At long last, a team. And it's formidable. With Tim Geithner eyed for the head of the Treasury Department, President-elect Barack Obama has chosen a fellow already knee-deep in the bailout, someone who gets what has gone right and is smart enough to understand what could go very wrong. And in Larry Summers -- selected as director of the National Economic Council -- Obama has a seasoned Washington hand and brilliant economist who actually remembers what it's like to balance the budget. Imagine that.
Not only is there a team, but there's also a plan. It's a stimulus package with a price tag that could total as much as $700 billion over the next two years. It's as much as Congress allowed for the Wall Street bailout, and more than we've spent in Iraq. The incoming administration is also sending clear signals that it could delay its promise to repeal President Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy. All of which are good signs. What we're seeing -- even before Obama is sworn in -- is a changing of the guard, so the new folks are ready to take charge on Day One. "Of course this is the right thing to do and a necessity but Republicans are grumbling!
Some Republicans have predictably begun to grumble about the size of the stimulus package, but here's a question: What would you in the GOP do differently? Would you continue the deregulation that got us into this mess? And didn't you folks break the bank over the last couple of years? Aren't even some of the most conservative economists now advising spending as a way to get ourselves out of this hole? So, when House Minority Leader John Boehner gripes, as he did Sunday in a same-old, same-old refrain that "the American people know that more Washington spending isn't the answer," the logical response is: OK, what do you suggest? Obama has already suggested tax cuts for the middle class, so you can't start with that. Got anything better to offer? Truth is, there's no time for the old (and unproductive) political games. If the opposition party is smart, it will sit down around the table Obama is setting and become a part of fixing America's problems. Standing on the sidelines and booing -- without offering constructive suggestions -- is going to be seen for what it is: political posturing of the very sort Americans voted against. Opposition is fine, even necessary, but it has to be rooted in ideas, not blind ideology. Obama criticized for helping our America
Pushing the calendar, and maybe his luck, President-elect Barack Obama is urging rapid approval of a massive economic stimulus package meant to calm turbulent financial markets. He will not be president for another eight weeks, and the politically safer route might be to lie low as President George W. Bush finishes his rocky term. But in announcing his economic team Monday at a White House-style news conference, Obama has chosen to use the bully pulpit even before he assumes the office, gambling that he can soften the economy's fall while he continues to fill out the rest of his cabinet. "The truth is, we do not have a minute to waste. These extraordinary stresses on our financial system require extraordinary policy responses," Obama said, introducing New York Federal Reserve Bank president Timothy Geithner as his treasury secretary and Lawrence Summers, a former treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, to lead the National Economic Council.
Obama has said repeatedly there can be only one president at a time, and has kept a relatively low public profile as Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson have tried to address the mortgage and credit crisis that threaten a deep global recession. That changed at his news conference Monday, when the president-elect pressed for passage of a multibillion-dollar stimulus plan aimed at creating jobs, easing the home foreclosure crisis and rescuing the struggling auto industry. Doug Astolfi, a presidential historian at Florida's St. Leo University, said that because of the recent stock market plunge Obama had little choice but to step forward. "Had he not gotten involved, the potential for really disastrous shifts in the economy were all there," Astolfi said, adding that until his inauguration Obama is still insulated from blame if things get worse. "He can key in a team and push for policies. But if bad things happen he's protected from most criticism because it's the fault of the people who are still there," Astolfi said.
By stepping out so forcefully, Obama signaled he was not following the example of another Democratic president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was elected in 1932 during another period of economic calamity. Roosevelt refused to cooperate during the transition with his vanquished predecessor, Republican Herbert Hoover, waiting instead to tackle the crisis after he was sworn in as president. Obama said Monday he had spoken to Bush and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke about the proposed government bailout of Citigroup Inc. "My commitment is to do what's required so that our financial system works and credit flows. President Bush has indicated that he has the same approach, the same attitude,"
Obama said. But Obama stepped symbolically away from Bush as well, stressing repeatedly that his stimulus plan was aimed at middle-class wage earners, not just big financial institutions. It was an implicit reminder that many of Bush's economic policies have favored the wealthy. "We cannot have a thriving Wall Street without a thriving Main Street, that in this country we rise or fall as one nation, as one people," Obama said, promising to make good on his pledge to bring tax relief to families earning less than $250,000 a year. Jack Pitney, a government professor at California's Claremont McKenna College, said Obama was showing "equal parts assertiveness and reassurance" by his decision to step forward. "He's not trying to usurp the president's authority," Pitney said, "but he's trying to prepare the groundwork for the moment he takes the oath." Obama using bully pulpit to tackle economy
* Please usurp Bush's authority someone has to. He has proven he can not handle it! He refuses to do the right thing for Average Americans and our America while constantly entrenching his new elitist version! Obama since being elected has said their is only one President at a time but after 8 years of destruction by Bush I do not care if it is behind the scenes but I am ready for Obama to start doing the right thing for our America. We can not take any more of Bush's success neither can the world!
James Joiner
Gardner Ma
www.anaveragepatriot.com
3 comments:
Incredible Obama!
The only thing left for Bush now is to do his fiddle while Rome burns act. He's pardoning all those Texas savings and loans crooks from the 80's, gutting environmental standards, and other such last minute favors to his vermin pals.
We're not rid of him yet.
It's hard to be thankful this Thanksgiving with that cartel still in power, but a have a nice Thanksgiving anyway.
Obama did what he had to do by making those announcements of his cabinet members and economic board members. it was good for wall street because once it was announced who was going to be put in charge stocks immediately went up.
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