Barack Obama Vows to Cut the Fat from the Budget

While the GOP tries to condemn the Democrats as a party of spenders, and as we watch the Bush Administration spend, spend, spend in Iraq, Obama has vowed that budget cuts must be made.

"Budget reform is not an option. It's a necessity. If we are going to make the investments we need, we also have to be willing to shed the spending that we don’t need."

Additionally, and as expected, Obama said that he would nominate Peter Orszag to be director of the Office of Management and Budget. Peter Orszag has been director of the Congressional Budget Office for nearly two years and worked in both the Bush and Clinton administrations.

He also stated he would nominate Rob Nabors, staff director of the House Appropriations Committee, to be Orszag’s deputy.

The Peter Orszag and Rob Nabors nominations reflect the importance Obama is placing on the budget. However, when asked about the fact that he become much more visible in the last few days, after repeatedly emphasizing that there is "only one President at a time," Obama said:

"It’s important, given the uncertainty in the markets and given the very legitimate anxiety that the American people are feeling that they know their new president has a plan and is going to act swiftly and boldly."

Peter Orszag is known as someone who can find hidden waste; Obama said he had chosen a man who "knows where the bodies are buried."

"We will go through our federal budget -- page by page, line by line -- eliminating those programs we don't need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way."