WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama rejected a Republican proposal to resolve a looming fiscal crisis on Tuesday as "still out of balance" and said any deal must include a rise in income tax rates on the wealthiest Americans.

Obama told Bloomberg Television that the Republicans' reliance on eliminating tax deductions instead of letting taxes rise on Americans making more than $250,000 a year would not raise enough money to fund the government.

Obama pledged to work with House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, to go after what he called excessive healthcare costs in the budget but that a deal was not possible without raising tax rates on the wealthy.

(Reporting By Steve Holland, Jeff Mason and Mark Felsenthal)