We’ll see how President Obama’s address to public school students actually transpires, but here’s the transcript of Ronald Reagan’s similar address in 1988. An excerpt:

Q. My name is Casey Lee, and I’m from St. Stephen’s School. And I was wondering what was the most important thing that you wanted to accomplish, but that you weren’t able to accomplish as President?
The President. I could sum that up very briefly: the Federal deficit — the fact that for over a half a century our government has been spending more money than it takes in. And we have a plan working now that is aimed at 1993, of bringing us down each year. Last year we reduced the deficit by around $70 billion, and this year we’re aiming at about another 30 so forth. But that is the thing.
And I think that what we’re going to have to have — and what I want to strive for — is an amendment to our Constitution that requires the Government every year to balance the budget. And in doing that — also a tool for the President, and it’s called line-item veto.
Now, you probably don’t know what that means, but I’ll explain very quickly if I can. The line-item veto — the Congress when they have ways of putting in bills a number of things instead of just a bill to get one thing accomplished. And then with all these hidden things — and some of them are appropriations, spending bills and so forth — the President either has to veto the whole bill or let it become law. And sometimes they attach them to a bill that you just can’t veto. Line-item veto is what I had as a Governor. Forty-three Governors in the States have line-item veto. It means that you can go into that bill and pick out that single item that has nothing to do with the whole bill and veto that. And I think the President should have it, like the Governors do.

Somebody track down young Casey and see if he’d like to ask a follow-up to President Obama on the new deficit numbers.

One important distinction to point out, however, is that Reagan’s Q&A was on November 14, 1988 — after the Bush/Dukakis election and can’t be viewed in the same political vein as Obama’s.