Obama: Republican budget would shrink opportunity

House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., presides over a markup session where House Republicans are are pressing ahead with a slashing plan to try to balance the budget within 10 years, relying on big decreases in health care programs for the middle class and the poor, as well as tax hikes and Medicare cuts engineered by President Barack Obama. Ryan is flanked by Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., right, the ranking member, and Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, lower left.
House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., presides over a markup session where House Republicans are are pressing ahead with a slashing plan to try to balance the budget within 10 years, relying on big decreases in health care programs for the middle class and the poor, as well as tax hikes and Medicare cuts engineered by President Barack Obama. Ryan is flanked by Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., right, the ranking member, and Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, lower left.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says the Republican budget proposal would shrink opportunity and make it tougher for hard-working Americans to get ahead.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama says House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan's budget gives massive tax cuts to the rich while cutting programs like education and research that spur job growth. The president says Republicans would also take away insurance from 7 million who enrolled through his health care law and would gut financial protections.

Obama says his own plan grows the economy from the middle out instead of the top down.

In the Republican address, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina says federal job-training programs are too scattered, bureaucratic and inefficient. He says Democrats should support Republican legislation to streamline the programs.


Online:

Obama address: http://www.whitehouse.gov

Republican address: http://www.youtube.com/user/gopweeklyaddress