The White House communications operation has expended considerable effort over the past week to portray President Obama as serious about dealing with debt and deficits. Most of their scrambling came after House Budget chairman Paul Ryan presented a 2012 budget blueprint that included significant entitlement reform proposals. A White House statement noted the president “strongly disagrees” with many of the particulars of Ryan’s plan, and so today the president is presenting his own ideas.

At a press conference on February 15, the day after the president released the first version of his budget, Obama defended his 2012 budget proposal and deflected criticism that his unwillingness to tackle entitlement reform demonstrated a lack of leadership. The president cannot solve these problems on his own, Obama argued. “We’re going to have to have a spirit of cooperation between Democrats and Republicans. And I think that’s possible. I think that’s what the American people are looking for.”