Tuesday, November 25, 2008 12:23 PM

Obama Promises Budget Reform

By MARY GILBERT

President-elect Barack Obama once again called reporters together in Chicago today to announce two more members of his economic team and to emphasize the need for his administration to restore confidence in the country's markets and in the role government could play in improving the lives of ordinary Americans.

Obama spent as much time outlining his vision for the roles of the director and deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget as he did touting his chosen appointees -- Peter Orszag and Robert Nabors, respectively. Yesterday, the president-elect discussed injecting hundred of billions of dollars into the economy to get it moving again; today he focused on cutting government spending. "Budget reform is not an option," he said. "It is an imperative. We cannot sustain a system that bleeds billions of taxpayer dollars on programs that have outlived their usefulness or exist solely because of the power of a politician, lobbyist or interest group."

Obama spoke in his prepared remarks and in a question-and-answer session about Americans' desire for an end to partisan bickering and for decisive action from the federal government to get the economy back on the right track. "This isn't about big government or small government," he maintained. "It's about building a smarter government that focuses on what works." We must "restore the confidence of middle class families that their government is on their side," he said.

Obama called Orszag and Nabors the best qualified people to lead a reform effort at OMB, emphasizing not just their previous experience but their "vision for the future." "Peter doesn't need a map to tell him where the bodies are buried in the federal budget," he said of his selection for agency director. "He knows what works and what doesn't, what is worthy of our precious tax dollars and what is not."

Answering reporters' questions, Obama said that the dual challenge his administration faces is to deliver a temporary infusion of capital into the markets while addressing long-term government spending that has created a "mountain of debt." He said the challenge for his economic team will be to find "places where we can get a two-fer" -- short-term stimulus that also lays the groundwork for long-term growth. He cited his plan to give a tax cut to middle-class families as one example of this strategy. With less of a tax burden, these individuals will have more money in their pockets to spend, helping to spur economic growth. But the policy also represents a long-term restructuring of the tax code that will prove beneficial, he claimed.

"My first priority is to get us on path to economic recovery," he said in closing.