Obama Cabinet and Key White House Staff
Peter Orszag - Director, Office of Management and Budget
(Cabinet-rank member of National Economic Council)
Former Director, Congressional Budget Office
Former Senior Fellow and Deputy Director of Economic Studies, Brookings Institute
Nominated: November 25, 2008
Obama’s comments:
Orszag is “one of our nation’s leading voices on budgetary issues.”
“‘Peter doesn’t need a map to tell him where the bodies are buried in the federal budget,’ Obama said to a basement ballroom of reporters at the Chicago Hilton. ‘He knows what works and what doesn’t, what is worthy of our precious tax dollars and what is not.’”
—ABC News
Others’ comments:
“The Washington Post calls Peter Orszag, Director-designate of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), ‘widely respected for his work on how Americans receive medical care... Orszag has carved out a niche as a leading international thinker on health policy.’
“Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) applauded the choice of Orszag. ‘He has proven his mettle as one of our nation’s leading experts on the federal budget," Ryan was quoted as saying in MSNBC’s First Read. ‘He and I have enjoyed a strong, productive working relationship, and I have been particularly impressed with his understanding of the looming entitlement crisis, and the critical need for action.’
“Orszag is ‘an excellent choice,’ Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), ranking Republican on the senate Budget Committee, said in a statement.
—Change.gov
“Like other young economists who are in line for economic advisory jobs in the Obama administration, Mr. Orszag (who [turned] 40 in December) is a protégé of Robert E. Rubin, the former treasury secretary. The prominence of such ‘Rubinesque’ centrists is vexing to liberals and union leaders in the Democratic Party, who favor some trade protectionism and more domestic spending and oppose the centrists’ emphasis on free trade and fiscal responsibility.”
—The New York Times
Approved: January 20, 2009
Sworn in: January 20, 2009
Appointment Impact:
“According to the Washington Post, the nomination of Orszag as the new OMB director indicates that ‘the job will have a more expansive portfolio in his administration,’ with Orszag likely to help shape new approaches on health care, education and the environment in addition to the ‘traditional duties of overseeing the federal budget and weighing in on economic policy’ (Washington Post, 11/26). ‘Unlike many of his predecessors, who hewed closely to pure number-crunching, Orszag has carved out a niche as a leading thinker on health care policy,’ the Post reports (Washington Post, 11/26).
“‘People close to him said Mr. Orszag, if confirmed, hopes to focus on one of the country’s biggest problems: soaring health care costs,’ according to the Wall Street Journal (Wall Street Journal, 11/26). Orszag has said that increased health care costs represent the ‘central fiscal challenge facing the country’ (Washington Post, 11/26). On his CBO blog, Orszag ‘has written frequently about the pitfalls of an over-complicated bureaucracy and the benefits of simple, common-sense approaches to reducing health care costs, such as getting people to take their medicine and exercise,’ the Journal reports (Wall Street Journal, 11/26). In one post written earlier this year, Orszag cited the need for programs ‘that are more in tune with the realities of human behavior in such diverse settings as doctors’ offices and federal nutrition programs [that] might help to improve a range of health outcomes’ (Wall Street Journal, 11/25).
“Obama said that Orszag as one his first duties will examine the federal budget and make recommendations on which programs to eliminate based on their effectiveness. Obama said that the effort will complement an economic stimulus package that he plans to propose after he takes office (Washington Post, 11/26). According to the Journal, although ‘Obama didn’t provide many specifics’ and ‘gave little sense of how he would tackle entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security,’ few ‘experts believe the budget deficit can be brought under control without trimming spending on these programs’ (Wall Street Journal, 11/26).
“Obama also said that he would find savings for consumers and the federal government through increased efficiency in the health care system (Hartford Courant, 11/26). Obama said that health information technology offers a ‘twofer’—an area ‘where we’re getting both a short-term stimulus and we’re also laying the groundwork for long-term economic growth’ (CQ HealthBeat, 11/25).”
—Medical News Today
|