes on job creators and its reluctance to take the steps necessary to strengthen our entitlement programs are the reasons the president and I were not able to reach an agreement previously,'' Mr. Boehner said. "And it is evident today that these barriers remain."
Mr. Obama proposed a plan to cut $3.6 trillion from the nation's deficit over a decade by ending tax breaks for the wealthy, and businesses such as oil and gas companies while making what he called modest changes to Medicare and Medicaid. The president said when his plan is combined with the roughly $1 trillion in spending cuts that he signed into law this summer, the nation's deficit could be slashed by more than $4 trillion over the next decade.

While some pieces of Mr. Obama's plan may be agreed upon, Congress is unlikely to pass the full package given Republican resistance to tax increases. Instead the plan marks the White House's opening salvo in negotiations over the next two months on how to reduce the deficit. It is the president's fourth package of deficit-reduction ideas this year.
WSJ