Acting White House Budget Director Jeffrey Zients defended President Obama’s 2013 budget request before the Senate Budget Committee. Republicans on the panel accused the White House of failing to acknowledge the actual amount of federal spending in the budget plan. Committee Chairman Kent Conrad of North Dakota said the President had struck the right balance between economic investments and long term deficit reduction.
Monday, President Obama released his $3.8 Trillion FY2013 Budget proposal.The spending plan projects a deficit of $1.3 trillion dollars this year, and aims to lower it to about $901 billion for 2013 with proposed tax increases on upper income Americans.