Obama will criss-cross the country next week to sell his deficit-reduction plan

President Obama will hold a series of public events next week designed to sell his deficit-reduction plan to the public. 

{mosads}Obama will hold town-hall meetings in Northern Virginia, at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., and Reno, Nev. The events will be held on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. 

In a major speech Wednesday, the president laid out his plan to slash $4 trillion from the federal budget deficit in 12 years through a combination of spending cuts and tax hikes.

Obama took heavy flak for his plan from Republicans, who called the effort unserious. The president during his speech flatly rejected the House GOP’s budget plan, which cuts $6.2 trillion over the next decade, saying it focuses too heavily on spending cuts and guts popular entitlement programs such as Medicare.

The three-day trip comes as Obama is ramping up his reelection efforts. He kicked off his fundraising push for 2012 with a series of events in Chicago on Thursday that reportedly netted him $2 million. He will also hold a fundraising event in San Francisco on Wednesday and in Los Angeles on Thursday.