Obama Will Ask Agency Chiefs for Cuts

He also names two more picks, including chief tech officer
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 18, 2009 10:34 AM CDT

President Obama says he'll begin making good on his promise to cut wasteful spending on Monday. When he meets with his full Cabinet for the first time that day, the president will ask each one to come up with specific cuts for their department, Bloomberg reports. “We are on an unsustainable course,” Obama said in his weekly radio address, referring to ballooning debt and deficits. “All across America, families are making hard choices, and it’s time their government did the same.”

Obama pledged that dozens of government programs would get the ax in coming weeks. The president named a chief performance officer to help with efficiency: Jeffrey Zients, a former executive with the Advisory Board Co., a consulting and research firm. He also named Virginia Secretary of Technology Aneesh Chopra as his long-awaited pick to be the nation's first chief technology officer.
(More Barack Obama stories.)

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