WH: Focus should be on budget 'substance'

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ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- President Obama has a budget proposal representing a balanced deficit reduction that Republican House leaders are welcome to consider, the White House said.

During a news briefing aboard Air Force One en route to Minneapolis Monday, White House spokesman Jay Carney criticized House Republicans for passing "highly partisan" budgets that lack "support among the American people."

Obama, Carney said, "has put forward consistently budgets that achieve what the American people overwhelmingly support."

Rather than hone in on deadlines, people should focus on "substance," the spokesman said.

Pressed about Obama missing the deadline for submitting a budget, Carney said, "He has a proposal that the speaker of the House is welcome to take up today or tomorrow as he might wish, which represents balanced deficit reduction."

Carney did not say whether Obama would release a budget before or after his State of the Union next week.