President Obama, in a spirited attack on Republicans, methodically took apart the House-passed budget of Rep. Paul Ryan R-Wis., point by point, calling the spending cuts draconian. He detailed how the plan would cut into everything from air traffic control to research programs to border patrol.
"Instead of moderating their views even slightly, the Republicans running Congress right now have doubled down and proposed a budget so far to the right it makes the 'Contract with America' look like 'The New Deal'," Obama said.
For the first time in an official speech Obama named his presumptive opponent in the fall, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and laid out his own campaign agenda. His speech struck a defiant tone, making his election pitch to middle class voters grappling with a still-recovering economy.
"This isn't a budget supported by some small group in the Republican Party. This is now the party's governing platform. This is what they're running on. One of my potential opponents, Governor Romney, has said that he hoped a similar version of this plan from last year would be introduced as a bill on day one of his presidency," Obama said. "He (Romney) said that he's very supportive of this new budget. And he even called it 'marvelous', which is a word you don't often hear when it comes to describing a budget."
Later, Obama called the GOP budget "a Trojan horse. Disguised as a deficit-reduction plan, it's really an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country. It's nothing but thinly veiled social Darwinism."
"It's antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward mobility for everyone who's willing to work for it _ a place where prosperity doesn't trickle down from the top, but grows outward from the heart of the middle class."
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