WASHINGTON – President Obama says Republicans’ plan to slash taxes and cut spending if the GOP retakes the House in November is no more than “an echo of a disastrous decade we can’t afford to relive.”

Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday to skewer House Republicans over the “Pledge to America” they unveiled last week. It also promised to cut down on government regulation, repeal Obama’s health care law and end his stimulus program.

The president said that the GOP plan “is grounded in the same worn-out philosophy: cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires; cut the rules for Wall Street and the special interests; and cut the middle class loose to fend for itself. That’s not a prescription for a better future.”

Republicans used their own radio address to defend the plan.

“The new agenda embodies Americans’ rejection of the notion that we can simply tax, borrow and spend our way to prosperity,” said one of its authors, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

The GOP plan showed a stark contrast between the philosophies of the two parties.

Perhaps the biggest difference was on taxes, where Republicans want to extend all of George W. Bush’s income tax cuts permanently — at a cost of some $4 trillion over 10 years.

Democrats are proposing to keep the rates where they are for individuals making up to $200,000 and for families earning up to $250,000 — but to hit wealthier individuals and some small businesses with tax hikes in January. Their plan would cost $3 trillion.