Setting the rules of the road

October 09, 2009
06:45 AM EDT

Outdated rules regulating the financial sector have affected millions of Americans and contributed to the nation's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

This afternoon, the President will talk about changes and protections put forward in proposed financial regulatory reform legislation and urge Congress to act quickly and pass an effective and comprehensive package by the end of the year. Tune in to WhiteHouse.gov/live at 2pm eastern to watch and discuss the event.

One of the most significant pieces of this effort is the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. The CFPA will streamline and consolidate regulatory agencies now in place to more effectively promote transparency, fairness and accountability for financial products and services.

Austan Goolsbee, from the White House's Council of Economic Advisors, goes over the CFPA and the President's approach to financial regulatory reform in this explanatory video:

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download .mp4 (45 MB)

If you find the video helpful to better understanding the issue, please share it far and wide. And don't forget to catch the East Room event later today.

OMB Director Orszag on Waste in Health Care

Jesse Lee

October 05, 2009
12:35 PM EDT

A lot of people might have an intuitive skepticism towards the idea that there is enough waste in our health care system to pay for so much of the initial costs. That's understandable – too often politicians point to the nebulous cutting of "waste and abuse" as an easy out when asked how they intend to pay for something, whether it’s a new program or a tax cut.

On the other hand, most Americans also know that, as the President has said, "We spend more than any country on Earth, and we're not any healthier for it."

Today OMB Director Peter Orszag, a fiscal hawk who has taken on controlling health care costs as something of a passion over the past few years, lays out the case in a blog post citing a new study out of the Institute of Medicine:

The need for health insurance reform just became clearer with the release from the non-partisan Institute of Medicine (IOM) of an estimate that the health care system contains over $800 billion in excess costs, a number consistent with previous studies. In other words, according to this new estimate, we spend more than $800 billion a year on health care that does not make us healthier. The result is higher premiums for us all and higher costs for the government — but it also means you may receive tests and procedures that you do not need, putting your health at risk.

According to the study, excess costs arise from a variety of sources. Excessively high administrative costs for insurers, physician and hospitals come to about $200 billion. Unnecessary services, such as using more expensive brand name drugs when generics are just as good and overusing tests and treatments compared to professional guidelines, account for another $200 billion or so. Errors and avoidable complications add $75 billion, and fraud adds another $75 billion. Preventive measures — both in terms of keeping healthy people healthy and keeping people with chronic illness such as diabetes out of the hospital — tack on another $55 billion. And the list goes on.

The big question is how can we get reduce these costs? The IOM identifies different levers to push change, including: uniform administrative requirements for paperwork; reform of payment incentives so that they are more oriented toward results and quality; increased reliance on evidence-based quality practices; the development of more independent evidence of what works and what does not work; electronic clinical records that can be shared and are privacy protected; and providing incentives for more consistent and widespread prevention interventions. As one goes down the list, almost all these changes have been endorsed by the Administration and most are included in the reform bills making their way through Congress, including the legislation currently being considered by the Finance Committee.

Related Topics: Fiscal Responsibility, Health Care

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
_____________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 5, 2009

White House Announces Federal Register 2.0: Transforming the Chronicle of the Executive Branch for the 21st Century

The Federal Register—the 73-year-old official chronicle of White House and Executive agency activities and the public’s window on proposed changes to federal regulations—emerges today in a new 21st Century format that for the first time will allow readers to sift through, reorganize, and electronically customize its daily contents.

The transformation, undertaken by the Government Printing Office and the National Archives and Records Administration in collaboration with the White House open government initiative, gives the public unprecedented access to the federal decision-making process, a major goal set out by President Obama in his Open Government initiative. Federal Register 2.0, which can be accessed at GPO.gov or data.gov, will open the curtains on the inner workings of government and vastly increase the Federal Register’s usefulness to the American public.

"Today's launch simplifies access to the Federal Register and furthers the President's call to engage all Americans in the workings of government. We envision countless market innovations to ensure each voice is heard on the issues Americans care about the most," said Aneesh Chopra, Chief Technology Officer.

The change supplements the official publishing formats with "XML "—a machine readable form of text that can be manipulated in virtually limitless ways with digital applications, or "apps"— which make it easier for people to access and analyze its contents in novel ways.

"Today we are transforming the Federal Register from a one-size-fits-all tool essentially designed for lawyers into one that can be customized and personalized in countless ways, so that users, instead of the government, can decide how they wish to use it," said Ray Mosley, Director of the Federal Register.

