Washington, Sep 20: With America's debt assuming dangerous proportions and no significant number of jobs being created of late, the US President Barack Obama today unveiled plans to tax the rich and reduce the deficit.

Coming out with a slew of proposals to tax the rich, Obama said his plan eliminates tax loopholes that primarily go to the wealthiest taxpayers and biggest corporations, tax breaks that small businesses and middle-class families do not get.

“If tax reform doesn't get done, this plan asks the wealthiest Americans to go back to paying the same rates that they paid during the 1990s, before the Bush tax cuts,” e,” Obama said in his speech at the Rose Garden of the White House.

“We can't afford these special lower rates for the wealthy,” he argued.

Obama said his plan reduces the debt by more than USD 4 trillion.

Among other things, he said the plan asks the largest financial firms, companies saved by tax dollars during the financial crisis, to repay the American people for every dime that the US spends.

“We save an additional USD 1 trillion as we end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said.

“This is how we can reduce spending: by scouring the budget for every dime of waste and inefficiency, by reforming government spending, and by making modest adjustments to Medicare and Medicaid,” Obama said.

In his speech, Obama threatened to veto any bill that changes benefits for those who rely on Medicare but does not raise serious revenues by asking the wealthiest Americans or biggest corporations to pay their fair share.

“We are not going to have a one-sided deal that hurts the folks who are most vulnerable,” he said.

Obama also called his countrymen to live within its means and invest in future.

“If we don't act, that burden will ultimately fall on our children's shoulders. If we don't act, the growing debt will eventually crowd out everything else, preventing us from investing in things like education or sustaining programmes like Medicare,” he said. PTI