Obama: `Hard Choices` Ahead On US Budget

`This budget is an honest accounting of where we are and where we intend to go,` Obama told reporters.

 U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday that "hard choices lie ahead" as he prepared to unveil his first federal budget since taking office five weeks ago.

"This budget is an honest accounting of where we are and where we intend to go," Obama told reporters before rolling out later in the day a budget that will forecast the biggest U.S. deficit since World War Two.

He said his budget would save billions of dollars by rolling back tax cuts for the wealthy introduced by his predecessor, Republican George W. Bush.