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WASHINGTON - Big changes are coming to President Barack Obama's administration - just not right away.
The White House is making the nation's high-stakes fiscal crisis its top priority coming out of the election, underscoring the vital importance of averting severe year-end tax increases and spending cuts, not just for the economy but in setting the tone for Obama's second term.
Still, Obama is weighing replacements for high-profile officials expected to leave his Cabinet and the White House soon. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton both want to step down but have indicated a willingness to push their departures into next year, or at least until successors are confirmed. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also wants to retire next year.
''The first thing is to try to find a way out of the box we're in with regards to the fiscal cliff,'' said Tom Daschle, the Aberdeen native and former Senate majority leader who is close to Obama. ''When the new Congress convenes, they'll begin the nominating process for what I expect will be a good number of vacancies.''
Obama privately delved into both issues Thursday, his first full day back in Washington following his re-election on Tuesday. The president and his team were also assessing how congressional Republicans were positioning themselves following the election before saying much publicly about his second term.
The president will make his first postelection comments on the economy and the fiscal cliff today at the White House.
In his victory speech Tuesday night, Obama offered a call for reconciliation after a divisive campaign. But he made clear he had an agenda in mind, citing a need for changes in the tax code, as well as immigration reform and climate change.
Obama aides want to avoid what they believe was an overreach by President George W. Bush, who declared after narrowly winning re-election that he had ''political capital'' and intended to spend it. One of Bush's first moves was to push to privatize Social Security, a plan that was roundly rejected by Congress and the public.
The White House believes Obama has a clear mandate on one key issue: raising taxes on families making more than $250,000 a year. Obama's senior adviser David Plouffe said voters ''clearly chose the president's view of making sure the wealthiest Americans are asked to do a little bit more'' to help shrink the federal deficit.
The president has long advocated allowing tax cuts first passed by Bush to expire for upper income earners. But he gave in to Republican demands in 2010 and allowed the cuts to continue, angering many Democrats.
Both parties agree that the combination of tax increases and spending cuts set to hit on Jan. 1 could plunge the economy back into recession.
White House chief of staff Jack Lew is seen as a leading candidate to replace Geithner. Lew is well-respected in Washington by both parties and served as budget director under both Obama and former President Bill Clinton.
At State, the leading candidates to take over as the nation's top diplomat are Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.