Agenda: Dems' tepid reactions
Posted: Friday, January 09, 2009 9:17 AM by Domenico Montanaro
The New York Times focuses on the tepid reaction Obama’s stimulus plan has received from some Senate Democrats. "Senate Democrats complained that major components of his plan were not bold enough and urged more focus on creating jobs and rebuilding the nation’s energy infrastructure rather than cutting taxes. Just hours earlier, Mr. Obama called for speedy passage of the stimulus measure, warning that the recession ‘could linger for years’ if Congress did not pass his plan within weeks. Further complicating the picture, Democratic senators said Thursday that they would try to attach legislation to the package that would allow bankruptcy courts to modify home loans, a move Republicans have opposed."
The Boston Globe: "The president-elect frankly acknowledged that the package has its skeptics, including those who don't want to worsen the record federal deficit, those who oppose using public works projects as a national economic salve, and taxpayers questioning the impact of the hundreds of billions already spent since the financial crisis emerged last fall."
Bloomberg News has a smart piece about the campaign tactics Obama's team is using to sell the stimulus. It reports that Obama's team is polling how to sell the plan. "David Axelrod, Obama’s chief political adviser, along with campaign media adviser Jim Margolis, are encouraging lawmakers to use the word ‘recovery’ instead of recession and ‘investment’ instead of ‘infrastructure.’ Those recommendations came from focus-group research indicating that such framing would make the package more appealing to voters.”
“The Obama camp is trying to build support for the stimulus proposals, which have encountered resistance from lawmakers of both parties over size and cost. Republicans have employed similar tactics in past policy debates, notably when they labeled the estate tax as the ‘death’ tax in arguing for its repeal. ‘Not unlike news organizations, we poll public attitudes about where the economy is,’ Robert Gibbs, Obama’s choice for White House press secretary, said in an interview yesterday. ‘We’re not polling to see what should be in an economic-recovery plan.’”
A new Gallup poll (MOE, +/- 3%) has 53% saying they want Congress to pass a $775 billion economic stimulus as soon as Obama takes office, while 36% say they oppose this.
Another poll: "Seventy-nine percent said they approve of Obama's package of tax cuts, jobs-building, health-care and energy proposals. Seventy-four percent also said it was important to include a major work-training program, according to the Politico/Allstate survey."
Paul Krugman likes Obama's words about the need for stimulus rather than the plan itself. "Mr. Obama’s prescription doesn’t live up to his diagnosis. The economic plan he’s offering isn’t as strong as his language about the economic threat. In fact, it falls well short of what’s needed. Bear in mind just how big the U.S. economy is. Given sufficient demand for its output, America would produce more than $30 trillion worth of goods and services over the next two years. But with both consumer spending and business investment plunging, a huge gap is opening up between what the American economy can produce and what it’s able to sell. And the Obama plan is nowhere near big enough to fill this ‘output gap.’”
The Boston Globe's Lehigh also criticizes the plan.
The Los Angeles Times latches on to Obama's "only government can solve this problem” riff from the speech.
The Washington Post makes an interesting point: Obama's speech was very similar to speeches the past four incoming presidents made about the economy. "In tone and manner, Obama's speech was eerily reminiscent of the early declarations from the past four presidents, who took office warning of economic perils that lay just around the corner."
As we noted yesterday, the issue of the second half of the TARP money is turning into a real headache for Obama's economic team. The Washington Post front-pages that Treasury secretary-designate Tim Geithner “has been working night and day on the eighth floor of the transition team office in downtown Washington with Lawrence H. Summers and other senior economic advisers to hash out a new approach that would expand the program's aid to municipalities, small businesses, homeowners and other consumers. With lawmakers stewing over how Bush administration officials spent the first $350 billion, Geithner has little chance of winning congressional approval for the second half without retooling the program, the sources added.”
Other agenda items… The New York Times has a report on how business is preparing to fund a campaign to fight the labor movement on card check. "These groups are planning a multimillion-dollar campaign in the hope of killing legislation that would give unions the right to win recognition at a workplace once a majority of employees sign cards saying they want a union. Business groups fear the bill will enable unions to quickly add millions of workers and drive up labor costs."
And Obama's decision to ask for a postponement in the move to digital TV is being embraced by many TV networks and congressional Democrats. One thing Obama's team feared: the perception that less than a month after taking office, millions would lose their access to TV.
