FACTBOX: Obama comments on economic issues

Tue Nov 25, 2008 1:49pm EST
 
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(Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday named more members of the economic team who will lead efforts to fight the mounting U.S. financial crisis.

In his second news conference this week, Obama also addressed several economic issues that will confront his administration when he takes office on January 20. Here are some details of the issues he has discussed this week:

NAMES ECONOMIC OFFICIALS

* Obama named Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag to head the White House Office of Management and Budget.

* He also named Rob Nabors, who worked for the Office of Management and Budget in the Clinton administration, as the deputy director of the OMB.

* On Monday Obama named New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner to be the next Treasury secretary.

* He named former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers to head the White House National Economic Council. Obama called Summers "one of the great economic minds of our time."

* Christina Romer, a macroeconomist and economic historian at the University of California, Berkeley, who studied the U.S. recovery from the Great Depression, was named as chair of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers.

BUDGET REFORM

* Obama said budget reform is vital. "In these challenging times, when we are facing both rising deficits and a sinking economy, budget reform is not an option. It is an imperative."

NEED FOR ECONOMIC RECOVERY PLAN, STIMULUS

* Obama said as soon as economic recovery is well under way the government must set up a long-term plan to reduce the structural deficit to ensure it is not leaving "a mountain of debt" for the next generation.

* On Monday he said he would not discuss how big a stimulus package might be needed, saying only that it had to be "significant enough that it really gives a jolt to the economy" and adding that "it's going to be costly."

* Obama said the current financial turmoil would require "extraordinary policy responses." He said his administration would honor public commitments made by the Bush administration to address the crisis.

HEALTH CARE

* On Tuesday Obama suggested some changes in health care to modernize the system. "As an example, helping local hospitals and providers set up electronic billing and electronic medical records, that experts across the spectrum consider to be an important step toward a more efficient health care system."  Continued...

 

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