White Board: OMB Director Jack Lew on the President’s Budget

Winning the Future

To win the future, we have to out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world, tapping the creativity and imagination of our people. We have to take responsibility for our deficit, by investing in what makes America stronger and cutting what doesn’t. And we have to reform our government so that it’s smarter, leaner, and better able to take on the challenges of the 21^st century.

Explore an interactive graph showing how the budget breaks down

View an interactive breakdown of where your tax dollars go in the Federal budget.

Responsibility

We have to work together to make the hard choices necessary to control our deficit so we can afford necessary investments in our future. The Budget includes more than $1 trillion in deficit reduction – two-thirds of it from cuts -- and puts the nation on a path toward fiscal sustainability so that by the middle of the decade, the government will be paying for what it spends and debt will no longer be increasing as a share of the economy.

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Education

The United States has fallen from first to ninth in college graduation. To win the future, we must out-educate our global competitors by training 100,000 new STEM teachers, expanding the President’s Race to the Top program and making college more affordable.

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Innovation

Investing in American innovation and ingenuity is crucial to winning the jobs and industries of the future. That’s why President Obama has called for the highest level of investment in basic research and development since President Kennedy and challenged America’s scientists and engineers to develop better clean energy technologies.

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Build

To compete in the global marketplace, we must have the fastest, most reliable ways to move people, goods, and information. From building our crumbling infrastructure, to connecting 80% of Americans to high-speed rail and 98% of Americans to high-speed Internet, President Obama has laid a clear path toward winning the future by out-building our competitors.

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Reform

Government has a role to play in protecting American families, but there are areas where it can do that work more efficiently. Making government stronger, faster, and more transparent will cut waste and provide better services for citizens.

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