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 President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday nominated Peter Orszag to head the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the president's federal budget "page by page, line by line" to get rid of programs that simply don't work, and we've got to eliminate them."
Orszag "doesn't need a roadmap to know where the bodies are buried in the Clinton administration as a special assistant to the president for economic policy and senior economic adviser to the middle class, he said. That will put more money in consumers' pockets, which can stimulate the economy when they spend it, he explained, but "it will also restore some balance to our tax code over the long term."
"The sooner we do that the better," Obama added.
The budget process going forward, he said, will require "tough choices. There are just going to be some programs that aren't working and make those that remain more cost effective.
Obama said the team would be charged with making sure a
ny program investments his administration makes will be based "on national priorities and not politics ... The old ways of Washington can't meet the obligations of today and tomorrow."
Whenever possible, he said he sees "tough choices" ahead in determining programs to keep or cut.
Orszag, who has expertise in retirement security, health care and climate change issues, is currently the director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution and served in the Clinton administration as a special assistant to the president for economic policy and senior economic adviser to the middle class, he said. That will put more money in consumers' pockets, which can stimulate the economy when they spend it, he explained, but "it will also restore some balance to our tax code over the long term." |
