Obama touts stimulus, vows to cut spending, debt

RACINE, Wis. - Sensitive to election-year resentment over big government, President Barack Obama declared yesterday he intends to get "our debt and our deficits under control."

With fears alive of a double-dip recession, Obama warned he won't slash spending at the expense of the economic rebound.

"We got it moving again," Obama said of the economy to his town hall audience in this Midwestern city, where unemployment tops 14 percent. "We now have to, in a gradual way, reduce spending . . . but do so in a way that doesn't hurt people. And that is a challenge."

Politically, Obama's challenge is even broader. He is trying to make the case to the nation that the $862-billion stimulus plan prevented disaster and is fueling job growth even while millions are still out of work. And he is doing it at a time when Republicans are pounding him for running up a long-term bill for taxpayers, the same frustration that helped give rise to the tea party movement and that has made the budget deficit a bigger worry for voters across the spectrum.

Seizing on a political opportunity, Obama used his latest getaway from Washington to lash out at Republicans as out of touch with the daily problems of Americans. His agenda was to sharpen the contrast with the opposition party as midterm elections loom and economic anxiety still runs high.

The president jumped all over two recent comments by Republican lawmakers that Democrats are trying to turn into a political liability for the GOP: Texas Rep. Joe Barton's apology to BP for the $20-billion compensation fund the White House pressured the company to set up after the Gulf oil spill, and House Minority Leader John Boehner's recent comment that the financial regulation bill Obama supports amounts to "killing an ant with a nuclear weapon."

"He can't be that out of touch with the struggles of American families," Obama said of Ohio's Boehner. "If he is, then he has to come here to Racine and ask people what they think."

Boehner shot back in a statement: "The president should be focused on solving the problems of the American people - stopping the leaking oil and cleaning up the Gulf, scrapping his job-killing agenda, repealing and replacing ObamaCare - instead of my choice of metaphors."

Obama's comments about debt came amid a national sense of bailout fatigue, with his own economic leadership in question.

"How do we get government spending under control? That's a legitimate question," Obama said. "And whether you're a Democrat, an independent, or a Republican, all of us should be worried about the fact that we have been running the credit card . . . Somebody's going to have to pay that back."