U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that the top priority for the nation is to bolster economic growth and create jobs for the middle class, warning that drastic government spending cuts will hurt U.S. economic recovery.
At a White House press conference, Obama argued that the looming
automatic government spending cuts is not helpful to U.S. economic
recovery and job creation.
"Our top priority must be to do everything we can to grow the
economy and create good middle-class jobs. That's our top priority.
That's our North Star," Obama stressed.
Obama urged U.S. lawmakers to take appropriate action to ink a
balanced deficit reduction plan in order to avoid onerous cuts in
government outlays scheduled to kick in on March 1.
Roughly 85 billion U.S. dollars of spending cuts were set to hit
various U.S. governmental departments this year starting on March 1,
as agreed by Democrats and Republicans in January to resolve the so-
called "fiscal cliff."
"That's why it's so troubling that just 10 days from now,
Congress might allow a series of automatic, severe budget cuts to
take place that will do the exact opposite," he noted.
U.S. lawmakers haven't come together to find a balanced debt
reduction deal, so as a consequence the federal government will get
the automatic "brutal" spending cuts poised to happen next Friday,
Obama charged.
If Congress allows this "meat cleaver" approach to take place, it
will jeopardize U.S. military readiness and hamper job-creating
investments in education, energy and medical research, he reiterated
the message unveiled in his State of the Union address earlier this
month.
