Obama Praises Spending Curb; Promises to Fight for Jobs

President Barack Obama said the Senate's move to offset new spending with dollar-for-dollar budget cuts, along with his own proposed freeze on some spending, "will help get us back on track" toward curbing huge federal deficits that potentially threaten markets, drive up interest rates and jeopardize the recovery.

In his weekly radio address Saturday, Obama said reinstating pay-as-you-go budgeting -- a hallmark of the surpluses of the late 1990s -- was a step closer to reducing a budget deficit projected at more than $1 trillion dollars. In his 2011 budget, set for release next week, the president has said he will call for a freeze on all domestic spending not related to national security.

"There are certain core principles our families and businesses follow when they sit down to do their own budgets," Obama said on the radio. "They accept that they can't get everything they want and focus on what they really need. They make tough decisions and sacrifice for their kids."

The president said recent renewed growth in the economy was encouraging, but he reiterated that "job creation will be our number focus in 2010."

The so-called PAYGO budget rule must still be passed by the House of Representatives.