Obama to unveil 'more ambitious' debt reduction plan

US President Barack Obama last night said the US government will unveil a "more ambitious" deficit reduction plan after urging lawmakers to pass a wide-reaching jobs creation programme worth an estimated $450bn.

In a rare speech to Congress, he said a new-look debt reduction would be announced on 19 September. It will pay for his ambitious proposals which are designed to create more jobs and cut taxes, he said. US unemployment is currently 9.1% and is expected to dominate the 2012 presidential election campaign. In a rare address to a joint session of Congress, he said he wanted to get the unemployed back to work, put money in employees' pockets and rebuild infrastructure, reports the BBC. "I am sending this Congress a plan that you should pass right away. It's called the American Jobs ...