Mr. President: When you make a promise, you're expected to keep your promise

WALLACE: Here's the bottom line: in February 2009, President Obama one month after he took office, made a promise. let's take a look. [VIDEO (PRESIDENT OBAMA): "Today I am pledging to cut the deficit we inherited by half by the end of my first term in office."] WALLACE: But these are the numbers. The deficit that year that he was talking about was $1.4 trillion and your new budget, you project the deficit for 2012, the end of the president's term, will be $1.3 trillion. Mr. Lew, the president isn't close to keeping his promise to cut the deficit in half. LEW: The plan that the President's going to be sending to Congress tomorrow will reduce our deficit to the point that over the period covered by this budget, the deficit as a percentage of GDP will be less than 3 percent, which means we will stop having new spending adding to the deficit. That's a hugely important accomplishment. It will reduce the debt as a percentage of the GDP so that we stabilize ourselves in the terms that all the international financial institutions are looking for. WALLACE: But would you agree he didn't keep his promise to cut the deficit in half? LEW: When the president took office we were losing jobs at a rate of 750,000 a month. Last month we gained 250,000 jobs. That means that we had to take a lot action in the Recovery Act. It means that the economy was softer than anyone knew at the time, and we had less revenue coming in. And it means that, you know, that, that, there, there was a deeper hole to dig out of than anyone could have envisioned in January 2009. WALLACE: But actually this is February when you already say you knew about the fact that the deficit was worse. Would you agree that you didn't keep the promise? LEW: No, I, I, I would say that as the 2009 and 2010 went on, we all learned more about the depth of the recession we inherited, which we have very - worked very hard to dig out of. We're now at a place now where we have momentum and the economy is growing - not enough, it's not, there aren't enough jobs and there's not enough economic growth. We're heading in the right decision. The question is: 'is Washington going to be part of the solution or part of the problem?' That's why it's so important for Congress to pass the pay roll tax this month. It's why it's so important we not have the kind of and dysfunction that last year became part of the uncertainty that held back the economy. We can either be part of the solution or part of the problem. The President's proposed a plan that would be a big part of the solution.