Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and President Barack Obama both addressed the federal deficit yesterday.

Bernanke said adopting rules that limit federal spending or debt can help put the United States on a more sustainable fiscal path, and he urged lawmakers to consider their enactment, Bloomberg reported.

“Well-designed rules can help promote improved fiscal performance,” Bernanke said yesterday in a speech in Providence, R.I. A rule “could provide an important signal to the public that the Congress is serious about achieving long-term fiscal sustainability, which itself would be good for confidence,” he said.

The White House Office of Management and Budget in July projected the deficit for fiscal 2010, which ended Sept. 30, at $1.47 trillion and the gap for fiscal 2011 at $1.42 trillion.

“It is crucially important that we put U.S. fiscal policy on a sustainable path,” Bernanke said at the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council’s annual dinner.

“The only real question” is whether adjustments to taxes and spending will come from a “careful and deliberative process” or from a “rapid and painful response to a looming or actual fiscal crisis,” Bernanke said.

The U.S. budget gap has “stabilized” and should narrow relative to national income in the next few years, Bernanke said. 

Obama said Monday that the federal government would have to get serious about tackling its deficit, Reuters reported.

The president took part of the blame, saying emergency government spending measures he took to support growth and hiring last year had temporarily added to the funding gap.

“I realize that we are facing an untenable fiscal situation,” he said during a meeting with his economic recovery advisory board. “What I won’t do is cut back on investments like education.”