President-elect Barack Obama issued a warning Sunday to officials around the country who want to fund projects with federal dollars: no more business as usual, CNN reported.
Decisions on projects won't be made "simply based on politics," President-elect Obama said on "Meet the Press."
Decisions on projects won't be made "simply based on politics," President-elect Obama said on "Meet the Press."
In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Obama said: "What we need to do is examine: What are the projects where we're going to get the most bang for the buck? How are we going to make sure taxpayers are protected?
"You know, the days of just pork coming out of Congress as a strategy, those days are over."
Later, at a news conference in Chicago, Illinois, Obama said in his recent meetings with the National Conference of Governors, there was a "strong bipartisan" consensus that "we've got to get people working on some key projects that have been sitting there for a long time."
Infrastructure, energy programs and school construction projects will get people working and ultimately help build a stronger economy, he said.
But, he added: "We are not going to simply write a bunch of checks and let them be spent without some very clear criteria as to how this money is going to benefit the overall economy and put people back to work. We're not going to be making decisions on projects simply based on politics and -- and lobbying."
The president-elect faced questions about a possible bailout of the auto industry, which he supports with caveats.