Obama Announces Strict Review and Reform of Budget Spending

The newly elected American President Barack Obama on Tuesday introduced Peter Orszag as his director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, announcing that the federal budget would undergo a strict review “page by page, line by line” to eliminate unnecessary spending and assist in the recovery of the economy.

"If we are going to have the necessary investments, we need to be ready to eliminate spending that we do not need," Obama said at a press conference in Chicago."In these challenging times, as we face a growing deficit and a sinking economy, budget reform is not an option, it is a necessity," he emphasized. Obama stated that he chose Orszag as his director of the Office of Management and Budget because, as a former director of the Congressional Budget Office, he has extensive experience related to the budget.

Orszag is an expert on healthcare, pensions, and social security policy. He worked in the White House during Bill Clinton’s presidency as a special assistant to the president in the National Economic Council and was also a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Obama introduced other key members of his economic team on Monday, including the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Tim Geithner, as Secretary of the Treasury and Larry Summers, former Clinton Secretary of the Treasury, as president of the National Economic Council. Obama announced new appointments to his economic team on Tuesday.

Obama’s focus on careful spending of federal money is somewhat at odds with the announcement made on Monday that economic recovery would take precedence over the budget deficit. He called on Congress to prepare a stimulus package so that he could sign it immediately after his inauguration on January 20, 2009. Economists estimate that this package could be worth up to $700 billion.

"We will jumpstart the economy… but we must ensure that these investments are wise. We must ensure that money is not wasted in every area," he emphasized on Tuesday. Political analysts from American TV networks again criticized Obama for a lack of concrete definitions, in this case regarding the elimination of programs and budget savings. An exception was Obama’s announcement of a possible reduction in subsidies for wealthy farmers, citing as an example that "wealthy farmers receive $50 billion from the budget."

Along with Orszag, Obama appointed Robert Nabors as deputy director of the budget office. Nabors was a staff member of the House Appropriations Committee, which prepares budget legislation. Obama will begin his term with a large budget deficit, which in October alone, the first month of the new fiscal year in the U.S., amounted to $232 billion, which includes only part of the $700 billion financial sector rescue package. (H)