Obama: more tax revenue needed to address US deficit

President Barack Obama said more tax revenue would be needed to reduce the US deficit and signaled he would push hard to get rid of loopholes such as the "carried interest" tax break enjoyed by private equity and hedge fund managers.

Obama, who won re-election in November largely on his promise to raise rates for the wealthiest Americans, pushed through a legislative package at the beginning of the year that raised rates for individuals making more than $400,000 a year and households making more than $450,000 a year.

In an interview with CBS, Obama said the United States could reduce the deficit and invest in education without raising rates again if it enacted "smart spending cuts" that trimmed government waste, reformed expensive healthcare programs, and closed lucrative loopholes.

"I don't think the issue right now is raising rates," Obama said in the interview, broadcast live before the Super Bowl football game.

"There is no doubt we need additional revenue, coupled with smart spending reductions in order to bring down our deficit. And we can do it in a gradual way so that it doesn't have a huge impact," he said.

Obama indicated he would seek to end deductions that are not available to all Americans, singling out "carried interest," which refers to the tax rate paid by many private equity managers, venture capital and real estate partnerships.

Obama and many Democrats have repeatedly criticized the tax break as unfair and called for carried interest to be taxed as ordinary income. The tax break was the key reason for the low tax rate paid by Obama's 2012 Republican presidential challenger, former Massachusetts governor and private equity executive Mitt Romney.

"We just want to make sure that the whole system is fair, that it's transparent, and that we're reducing our deficit in a way that doesn't hamper growth," Obama said.