President Barack Obama vowed on Saturday to stick to the big-ticket items in his budget proposal but acknowledged that dollar amounts would "undoubtedly change" as Congress prepared to take up his record spending plan. Trying to refocus attention from the AIG bonus scandal that has drawn public outrage, Obama stepped up defense of his $3.55 trillion budget for fiscal 2010, a linchpin of his efforts to rescue the ailing economy from the worst crisis in decades. "It's an economic blueprint for our future, a vision of America where growth is not based on real estate bubbles or over-leveraged banks, but on a firm foundation of investments in energy, education and health care that will lead to a real and lasting prosperity," Obama said in his weekly radio address. Taking on his critics, Obama said: "These investments are not a wish list of priorities that I picked out of thin air. "They are a central part of a comprehensive strategy to grow this economy by attacking the very problems that have dragged it down for too long: the high cost of health care and our dependence on foreign oil, our education deficit and our fiscal deficit." He urged lawmakers to act with a sense of urgency, saying "the challenges we face are too large to ignore."
