Belt-tightening British leader defends Obama investment plans

British Prime Minister David Cameron said in an interview aired Sunday that the U.S. needs to tackle its deficit, but doesn’t necessarily need to take the austerity route of belt-tightening that his Conservative-Liberal coalition is moving forward with.

Cameron has detailed plans for what will be the toughest budget cuts in Europe, saving 80 billion pounds over four years to bring down the budget deficit.

On CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” the British leader was asked whether President Obama should adopt that approach in tackling a nearly $1.5 trillion projected deficit.

Obama has stressed investment spending in science, technology and infrastructure as key to moving forward and out of the red.

“First of all, America is different. America has a reserve currency. Britain’s not in that situation – the first point,” Cameron said.

“The second point is that America is looking at reducing its deficit and obviously has to do that. I was just talking with [Treasury Secretary] Tim Geithner on the way to this interview who made exactly that point,” he said. “So, there are differences but similarities.”

Cameron said that means “both countries recognize they have to clean up their banks and deal with that.”

But he said that innovation was part of the greater picture.

“Even as we’re making cuts in Britain, we’re protecting the science budget, we’re boosting the number of apprenticeships, we’re cutting welfare roles so actually we can put money into transport infrastructure and improving the productive capacity of the economy,” Cameron said. “So, even while we’re making cuts, we’re doing it in a way that supports growth.”