President-elect Barack Obama will outline steps to trim the federal budget on Tuesday as he simultaneously plans a costly stimulus package to jolt the ailing U.S. economy.
Though he does not take office until Jan. 20, Obama's team of economic advisors are already working out the details of a two-year package to save or create 2.5 million jobs that could cost several hundred million dollars.
That spending, which is expected to push the budget deficit higher, will be offset at least partially by spending cuts elsewhere, Obama said.
"We'll have to scour our federal budget, line-by-line, and make meaningful cuts and sacrifices as well," he said at a news conference on Monday and promised more detail at a Tuesday news conference at 12:00 p.m. EST (1700 GMT).
Bush administration officials, meanwhile, continued to extend massive life support efforts to the ailing U.S. financial system.
The Federal Reserve on Tuesday announced a $600 billion program to buy mortgage-related debt and securities, and a $200 billion program to increase the availability of consumer debt, such as credit cards and auto loans.
Obama is also expected to unveil further members of his economic team, following on Monday's announcements of New York Federal Reserve Bank president Timothy Geithner as his Treasury Secretary and Lawrence Summers, a former Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, as director of his National Economic Council.
Obama's aides are in contact with Bush administration officials who continue to release more U.S. funds to loosen up tight credit markets.
The scope of the economic crisis has widened since Obama's Nov. 4 victory over Republican John McCain, with auto companies warning that they are short on cash, unemployment numbers rising and the government bailing out yet another gigantic financial institution, Citigroup Inc.
But the president-elect has kept a low profile until this week's successive news conferences, intended to show the priority he places on addressing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
He said on Monday he has not yet decided whether to roll back President George W. Bush's 2001 tax cuts for the wealthy, which would provide the government with much-needed revenue, or simply allow them to expire at the end of 2010 as scheduled, a move that would avoid what would likely be a bruising fight in Congress.
