Obama says he loses sleep over deficit fears-CNBC

Published: 16 Jun 2009 17:50:17 PST

WASHINGTON, June 16 - President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that worrying about U.S. finances "keeps me awake at night" but defended increasing government spending to prevent the recession from worsening.

"There's no doubt that we've got a serious problem in terms of our long-term deficits and debt," he said in an interview with CNBC television. "I make no apologies for having acted short-term to deal with our recession.

But he said as soon as the recession ends, "we're going to have to close that gap between the amount of money coming in and the amount of money going out."