President defends $3.7T budget plan, urges patience on big reforms

President Obama defended his $3.7 trillion budget plan on Tuesday from criticism that it would do little to trim the deficit. 

In his first news conference of 2011, Obama pleaded for patience on the deficit and said the fact that his budget request did not include entitlement reforms backed by his own debt commission does not mean the fiscal panel’s ideas have been cast aside. 

He argued that reducing a deficit projected to be more than $1.6 trillion this year cannot be done overnight. 

{mosads}”You guys are pretty impatient,” he told reporters. “[Your attitude is] if it doesn’t happen today, it’s never going to happen.”

Pressed on why his budget did not adopt the major recommendations of his fiscal commission, Obama said that the plan still provides a framework for debate. 

“The notion that it has been shelved, I think is incorrect” Obama said. “It still provides a framework for the conversation.”

Obama spoke to reporters one day after presenting a budget that the White House claims would cut the deficit by $1.1 trillion over the next decade.

“We are not going to be running up the credit card anymore,” Obama insisted.

Republicans gave the budget proposal a brutal reception, arguing that it included too many tax increases and relied on gimmicks to reach $1.1 trillion in cuts, including a too-rosy assessment of how fast the economy would grow.

Non-partisan budget groups noted that the $1.1 trillion the administration claimed would be trimmed from the budget falls far short of the nearly $4 trillion in cuts recommended by the debt commission in December.

Obama, for his part, continued the White House messaging effort that presents the president’s proposal as a more responsible way of getting the budget deficit under control than what Republicans are offering.

“What we have done is taken a scalpel to the discretionary budget. Not a machete,” Obama said.

Obama and House Republicans are nearing a showdown over spending, with the GOP pressing for much deeper cuts to discretionary spending this year than Obama supports. 

The stark differences have many thinking the impasse may lead to a government shutdown, but Obama expressed confidence Tuesday that he can strike a budget deal that addresses the nation’s long-term debt.

“This is going to be a process in which each side in both chambers in Congress [sit down] and whittle their differences down and have something that has a chance of passage. And that’s my goal. My goal is to get something done,” he said in a press conference at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. 

“This is not a matter of you go first or I go first. This is a matter of everyone having a conversation of where we want to go … then getting in the boat at the same time so it doesn’t tip over,” he added.

Senate Republicans sent an e-mail blast following Obama’s remarks, disputing his claim that by the middle of the decade, government spending will match revenue and the national debt will not increase under his plan. 

The GOP “fact check” cites an ABC report that says “at no point in the president’s 10-year projection would the U.S. government spend less than it is taking in.”

House Republicans blasted Obama for “failing to lead” on the country’s fiscal woes with his budget proposal and said their budget proposal, which is due in March or April, will include serious entitlement reform.

“Our budget will lead where the President has failed, and it will include real entitlement reforms so that we can have a conversation with the American people about the challenges we face and the need to chart a new path to prosperity,” House GOP leaders said in a joint statement.

Obama said that he continues to have conversations with leaders in both parties about the budget, tax and entitlement reforms. He acknowledged they are likely to “rally the troops” by engaging in media posturing, including talk of a government shutdown. But the president said a deal would be reached as the result of quieter, behind-the-scenes talks.

“Ultimately, what we need is a reasonable, responsible and initially probably somewhat quiet and toned-down conversation about, ‘all right, where can we compromise and get something done,'” he said. 

Obama revealed part of his thinking on the path to entitlement reform, saying that Medicare and Medicaid need more drastic changes than Social Security.

“The truth is that Social Security is not the huge contributor to the deficit that the other two entitlements are,” he said. “I think we can avoid slashing benefits” while keeping it solvent in the long-term.”

The healthcare reform law, Obama said, represented a “down payment” on Medicare and Medicaid reform, which he called “the main drivers” of the budget problem.

“I am prepared to work with Democrats and Republicans to start dealing with that in a serious way,” he said

Obama’s budget request was also criticized by some liberal groups and Democrats who disliked the cuts he proposed to community grants, heating-oil assistance and some education programs. Obama responded that his budget contains cuts to programs he supported, but that he needs to put the government’s spending on a more “sustainable” path. 

“I understand people’s frustration with some of these decisions,” he said. “Look, I definitely feel folks’ pain.”

This story was posted at 11:36 a.m. and updated at 1:23 p.m. and 2:27 p.m.