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Deficit Plan Pairs $3.8 Trillion With Tough Politics

A plan offered by the leaders of President Barack Obama’s commission to reduce the federal deficit might work. It just won’t happen.

The co-chairmen proposed a $3.8 trillion deficit-cutting plan yesterday that would trim Social Security and Medicare, reduce income-tax rates and eliminate tax breaks including the mortgage-interest deduction. It would reduce the annual deficit from $1.3 trillion this year to about $400 billion by 2015 and start reducing the $13.7 trillion national debt.