Obama talks about Burris, deficits
Posted: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 1:19 PM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Congress, Economy
From NBC's Athena Jones
WASHINGTON -- In his first press conference of the new year, President-elect
Obama said the decision to seat
Roland Burris was a "Senate matter."
"I know Roland Burris," Obama said. "I think he's a fine public servant. If he gets seated, then I'm going to work with Roland Burris just like I worked with all the other senators to make sure that the people of Illinois and the people of the country are served."
Burris, the former Illinois attorney general, was named to Obama's vacated Senate seat by embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who has been accused of trying to sell the seat. Burris was barred from taking the oath of office with other senators yesterday because his certificate of appointment had not been signed by the Illinois secretary of state. He was back on the Hill today for a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Earlier, when the Burris pick was first announced, Obama said that he couldn't accept the appointment. "Roland Burris is a good man and a fine public servant, but the Senate Democrats made it clear weeks ago that they cannot accept an appointment made by a governor who is accused of selling this very Senate seat," he said in a written statement. "I agree with their decision, and it is extremely disappointing that Governor Blagojevich has chosen to ignore it."
Obama made his comments today on Burris during a brief Q&A after he named Nancy Killefer as chief performance officer, to be charge of finding ways to make the government more efficient.
"In order to make these investments that we need, we'll have to cut the spending that we don't, and I'll be relying on Nancy to help guide that process," he said.
Acknowledging that his plan to save or create three million jobs would cost money and add to the deficit in the short term, Obama said reforming the budget and reducing wasteful spending would be necessary to avoid trillion-dollar deficits for years to come.
He reiterated that he does not want earmarks in the recovery package. That package has an estimated cost of some $775 billion, even though some economists have said it should be $800 billion to $1.3 trillion. "We are still in consultation with members of Congress about the final size of the package," he said. "We expect that it will be on the high end of our estimates, but will not -- will not be as high as some economists have recommended, because of the constraints and concerns we have about the existing deficit."
The president-elect refused to be pinned down on the issue of the fighting in Gaza, instead sticking to the theme he has used repeatedly -- that there is one president at a time and saying he was not legally authorized to run foreign policy.
"We cannot be sending a message to the world that there are two different administrations conducting foreign policy, he said. "That is not safe for the American people."
He added that he was "deeply concerned" about the situation in Gaza and was working to make sure his administration was prepared to "engage immediately in trying to deal with the situation" as soon as he takes office, but that he faced "institutional constraints" that prevented him from directly addressing the issue because he was not yet president.
He argued that because the economy was a matter of domestic policy, he did not face the same kinds of constraints in talking about it.
