Republicans quickly derided the president's proposal.
"When the president reached out to ask us to attend his speech, we were expecting an olive branch," said House Budget Committee Chairman Paul D. Ryan (R., Wis.). "Instead, his speech was excessively partisan, dramatically inaccurate, and hopelessly inadequate to address our fiscal crisis."
House Republicans plan a vote Friday on their alternative to the Obama plan.
The high-stakes policy and political battle now under way reflects the high levels of national debt - nearing $14.3 trillion and growing - as well as public concern over the issue and a looming political test of wills over raising the nation's debt ceiling so that the federal government does not default on its obligations to its creditors.
While economists and independent budget experts criticize both parties' plans as thin on details, they said the parameters of the national debate were taking shape.
The president, speaking at George Washington University in the capital, called on Congress to agree to some variation of his plan by the end of June.
He also accused Republicans of plotting to gut the "basic social compact" of entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security in the name of fiscal responsibility.
To hit his new deficit-reduction target of $4 trillion by 2023, Obama would raise $1 trillion in new tax revenue from wealthy individuals. He would also end the Bush-era tax cuts for the top 2 percent of American earners - but not the middle class - at the end of next year.
Republicans, including House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio returned from a meeting at the White House with Obama before his speech saying they were all for cooperation but won't consider any tax increases.
