Obama urges smart government spending cuts

     U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday urged lawmakers to adopt smart government spending cuts to reduce economic uncertainty and bolster economic growth. The uncertainty caused by the government spending cuts is already having an effect on U.S. economy, Obama said in his remarks to the National Governors Association at the White House. \"As leaders, we share responsibility to do whatever we can to help grow our economy and create good middle-class jobs,\" Obama told the governors. \"Unfortunately, in just four days, Congress is poised to allow a series of arbitrary, automatic budget cuts to kick in that will slow our economy, eliminate good jobs, and leave a lot of folks who are already pretty thinly stretched scrambling to figure out what to do,\" Obama said. Roughly 85 billion U.S. dollars of spending cuts were set to hit various governmental departments this year starting on March 1, as agreed by Democrats and Republicans in January to avoid the so- called \"fiscal cliff.\" Thousands of teachers and educators will be laid off in different states. Tens of thousands of parents will have to deal with finding child care for their children. Hundreds of thousands of Americans will lose access to healthcare services like flu vaccinations and cancer screenings, he noted. The nation should reduce the deficit by making some tough, smart spending cuts and getting rid of wasteful tax loopholes that benefit the well-off and the well-connected, Obama said. With little momentum from GOP lawmakers to avert the massive spending cuts, the White House has highlighted the effect of government spending cuts to local economies to set up Republicans for blame if the government outlays cuts are to kick in.