“The two budget proposals now in Congress present Americans with a choice even starker than the one between the presidential candidates last year,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“Under the 10-year budget plan released by House Republicans this week, tax rates would fall for high-income Americans and corporations, defense spending would be bolstered, and more than 30 million uninsured people would lose access to government-backed healthcare. Food stamps, student loans and free school lunches for children would be cut.”

“The Senate Democrats’ plan, released Wednesday, would increase taxes on the wealthy and some corporations, cut the Pentagon budget and add $100 billion in highway and school construction spending. Their plan would make modest reductions in healthcare and other domestic programs.”

Wonk Wire‘s “chart of the day” highlights the differences between the two budgets.

House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) hit back at President Obama for saying he doesn’t put a priority on achieving a balanced budget, The Hill reports.

Said McCarthy: “How can a president not want to balance the budget? How does he forgot what he said? One of his first goals in the first four years was to cut the deficit in half. Now he doesn’t care. He doesn’t even produce a budget. I’ll bet you this. I bet you he spends more time filling out his March Madness brackets than he does writing a budget.”

“Ultimately, it may be that the differences are just too wide.”

— President Obama, quoted by the New York Times, suggesting a “grand bargain” with Republicans to reduce the national debt may not be possible.

President Obama’s meeting “with a restive and resistant House Republican majority on Wednesday underscored their deep divisions over fiscal policy as both sides acknowledged that an overarching budget compromise was in doubt despite a new push by the White House,” the New York Times reports.

“The hourlong discussion at the Capitol, and the release of a new budget by Senate Democrats on Wednesday that adds $100 billion in new stimulus spending and would impose higher taxes on large corporations and wealthy Americans, illustrated anew just how difficult it will be to resolve the issues that have split the Congress for years and created a perpetual cycle of deadline-driven short-term fiscal policy.”

Roll Call notes a key reason: “GOP leaders immediately shut the door on any compromises that would include new taxes.”

The Washington Post notes another: “While Democratic leaders are offering quiet support for Obama’s renewed campaign to strike a grand bargain with Republicans that would include cuts to Social Security and Medicare, a significant number of Democratic lawmakers are digging in their heels and vowing to protest any reduction in promised benefits.”

President Obama told House Republicans “that balancing the budget is not his top priority,” Roll Call reports.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) reported that the president “diplomatically said ‘no’ to a balanced budget, explaining that eliminating the deficit is not his priority. Instead, the president said he is worried that the deep spending cuts that would be required to balance the budget would slow the nation’s economic recovery.”

Wonk Wire: The failure of austerity.