OMB Director Talks Budget Numbers ... Sort of.

President Barack Obama began his address to the nation last night by stating fours areas that are important to him — health care, energy, education and cutting down the deficit.

In a phone conference with reporters today, OMB Director Peter Orszag talked about the money in the President's FY 2010 budget proposal required to accomplish those initiatives. Here are some of his comments relating to financing health care:

"With regard to health care, exactly as under our budget submission, both the House and Senate include deficit-neutral reserve funds to kick-start the health reform process ... The way the budget resolution implements the proposals that the President put forward and the concept that the President put forward is through a deficit-neutral reserve fund."

One reporter asked Orszag to address criticism that when President Clinton made tough choices it was to raise taxes in order to reduce the deficit, while President Obama is making choices to expand the role of government in energy and health care:

"We are, in terms of health care, approaching this in a somewhat different way than was the case in the early 1990s. But I don't think it's accurate to say,just pursuant to what we were just discussing with regard to the deficit-neutral health reserve fund, it's not accurate to say it's a massive expansion of government.

And then the final point I would make is ... if you've asked corporate leaders over the past decade or two what the key to our long-term productivity is ... they have answered consistently: a more efficient health care system; a more efficient energy base and reduced dependence on foreign oil; and improved education, along with ... raising national savings, which involves reducing the deficit."

Do you follow Orszag's logic? Share your thoughts below.