President Barack Obama hosted the White House’s first-ever Twitter town hall meeting Wednesday afternoon in which he answered questions on the American economy and jobs. All questions, submitted via Twitter, where answered in a live forum to a small audience. Many of the questions were preselected.

Mr. Obama opened the forum by posting a Tweet in which he asked: “In order to reduce the deficit, what costs would you cut and what investments would you keep?” He responded by stating that determinations need to be made that will help the United States grow by eliminating waste. Debate over what constitutes a necessity versus government waste, he said, will continue through upcoming weeks.