The president will host a "fiscal responsibility summit" at the White House on Monday and will give a prime-time speech to Congress on Tuesday before unveiling a budget overview Thursday.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed that the administration pegs the current deficit at $1.3 trillion, or 9.2% of the overall economy, and projects that in four years the deficit will be down to $533 billion, or 3% of the economy as measured by the gross domestic product.

"The budget will cut the deficit that the president inherited upon assuming office at least in half by the end of his first term," said Kenneth Baer, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget.

Obama's 2010 budget includes plans for defense cuts — including a rollback of the Iraq war — and ending the Bush administration's high-income tax cuts, the Associated Press reported Sunday.

It would be amazing if he can pull it off. Rolling back the tax cuts won't even dent the deficit, so he's got his work cut out for him.

Are you guys on crack? All he has to do to cut the deficit in half is let the stimulus expire (which it is supposed to anyway in 3 years). Of course it's doable; the point is that even cutting deficit in half would mean we're adding $600 billion to the debt each year.