President-Elect Barack Obama Announces Peter Orszag as Director of Office of Management and Budget

And there's no better person to help lead this effort as director of the OMB than my friend, Peter Orszag. Peter has been one of our nation's leading voices on budgetary issues.

It's said that a nation's budget reflects its values and its priorities. I believe that's true. And I know that Peter will bring to his work at the OMB a set of priorities that I and the American people share.

Throughout his career, he's made significant contributions in our understanding of all the major economic challenges that we're now confronting, from reducing medical costs to saving Social Security to fighting global climate change to helping put the dream of a college degree within the reach of more students.

As director of the Congressional Budget Office, he re-energized and reinvigorated the agency, while shifting its focus to confront the health care crisis that is not only a cause of so much suffering for so many families, but a rapidly growing portion of our budget and a drag on our entire economy.

But it's not simply that Peter's past career makes him qualified for this new appointment; it's also that he has a vision for the future that I share.

He believes, as I do, that even as we take steps to restore discipline to our budget, we also have to take the steps right now that are necessary to solve our immediate crisis.

Peter doesn't need a map to tell him where the bodies are buried in the federal budget. He knows what works and what doesn't, what's worthy of our precious tax dollars and what is not.