He also made the very important point that you can grow the economy and strengthen the middle class, and reduce our deficits in a responsible way. You can do both. That’s what he has been doing. As you know, he signed into law $2.5 trillion in deficit reduction, two-thirds of that coming from spending cuts. And the budget he presents today would further reduce the deficit over 10 years by more than $1.8 trillion.

I have with me today four members, top members of the President’s team to discuss the budget with you. I will begin with Jeff Zients, who is the Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget. He will then introduce the other participants, and I will remain to field your questions after they make their presentations.

Thank you.

MR. ZIENTS: Thanks, Jay. And good afternoon, everybody. I’m going to do a quick overview of the major components of deficit reduction and the budget, and then I’m going to turn it to Alan to review the economic assumptions, and Gene and Cecilia to walk us through some of the investments and other policy highlights.

As Jay said, the main message of the President’s budget is that we can make critical investments that strengthen the middle class, create jobs, and grow the economy while continuing to reduce the deficit in a balanced way. We can do both balanced deficit reduction and jobs investments.

On the left hand side, in terms of balanced deficit reduction, the budget builds off the deficit reduction achieved to date, and it includes the President’s fiscal cliff compromise offer to Speaker Boehner from last December. Importantly, the budget replaces the indiscriminate cuts of the sequester with balanced deficit reduction. So it turns the sequester off.

At the same time, the President’s budget proposes important job investments to enhance economic growth through skills and competitiveness and in investments in education and R&D. All of these investments are fully paid for, so the investments do not add a dime to the deficit.

On deficit reduction, over the past couple of years, Democrats and Republicans have worked together to cut the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion. Here’s the breakdown of deficit reduction achieved to date: The Budget Control Act capped discretionary spending, saving over $1 trillion. Another $370 billion in savings through 2011 appropriations. The end of last year’s fiscal cliff agreement reduced the deficit by more than $600 billion.

Source: White House Press Office