Obama budget chief: Economy almost bottomed out

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The White House's budget director said that the US economy has almost bottomed out and the sense of economic free-fall is over. Peter Orszag said that as the economy improves in the months ahead, the nation's budget will run lower deficits. He also said that the Obama administration's financial assumptions were going to be updated because of higher-than-expected unemployment rates. The budget director said that President Barack Obama was committed to changes in the health care system this year. Orszag said that the president's plan to provide health care to millions of uninsured Americans would not add to the federal deficit in the short term, and actually reduce it in coming years.