President Barack Obama on Thursday released more details of his $3.5 trillion budget plan, but the White House was quickly on the defensive over some $17 billion in proposed spending cuts.
“A few of the programs we eliminate will produce less than $1 million in savings — and in Washington, I guess that’s considered trivial,” Obama said. “Outside of Washington, that’s still considered a lot of money.”
House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio said Obama’s proposed cuts “don’t go far enough.”
“And they appear to be a diversionary tactic,” he said, “an effort to change the subject away from the unprecedented debt this budget heaps on future generations.”
The $17 billion would be culled from 121 federal programs deemed unworthy or ineffective. The savings would equal 0.5 percent of the budget, or 1.2 percent of next year’s estimated $1.4 trillion deficit.
The documents released Thursday filled in the lines on the budget blueprint Obama submitted earlier this year.
The focus on fiscal restraint was a marked contrast to the administration’s earlier push for a $787 billion economic stimulus plan, a $410 billion omnibus budget bill for the current fiscal year, plus spending programs for foreclosure relief, industry bailouts and more. The president’s budget plan would increase funding for energy, health care and renewable energy. At the same time, Obama has vowed to cut the deficit by half in four years.
“I’ve seen comments today from Republicans that would like to see more cuts. That’s great,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said. “We’d like their support on these $17 billion, and then we’d like to take the next step and cut more.”
Some of the savings would come from items such as shutting down production of the C-17 aircraft, canceling funding for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage program, cutting farm subsidies, ending some scholarship programs and reducing federal travel, among many others.
“We can no longer afford to spend as if deficits don’t matter and waste is not our problem,” Obama said. “We can no longer afford to leave the hard choices for the next budget, the next administration — or the next generation.”
The Obama budget document also reflects political policy shifts — such as cuts in defense programs and increased funding for environmental protection. Republicans in Congress are preparing to release their own proposed budget cuts, and in the meantime presented a largely unified message about the administration’s spending program.
Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, a Republican who withdrew his nomination to be Obama’s commerce secretary over policy disagreements, called $17 billion in cuts “a baby step.”
“It’s as if you took a teaspoon of water out of a bathtub while you left the spigot on at full speed,” Gregg said on the Senate floor.
He added, “It’s as if this were the Gobi Desert or the Sahara Desert, and you came along and you took a few pieces of sand.”
