Obama plans a more transparent budget

The budget, to be released Thursday, will include money for Iraq and Afghanistan - a contrast from the Bush administration's approach. A fiscal summit this week focuses on containing healthcare costs.
By Christi Parsons and Maura Reynolds
LA Times

February 24, 2009

Reporting from Washington — After eight years of budget practices that often camouflaged federal spending, President Obama is planning a new strategy of putting on the books as many costs as possible to demonstrate the extent of the nation's economic troubles, senior White House officials say.

Obama's first budget, scheduled to be released in broad outline Thursday, will include at the outset money for the Iraq war, the military buildup in Afghanistan and other expenditures. The approach is in contrast to that of the previous administration, which often tucked such costly commitments into separate spending requests that would go to Congress later.

"The president is determined to treat the American people as adults and be straight up about what we're facing and what we need to do to move forward," said David Axelrod, senior advisor to the president.

The new approach, which is likely to be set out in the president's address to Congress tonight, follows up on Obama's repeated campaign pledges to make government more transparent.

(More here.)