Obama: Job creation top US priority

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that the top priority for the nation is to bolster economic growth and create jobs for the middle class. At a White House press conference, Obama argued that the looming automatic government spending cuts is not helpful to U.S. economic recovery and job creation. Obama urged U.S. lawmakers to take appropriate action to achieve a balanced deficit reduction plan in order to avoid onerous cuts in government outlays scheduled to kick in on March 1. Roughly 85 billion U.S. dollars of spending cuts were set to hit various U.S. governmental departments this year starting on March 1, as agreed by Democrats and Republicans in January to resolve the so-called \"fiscal cliff.\"