Obama Budget Chief: Heavy Deficits for a Decade

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama's pick to run the White House budget office says the U.S. will likely have bruising budget deficits over the next decade.

Peter Orszag testified at his confirmation hearing Tuesday that he expects budget deficits equaling 5 percent of the size of the economy for the next five or 10 years.

That's a significant jump from those recently experienced and represent levels that have always in the recent past prompted painful deficit control efforts.

Orszag, nominated by Obama to run the Office of Management and Budget, told the Senate Budget Committee that a long-term goal of the incoming administration is fiscal restraint to prevent even worse deficits that will largely result from inflation in the health care sector and its effects of Medicare and Medicaid.