President-elect Barack Obama kept his transition team moving forward on Tuesday, announcing more key Cabinet posts, hinting at others, and planning a meeting with the nation's governors in Philadelphia to discuss how the economic crisis is crimping states and their budgets.

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He also said in an interview with Barbara Walters to air Wednesday that the heads of the three auto companies who came to Washington last week asking for a bailout are "tone deaf" to the economic hardship going on in the country.

"This has been a chronic problem, not just for the auto industry," Obama told Walters, according to transcripts released by ABC. "We're sort of focused on them. But I think it's been a problem for the captains of industry, generally. When people are pulling down hundred-million-dollar bonuses on Wall Street, and taking enormous risks with other people's money, that indicates a sense that you don't have any perspective on what's happening to ordinary Americans."

Obama is putting together a stimulus program with the goal of creating 2.5 million jobs over the next two years. He hasn't announced details, but some economists put the cost of the plan between $500 billion and $700 billion.

Obama also pledged Tuesday to make deficit reduction a goal of his administration -- but only after recovery from the financial crisis is well under way.

Obama claimed a "mandate to move the country in a new direction," and promised to consult with Republicans as he goes about it.

Nick Shapiro, a spokesman for the Obama transition, said the meeting with the governors would provide an opportunity for Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden to talk with state chief executives about "the unique challenges facing our states."

The talks were to be hosted by National Governors Association Chairman Ed Rendell, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania. Though a supporter of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic primary race, he campaigned for Obama in the general election.

It wasn't immediately known how many governors would attend the gathering on Tuesday. But governors from both parties were invited.

Earlier Tuesday, Obama named Peter Orszag as his budget director and said his first priority will be to conduct a thorough review of federal spending programs, "eliminating those programs we don't need and insisting that those we do need operate in a cost-effective way."

"Budget reform is not an option. It's a necessity," Obama said.

Orszag is the current head of the Congressional Budget Office. He will be in charge of the office that examines and approves all federal agency budget requests.

Obama also named Robert Nabors as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Gates Asked To Remain At Defense

Obama has asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to remain in office for the beginning of Obama's presidential term.

An official familiar with the discussions said Tuesday that Gates will remain in the post for at least a year.

Obama is expected to announce the selection of Gates and other members of a national security brain trust next week.

A Democratic official also said Tuesday that retired Marine Gen. James Jones is Obama's pick to be national security adviser. It is unclear whether Jones has accepted the job.

Clinton has been offered the secretary of state position, though she has not formally accepted the job yet.

Gates has served as President George W. Bush's defense chief for two years. He's a moderate Republican with long-standing ties to the Bush family. His appointment would fulfill an Obama pledge to include a Republican in his Cabinet.

Waterboarding Derails Intel Aide

John Brennan, President-elect Barack Obama's top adviser on intelligence, appears to be out of the running for a post in the new administration.

Critics have turned up the heat on Brennan in recent days, accusing him of condoning harsh interrogation tactics on terrorism suspects. Those tactics included waterboarding, a simulated drowning which critics call torture.

Brennan, a 25-year veteran of the CIA who helped establish the National Counterterrorism Center, took his name out of the running Tuesday.

In a letter to Obama obtained by The Associated Press, Brennan reportedly said that his critics are wrong.

In the letter, Brennan said he was an opponent of the pre-emptive Iraq war and coercive interrogation tactics including "waterboarding," AP reported.