The change is the latest element of an Administration-wide commitment to Open Government that already has resulted in the launch of such transparency tools as Open for Questions, which gave Americans across the nation a direct line to the Administration to ask exactly what they wanted to know about the Administration’s efforts to get the economy back on track and the IT Dashboard, which allows anyone with a web browser to track federal IT initiatives and hold the government accountable for progress and results.

Today’s announcement acknowledges the fact that although the Federal Register was created to make the workings of government more open, it has grown in size and complexity to the point where few Americans are able to take full advantage of its rich lode of content. Last year’s editions of the daily publication contained nearly 32,000 separate documents on nearly 80,000 pages.

Moreover, the change opens the door for innovative entrepreneurs to develop new apps that will allow the public to parse the Federal Register in new ways. For example, Princeton's Center for Information Technology is launching Fedthread.org, a version of the Federal Register that allows users to annotate and comment in the margins to spark online discussions about pending governmental actions, and Public.Resource.org has created a new tool to simplify searching the Federal Register.

"Federal Register 2.0 is just the beginning of a new chapter in Executive branch transparency," said Public Printer Bob Tapella. "We look forward to seeing how America’s innovators build on this highly accessible platform by developing tools that will further expand Americans' opportunities to engage with their government."

Going the Distance - 10K ideas

Peter Orszag

October 02, 2009
09:14 AM EDT

Cross-posted from the OMB blog.

Last week, OMB launched the President's Save Award, a contest for federal employees to come up with the best idea to save taxpayer dollars and make the government perform more effectively and efficiently.

Today, we received the 10,000^th submission and we now have 10,266 entries (to be exact!).

If you are a federal employee and have not participated yet, there is good news: you have two weeks to enter. To submit your idea visit www.SaveAward.gov. The winner will meet with President Obama and have his or her idea incorporated into the FY 2011 Budget. (We also will recognize the agency with the highest participation rate so make sure your co-workers enter too!).

Overall, the SAVE Award will help us identify what works and what doesn’t, so taxpayer dollars are used in the most productive and effective way possible.

Peter Orszag is Director of the Office of Management and Budget

Reality Check: Nancy-Ann DeParle's Stellar Record

Jesse Lee

September 28, 2009
01:34 PM EDT

One of the funny things about the debate over health insurance reform has been watching people who have for years clamored for cutting waste from Medicare contort themselves trying to find ways to oppose our efforts to do exactly that. As the President noted in his Address to a Joint Session of Congress:

Now, these steps will ensure that you – America's seniors – get the benefits you've been promised. They will ensure that Medicare is there for future generations. And we can use some of the savings to fill the gap in coverage that forces too many seniors to pay thousands of dollars a year out of their own pockets for prescription drugs. (Applause.) That's what this plan will do for you. So don't pay attention to those scary stories about how your benefits will be cut, especially since some of the same folks who are spreading these tall tales have fought against Medicare in the past and just this year supported a budget that would essentially have turned Medicare into a privatized voucher program. That will not happen on my watch. I will protect Medicare. (Applause.)

In case you don’t want to take the President’s word for it, here’s what the AP reported in an article headlined "SPIN METER: Once Medicare's foe, GOP now boosts it":

Last spring, most Republicans voted in favor of a budget proposal that would end Medicare in its current form for people under 55, offering vouchers instead to pay for private health care accounts.

You can read more about this switcheroo, as it were, from a Washington Post story out this morning, and from the New York Times editorial referenced here earlier.

A more recent attack has come from Stephen Moore of the Club for Growth, directed at the Director of our Health Reform Office Nancy-Ann DeParle. He leads off his attack citing various problems that various companies she’s been associated with have had, declaring that "We can thank Investigative Reporting Workshop of the American University School of Communication for this information." Well, Moore shouldn't be too thankful if his goal was smearing DeParle – here's what the report actually says about DeParle's direct involvement:

"There is no reason to think that DeParle was directly involved in any of the actions that led to the investigations and sanctions. DeParle was a member of the board of directors of these companies, not the chief executive officer managing day-to-day operations. It is rare for directors to be held legally accountable for illegal dealings by management."

