Obama Meets With Dems to Push Budget

President Obama visited Capitol Hill today for a closed-door meeting with Senate Democrats to push for his budget plan. As Senate and House panels began debating their own versions, Obama urged Democrats to retain his budget's core principles on health care, energy, education, and deficit reduction. He also asked them to fight back against Republican attacks that he's spending too much, reports Politico.

“It was vintage Obama," said Harry Reid. "He made us all feel content and inspired by where we need to go.” One early disagreement: Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad says he won't enact Obama's middle-class tax cut beyond 2010 unless it's offset with spending cuts. The White House acknowledged differences in the House and Senate plans: “The resolutions may not be identical twins to what the president submitted, but they are certainly brothers that look an awful lot alike,” said budget chief Peter Orszag.

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