THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
__________________________________________________________________________________
EMBARGOED UNTIL 6:00 AM ET, SATURDAY, April 25, 2009
Good morning. Over the last three months, my Administration has taken
aggressive action to confront an historic economic crisis. As we do
everything that we can to create jobs and get our economy moving, we’re
also building a new foundation for lasting prosperity – a foundation
that invests in quality education, lowers health care costs, and
develops new sources of energy powered by new jobs and industries.
One of the pillars of that foundation must be fiscal discipline. We
came into office facing a budget deficit of $1.3 trillion for this year
alone, and the cost of confronting our economic crisis is high. But we
cannot settle for a future of rising deficits and debts that our
children cannot pay.
All across America, families are tightening their belts and making hard
choices. Now, Washington must show that same sense of responsibility.
That is why we have identified two trillion dollars in
deficit-reductions over the next decade, while taking on the special
interest spending that doesn’t advance the peoples’ interests.
But we must also recognize that we cannot meet the challenges of today
with old habits and stale thinking. So much of our government was built
to deal with different challenges from a different era. Too often, the
result is wasteful spending, bloated programs, and inefficient results.
It’s time to fundamentally change the way that we do business in
Washington. To help build a new foundation for the 21st century, we
need to reform our government so that it is more efficient, more
transparent, and more creative. That will demand new thinking and a new
sense of responsibility for every dollar that is spent.
Earlier this week, I held my first Cabinet meeting and sent a clear
message: cut what doesn’t work. Already, we’ve identified substantial
savings. And in the days and weeks ahead, we will continue going
through the budget line by line, and we’ll identify more than 100
programs that will be cut or eliminated.
But we can’t stop there. We need to go further, and we need an
all-hands-on-deck approach to reforming government. That’s why I’m
announcing several steps that my Administration will take in the weeks
ahead to restore fiscal discipline while making our government work
better.
First, we need to adhere to the basic principle that new tax or
entitlement policies should be paid for. This principle – known as
PAYGO – helped transform large deficits into surpluses in the 1990s.
Now, we must restore that sense of fiscal discipline. That’s why I’m
calling on Congress to pass PAYGO legislation like a bill that will be
introduced by Congressman Baron Hill, so that government acts the same
way any responsible family does in setting its budget.
Second, we’ll create new incentives to reduce wasteful spending and to
invest in what works. We don’t want agencies to protect bloated budgets
– we want them to promote effective programs. So the idea is simple:
agencies that identify savings will get to keep a portion of those
savings to invest in programs that work. The result will be a smaller
budget, and a more effective government.
Third, we’ll look for ideas from the bottom up. After all, Americans
across the country know that the best ideas often come from workers –
not just management. That’s why we’ll establish a process through which
every government worker can submit their ideas for how their agency can
save money and perform better. We’ll put the suggestions that work into
practice. And later this year, I will meet with those who come up with
the best ideas to hear firsthand about how they would make your
government more efficient and effective.
And finally, we will reach beyond the halls of government. Many
businesses have innovative ways of using technology to save money, and
many experts have new ideas to make government work more efficiently.
Government can – and must – learn from them. So later this year, we
will host a forum on reforming government for the 21st century, so that
we’re also guided by voices that come from outside of Washington.
We cannot sustain deficits that mortgage our children’s future, nor
tolerate wasteful inefficiency. Government has a responsibility to
spend the peoples’ money wisely, and to serve the people effectively. I
will work every single day that I am President to live up to that
responsibility, and to transform our government so that is held to a
higher standard of performance on behalf of the American people.
Thank you.
Comments