Companies are being pressed to pay more into their funds to make good any deficits, and levies charged by the Pensions Protection Fund, a safety net for pension-plan members whose employers go bust, have increased.

ECONOMIST: Pension buy-outs

Thirteen percent of respondents plan to increase employment and 7 percent plan reductions, for a net job-planning percentage that declined for the third month in a row.

FORBES: Business Hiring Optimism Improves

Although the budget is nonbinding and isn't likely to become law, it fleshes out Democrats' vision of a plan to reduce the deficit while protecting safety-net programs.

WSJ: U.S. Senate Approves Budget

On the budget, he should promise to cut tax rates only as part of a credible, medium-term plan to stabilise the debt, and refuse to rule out raising net revenue in the process.

ECONOMIST: Mitt Romney��s economics

That's a big part of the rebalancing, that at the same time we're going to spur investment, we're going to spur net exports, we do need to put in place a plan for getting our long-run budget deficit under control.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing