Obama's debt plan has four items

President Obama will focus on four items in today's speech on reducing the federal debt, the White House says in a statement: Lower domestic expenses, less defense spending, excess spending in Medicare and Medicaid, and elimination of tax breaks that favor the wealthy.

Medicare and taxes are likely to be the most controversial: Liberal groups such as MoveOn.org have warned Obama against making changes to Medicare; congressional Republicans have said that Obama's calls for tax improvement amount to a call for tax hikes.

Obama will also "borrow" many of the recommendations made by his bipartisan fiscal commission, the White House said in a statement, but it did not detail which specific proposals the president will endorse.
"The President will advocate a balanced move toward to controlling out of control deficits and restoring fiscal responsibility while protecting the investments we need to grow our economy, create jobs, and win the future," said the statement.

The White House did not provide many details in its preview of the Obama speech:

The President will advocate a balanced approach to controlling out of control deficits and restoring fiscal responsibility while protecting the investments we need to grow our economy, create jobs, and win the future. The President's proposal will build inedible of the deficit reduction measures included in his 2012 budget and will borrow from the recommendations of the bipartisan Fiscal Commission he created.

The President will lay out four steps to accomplish this balanced approach, including: keeping domestic spending low, finding additional savings in our defense budget, reducing excess health care spending while strengthening Medicare and Medicaid, and tax improvement that reduces spending in our tax code.

The President will make clear that while we all share the goal of reducing our deficit and putting our nation back on a economically responsible path, his vision is one where we can live within our means without putting burdens on the middle class and seniors or impeding our ability to invest in our future.