Moore also claims that when DeParle ran Medicare during the 1990's, she did nothing to halt the waste and abuse that President Obama is fighting against now: "By the end of the Clinton administration, Medicare fraud was estimated by the U.S. General Accounting Office to costs taxpayers tens of billions of dollars a year. This happened on Ms. DeParle's watch. It makes one wonder how this czarina is going to root out waste when so much of it piled up the last time she was in charge."

Unfortunately for Mr. Moore's argument, the reality is quite the contrary – DeParle helped cut errors and waste in half and saved taxpayers billions during her tenure. Again, the very report that Moore so graciously thanks includes this:

The investigations and lawsuits are at odds with DeParle's reputation in Washington as a progressive, highly respected health policy analyst. During the late 1990s, when she ran Medicare, she pushed hard to raise medical quality standards and to clamp down on fraud and waste in the massive federal health plan for the elderly.

"In my experience, she's the one administrator who really was tuned into the fraud issue," said William J. Mahon, a former director of the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association. "She distinguished herself in putting fraud on the agenda."

A few more examples:

DeParle Headed Aggressive Campaign To Fight Medicare Fraud Cut Improper Payment Rate In Half In Just Two Years. "Medicare's aggressive campaign to fight fraud and overbilling has cut the improper payment rate in half in just two years, but the giant health program for the elderly still paid health care providers $ 12.6 billion last year for services that cost too much or were never provided, federal auditors said Tuesday. In 1996, when the government began systematically auditing a sample of claims by doctors, hospitals and other agencies, its erroneous payment rate was estimated at 14%...'We have turned the corner and we are heading in the right direction,' said Nancy-Ann Min DeParle, who heads the Health Care Financing Administration, which runs Medicare. She pledged to 'continue the aggressive effort to fight waste, fraud and abuse.'" [L.A. Times, 2/10/99]

Medicare’s Error Rate Had Fallen From 14% To 6.8% By Final Year Of Clinton Administration. "The US Department of Health and Human Services said on Friday that the rate of improper Medicare payments was stable over the past 2 years. HHS said the projected percentage rate for 2002 was about 6.3%, the same figure reported for 2001 and a significant decrease from the 13.8% rate estimated in 1996, when the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) began calculating the number. In 2000, the error rate was about 6.8%." [Reuters, 1/24/03]

Medicare Lost $23.2 Billion To Fraud, Abuse And Errors In 1996. "In all, government auditors told Congress that 14 cents of every dollar spent last year by Medicare, the nation's health care program for the elderly, was lost to such instances of fraud, abuse, or simple error. That amounted to $ 23.2 billion of the $ 168.6 billion Medicare paid last year to hospitals, doctors, laboratories and other health care providers." [AP, 7/18/97]

Medicare Lost $11.9 Billion To Fraud, Abuse And Errors In 2000. "Medicare lost an estimated $11.9 billion to waste, fraud and mistakes last year, half of what was lost five years ago from improper payments to doctors and hospitals, auditors said Tuesday. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson praised efforts to reduce the improper payments, which could range from innocent mistakes to outright fraud and abuse." [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 3/7/01]

DeParle Convened HCFA’s First Conference on Combating Medicare Fraud and Abuse. "One of the first things Nancy-Ann Min DeParle did after taking over as head of the federal agency that administers Medicare was to visit South Florida with Sen. Bob Graham. Graham had promised DeParle, administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, that shewould be able to witness Medicare fraud first-hand. He was right. During the trip in January, Graham and DeParle stopped in clinics where patients were being seen - and Medicare was being billed - but no licensed doctors were on site. They visited community mental health care programs where bingo games were being charged to Medicare as therapy. DeParle, 41, returned to Washington pledging to make the fight against Medicare fraud, estimated at $ 23-billion each year, her top priority. This month, DeParle sponsored a first for HCFA - a meeting of about 300 health care providers, private insurers, prosecutors and public officials on combating fraud and abuse." [St. Petersburg Times, 3/30/98]

One would expect somebody who claims to be a principled conservative, who has talked for years about eliminating waste and abuse in the system, to praise DeParle's record and to embrace President Obama's attempt to do what Moore and other conservatives have called for year after year. But perhaps principles are of less importance than partisan hit pieces to some.

