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Obama Defends Spending Plan

In his weekly radio address Saturday morning, President Obama defended his $3.6 trillion budget proposal. He says the spending plan he sent to Congress this week reflects the priorities of the voters he met on the campaign trail, but he acknowledged not everyone shares those priorities.

While opponents are gearing up for a battle over the budget, Obama said he is, too.

"I didn't come here to do the same thing we've been doing or to take small steps forward, I came to provide the sweeping change that this country demanded when it went to the polls in November," the president said. "That is the change this budget starts to make, and that is the change I'll be fighting for in the weeks ahead."

The spending plan would make big investments in health care, education and clean energy. But the president's plan to finance some initiatives with higher taxes on wealthy Americans and new fees on greenhouse gases has already run into criticism from congressional Republicans.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Scott Horsley is NPR's Chief Economics Correspondent. He reports on ups and downs in the national economy as well as fault lines between booming and busting communities.