Obama budget would boost U.S. tax revenue, cut deficits: CBO --- (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's fiscal 2015 budget request would boost U.S. tax revenue by nearly $1.4 trillion over 10 years if fully enacted, slashing deficits by $1.05 trillion while funding new spending, the Congressional Budget Office said on Thursday. -- The likelihood that Congress will advance Obama's plan in its entirety is virtually nil, but the CBO's latest analysis will feed campaign messaging by Democrats and Republicans ahead of congressional elections in November. -- The analysis by the nonpartisan agency compares Obama's request with a new CBO "baseline" estimate released last week that assumes no changes to current tax and spending laws. -- But Obama's budget plan is loaded with policy changes, including an assumption that sweeping immigration reforms will be enacted, producing a net 10-year deficit reduction of $158 billion. -- It proposes to boost revenue by limiting tax breaks for wealthy Americans and businesses, imposing a new tax on millionaires, raising tobacco taxes, and restoring estate and gift taxes to their previously higher, 2009 levels. -- At the same time, it would boost spending by expanding cash tax credits for low-income Americans, canceling the "sequester" automatic spending cuts to military and domestic programs, and increasing funds for job training programs, among other changes. --- The Republican Party's leading voice on budgetary matters, Representative Paul Ryan, said the report shows that Obama's budget plan "keeps getting worse" because of the tax and spending increases it proposes. -- In a statement, Ryan said that the Obama budget would never reach balance and would run a $746 billion deficit in fiscal 2024. By contrast, Republicans in the House of Representatives last week passed a Ryan budget that envisions a small surplus that year after deep cuts to domestic programs, especially those that aid the poor. That budget contains no tax increases. - More, David Lawder, at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/17/us-usa-fiscal-obama-idUSBREA3G1AW20140417