April 25 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said he is committed to imposing fiscal discipline on the government and called on Congress to pass a law requiring any new spending be matched by higher taxes or cuts elsewhere.

Obama, in his weekly radio and Internet address, said that while his initiatives to confront the economic crisis have deepened the country’s debt, his administration will “demand new thinking and a new sense of responsibility for every dollar that is spent.”

“All across America, families are tightening their belts and making hard choices,” Obama said. “Now, Washington must show that same sense of responsibility.”

Obama is seeking to demonstrate that he’ll move to reduce the federal deficit as he tries to shore up support for his $3.6 trillion fiscal 2010 budget. House and Senate negotiators next week are slated to reconcile their competing plans for the president’s budget priorities, including increases for education, energy and health-care spending.

The president wants lawmakers to mandate so-called pay-go requirements for legislation that currently serves as an internal rule in Congress that can be ignored. The rule is credited in part for bringing discipline to Congress in the mid- 1990s and helping to create the budget surpluses during President Bill Clinton’s administration.

Showing Progress

While Obama is promising to cut the deficit shortfall in half by the end of his first term, he’s under pressure from Republicans and some Democrats to show progress toward his goal. The Obama administration is forecasting the budget shortfall will hit a record $1.75 trillion this year and $1.2 trillion next year.

The president said a “pay-go” bill will soon be introduced by Representative Baron Hill of Indiana, who is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of self-described fiscal conservatives. The group, Democrats elected mostly from Republican-leaning or swing districts, have called for pay-as- you-go budgeting, deficit reduction and restrictions on health- care spending. Obama is seeking the group’s support as the House readies to move forward on his budget proposal.

“We need to adhere to the basic principle that new tax or entitlement policies should be paid for,” Obama said. “This principle -- known as pay-go -- helped transform large deficits into surpluses in the 1990s.”

Budget Cuts

Earlier this week, Obama was criticized as doing too little to confront the deficit when he ordered his Cabinet to cut $100 million out of the budget in the next 90 days, which would cut this year’s projected deficit by about 0.006 percent.

While Obama didn’t repeat that dollar amount, he again promised to go through the budget “line by line” to cut wasteful spending and he pledged to eliminate or trim more than 100 programs. The president said his administration has identified $2 trillion in deficit-reductions over the next decade.

In addition to the “pay-go” legislation, Obama announced several other steps to help make government more efficient. Agencies that identify savings will be able to keep a portion of the funds to “invest in programs that work,” he said. Obama also said his administration will take into account suggestions from government workers for saving their agencies’ money.

The president also announced a forum later this year with experts from outside the government to offer new ways that technology can help save money. He didn’t give a date.

“We cannot sustain deficits that mortgage our children’s future, nor tolerate wasteful inefficiency,” Obama said. “Government has a responsibility to spend the peoples’ money wisely, and to serve the people effectively.”

Republican Address

In the weekly Republican address, Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander highlighted differences between the two parties on energy. He called for an energy policy that would boost the production of electricity through nuclear power as well as more domestic exploration for oil and natural gas.

Alexander cited the example of France, which gets a greater proportion of its electrical power from nuclear plants.

“We Americans always have had a love-hate relationship with the French,” he said. “Now the debate in Congress is shifting to the size of your electric and gasoline bills and to climate change. So guess who has one of the lowest electric rates in Western Europe and the second-lowest carbon emissions in the entire European Union?”

While the U.S. gets 20 percent of its electricity from nuclear power, the French are producing 80 percent of theirs from atomic generators, Alexander said.

Republicans and Democrats are largely in agreement on the need to develop alternative energy sources and conserve energy, he said. Where they differ is on production, according to Alexander.

“We say, how about another Manhattan Project to remove carbon from coal plant emissions?” Alexander said. “We say, for a bridge to a clean energy future, find more natural gas and oil offshore.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Julianna Goldman in Washington at jgoldman6@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: April 25, 2009 06:00 EDT