President Barack Obama, whose health-care and economic stimulus initiatives may dramatically inflate the federal budget deficit, heralded a new push Saturday to cut wasteful spending.
The president said that in coming weeks he would announce the elimination of “dozens of government programs.” And he said he would ask his Cabinet secretaries Monday for specific proposals to slash their departments’ budgets — promising there would be “no sacred cows.”
“As surely as our future depends on building a new energy economy, controlling health-care costs and ensuring that our kids are once again the best educated in the world,” Obama said in his Saturday radio address, “it also depends on restoring a sense of responsibility and accountability to our federal budget.”
To lead the efficiency effort, Obama said, he is tapping Jeffrey Zients, a former corporate executive and founder of a Washington-based investment firm, to serve as chief performance officer.
Obama also said that Aneesh Chopra, currently Virginia’s secretary of technology, would be chief technology officer and would assist in the new campaign.