Balanced budget not Obama's first priority

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Balancing the federal budget during Barack Obama's first term would be a mistake, an economic adviser to the president-elect said.

"In the short run, we're facing a very large deficit but it's one that we have to incur," Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee said on MSNBC, the Politico reported Wednesday.

"If you try to reduce the deficit or balance the budget in the face of the stiffest recession in decades, you threaten to repeat the mistake that caused the Great Depression," Goolsbee said.

Obama said Tuesday that budget reform was "a necessity." But, he made no promises to balance the budget, Politico, a Washington publication, reported.

In contrast, Obama has stressed the need for a new economic stimulus bill to create or rescue 2.5 million jobs, a package that could cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

The new president will inherit federal deficit that is nearing $1 trillion, the Politico said.

"There's no way that he's going to be able to balance the budget in his first term. No one could," budget expert at the Brookings Institute Isabel Sawhill, said.

"It's simply not feasible," she said.