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President Obama plans to convene his Cabinet for the first time today, and he will order its members to identify a combined $100 million in budget cuts over the next 90 days, according to a senior administration official.
Although the budget cuts would amount to a minuscule portion of federal spending (...
all things being relative!), they are intended to signal the president's determination to cut spending and reform government, the official said.
The Obama administration is moving closer to releasing some results of the "stress tests" aimed at projecting how the nation's 19 largest banks would withstand further deterioration in the economic condition.
The administration plans to release guidelines for the stress tests this week, and it hopes to make
results available in
early May.
"It's important that there is disclosure," Axelrod said.
"And I think the banks are going to want that because they're going to want the markets and the country and the world to know exactly what their condition i$."
Chief economic adviser Lawrence H. Summers said
Obama would back efforts to tighten regulation of credit card companies.
Executives from the nation's largest credit card firms have been summoned to the White House for a meeting with administration officials later this week."
