WASHINGTON - The Obama administration will propose a new budget that will reduce the federal deficit by $1.1 trillion in 10 years by cutting many popular programs but said Sunday that steeper reductions proposed by Republicans were unwise.
President Obama's budget for 2012 will propose a wide array of cuts in domestic spending, including to home-heating programs, community-development projects and other efforts. Holds on federal pay raises and a five-year spending freeze also will be proposed in the budget, said Jacob Lew, the president's budget director, in a CNN interview Sunday.
The budget will be formally presented to Congress on Monday.
But Republicans plan to press ahead with plans for steep cuts in 2011 spending and will seek larger cuts than those sought by Obama.
House Speaker John Boehner repeatedly declined Sunday to rule out a government shutdown if Congress and the Obama administration can't agree on a spending plan.
Congress needs to pass a temporary budget resolution by early March to keep the government operating.
But lawmakers also are under pressure to authorize an increase in the government's debt limit, and some conservative Republicans have said the debt ceiling shouldn't be raised unless substantial budget cuts are made.
Boehner, appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," said his goal was "to reduce spending, not to shut down the government."
But when asked repeatedly if he would rule out a shutdown, Boehner declined to take that option off the table.
"Our goal is not to shut down the government," Boehner said. "It's time to cut spending."
Boehner also criticized Obama's blueprint for the 2012 budget, saying that it's "going to continue to destroy jobs by spending too much, borrowing too much and taxing too much."
Boehner dismissed a five-year freeze on discretionary spending included in the Obama budget as inadequate because it was preceded by two previous budgets with large spending increases. "Locking in that level of spending is way too much," Boehner said.
Congress never approved Obama's budget proposal for 2011, so spending has continued at previous levels.
Obama's budget also calls for increases in funding for selected education and infrastructure program as part of what the president calls an effort to "win the future" by making the nation more competitive.
Boehner mocked that approach. "This isn't winning the future," he said. "This is spending the future."
Another key House Republican, Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, of Wisconsin, chided Obama for not tackling entitlement spending, which makes up about 85% of the budget.
Referring to Obama's appointment of a commission to study entitlement spending, Ryan, appearing on Fox News Sunday, said, "Presidents are elected to lead, not to punt."
Obama's budget plan includes cuts to programs favored by Democrats. Lew, who is director of the Office of Management and Budget, described it as "a very difficult budget" involving substantial trade-offs.
"We're beyond the easy, low-hanging fruit, to say that it's all waste and fraud," Lew said.
"We are reducing programs that are important programs that we care about," Lew said. "We're doing what every family does when it sits around its kitchen table; we're making the choice about what do we need for the future."