Obama wants ideas on tightening federal belt

WASHINGTON -- Think you can do better than your federal boss? President Obama wants to know how.

Obama on Saturday announced a plan for federal workers to propose ways to improve their agencies' and departments' budgets. The president said employees' ideas would be key as his Cabinet officials try to cut millions from the budget and trim the deficit.

"After all, Americans across the country know that the best ideas often come from workers, not just management," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address. "That's why we'll establish a process through which every government worker can submit their ideas for how their agency can save money and perform better. We'll put the suggestions that work into practice."

Obama's pitch comes at the end of a week focused on federal spending. On Friday, Democrats in Congress neared a deal on Obama's budget proposal and inched closer to passing a bill that would result in some $500 billion in deficits.

To confront that perception, Obama earlier in the week ordered officials to identify $100 million in savings to achieve over time -- a relative pittance against the broader plan, his aides later acknowledged.

"Earlier this week, I held my first Cabinet meeting and sent a clear message: Cut what doesn't work. Already, we've identified substantial savings," Obama said. "And in the days and weeks ahead, we will continue going through the budget line by line, and we'll identify more than 100 programs that will be cut or eliminated."

Obama said his administration would make $2 trillion in deficit reductions in the next decade, a pledge he has made repeatedly during his first three months in office. He also said he wants to re-evaluate priorities in the capital and urged Congress to pass legislation that would force lawmakers to pay for new policies and avoid large deficits. He also told agencies they could keep a part of the money they save.

"So much of our government was built to deal with different challenges from a different era," said Obama, noting that he took office facing a $1.3 billion budget deficit.

"Too often, the result is wasteful spending, bloated programs and inefficient results."