WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama called on both Republicans and Democrats to help shape the 2010 budget Tuesday, saying he wants ideas from both sides.

“We don’t need point-scoring, we need problem solving,” Obama said.  He said that members of Congress should offer constructive suggestions for his budget proposal rather than just criticizing.  “‘Just say no’ is the right advice to give your teenagers about drugs.  It is not an acceptable response to whatever economic policy is proposed by the other party.”

Obama, wearing a green tie to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, called his proposed budget an “economic blueprint for our future” that the budget would usher in a new era of responsibility by investing in education, clean energy and healthcare. 

“We can’t go back to a bubble economy,” Obama cautioned, adding that the “shenanigans on Wall Street” must be stopped and the government must stop spending more than it takes in to solve the economic crisis. 

Addressing criticism that proposed spending programs would raise taxes, he stressed that his budget proposal would not raise taxes for families earning less than $250,000 a year “by a single penny.”