Agenda: The new New Deal?
Posted: Monday, December 08, 2008 9:25 AM by Domenico Montanaro
“President-elect Barack Obama promised Saturday to create the largest public works construction program since the inception of the interstate highway system a half century ago as he seeks to put together a plan to resuscitate the reeling economy,” the New York Times said on Sunday. “Mr. Obama’s remarks showcased his ambition to expand the definition of traditional work programs for the middle class, like infrastructure projects to repair roads and bridges, to include new-era jobs in technology and so-called green jobs that reduce energy use and global warming emissions. ‘We need action -- and action now,’ Mr. Obama said in an address broadcast Saturday morning on radio and YouTube.”
The AP: "The president-elect's address never once used the word 'spend,' relying instead on 'invest' or 'investments,' and pledging wise stewardship of taxpayer money in upgrading roads and schools, and making public buildings more energy-efficient." ... "In a joint statement, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York and Governors Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania and Arnold Schwarzenegger of California said it would help the United States stay ahead of other countries. 'To stay competitive globally, the time to repair and modernize our nation's infrastructure is now,' they said."
"Obama said yesterday [on NBC's Meet the Press] that top executives at the nation's three automakers should be replaced if they don't use pending government loans to make major changes -- including taking immediate steps to produce energy-efficient vehicles -- in a clear signal that he expects a bailout to be predicated on a wholesale restructuring of the industry."
"If this management team that's currently in place doesn't understand the urgency of the situation and is not willing to make the tough choices and adapt to these new circumstances, then they should go," Obama said on Meet the Press.
(Speaking of Meet the Press, did you catch that Obama admitted to falling off the cigarette wagon?)
Obama is trying to reset the expectations for the economy. "Obama warned yesterday that ‘things are going to get worse before they get better’ with the economy, and he pressed the Bush administration to act more urgently to help homeowners struggling with mortgage payments."
The Wall Street Journal reports that "Obama's transition team is resisting Bush administration overtures to coordinate more on the financial-sector rescue, convinced that neither the lame-duck President George W. Bush nor the president-elect has the clout to win a smooth congressional release of more bailout funds. With the first $350 billion of the bailout money nearly allocated, transition aides are pressing Treasury officials to convene a bipartisan meeting on Capitol Hill this week. Obama aides say the Treasury needs to sound out congressional leaders and rank-and-file lawmakers on what information they need to release the second, $350 billion tranche from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP."
“Senior transition officials said they would attend the meeting, but they made clear they would neither lead it nor lobby for approval of the funds. Their focus is on passing a separate, half-trillion dollar stimulus program that Mr. Obama said Sunday would be the largest infrastructure program since the Eisenhower administration's construction of the interstate highway system."
In short, Obama wants to wait to use his political capital when he's actually in office.
