Obama Asks Every Cabinet Department to Submit Budget Cuts
President Obama announced Saturday that he has named Jeffrey Zients, managing partner of the investment firm Portfolio Logic, as OMB deputy director for management and as the federal government's first-ever chief performance officer and Aneesh Chopra, secretary of Technology for Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia, as chief technology officer. Obama's bigger announcement is his plan for Monday's cabinet meeting -- his first full cabinet meeting. There, he'll ask the leader of every cabinet department to propose cuts in their budgets.
"I will ask all of my department and agency heads for specific proposals for cutting their budgets. Already, members of my cabinet have begun to trim back unnecessary expenditures," Obama said in his weekly address, citing a DHS savings of $3 million and the major changes in defense spending proposed by Secretary Gates.
"Finally, in the coming weeks, I will be announcing the elimination of dozens of government programs shown to be wasteful or ineffective. In this effort, there will be no sacred cows, and no pet projects. All across America, families are making hard choices, and it’s time their government did the same," Obama said. "That is why I have assembled a team of management, technology, and budget experts to guide us in this work – leaders who will help us revamp government operations from top to bottom and ensure that the federal government is truly working for the American people."