US fiscal situation unsustainable: Obama

US President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign-style town hall meeting at the headquarters of Facebook in Palo Alto, California

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/176083.html

US President Barack Obama says his country faces "unsustainable" financial situation amid concerns over Washington's failure to tackle the national debt and budget deficit.

Obama, who has kicked off his 2012 re-election campaign, made the remark during a meeting at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, California, where he struggled to convince the audience that his deficit reduction plan can solve the financial woes of Americans, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

"We have an unsustainable situation," said Obama, adding that "We face a critical time where we are going to have to make some decisions -- how do we bring down the debt in the short term, and how do we bring down the debt over the long term?”

On April 13, Obama unveiled a wide-ranging deficit reduction plan aimed at slashing the country's budget shortfall by $4 trillion within 12 years by curbing domestic spending and reducing excess health care expenditures.

This is while the White House and House Republicans have offered separate plans to reduce cumulative budget deficits by $4 trillion, over 12 years and 10 years respectively.

The US budget shortage hit a record $1.65 trillion this year --10.9 percent of GDP -- according to figures in Obama's 2012 budget.

US Standard & Poor's rating agency said last week that the agency's attitude toward America's overall economic condition has changed from "stable" to "negative," mainly due to lawmakers' inability to reach a consensus over the budget crisis.

According to a recent poll by American Research Group, 53 percent of Americans disapprove of Obama's performance, up from 47 percent in March. This is while 42 percent of respondents stated that they approve of Obama's job performance.