Obama is seeking a safeguard option to spend US$250 billion (S$385 billion) more to rescue the US financial industry. -- PHOTO: AP
WASHINGTON - PRESIDENT Barack Obama takes a first step toward national health care on Thursday when he presents his first budget, a document that also includes an additional US$250 billion (S$385 billion) - if needed - to rescue America's troubled banks.
The $3 trillion-plus spending blueprint will be closely studied for clues on how the new president plans divvy up taxpayer money in the midst of the most severe US economic slide in decades.
BUDGET documents provided to AP show that Mr Obama will not lay out a detailed blueprint for a health care overhaul, but rather a set of broad policy principles and some specific ideas for how to raise a big chunk of the money.
Whatever Congress does, the documents said, 'must put the United States on a clear path to cover all Americans.' Mr Obama has called on Congress to send him a health care reform bill this year.
WASHINGTON - PRESIDENT Barack Obama's proposed budget unveiled on Thursday projects an economic contraction of 1.2 per cent in calendar 2009 and growth of 3.2 per cent in 2010.
The budget outline proposed to Congress anticipates an acceleration of growth to 4.0 per cent in 2011 and 4.6 per cent in 2012.
WASHINGTON - US PRESIDENT Barack Obama said on Thursday that 'hard choices lie ahead' as he prepared to unveil his first federal budget since taking office five weeks ago.
'This budget is an honest accounting of where we are and where we intend to go,' he told reporters before rolling out later in the day a budget that will forecast the biggest US deficit since World War Two.
While already gearing up to pump hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy through emergency spending, Mr Obama also has vowed to slash the nation's $1 trillion-plus debt by 2013, the end of his term.
A senior administration official discussed the spending plan Wednesday, saying Mr Obama foresees a need for $634 billion over 10 years as a 'down payment' on health care reform.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the budget release, said Mr Obama's proposal aimed to start a dialogue with Congress on establishing national health care in one of the last western countries that does not provide it to all citizens.
Mr Obama also has been hammering on the need to slow the rapid increase in medical costs - now at $2.4 trillion a year.
On Thursday, another top official told The Associated Press that Mr Obama's spending outline holds out the possibility of needing $250 billion more to save the financial industry. That is in addition to the $700 billion already authorised by Congress.
The administration felt it would be prudent to ask for additional resources, the official said, to deal with the financial crisis. He called the request a 'placeholder' while the Treasury Department tallies what extra spending actually will be needed.
Obama submits the budget two days after his first speech to a joint session of Congress, where he argued for health care reform and development of alternative energy resources despite the huge drag on US resources because of emergency spending to save the economy and financial systems. -- AP
