President-elect sees 'trillion-dollar deficits for years to come'
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Monday, President-elect Barack Obama took Capitol Hill by storm to promote his massive economic stimulus plan that, at least in the short term, will dramatically increase the federal deficit with as much as $775 billion in spending and tax cuts.
Yesterday, he huddled with key advisers on how to bring the deficit down once the economy recovers. Afterward, he vowed to bring unprecedented accountability to federal spending and to bar lawmakers' pet projects from the stimulus package.
Obama told reporters that the deficit will probably hit $1 trillion this year and that "potentially we've got trillion-dollar deficits for years to come, even with the economic recovery that we are working on."
Eight years ago the federal budget ran a surplus, and the deficit on Sept. 30 was about $455 billion. Obama promised to make difficult choices and to "eliminate outmoded programs and make the ones we do need work better," but did not specify which programs might be trimmed or eliminated.
Despite the mushrooming deficit, he said the government must spend significantly more to jump-start the economy.
Besides banning earmarks from the stimulus package, he said he will create an oversight board that includes outsiders and that will hold public meetings and issue reports to Congress on how the money is being used. He also pledged to put information on stimulus projects online "so the American people will know where their precious tax dollars are going and whether we are hitting our marks."
GLOBE STAFF AND ASSOCIATED PRESS
His inaugural committee has raised at least $27 million, most during the past three weeks. At that pace, it would surpass the roughly $40 million raised for each of President Bush's two inaugural celebrations.
Of the more than 2,000 donors, at least 378 gave the maximum $50,000. The $50,000 donors get access to inaugural events including candlelight dinners with appearances by members of Congress and the Obamas and tickets to an official ball, the swearing-in ceremony, and parade seating.
ASSOCIATED PRESS AND GLOBE STAFF
Michelle Obama told supporters yesterday that Cynthia Russell, a builder from Newberry, Fla., and her guest will attend the welcome ceremony, the swearing-in, the inaugural parade, and the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball.
"I've supported myself and have been able to help out my mother from time to time," Russell said in a statement provided by the Obama team. "Now I find myself wondering how much longer I can hold on and be able to pay my bills and keep the doors open for business. Barack gives me hope."
Nine more winners are to be picked. The deadline is midnight tomorrow to enter the lottery, by giving at least $5 to Obama's inaugural committee, though it's also possible to enter without giving money.
GLOBE STAFF
Sarah Obama, the mother of Obama's Kenyan-born father, will join representatives from the Kenyan government and African Union, and African diplomats for an unofficial inaugural ball on Jan. 20.
Obama was born in Hawaii to a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya. Obama's father left when he was a child and died in 1982. Obama was not close to his African family although he visited them on a 2006 trip to Kenya.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
