Obama Names Clinton Official 'Chief Performance Officer' To Tackle $1.2 Trillion Deficit

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - President-elect Barack Obama on Wednesday announced the creation of a new position, chief performance officer, in the hopes of reforming budgetary practices that he says have resulted in a "deficit of accountability...a deficit of trust."

In a press conference in his Washington, D.C. transition headquarters, Obama appointed Nancy Killefer, who served as an assistant secretary of the Treasury under the Clinton administration the government's first chief performance officer. The President-elect also named Killefer deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Killefer, currently a Senior Director in McKinsey & Company's Washington, D.C.office, will work with outgoing Congressional Budget Office director Peter Orszag, who was appointed in November as head of the OMB.

"We all know that we are facing a crisis in our economy, one that requires immediate and decisive action to spur the creation of new jobs as we lay the foundation for future growth," Obama said. "And with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that Congress will soon be debating, we intend to deliver that change. But we committed to more change than that. We committed to change the way our government in Washington does business "

"Even in good times, Washington can't afford to continue these bad practices," he added. "In bad times, it's absolutely imperative that Washington stop them. The Congressional Budget Office [has] announced that the deficit we are inheriting for this budget year will be $1.2 trillion. We know that our Recovery and Reinvestment plan will necessarily add more. My own economic and budget team projects that, unless we take decisive action, even after our economy pulls out of its slide, trillion dollar deficits will be a reality for years to come."

Obama is currently working with his transition team and lawmakers on an economic stimulus package, which he calls the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, that is said to cost as much as $775 billion. The plan will include 3 million jobs and $300 billion in tax cuts for businesses and the middle class.

Republicans have called for closer scrutiny and strong oversight of the stimulus. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) issued a statement last week saying, "A trillion-dollar spending bill would be the largest spending bill in the history of our country at a time when our national debt is already the largest in history. As a result, it will require tough scrutiny and oversight. Taxpayers, already stretched to the limit, deserve nothing less."

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), who was pushing an alternative plan from Republicans in November, wants the text of the plan available online for public viewing. He has also repeatedly said it should have no earmarks.

Vice President-elect Joe Biden has pledged that the package the Obama transition team is crafting together with lawmakers has "absolutely no earmarks."