Related Topics: Fiscal Responsibility, Health Care, Florida

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
_________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 14, 2009

Below is a list of expected attendees at the President’s speech at Federal Hall in New York City today:

ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS:

Department of the Treasury, Secretary Timothy F. Geithner
White House Council of Economic Advisers, Christina Romer

PRESIDENT'S ECONOMIC RECOVERY ADVISORY BOARD:

Paul Volcker, Chairman
William H. Donaldson, Former Chairman, SEC
Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., President & CEO, TIAA-CREF
Mark T. Gallogly, Founder & Managing Partner, Centerbridge Partners L.P.
Charles E. Phillips, Jr., President, Oracle Corporation
Penny Pritzker, Chairman & Founder, Pritzker Realty Group
David F. Swensen, Chief Investment Officer, Yale University
Robert Wolf, Chairman & CEO, UBS Group Americas

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS:

Representative Barney Frank, D-MA Chairman of the Financial Services Committee
Representative Gary Ackerman, D-NY
Representative Joseph Crowley, D-NY
Representative Jim Himes, D-CT
Representative Michael McMahon, D-NY
Representative Gregory Meeks, D-NY
Representative Anthony Weiner, D-NY

NEW YORK OFFICIALS:

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn
New York City Comptroller William Thompson
New York City Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum
New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer

First Deputy Mayor Patricia Harris
Deputy Mayor Robert Lieber, Economic Development
Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey, Intergovernmental Affairs
President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation Seth Pinksy
New York City Small Business Services Commissioner Robert Walsh
New York City Department of Consumer Affairs Commissioner Jonathan Mintz
New York City Department of Consumer Affairs Senior Policy Advisor Mitchell Kent

MEMBERS OF THE FINANCIAL AND CONSUMER ADVOCACY COMMUNITIES AND OTHER OUTSIDE ORGANIZATIONS:
(in alphabetical order by last name)

