The Hill News

President Obama urged caution by lawmakers looking to cut the budget, urging them to mirror the delicate precision of a surgeon's scalpel.

The president said it was important to be careful in determining which programs would face the chopping block, especially as Republicans in the House have expressed eagerness at rolling back spending levels and eliminating government programs.

"We want to cut with a scalpel as opposed to a chainsaw," Obama cautioned in an interview with YouTube, broadcast live on the White House's website.

The president sent a signal that he'd prefer to be more selective in identifying programs for cuts or elimination, rather than roll back spending at all levels, as GOP lawmakers have proposed. He said that items like community action grants, for example, were helpful enough to not merit elimination.

Obama proposed a five-year freeze on discretionary, domestic spending in Tuesday's State of the Union add! ress, a move that would save $400 billion over the course of the next decade.

But while the Senate's top Democrat embraced that proposal, the top Republicans in the House and Senate have dismissed it as inadequate. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and the GOP-held House have said they intend to authorize a budget that rolls back spending to 2008 levels instead, as a starting point.

Obama still has wiggle room to n! egotiate with the GOP, and he wouldn't get specific on Thursda! y about which programs he'd like to cut.

"We're going to be announcing our budget, so I don't want to put too much details now," he said in the video.