US alone cannot be the engine of global economic growth: Obama

"In the first G-20 visit that I made in April (last year), to England, I was very clear to the rest of the world that what they cannot rely on is an economic model in which the United States borrows, consumers in the United States borrow -- we take out home equity loans; we run up credit cards -- to purchase good from all around the world," Obama said at a joint White House Press availability with the visiting British Prime Minister David Cameron.

"We cannot alone be the economic engine for the rest of the world's growth. So that rebalancing ended up being a central part of our long-term strategy working with the G-20," Obama said in response to a question.

Economy was one of the major topics of discussions between the two leaders.
"Now, what we've done is, we've initiated a freeze on our domestic discretionary budget. We are on the path to cutting our deficits in half. We have put forward a fiscal commission that is then going to examine, how do we deal with these broader structural deficits? So this isn't just an empty promise. We've already started taking steps to deal with it. And we're going to be very aggressive in how we deal with it," he said.
Obama said his administration is squarely committed not just to dealing with the short-term deficit and debt, which in some ways is the least troubling aspect of this problem.

"What we're going to have to tackle are some big structural reforms that are going to be tough, and they're going to be that much tougher because we're coming out of a recession as we do it," he said.

"As we continue to see economic growth, as we continue to see the economy heal from last year, that the American people are going to want to approach this problem in a serious, realistic way. We owe it for the next generation. My hope is, is that we're going to end up getting a bipartisan solution to this thing that is realistic," he said.
"One concern that I have, obviously, is the politics of deficits and debt. When I announced that I was in favor of this fiscal commission, at the time I had a number of Republicans who were cosponsors of the legislation who suddenly reversed themselves because, I suppose, I supported it," Obama said.