Roger Altman, CEO, Evercore Partners
John Atlas, Executive Director, National Housing Institute
Robert Azeke, Managing Director, Parish Capital
Jeep Bryant, Executive Vice President, BNY Mellon Corp
Pamela Banks, Policy Counsel, Consumers Union
Jeffrey Barker, Market President, Bank of America Corporation
Ron Baylock, President, Baylock & Co.
Pam Bennet, Director, NY Citizen Action
Tom Bernstein, President, Chelsea Piers
Shonali Bhowmik, President, Little Lamb Recordings
Bill Borner, Executive Vice President, Spraylat
Nicholas Bourke, Manager - Safe Credit Cards Project, The Pew Charitable Trusts
Darcy Bradbury, Senior Vice President, D.E. Shaw
John Breyault, Vice President of Public Policy Telecommunications and Fraud, National Consumers League
Paul Calello, Investment Bank, Credit Suisse CEO
Michael Campbell, Managing Director, Phene Capital
Roel C. Campos, Partner, Cooley Godward Kronish
Margaret Cannella, Professor, Columbia University
Elizabeth Caputo, Chair, Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century
Monty Cerf, Managing Director, Barclays
Jim Chanos, President, Kynikos Associates
Jaimie Cloud, President, Sustainability Education
Rodge Cohen, Senior Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell
Daniel Cohen, President, Cohen and Company
Eleni Constantine, Director, Financial Security Portfolio, The Pew Charitable Trusts
Rebekah Cook-Mack, Southern Brooklyn Legal Services
Sheila Davidson, EVP and Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel, New York Life Insurance Company
Kim Davis, President, JP Morgan Chase Foundation
Jamie Dinan, Chairman, York Capital
Donald Donahue, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp
Kelly Dougherty, Columbia University
Tamara Draut, Vice President of Policy and Programs, Demos
Richard Dresdale, Managing Director, Fenway Partner
Hazel Dukes, President, NYS NAACP
Tim Duncan, Chairman, American Business Leaders for Financial Reform
Doug Dunham, Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
Wes Edens, CEO, Fortress Investments
Steven Gallen Edersheim, Founder & Principal, Credit Renaissance Partners LLC
Marjorie Elias, Genworth Life Insurance Co of NY
Raudline Etienne, Chief Investment Officer, NYS Common Retirement Fund
Harold Ford, Vice Chairman, Bank of America
Wen Gao, , Credit Renaissance Partners LLC
Teddy Goff, Account Manager, Blue State Digital
Sally Greenberg, Executive Director, National Consumers League
Robert Greifeld, Chief Executive Officer , NASDAQ OMX
Agnes Gund, Chairman, Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission of NY
Doug Hammond, Coordinator, American Sustainable Business Council
Kathy Harget, Program Director, Green America
Carla Harris, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley
Jane Hartley, CEO, Observatory Group
David Heller, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs
Robert Henrikson, CEO and President, MetLife Chairman
Marten S. Hoekstra, CEO, Wealth Management Americas, UBS Financial Service
Brad Madison Hoylman, Senior Vice President, Public Affairs and General Counsel, Partnership for New York City
Glenn Hutchins, CEO, Silver Lake Partners
Heidi Schloegel Hynes, Community Leader, Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition
Mel Immergut, Chairman, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy
Alan Jenkins, Executive Director, The Opportunity Agenda
David Jones, CEO, David Jones LLC
Robert S. Kapito, President, BlackRock
Shiegsuke Kashiwagi, President and CEO, Nomura Holding America Inc.
Karen Spar Kasner, Owner, Karen Spar Kasner, P.C.
Phyliss Salowe Kaye, Executive Director, NJ Citizen Action
Kirsten Keefe, Senior Staff Attorney, Empire Justice Center
Saywallah Kessely, Executive Director, African Center for Community Empowerment
Gene Kirby, President, New Alliance
Peter Robert Knitzer, Group Executive Vice President, Citigroup
Orin Kramer, Managing Partner, Boston Provident
Vivien Labaton, Director of Strategic Program Initiatives, Atlantic Philanthropies
Vivienne C. LaBorde, Attorney, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
Marc Lasry, Managing Partner, Avenue Capital
David Levine, Co-Founder, American Sustainable Business Council
William Lewis, Co-Chairman Investment Banking, Lazard Freres & Co. LLC
James H. Lewis, Director of Policy and Organizing, Communities Homeowners and Neighbors Gaining Economic Rights Inc. (C.H.A.N.G.E.R.)
Peter Lewis, Chairman, Progressive Insurance Companies
Kevin Liles, Managing Partner, KWL Enterprises
Dan Loeb, CEO, Third Point Capital
Sarah Ludwig, Co-Director, Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project
Tracy Maitland, CEO, Advent Capital Management
Monika Mantilla, Altura Capital
Robert Marchman, Executive Vice President, NYSE
Ellen S. Marmur, M.D., Chief, Division of Dermatologic Surgery, The Mount Sinai Medical Center
Don Marron, CEO, Light Year Capital
Brian Mathis, Managing Partner, Provident Group Asset Management
Katherine McFate, Program Officer, The Ford Foundation
Ray McGuire, Head of Global Banking, CitiGroup
Christopher Meyer, Vice President, Consumers Union
Donna Marcy Milrod, Managing Director and Deputy CEO, Deutsche Bank
Eric Mindich, Managing Partner, Eton Park Capital
Daniel Mintz, Campaign Director, MoveOn.org Political Action
Calvin A. Mitchell III, Executive Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Robert S. Nichols, President and COO, Financial Services Forum
Thomas Nides, Chief Administrative Officer, Morgan Stanley
Janice Nittoliz, Associate VP, Rockefeller Foundation
Michael J. O'Neill, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Communications, American Express Company
Deven Parekh , Managing Partner, Insight Venture Management
James Parrott, Chief Economist, Fiscal Policy Institute
Dick Parsons, Chairman, CitiGroup
Don Peebles, CEO & Chairman, The Peebles Corporation
Lawrence Penn, Managing Partner, The Camelot Group
Pete Peterson, Founder, Blackstone
Al Puchala, Managing Director, Signal Equity Partners
John Rhea, Chairman, NYC Housing Authority
Tarrus Richardson, Founder & Managing Director, ICV Capital Partners
Janice Cook Roberts, Director, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
MarySol Rodriguez, Senior Vice President, Partnership for NYC
Marcos A. Rodriguez, Managing Director, Palladium Equity Partners LLC
Brian Rogan, Senior Executive Vice President, BNY Mellon
Marvin Rosen, President, Fusion Telecommunications
Bill Rudin, President, Rudin Management
Jeronimo Saldana, Program Associate, OSI US Programs
Thomas Schick, EVP Corporate & External Affairs, American Express Company
Ralph Schlosstein, President, Evercore Partners
Walter Schubert, CEO, The Schubert Group
Paul Sheridan, Managing Director, Schechner Barclays
Stan Shuman, Managing Partner, Allen & Co.
Esther Silver-Parker, Senior Vice President, Wal-Mart
Sam Simon, Executive Director and Board Member, National Consumers League
Brian Snyder, Principal, HBJ Investments
Marc Spilker, Co-Head of Asset Management, Goldman Sachs
Seymour Susswein, VP Sales, Sartorous LLC
Scott Everett Talbott, SVP Government Relations, Financial Services Roundtable
Andy Tobias, Financial Advisor
Kevin Toner, Managing Partner, Arestia Capital
Jim Torrey, Chairman, The Torrey Fund
Seth Waugh, CEO, Deutsche Bank Americas
Rebecca Weber, Executive Director, NYPIRG
Peter Weinberg, Perella Weinberg
Chris Williams, Chairman and Chief Executive Office, Williams Capital
Anre Williams, President, American Express
Deborah Wright, Chairman & CEO, Carver Federal Bank
Josh Zinner, Co-Director, NEDAP

