Obama pledging budget cuts beginning Monday

Perhaps feeling the heat from last week's tea party protests across the nation, President Obama has pledged to begin program cuts tomorrow across all Cabinet departments.

The WSJ reports from the Summit of the Americas:

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad -- President Barack Obama promised Saturday to eliminate dozens of government programs that have been shown to be "wasteful or ineffective" and said he will call on his cabinet to hunt their budgets for more.

"There will be no sacred cows, and no pet projects. All across America, families are making hard choices, and it's time their government did the same," Mr. Obama said in his weekly radio and video address.

He said that on Monday, at his first, full cabinet meeting, he will ask all agency heads for specific budget cut proposals. He cited efforts under way at the Pentagon to reform contracting procedures and kill hundreds of billions of dollars in "wasteful spending and cost overruns." He also pointed to a decision to end a Department of Homeland Security consulting contract to create new seals and logos that has cost $3 million since 2003.

He said that in the coming weeks, he will announce dozens more programs to be eliminated.

"We need to restore the American people's confidence in their government -- that it is on their side, spending their money wisely, to meet their families' needs," the president said.