Washington, D.C.  – U.S. Representative Charles W. Boustany, Jr., MD, R-Southwest Louisiana, today urged President Obama to make significant federal spending cuts, building upon the President’s initial list of cuts today.

“Over the past few months, Congress and the President spent at astronomical levels, so I appreciate the President’s commitment today to make significant cuts,” Boustany said.  “However, this cannot be simple rhetoric.  We face a tremendous challenge in how to pay for federal spending.  The President’s call today must be a start, not the end.”

Following a $825 billion stimulus bill, another round of TARP bank bailouts and a $3.5 trillion budget, President Obama today called for a $17 billion reduction in federal spending next year.  Boustany called for the President to go further to reduce federal spending and the CBO projected 2009 federal deficit of $1.9 trillion.

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