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Obama says creation of U.S. deficit panel urgent

24 January 2010 00:55 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Ziya Agazade â€“ APA. President Barack Obama called on the U.S. Congress on Saturday to create a bipartisan panel that would look at ways to rein in the country’s soaring deficits, APA reports citing â€œReutersâ€.

Obama said in a statement the country faced a "serious fiscal situation" that stemmed from the recession he inherited from the Bush administration and years of "failing to pay for new policies."

The statement came ahead of Obama’s State of the Union address, due on Wednesday, in which aides say he will make deficit reduction a major theme. If the commission were established, it would develop recommendations that would be put before Congress. Lawmakers would have to consider whether to adopt the recommendations in full or reject them.

Obama’s approval ratings have fallen to 50 percent from 70 percent when he took office a year ago and his party suffered an embarrassing defeat this week in a Massachusetts Senate race.

Some analysts say public anxiety about skyrocketing deficits are one of the factors hurting the Democratic Party, which is worried about potential losses to Republicans in the November congressional elections.