WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will take a step toward toughening U.S. fiscal discipline next week by creating a panel to help tackle the country’s record deficit and mounting debt, the White House said on Friday.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama will issue an executive order to set up a fiscal commission that will study options on spending and taxes after the U.S. Congress failed to create a congressional deficit panel of its own.

The president wants Republicans as well as members of his own Democratic Party to serve on the panel, and hopes that they can forge a bipartisan approach to the deficit.

A presidential commission would produce recommendations but would lack the power to bind lawmakers.

WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will take a step toward toughening U.S. fiscal discipline next week by creating a panel to help tackle the country’s record deficit and mounting debt, the White House said on Friday.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama will issue an executive order to set up a fiscal commission that will study options on spending and taxes after the U.S. Congress failed to create a congressional deficit panel of its own.

The president wants Republicans as well as members of his own Democratic Party to serve on the panel, and hopes that they can forge a bipartisan approach to the deficit.

A presidential commission would produce recommendations but would lack the power to bind lawmakers.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama vowed on Thursday not to quit in his quest for a healthcare overhaul and said if the effort fails this year, Americans will render a judgment about it in November congressional elections.

“The key is to not let the moment slip away,” he said.

He spoke at a Democratic National Committee fund-raising reception at which he sought to boost the morale of party loyalists in the wake of the Democrats’ loss of a 60-vote supermajority in the Senate when Republican Scott Brown won in Massachusetts last week.

Speaking at the first of two events that together raised between $2 million and $3 million for the party, Obama said he did not want Democrats to “feel discouraged” but rather keep up the fight against “the forces of the status quo.”

WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama vowed on Thursday not to quit in his quest for a healthcare overhaul and said if the effort fails this year, Americans will render a judgment about it in November congressional elections.

“The key is to not let the moment slip away,” he said.

He spoke at a Democratic National Committee fund-raising reception at which he sought to boost the morale of party loyalists in the wake of the Democrats’ loss of a 60-vote supermajority in the Senate when Republican Scott Brown won in Massachusetts last week.

Speaking at the first of two events that together raised between $2 million and $3 million for the party, Obama said he did not want Democrats to “feel discouraged” but rather keep up the fight against “the forces of the status quo.”

WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama vowed on Thursday not to quit in his quest for a healthcare overhaul and said if the effort fails this year, Americans will render a judgment about it in November congressional elections. "The key is to not let the moment slip away," he said. He spoke at a Democratic National Committee fund-raising reception at which he sought to boost the morale of party loyalists in the wake of the Democrats’ loss of a 60-vote supermajority in the Senate when Republican Scott Brown won in Massachusetts last week. Speaking at the first of two events that together raised between $2 million and $3 million for the party, Obama said he did not want Democrats to "feel discouraged" but rather keep up the fight against "the forces of the status quo." "We’re going to finish what we started because we do not back down. We don’t quit. I don’t quit. I’m still fired up, I’m still ready to go, and it’s because of you," Obama said. Obama has seen healthcare, his top legislative priority, become subject of a prolonged stalemate in the U.S. Congress. Legislation passed separately by the House of Representatives and the Senate have yet to be reconciled and Brown’s election meant Republicans would be able to engage in procedural blocking tactics to keep it from passing. Meantime, Obama and his Democrats have been put on the defensive by Americans angry and frustrated at the 10 percent jobless rate, bank bailouts and high deficit spending. Obama said he wanted to see congressional passage of a multibillion-dollar jobs bill and would like to use $30 billion in repaid bank bailout funds for small business loans. But he said America’s healthcare system is in need of a revamp and he wants to see the process through. He said he wanted Republicans and Democrats to bring their best ideas forward over the next several weeks to determine whether the deadlock can be broken. His remarks amounted to a challenge to Republicans to suggest areas of a healthcare overhaul that they could support rather than simply opposing legislation. A bipartisan meeting is planned for next week. "Let’s just go through these bills, their ideas, our ideas, let’s walk through them in a methodical way so that the American people can see and compare, what makes the most sense. And then I think we have to go ahead and move forward on a vote," he said. And Obama clearly suggested that he would use a failure to approve healthcare reform against Republicans in the November elections if the overhaul falters. "If Congress decides we’re not going to do it even after all the facts are laid out, all the options are clear, then the American people can make a judgment as to whether this Congress has done the right thing for them or not," he said. "And that’s how democracy works and there’ll be elections coming up and they will be able to make a determination and register their concerns one way or the other during election time," Obama said. (Editing by Eric Beech)

WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama pledged on Monday to halve a record 2010 budget deficit by the end of his first term in office, but made tackling double-digit unemployment his immediate priority with a spending plan that risked public ire and a rough battle in Congress.

Criticized by Republicans for raising taxes on wealthy Americans, Obama is under pressure to convince investors and vital creditors like China that he has a credible plan to control the U.S. deficit and debt over time.

“We won’t be able to bring down this deficit overnight, given that the recovery is still taking hold,” Obama said after laying out $3.8 trillion in spending plans for the fiscal year to Sept. 30, 2011.

“We will continue, for example, to do what it takes to create jobs. That is reflected in my budget. It is essential,” he said in a televised statement from the White House.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday will unveil a budget that must balance his short-term political imperative to boost jobs, while convincing investors he has a credible plan to curb record deficits over time.

Obama has previewed key details of his budget for fiscal 2011, including a freeze on some domestic spending and a commission on fiscal responsibility. He has also told creditors like China he understands that failing to tackle the deficit could ultimately erode confidence in the United States.

