Obama Vows to Slash Federal Deficit

From Nytimes.com

“But I want to be very clear,” he said at a White House economic conference involving legislators, business and labor leaders and others. “We cannot and will not sustain deficits like these without end. Contrary to the prevailing wisdom in Washington these past few years, we cannot simply spend as we please and deferthe consequences to the next budget, the next administration or the next generation.”

The president promised, as expected, to halve the deficit that he inherited, estimated at $1.3 trillion or more for 2009, by the end of his first term, partly by having his Cabinet members and other top aides go over the budget “line by line to root out waste and inefficiency,” a process he said was already under way.