GOP leaders blast Obama’s spending plan

>>> president obama unveiled his new budget plan on monday and with this being an election year, his republican rivals were quick to lash out in opposition. chuck todd is the chief white house correspondent. good morning.

>> reporter: good morning, ann. one giant issue this presidential election may settle is who's going to bear the greatest burden on reducing the large national debt ? the wealthiest of americans or government itself and what you had in the unveiling of the budget was presidential populism versus a republican focus on shrinking government.

>> we've got a choice. we can settle for a country where a few people do really, really well and everybody else struggles to get by. or we can restore an economy where everybody gets a fair shot.

>> reporter: this morning the battle over the president's 2013 budget is under way in washington and on the campaign trail. where the gop is firing away at a budget that proposes almost 4 there a trillion in spending.

>> he looks at where we are right now and is comfortable borrowing $1 trillion a year more than we already spend. this cannot go on. if i'm president, i will cut spending. i will call spending and get us a balanced budget .

>> this budget isn't possible. it's exactly the wrong direction.

>> reporter: the president didn't spend a lot of time on the big numbers in his budget .

>> don't worry, i'll not read it to you. it's long and a lot of numbers.

>> reporter: focusing instead on the new spending ideas, what he calls investments. $350 billion for job creation, $476 billion for transportation and infrastructure rebuilding. and $141 billion for government, research and development .

>> we have to do everything in our power to keep this on track chgt.

>> the president's blueprint does add $1.3 trillion to the national debt this year alone. with the deficit eventually shrinking over the next decade by changing tax laws for corporations and raising taxes on the wealthiest americans . but the white house isn't providing a lot of details on where the new tax revenue the come from beyond promising to end the so-called bush era tax cuts .

>> no, we have not tried to lay out what the exact rates would be.

>> reporter: republicans accuse the president worrying more about the re-election than on the nation's economic situation.

>> preb released a budget that isn't a budget at all. it's a campaign document.

>> somebody asked me if this budget was dead on arrival . no, it's debt on arrival.

>> a couple presidential campaign notes, ann. today we're going to start seeing first ads from the romney superpac. focusing attack ads on newt gingrich and the first ones that we expect to see in michigan on rick santorum .