Obama takes deficit plan to the people

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama began a national tour on behalf of his deficit-reduction strategy yesterday before a friendly audience just across the Potomac River, delivering a message of reassurance and warning to rally support for a set of political priorities likely to define his re-election effort.

Before several hundred people at Northern Virginia Community College in Fairfax County, Va., Obama said he was "hopeful" Republicans and Democrats would set aside partisan rancor to trim $4 trillion from the budget over the next dozen years, a figure he said both sides agree is necessary to change the country's fiscal path and protect the economy.

But Obama tempered his optimism with a populist warning designed to bring the concerned students, teachers and others gathered inside the auditorium off the sidelines for the fight ahead, not only over fiscal policy but also Obama's own re-election effort that he has tied tightly to that debate.

"There are powerful voices in Washington, there are powerful lobbies and special interests in Washington. And they're going to want to reduce the deficit on your backs," Obama said. "And if you are not heard, that's exactly what's going to happen."

The town-hall-style event was the first of three Obama is scheduled to do this week, all on the theme of the country's poor fiscal health and his plan to change it. He leaves today for California, where he will hold a forum at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, and then to Reno, Nev.

The challenge Obama faces in selling his plan -- and, by extension, his reason for re-election -- is evident in his sinking approval rating weighed down largely by enduring public pessimism over the economy.

In the past week, Obama has argued that his deficit-reduction strategy is vital to the long-term health of the economy, a point he made several times at the Northern Virginia town hall. Taking off his suit jacket and stalking the stage with mic in hand, Obama appeared at ease, even as he repeatedly defied his promise to keep his answers short.

His populist message aimed squarely at the middle class -- whether in attempting to feel its pain over rising gas prices or pledging to preserve Social Security for the coming generations -- amounted to an early rehearsal of the argument he will be making in the months ahead for why he deserves a second term.

Republicans have labeled that emerging platform as a burdensome government agenda at a time of fiscal and economic hardship at home.

In a statement after Obama's appearance, Rep. Eric Cantor, the House Republican leader from Virginia, said, "The last thing working families and small businessmen and women in the Commonwealth need is a tax hike courtesy of President Obama, especially at a time when jobs must be our focus.

"The President's plan to increase taxes is a direct assault on job creation and innovation that could throw our economy in reverse," Cantor said.