Obama's Budget Proposal: Just an Opening Bid?

Former Congressional budget analyst Stan Collender said Monday that President Obama's $3.7 trillion 2012 budget proposal is "just an opening bid in what's going to be a seven or eight month debate."

Appearing on "Washington Unplugged" with CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante and CBS News investigative Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson, Collender said the proposed $1.1 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years is "not an insignificant amount" - though it does fall far short of closing the budget deficit, let alone reducing the national debt.

He also suggested that Mr. Obama would have been criticized no matter what budget proposal he put out, arguing that "there probably wasn't anything that was [going] to satisfy the Republicans." The proposal and competing plans will now be hashed out by Congress.

Plante noted that "people want the budget cut, but they don't want their programs cut, they want somebody else's programs cut." Attkinson noted that while both parties are stressing their commitment to budget cutting, they are ignoring a major chunk of the budget: entitlement programs. "Neither party touches Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security," she said.

Watch the full roundtable discussion above.