WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama convenes his first formal Cabinet meeting Monday and will ask department and agency chiefs to look for ways over the next 90 days to cut $100 million out of the federal budget, a senior administration official said.

Back from his fence-mending trip to Latin America and the Caribbean, Obama will be reminding the panel that American families are having to make tough financial decisions and need to know the government is spending their money wisely, too. The official discussed Topic A for the session on grounds of anonymity because it will be behind closed doors.

A second senior official, also speaking anonymously, said Obama will point to cuts already being proposed.

The Veterans Affairs Department has canceled or delayed 26 conferences, saving nearly $17.8 million, he noted, and will be using less expensive alternatives, like video conferencing. The Agriculture Department is working to combine 1,500 employees from seven office locations into a single facility in 2011 - saving $62 million over a 15-year lease term. And the Homeland Security Department has estimated it can save up to $52 million over five years by purchasing office supplies in bulk.

The federal deficit for March alone was $192.3 billion, and $100 million would represent about one-twentieth of 1 percent of that. Obama has brought forward a $3.6 trillion budget for the 2010 fiscal year, beginning Oct. 1, a proposal that would produce $9.3 trillion in deficits over the next decade.

Earlier this month, both the House and Senate passed companion budget plans giving Obama and his Capitol Hill allies a key victory, but 20 House Democrats from GOP-leaning areas abandoned him on the final vote because of unhappiness over deficits.

The Cabinet meeting is being held just days after a series of "Tea Party" demonstrations across the country in which protesters challenged the administration over it's massive spending to help pull the country and its financial system out of an economic nose dive unseen in decades.

Obama's nominee to be health secretary, Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, still has not been confirmed by the Senate and will not be present, nor will there be a designee.

Later in the day, the president will visit CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. The White House says the president will be holding private meetings with CIA employees and delivering a public message on the agency's importance to national security.

Obama's visit to the spy agency was clearly timed to buck up officials and workers there after his authorization last week of the release of a series of memos on interrogation methods approved under President George W. Bush. In an accompanying statement, he said "it is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice, that they will not be subject to prosecution." He did not specifically address the policymakers.

White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said in a Sunday television interview that Obama does not intend to seek prosecution of Bush administration officials who devised the policies that led to the harsh interrogation of suspected terrorists.

Emanuel said that the president believes they "should not be prosecuted either and that's not the place that we go."

The decision not to seek charges against the interrogators has been criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union and called a violation of international law by the U.N.'s top torture investigator.

Republican lawmakers and others contend that national security was undermined by the release of the memos. On Sunday, Obama administration officials pushed back vigorously against that claim.

"We are absolutely confident that we have the tools necessary to get the information we need to keep this country safe," senior presidential adviser David Axelrod said Sunday. "And we don't believe and the president of the United States does not believe that this is a contest between our values and our security. He thinks we can honor both and execute both. And that's what he's going to do."

Michael Hayden, who led the CIA under Bush, said the public release of the memos will make it harder to get useful information from suspected terrorists being detained by the United States.

That's a great idea to to use video conferencing and save nearly 17 million dollars.

It's about time we reached 2009.

$400.00 for a Wal-Mart desk top, $15.00 for a mike, and $20.00 for a web cam. I conference already.
Good try.

I think a big part of the problem is that people just automatically do things the way they've always done things, without any thought as to whether it makes sense or is the most expedient and responsible way of doing things. A little common sense and thinking before acting will go a long way.

Good try? People in the agency weren't doing it before.

Yes, old habits are a hard thing to break.

Ya' tellin' me, they've never heard of web cams and mike attachments to computers? Yahoo conferences for free.

From what I've heard, Bush wasn't big on computers. Obama's people came in and got the computers up-to-date.

Well, i will give you that every little bit helps.

I still think they aren't going to cut any major expenses...

Almost a third of our budget is spent on defense because we invaded so many countries.

Another third of our budget is spent on interest to the Federal Reserve bank.

You can't pay off the debt if the federal reserve makes all our money. If we instituted Congress to print the money instead we could pay off this debt. Nifty huh? Didn't even have to switch to a gold standard.

Bring the troops home, have them focus on defense, rather than offense.

Then we could lower our defense spending drastically.

Get rid of the Department of Homeland Security. They are only lifted the load off the FBI, CIA, NSA, ATF, DEA, etc. And they aren't even doing their job properly.

These are the cuts i would like to see. Start melting agencies together. Give congress the power to create money again. Stop beingthe worl police.

You know what's crazy? If we did that we would no longer pay income taxes... This means more spending money for you and I. This would stimulate the economy naturally.

And guess what... We would still have enough money left over for healthcare costs.

The state and federal government programs are 4 years behind their payments on healthcare. This is partly what is screwing us in healthcare.

The possibilities are endless....

Wouldn't this be a nifty "change"? Or the "change" we need?

Baby steps, Drivin.

lol...

The question is will the government gain trust of the people again one day?

I don't see everyone convinced yet, but perhaps it is possible, as it is better then being in doubt is not a alternative.

a good question is...
why did he increase the budget 2 trillion
and he is now cutting 100 million?

seems like it's mere pennies compared...huh?

For his followers, it would be pacification.

I hear that the Democrats in particular say it is a good investment?

If this is true then doesn't this mean that the corporations have to come up with the profits to pay back the government and come up with profits to keep their company afloat?

You know green technology was in Europe's interest for a very long time and they have started earlier then the states. Or let us just say business in general. What will America do to ensure profits to keep the people of this nation as of other countries interested in negotiating anykind of deal in the first place?

The competition is big!

So can America come up with better cars, gadgets, etc. to keep the world interested to create profits for the states to get out of the trillions of dollar slum hole?

How exactly will this wise investment that Obama and his cabinet preach help the children of our future in the end?

What will America do to prevent consumers or customers to buy at other parts of the world instead?

If most customers buy from Europe and not the United States will this not hurt the people and their businesses over here in the states?

Will this not create a bigger deficit of interest% in the end hurting the country in the long term?

Was it in the end intelligent to burrow money to keep the economy afloat?

Smiless,

I do hope that we catch up to the rest of world with green technology. I'm looking forward to the rail system that they've been talking about. We need to catch up!

or is it that war is the only alternative to keep this country afloat. The selling of high tech weapons, medical technology, and perhaps even computer technolgy the only life saving product that can keep the United States alive.

What happens if other countries come up with better products at a cheaper price concerning the three technologies I indicated above?

What will happen if America cannot pay back its loans?

Does the country then go to a war?

Does the country have to sell off its land?

What makes the secretary of treasure, president's cabinet, congress so sure that America will recover from its trillions of dollars deficit in the 21st century?

i was quite the optimist but when i find out he's 'hob-knobbing' with world leaders who have bashed us and called us evil...i begin to question things.

it's almost like he's only doing what he needs to do to make himself look good.

he's starting to scare me a little.