WASHINTON D.C. (WTAQ) - President Obama unveiled a $3.8 trillion dollar federal budget Monday that would raise taxes on the wealthy and eliminate corporate tax breaks to slash deficits over the next decade. But House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan of Janesville says it's clear that the Democratic president wants to quote, "campaign instead of govern" and "duck the responsibility to tackle this country's fiscal problems." Ryan said he would again propose an alternative budget, similar to what the GOP-controlled House approved last year but the Democratic-controlled Senate rejected. The federal budget is supposed to take effect each October. But observers don't expect a 2013 budget to pass at least until a lame-duck session of Congress after the November elections. That's when lawmakers will have to decide what to do with various spending cuts, as well as the Bush tax cuts that expire at the end of 2012. Meanwhile, Obama's new budget proposes another $300-million for more environmental clean-ups in the Great Lakes region. Congress has appropriated over a billion dollars for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative in the first three years of the Obama presidency. The program is designed to clean-up the most pressing problems on the lakes -- including sewage and toxic pollution, run-off from various sources, and the removals of invasive species.


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