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release August 25, 2009

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AND BEN BERNANKE AT THE NOMINATION OF BEN BERNANKE FOR CHAIRMAN OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE
Oak Bluffs School Filing Center
Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts

8:55 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everybody. I apologize for interrupting the relaxing that I told all of you to do, but I have an important announcement to make concerning the Federal Reserve.

The man next to me, Ben Bernanke, has led the Fed through one of the worst financial crises that this nation and the world has ever faced. As an expert on the causes of the Great Depression, I'm sure Ben never imagined that he would be part of a team responsible for preventing another. But because of his background, his temperament, his courage, and his creativity, that's exactly what he has helped to achieve. And that is why I am re-appointing him to another term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Ben approached a financial system on the verge of collapse with calm and wisdom; with bold action and out-of-the-box thinking that has helped put the brakes on our economic freefall. Almost none of the decisions that he or any of us made have been easy. The actions we've taken to stabilize our financial system, to repair our credit markets, restructure our auto industry, and pass a recovery package have all been steps of necessity, not choice. They've faced plenty of critics, some of whom argued that we should stay the course or do nothing at all. But taken together, this "bold, persistent experimentation" has brought our economy back from the brink. They're steps that are working. Our recovery plan has put tax cuts in people's pockets, extended health care and unemployment insurance to those who have borne the brunt of this recession, and is continuing to save and create jobs that otherwise would have been lost. Our auto industry is showing signs of life. Business investment is showing signs of stabilizing. Our housing market and credit markets have been saved from collapse.

Of course, as I've said before, we are a long way away from completely healthy financial systems and a full economic recovery. And I will not let up until those Americans who are looking for jobs can find them; until qualified businesses, large and small, who need capital to grow can find loans at a rate they can afford; and until all responsible mortgage-holders can stay in their homes. That's why we need Ben Bernanke to continue the work he's doing, and that's why I've said that we cannot go back to an economy based on overleveraged banks, inflated profits, and maxed-out credit cards.

For even as we've taken steps to rescue our financial system and our economy, we must now work to rebuild a new foundation for growth and prosperity. We have to build an economy that works for every American, and one that leads the world in innovation, in investments, and in experts -- exports.

Part of that foundation has to be a financial regulatory system that ensures we never face a crisis like this again. We've already seen how lax enforcement and weak regulation can lead to enormous wealth for a few and enormous pain for everybody else. And that's why even though there is some resistance on Wall Street from those who would prefer to keep things the way they are, we will pass the reforms necessary to protect consumers, investors, and the entire financial system. And we will continue to maintain a strong and independent Federal Reserve.

We will also keep working towards the reform of a health insurance system whose costs and discriminatory practices are bankrupting our families, our businesses, and our government. We will continue to build a clean energy economy that creates the jobs and industries of the future within our borders. And we will give our children and our workers the skills and training they need to compete for these jobs in the 21st century.

Much like the decisions we've made so far, the steps we take to build this new foundation will not be easy. Change never is. As Ben and I both know, it comes with debate and disagreement and resistance from those who prefer the status quo. And that's all right, because that's how democracy is supposed to work. But no matter how difficult change is, we will pursue it relentlessly because it is absolutely necessary to lift this country up and create an economy that leads to good jobs, broad growth, and a future our children can count on. That's what we're here to do, and that's what we will continue to do in the months ahead. So I want to congratulate Ben on the work that he's done so far, wish him continued success in the hard work that he has before him. Thank you so much, Ben.

CHAIRMAN BERNANKE: Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to express my gratitude to President Obama for the confidence he's shown in me with this nomination, and for his unwavering support for a strong and independent Federal Reserve.

