Orszag: Panic needed before debt ceiling boost
Washington (CNNMoney) - A former White House budget chief said Thursday that Congress won't reach a deal to raise the nation's ability to borrow until the financial markets panic.
Peter Orszag, who used to run the Office of Management and Budget, said he believes that Congress has no appetite to raise the debt ceiling - just as they had no political will to pass the 2008 bailout package to banks to save the financial system.
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Ex-Obama budget director Orszag joins Citi
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Former Obama administration budget director Peter Orszag is joining Citigroup's global banking division, the bank said Thursday.
Orszag will hold the title of vice chairman, and has been tapped to serve in the bank's Senior Strategic Advisory Group, which includes some of Citi's (C, Fortune 500) most senior bankers.
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Senate confirms new White House budget chief
WASHINGTON (CNN) - The U.S. Senate confirmed Jacob J. Lew as director of the White House's Office of Management and Budget by a voice vote Thursday night.
Lew succeeds Peter Orszag, who headed President Barack Obama's budget team until his departure in July.
Obama's plan to extend some tax cuts may be gaining traction
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/09/12/art.obama.0910s.gi.jpg caption =" A consensus may be forming on President Obama's plan to extend Bush-era tax cuts to everyone but the nation's richest people."]Washington (CNN) - A consensus may be forming on President Barack Obama's plan to extend Bush-era tax cuts to everyone but the nation's richest people.
On Sunday talk shows, Obama's economic advisers touted the idea while the top Republican in the U.S. House said he would vote for it if no other option existed.
The Bush tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 cover all taxpayers and are scheduled to expire at the end of the year.
Obama and congressional Democrats want to keep in place those tax cuts that apply to Americans earning less than $250,000 a year. People earning more than that would have their rates restored to higher levels in place before the tax cuts were enacted.
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Orszag Breaks With Obama on Bush Tax Cuts
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/09/07/art.orszag.file9.gi.jpg caption =" President Obama’s former budget director, Peter Orszag, wrote Tuesday that the Bush tax cuts should be extended for two years."](CNN) - Former White House Budget Director Peter Orszag is breaking with President Obama on the controversial election-year issue of whether the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy should be scrapped, declaring in a New York Times op-ed that failing to extend the tax cuts for the rich would "make an already stagnating jobs market worse over the next year or two."
To be sure, the crux of Orszag's argument is not complete music to the ears of Republicans because he's proposing a compromise by which all of the Bush tax cuts are extended for two years but then will be ended altogether, something the GOP does not want to endorse.
CNNMoney.com: Orszag: Extend Bush tax cuts for 2 years
But the more sensational part of Orszag's first column for the New York Times is that he is urging the president he worked for just a month ago to sign on to allow the tax cuts for the wealthy to continue in the short-term, borrowing a line of reasoning Republicans are using on the campaign trail.
Orszag to join Council on Foreign Relations
Washington (CNN) - White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag will join the Council on Foreign Relations as a distinguished visiting fellow after his July 30 departure from the Obama administration, according to OMB Communications Director Kenneth Baer.
White House budget director leaving in July
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/06/22/art.orszag.0610y.gi.jpg caption ="White House Budget Director Peter Orszag has told President Obama that he plans to leave his position as White House budget director in July."](CNN) - Peter Orszag has told President Obama that he plans to leave his position as White House budget director in July, an Obama administration official said Monday evening.
Orszag, 41, has been a key part of Obama's economic team, serving in his role as director of the Office of Management and Budget during the passage of the economic stimulus bill and this year's health care reform legislation.
As budget director, he crafted policy, but also was a prime negotiator with congressional Republicans.
As one of the main negotiators in the final hours before lawmakers passed the economic stimulus package, Orszag tried to bridge differences and was keeper of the ever-changing numbers, often crunching them in his head.
OMB chief to announce order directing agency cuts
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/06/08/art.orzagfile.gi.jpg caption ="Orzag will also identify areas where the government believes there is significant duplication and waste."]
Washington (CNN) - Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag will announce Tuesday morning that the Obama administration is directing agencies to cut at least 5 percent from their budgets. This comes in addition to the president's pledge to freeze spending at most agencies over the next three years.
In excerpts provided by the OMB, Orszag will address the Center for American Progress, saying "...in the budget guidance for Fiscal Year 2012 issued to agencies this morning ...We are asking each agency to develop a list of their bottom 5 percent performing discretionary programs, as measured by their impact in furthering the agency's mission.
"In addition, to ensure that we can meet the president's insistence on a freeze for non-security agencies while funding priority areas, we are asking non-security agencies to specify how they would reduce their budgets by 5 percent - which will give us the ability to achieve the overall non-security freeze even while meeting inevitable new needs and priorities."
Orszag will also identify areas where the government believes there is significant duplication and waste. Orszag will say "as stewards of the American people's tax dollars, we cannot afford to waste money on programs that do not work, that are out-dated, or that are duplicative of one another."
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Obama unveils $3.8 trillion budget
The budget calls for $53 billion in tax cuts and $50 billion job-creating measures, including small-business tax cuts, as well as new investments in green technology and infrastructure programs for work on roads and bridges.
"The employment market remains weak," said White House budget chief Peter Orszag in a conference call on Sunday. "In that context, the budget focuses on job creation and middle class stability."
The budget proposes new tax breaks and incentives for small businesses that hire new employees or boost wages, which would cost $30 billion. There would also be tax breaks for small businesses that make new investments.
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