Obama's weekly address

Balancing mounting concerns on Capitol Hill about government spending with those of many Americans about the nation's economic prospects, President Barack Obama used this week's Saturday address to stress the net reduction in domestic spending in the budget he introduced—but also to tout the money he's spending to turn the economy around.

Obama devoted much of his five-minute statement to a litany of the government’s efforts to revive the economy by heading off foreclosures, freeing up the credit markets, and spending nearly $800 billion in additional federal funds over the next two years in order to create jobs. 

But he also emphasized his efforts to control spending.

“It’s… a budget that begins to make the hard choices that we've avoided for far too long — a strategy that cuts where we must and invests where we need,” Obama said in his record remarks. “That's why it reduces discretionary spending for non-defense programs as a share of the economy by more than 10 percent over the next decade — to the lowest level since they began keeping these records nearly half a century ago.”

Obama first highlighted the spending-related statistic, which he did not mention when he announced his budget last month or when he touted it in the radio and video address the following Saturday, earlier this week.

Obama began his remarks by noting that the unemployment rate is now "the highest rate in a quarter century," and that “hardships [are being] experienced personally by millions of Americans who no longer know how they'll pay their bills, or make their mortgage, or raise their families.”

The president—who has faced criticism for being too downbeat in his rhetoric—followed up that glum imagery with vows that the tough times will eventually pass, leading America to “a better day.”

“If we act swiftly and boldly and responsibly, the United States of America will emerge stronger and more prosperous than it was before,” Obama said. “ With every test, each generation has found the capacity to not only endure, but to prosper—to discover great opportunity in the midst of great crisis. That is what we can and must do today.”

At a time when polls show most Americans anything but certain about the nation’s future success, Obama pronounced himself “absolutely confident” that the country will recover.

“I’m confident that at this defining moment, we will prove ourselves worthy of the sacrifice of those who came before us, and the promise of those who will come after,” he said.

A standoff in Congress over spending and earmarks waylaid a planned Thursday vote on a long-delayed $410 billion annual appropriations bill for several government agencies this week. On Friday, Obama signed a stopgap spending bill which will keep the Agriculture, Energy and Homeland Security Departments, as well as others, operating through Wednesday.