Obama Defends Push to Cut Tax Deductions for Charitable Gifts

Administration officials said the proposal should be considered within the totality of the budget. The policy change would help finance efforts to reform the nation's health-care system, said Kenneth Baer, a spokesman for budget director Peter Orszag.

"Generally what keeps people giving is economic growth, increasing incomes and increasing prosperity, and in totality that's what this budget would do," Baer said. "This change is going to fund health-care reform, and constraining those costs is the single biggest thing we can do to put our country on a sustainable fiscal path and get this country going."