President Barack Obama sought to assure the nation Monday that he will address runaway government deficits, despite adding to the red ink now to battle the economic crisis.

After a four-hour "fiscal responsibility summit" with both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, Mr. Obama said he was paying attention to fiscal matters large and small. He also announced a summit on health care next week at the White House, to follow the unveiling of a budget Thursday that will make room for his proposal to offer Americans near-universal health care.

"We're not going to be able to fall back into the same old habits," Mr. Obama said. "The casual dishonesty of hiding irresponsible spending with clever accounting tricks, the costly overruns, the fraud and abuse, the endless excuses."

As Mr. Obama pours money into the economy in hopes of turning it around, he is also faced with making tough decisions on stemming the tide of red ink without strangling a future recovery. He told the nation's governors Monday that the federal government will have dispensed $15 billion by Wednesday to begin shoring up the states' strained Medicaid accounts. In a speech before a joint session of Congress Tuesday night, Mr. Obama will propose some specific spending cuts, as well as the additional spending he wants on energy, education and health care, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Some participants in Monday's summit concluded that the president will attempt to address the financial soundness of the Social Security system before moving on to other, more complicated problems, such as health-care costs. read more