Obama: Leadership now ‘shared responsibility’

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Reaching for unity, President Barack Obama implored Democrats and Republicans Tuesday night to rally behind an economic agenda of federal spending on core areas alongside a long, hard commitment to reining in the nation's debt. He promised to veto any bill that contained pet projects and said that the nation's political leadership is now a "shared responsibility."

The president called on Congress to simplify the tax system and get rid of loopholes, announcing that he would support using the saved money to lower the corporate tax rate for the first time in 25 years without adding to the deficit.

He called for freezing discretionary government spending outside of national security for the next five years, saying that would save $400 billion as a step toward reducing the country's staggering debt. The president said the budget discipline would require "painful cuts" in cherished programs without identifying any of them.

The White House released Obama's prepared speech about an hour before he delivered it to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber.