Obama: All have to share budget sacrifice

COLLEGE PARK, Md., July 22 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama told a Maryland audience Friday all Americans, rich and poor, are going to have to share the pain of balancing the budget.

At a "town hall" in the University of Maryland's Ritchie Coliseum in College Park, the president said of the budget deal being worked out with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, "We can't just close our debt crisis by spending cuts alone."

That path means higher medicare co-payments for senior citizens, less job training and "devastating cuts in education."

"If we only did it [the budget deal] with cuts ... then a lot of ordinary people would be hurt and the country as a whole would be hurt," Obama told the friendly crowd. "It's not fair. ... The wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations should do their part as well" to raise government revenue.

The president insisted, "This isn't about punishing wealth. This is about asking people who have benefited most over the last decade to share in the sacrifice."

On the spending side, Obama said, "I'm willing to cut spending on domestic programs, taking them to the lowest level since Dwight Eisenhower [in the 1950s]. I'm willing to cut defense spending ... I'm willing to take on the expense of Medicare and Medicaid so that they will be there ... for the future."

Obama tried to sound an optimistic note about the frequently rocky budget negotiations with Republicans. The administration says if Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling by Aug. 2, the government may have to default on its debts, raising the costs of borrowing for everyone and making the debt crisis worse.

"We can pass a balanced [spending cut and revenue raising] plan like this," he said. "It isn't going to make everyone happy. In fact it's going to make everyone a little unhappy. ... But we can do it in a balanced way ... that doesn't put the burden on just one group.

"The only people we have to convince is some people in the House of Representatives. We're still working on them. In 2008, Americans chose a divided government, but they didn't choose a dysfunctional government."

Some, including former President Bill Clinton, assert the president can raise the debt ceiling on his own without congressional approval, using little-known Section 5 of the 14th Amendment. The section emphasizes the validity of the federal debt and says Congress must honor it.

"I have talked to my lawyers" about the section, Obama said. "They're not persuaded that that is a winning argument."