Obama risks being painted in an election year by his Republican Party foes as a tax-and-spend liberal after he pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy. He said this action was vital to staving off a depression, while Republicans say the money was misspent.

But Obama faces greater political peril if he fails to ease unemployment, now at 10 percent, and said the budget will not be cut while the economy is recovering, declaring in last week’s State of the Union address that jobs were his top priority.

WASHINGTON, Jan 31 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday will unveil a budget that must balance his short-term political imperative to boost jobs, while convincing investors he has a credible plan to curb record deficits over time.

Obama has previewed key details of his budget for fiscal 2011, including a freeze on some domestic spending and a commission on fiscal responsibility. He has also told creditors like China he understands that failing to tackle the deficit could ultimately erode confidence in the United States.

Obama risks being painted in an election year by his Republican Party foes as a tax-and-spend liberal after he pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy. He said this action was vital to staving off a depression, while Republicans say the money was misspent.

But Obama faces greater political peril if he fails to ease unemployment, now at 10 percent, and said the budget will not be cut while the economy is recovering, declaring in last week’s State of the Union address that jobs were his top priority.

WASHINGTON, Jan 31 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday will unveil a budget that must balance his short-term political imperative to boost jobs, while convincing investors he has a credible plan to curb record deficits over time. Obama has previewed key details of his budget for fiscal 2011, including a freeze on some domestic spending and a commission on fiscal responsibility. He has also told creditors like China he understands that failing to tackle the deficit could ultimately erode confidence in the United States. Obama risks being painted in an election year by his Republican Party foes as a tax-and-spend liberal after he pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy. He said this action was vital to staving off a depression, while Republicans say the money was misspent. But Obama faces greater political peril if he fails to ease unemployment, now at 10 percent, and said the budget will not be cut while the economy is recovering, declaring in last week’s State of the Union address that jobs were his top priority. "The budget deals with a complex situation that takes steps to ensure the recovery is sustained and job growth accelerates," said James Horney at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning think-tank in Washington. U.S. growth jumped at a 5.7 percent annualized pace in the fourth quarter of 2009, but this has yet to result in the rate of prolonged job creation needed to replace the 7 million jobs lost since the country tipped into recession in December 2007. As a result, there is not much chance of the deficit shrinking before 2011. "In the short run, the deficit will grow as an unfortunate necessity to stimulate the economy. But it will also demonstrate the president is committed to getting the deficit down to a sustainable level," said Horney, who is director of federal fiscal policy at the Center. SPENDING FREEZE Obama has proposed a three-year freeze on domestic spending excluding national security and Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid entitlement programs, which he says will save $20 billion in fiscal 2011 and $250 billion by 2020. The U.S. leader will propose trimming or chopping 120 government programs to help rein in the U.S. deficit, the White House said on Saturday, in a 2011 budget proposal that the New York Times reported would hit $3.8 trillion. [ID:nN30168134] The White House declined to confirm or deny the report. The newspaper said the proposal would include $25 billion for struggling states and provide funding increases for programs at the Energy Department, National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and the Census Bureau. An administration official confirmed to Reuters that the budget would include a 6 percent increase in civilian research programs. The New York Times said space agency NASA’s mission to fly back to the moon would be scrapped and some public works projects by the Army Corps of Engineers would lose funding. Budget experts also expect the numbers to anticipate drops in the cost of fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where Obama has laid out timetables for withdrawing U.S. forces, as well as growing tax revenues as the economy regains altitude. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office forecasts a small improvement in the 2010 budget deficit to $1.35 trillion, or 9.2 percent of gross domestic product, from a post World War Two record of $1.4 trillion, or 9.9 percent of GDP, in 2009. It forecasts this deficit declining steadily to 4.1 percent in 2012, when Obama faces reelection, which would also meet a pledge he repeated in the State of the Union speech to halve the deficit by 2013. But critics say this is based on assumptions about raising revenue from his keynote policies such as cap-and-trade, which they do not think have any chance of becoming law, as well as allowing tax cuts on wealthy Americans to lapse. "I don’t think the president can cut the deficit over the next decade through his current budget plans," said Brian Riedl at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, although he expected Obama to declare otherwise. "The White House understands the American people are extremely worried by the high budget deficit … In an election year, the president cannot be seen as behaving in a fiscally irresponsible fashion," he said. Earlier this month Obama’s Democrats lost a U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts long held by the late Edward Kennedy, foreshadowing potential heavy losses in November mid-term congressional elections if voters remain unhappy. Obama may view the lesson from Massachusetts to be that voters are concerned about jobs rather than the country’s fiscal outlook, and long-time budget watcher Stan Collender scoffed at the notion that voters cared about it. "The budget is seldom the issue that voters vote on. What they do care about is the economy and their own jobs," said Collender, a congressional budget staffer in the 1980s and now a partner at Qorvis Communications in Washington. (Editing by Eric Walsh and Paul Simao)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will propose a $33 billion tax credit to encourage small businesses to hire workers and raise wages in 2010, an administration official said on Thursday.

Democrat Obama will announce the plan on Friday at a small business in Baltimore en route to speak to a retreat there for House of Representatives Republicans, a bipartisan mission he is undertaking as he tries to rally from the damage done to his popularity by 10 percent unemployment.

The plan was previewed by Obama in the State of the Union address, where he made jobs priority number one. It will grant a $5,000 tax credit for every net new worker hired in calendar 2010. The amount will be capped at $500,000 per firm to make sure that the bulk of the benefits go to small businesses.

The official said the proposal had much in common with other plans being discussed on Capital Hill and the White House was ready to work with both parties to “get something done.”