It has been a particular privilege for me to serve with the extraordinary colleagues throughout the Federal Reserve System. They have demonstrated remarkable resourcefulness, dedication, and stamina under trying conditions. Through the long nights and weekends and the time away from their families, they have never lost sight of the critical importance of the work of the Fed for the economic well-being of all Americans. I am deeply grateful for their efforts.

I especially want to thank my own family -- my wife Anna and our children, Joel and Alyssa. Without their support and sacrifice, I could not undertake this task.

The Federal Reserve, like other economic policymakers, has been challenged by the unprecedented events of the past few years. We have been bold or deliberate as circumstances demanded, but our objective remains constant: to restore a more stable financial and economic environment in which opportunity can again flourish and in which Americans' hard work and creativity can receive their proper rewards.

Mr. President, I commit today to you and to the American people that, if confirmed by the Senate, I will work to the utmost of my abilities -- with my colleagues at the Federal Reserve and alongside the Congress and the administration -- to help provide a solid foundation for growth and prosperity in an environment of price stability.

Thank you, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Great job.
CHAIRMAN BERNANKE: Thank you.
END
9:01 A.M. EDT

Fiscal Responsibility

Read the Transcript | Download Video: mp4 (141MB) | mp3 (14MB)

Guiding Principles

Changing the way Washington does business

Just as important as changing what Washington does is to change how it does it. We cannot begin to tackle the challenges we face in the short term to revive our economy and in the long term to put us on the path to growth without restoring fiscal responsibility and accountability to Government.

Restoring Fiscal Discipline

The Administration took the initial steps to restore fiscal discipline by signing into law an economic recovery bill that is free of all earmarks and by launching Recovery.gov – an unprecedented effort to allow the public to track how and where recovery funds are actually used. To continue this progress, the Administration will:

Cut the deficit in half by the end of the President’s first term. On January 20, 2009, the President inherited a $1.3 trillion budget deficit. The President has put forth a budget that will halve this deficit by the end of his first term, bring non-defense discretionary spending to its lowest level as a share of GDP since 1962.
Review the budget line-by-line for waste. We should be investing taxpayer dollars in efforts and programs with proven records of success and reallocating or cutting programs that do not work or whose benefits are not worth their cost. The Department of Defense unveiled an unprecedented effort to reform defense contracting, and the President has launched a line-by-line review of the federal budget to pinpoint what programs works and what needs to be terminated or reduced in scope.
Return to honest budgeting. Too often in the past several years, budget tricks were used to make the government’s books seem stronger than they actually were. The President put forward a budget that rejects many of these gimmicks, most notably, the exclusion of war costs.

Progress

Vice President Biden announced over $2 billion in savings from anti-waste measures at the first Cabinet waste reduction meeting on September 14, 2011. He also revealed that the Medicare Recovery Audit Contractor program has recovered nearly $670 million to date in 2011 – increasing the taxpayer dollars recovered by nearly 800% compared to 2010.
On August 23, 2011 federal agencies released their final regulatory reform plans, which include hundreds of initiatives that will reduce costs, simplify the system and eliminate redundancy and inconsistency. These rules are expected to save more than $4 billion over the next five years.
On July 20, 2011 as part of the President’s Campaign to Cut Waste, the Office of Management and Budget announced that in 2012, they will shut down 178 data centers, bringing us to a total of 373 data centers that will be shut down by the end of 2012. This represents substantial progress towards their goal of shutting down more than 800 data centers by 2015, which is expected to save taxpayers more than $3 billion.
President Obama and Vice President Biden launch the Campaign to Cut Waste, which will hunt down and eliminate misspent tax dollars in every agency and department across the Federal Government.
The President signed an Executive Order on government contracting to fight waste and abuse.
The President launched Recovery.gov to track spending from the Recovery Act, an unprecedented step to provide transparency and accountability through technology.
The President wrote to the congressional leadership calling on them to pass statutory Pay-As-You-Go rules so that any new non-emergency tax cut or entitlement expansion offset in the budget.
The President signed the Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act to stop fraud and wasteful spending in the defense procurement and contracting system.
President Obama signed an executive order that will cut waste and promote more efficient spending across the federal government.

Orszag on the Latest News Out of CBO on Reform

Jesse Lee

July 25, 2009
04:51 PM EDT

OMB Director Orszag walks us through the latest budget scores out of the Congressional Budget Office on health insurance reform.

Read his full post.