CHICAGO — With the economy growing weaker, President-elect Barack Obama said Tuesday that recovery efforts will trump deficit concerns when he takes office in January. Yet he pledged a “page-by-page, line-by-line” budget review to root out unneeded spending.
The president-elect set no goals for reducing the federal deficit, now in record territory and headed ever higher. On Monday, he announced that he hopes to create a recession-busting 2.5 million jobs by 2010.
He spoke Tuesday as he appointed Peter Orszag, head of the Congressional Budget Office, to be his own budget director.
Obama’s comments came at his second news conference in as many days, an unusual pre-inaugural burst of activity that he said reflected “the extraordinary circumstances” he will inherit Jan. 20.
With his Electoral College landslide victory, Obama said he possesses a “mandate to move the country in a new direction and not continue the same old practices that have gotten us into the fix we’re in.”
At the same time, the Democratic president-elect pledged to consult with Republicans and approach his administration with humility “and a recognition that wisdom is not the monopoly of any one party.”
The economic picture took on troubling new dimensions a few hours before he spoke when the Commerce Department reported economic activity declined at a rate of 0.5 percent in the three months ending in September.
Further underscoring weakness, Americans’ disposable income fell at an annual rate of 9.2 percent in the same period, the largest drop in records that date to 1947.
The federal budget deficit was a record $455 billion for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 and is certain to be higher this year — possibly reaching $1 trillion — as the costs of a financial bailout and an economic stimulus are piled atop smaller-than-expected tax receipts.
The president-elect’s office also announced he intends to meet Tuesday in Philadelphia with the nation’s governors. As the economy sours, many states are being hit hard and inevitably will turn to Washington for help meeting health care costs for the poor as well as for other needs.
