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USA Today/ - News, Ter, 03 de Abril de 2012
CLIPPING INTERNACIONAL (Supreme Court)
Obama: GOP budget 'a prescription for
decline'
President Obama issued a scathing attack on Mitt
Romney and the Republican Party today, saying they
support a budget that is "a prescription for decline"
because it would gut such essential programs as
Medicare and education.
The GOP budget "is a Trojan horse," Obama told a
group of news editors. "Disguised as deficit reduction
plans, it is really an attempt to impose a radical vision
on our country."
Obama also called it "thinly veiled social Darwinism,"
benefiting the rich at the expense of the middle class
and the poor.
In another sign that the general election is already
here, Obama accused the Republicans of promoting
more income inequality, while Romney and other GOP
members accused the president of dividing Americans
and ignoring the threat of a crushing federal debt.
Obama mocked "Governor Romney" for describing the
GOP budget -- passed last month by the
Republican-run House -- as "marvelous." Obama
called that "a word you don't often hear when it comes
to describing a budget. ... It's a word you don't often
hear generally."
"Here's what this marvelous budget does," Obama
said, ticking off a list of possible cuts that included
Medicare, Social Security, college aid, early education,
the Federal Aviation Administration and even the
weather service.
Romney and aides said Obama distorted the impact of
a budget designed to promote economic growth that
would reduce the record federal debt that is surging
toward $16 trillion.
"If President Obama is assigning blame for the
country's debt and deficits, he should look no further
than his own budget blueprints," said Romney
spokeswoman Andrea Saul. "After piling on trillions of
dollars in new debt in his first three years in office, the
last thing President Obama is qualified to lecture on is
responsible federal spending."
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., architect of the budget that
House Republicans passed last month, said Obama
"has chosen to distort the truth and divide Americans
in order to distract from his failed record."
Obama also chose "to duck and run" on the debt issue,
Ryan said, adding that the president's proposed
budgets have been "committed to funding ever-higher
government spending by taking more from
hardworking Americans and adding to a crushing
burden of debt."
The president spoke on the same day as the
Wisconsin primary, a race in which Ryan has endorsed
Romney and campaigned with him.
Some highlights from Obama's speech and follow-up
questions:
1:28 p.m. -- What will you do if the Supreme Court
strikes down the health care law, Obama is asked.
Obama defends his comments, saying he can't recall
the Supreme Court striking down such an important
piece of economic legislation since before the New
Deal.
"The burden is on those who would overturn a law like
this," Obama says -- adding that he is confident the
high court will uphold it.
1:21 p.m. -- Responding to a foreign policy question,
Obama says almost all world leaders still regard the
United States as "the one indispensable nation."
Therefore, it's important to get the debt under control -and
he again blasts Republican criticism.
It's not a technical problem -- "the problem is our
politics," Obama says.
1:15 p.m. -- During question time, Obama says the
U.S. fiscal problems can be solved "if we make some
sensible decisions" -- but too many Republicans don't
want to compromise, especially when it comes to
higher taxes on the wealthy.
He notes that Ronald Reagan approved of tax hikes
back in the 1980s -- "He could not get through a
Republican primary today," Obama says of "the
Gipper."
He also chides the press for suggesting there is
"equivalence" in Republican and Democratic
247