Obama targets budget waste

Calling it one of his most important appointments, President-elect Barack Obama this morning announced a new White House job -- chief performance officer -- to set standards for federal agencies and hold them accountable.

He named Nancy Killefer, a director at McKinsey & Company, the prominent management consulting firm, and former assistant treasury secretary in the Clinton administration.

Obama has pledged to go line-by-line through the federal budget to root out waste and inefficiency -- a vow made even more important with projections of record deficits. The Congressional Budget Office is expected to estimate the deficit at $1.2 trillion this fiscal year and Obama said, "Trillion-dollar deficits will be a reality for years to come."

Those figures don't include Obama's economic stimulus plan, which is expected to total $775 billion over two years, and which he said he knows will add to the deficit, but is necessary.

Washington must change the way it does business so it is no longer squandering billions of dollars on failed or unneeded programs, he said.

"We can no longer afford to sustain the old ways," he said. Such changes are needed even in good times, but in bad times are absolutely essential, he said.

Asked about the size of the stimulus package, Obama said while he and his team are still working with Congress, he expects it will be on the "high end of our estimates" -- which have been reported as $675 billion to $775 billion -- but not as high as the $1 trillion-plus some economists are advocating.

In large measure, he said, that is because of the concerns about the mushrooming deficit.