Obama: Budget reflects campaign promises

President Obama on Saturday urged Congress to adopt his budget request, which he said delivers on his campaign promises.

Speaking in his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama said his $3.55 trillion budget proposal would fundamentally change the status quo in Washington.

“The system we have now might work for the powerful and well-connected interests that have run Washington for far too long, but I don’t,” he said. “I work for the American people. I didn’t come here to do the same thing we’ve been doing or to take small steps forward, I came to provide the sweeping change that this country demanded when it went to the polls in November. That is the change this budget starts to make, and that is the change I’ll be fighting for in the weeks ahead.”

{mosads}Obama delivered an outline of his budget priorities to Congress on Thursday. The outline reveals significantly different priorities than former President Bush’s administration, including a healthcare initiative funded primarily by nearly $1 trillion in new taxes on the wealthiest Americans.

Obama said that the budget request shows he is following through on his campaign promises. On healthcare, he said, he “promised to bring down the crushing cost of healthcare – a cost that bankrupts one American every thirty seconds.”

“This budget keeps that promise,” he said, “with a historic commitment to reform that will lead to lower costs and quality, affordable healthcare for every American.”

The request also reflects other priorities that he campaigned on including education reform and energy independence, Obama said. “I promised an economy run on clean, renewable energy that will create new American jobs, new American industries, and free us from the dangerous grip of foreign oil,” he said. “This budget puts us on that path.”

Obama noted that his economic plan calls for a tax cut for 95 percent of Americans and emphasized the economic recession his administration inherited. The budget deficit is currently $1.3 trillion, and Obama’s budget forecasts that rising to $1.75 trillion for the 2009 fiscal year. Obama recently vowed to cut in half the current deficit by the end of his first term.

“Given this reality, we’ll have to be more vigilant than ever in eliminating the programs we don’t need in order to make room for the investments we do need,” Obama said. “I promised to do this by going through the federal budget page by page, and line by line.  That is a process we have already begun, and I am pleased to say that we’ve already identified two trillion dollars worth of deficit-reductions over the next decade.”

Ultimately, Obama said the people have called for the type of change his budget prescribes.

“That is the change I promised as a candidate for president,” he said. “It is the change the American people voted for in November. And it is the change represented by the budget I sent to Congress this week.”