Obama blasts Republican budget plan as "radical vision" for the nation President Obama delivered a stern and stinging rebuke of the Republican budget plan Tuesday, charging that his GOP rivals seek to impose a "radical vision" on the nation by creating a form of "social Darwinism" that pits the poor against the wealthy. Setting the stage for a debate that probably will define the fall election, Obama cast the Republican Party as having strayed from its roots as the party of Abraham Lincoln, forgoing social responsibility as it moved farther to the right of the political spectrum. Washington Post Staff David Nakamura The president plans to accuse the GOP of trying to impose a "radical vision" on the nation in a speech Tuesday. Chris Cillizza Video Speaking to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, President Obama slammed the Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) budget and the proposed tax breaks for America's wealthiest citizens. Obama assailed the budget plan approved by the Republican-led House last week, which would slash $5.3 trillion over the next decade through deep cuts in entitlements and agency spending, as "so far to the right, it makes the Contract with America look like the New Deal." The president, in a 38-minute address to the American Society of News Editors in Washington, also called the GOP budget proposal "a Trojan Horse." It's nothing but thinly veiled social Darwinism," Obama said. Obama's attack opened a new front in the 2012 campaign on a day when GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney was expected to sweep primaries in Wisconsin and Maryland and move closer to securing the nomination. For the first time since launching his reelection effort a year ago, Obama mentioned Romney by name, mocking him for calling the House budget drafted by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) "marvelous." The president's speech drew rapid criticism from his Republican rivals. Ryan blasted Obama for choosing to "duck and run" instead of dealing with the burgeoning national debt. "Like his reckless budgets, today's speech by President Obama is as revealing as it is disappointing: While others lead by offering real solutions, he has chosen to distort the truth and divide Americans in order to distract from his failed record," Ryan said in a statement. His empty promises are quickly becoming broken promises - and the American people will hold him accountable for this violation of their trust. White House aides billed the speech as the third in a series of major addresses Obama has used to lay out a populist agenda that calls for government to play an active role in helping build a more equitable society. The speech to the news editors followed the president's address to ordinary Americans in Osawatomie, Kan., in December, where he invoked the progressive populism of Theodore Roosevelt, and his State of the Union report before Congress in January, where he called for an "economy built to last."