First FDR-like move I've seen Obama make; just as FDR didn't get himself into Hoover's mess, so Obama isn't getting into Bush's. WaPo:
Obama deferred to President Bush and his economic team on major decisions. "The United States has only one government and one president at a time," he said.
While I can see the NOW NOW NOW to make a functional transition before a formal one, I think for future generations we can gut it out for 75 days without completely trashing the Constitution.*
So, perhaps my fears on this score can be laid to rest (even though, as the Krugman quote shows, Big Money wants the functional transition). I'll be watching for evidence of back channel communications, sock puppets, and so forth -- but on this one, I think Obama's caution may have served the country well.
Froomkin has one of those great little details:
"The Treasury has reserved office space, so far unused, for Obama representatives. . . .
They'e all as twisty as corkscrews. Don't go near that office space. It's probably bugged, too.
NOTE * Alternatively, we could call up David Addington, since he's still around, and have him write a brief on why the President-Elect is a fifth branch of government. I mean, why not? After FISA [cough] reform, we're not a nation under the rule of law anyhow.
UPDATE Surely, for example, it's possible to put Hank Paulson's nuts in a jar and stop the next tranche of the bailout until it can be put to some good purpose -- like the HOLC legislation Hillary plans to introduce, for example.
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Unless some more Constitution-trashing is what
Obama's hoping for.
Any last-minute trashing will only run up the Unitary Exec powers anyway. And in all the End of Racism celebration going on, who's going to notice?
But maybe that'll just be a fringe benefit.
Reasonable men adapt themselves to their environment; unreasonable men try to adapt their environment to themselves. Thus all progress is the result of the efforts of unreasonable men. -- George Bernard Shaw
Sure, we have to watch
but this is better than proposed alternatives. Hope, but verify.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
CNN said Paulson & team are staying beyond
Jan. 20th -- to help or something.
(and did you notice how he hedged on ending Bush's tax cuts for the rich?)
this too-- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/us/pol...
"... The Obama camp is feeling pressure from the administration, according to several people familiar with the situation, specifically from Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., to “co-own” the bailout program, which remains unpopular among voters despite a broad consensus that it was essential to avert wider economic collapse.
The Treasury has reserved office space, so far unused, for Obama representatives. Mr. Paulson has sought Mr. Obama’s advice into the choice of a permanent director of the bailout program, and a commitment that Mr. Obama, once he is president, will keep the person on.
No decisions have been made about how Mr. Obama should proceed, advisers say, and Friday’s session with the Obama economic board is not expected to settle matters. Having promised change, Mr. Obama is not eager to join hands with Mr. Bush on the bailout.
But several Democrats said for Mr. Obama to stay aloof, as Franklin D. Roosevelt did before he succeeded Herbert Hoover amid the Depression, or to criticize the actions of the Bush administration could further destabilize financial markets as they seek clarity about the government’s policies. It would also mean that the Bush administration might take actions that would bind Mr. Obama’s hands as president.
... "
What's the incentive to "co-own" the bailout?
Pas si bete.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
he's gonna wholly own it in Jan, so why not try to
steer it in a better direction or something? or simply slow it all down to run out the clock? ....
you know they're gonna use the bailout as a reason not to do stuff that helps us, so why not take advantage--or at least babysit them so they don't empty all of Fort Knox?
Pritzker as Commerce Sec'y?
BBC -- "... And there are reports that he will name Penny Pritzker, the billionaire Chicago business tycoon who was head of his campaign finance organisation, as commerce secretary. ..." -- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/us_e...
Why doesn't every influential dem in Chicago
just move to DC? :)
(Next you'll be telling me Oprah is the new head of the FCC. She couldn't be worse than Michael Powell.)
watch and see--i wouldn't be surprised at all
--if Caroline Kennedy gets a job, why not Oprah?
Ambassador to wherever the hell she wants as soon as her contract ends, i bet.
2011--
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/CA66126...
Obama-Reid-Pelosi-Frank already "co-own" the
bailout. They crammed it through Congress despite 75% of public opinion contra, and lots of contra expert opinion as well.
Bush may own what created the need for a solution, but the Democrats now own this particular solution, succeed or fail.
I'm actually glad he's waiting, it means there's a chance (not sure how much of one, but still) that he will spend the next couple of months trying to put together a solid economic plan.
Reasonable men adapt themselves to their environment; unreasonable men try to adapt their environment to themselves. Thus all progress is the result of the efforts of unreasonable men. -- George Bernard Shaw
Well he might not get a long waiting period
as GM is running out of money and will be bankrupt by the end of 2008.
via CNNMoney.com by way of the Consumerist
A couple of quotes:
"S&P cut GM's credit rating deeper into junk bond status to a rating of CCC+ Friday afternoon, not far above the D rating that indicates default by a company."
"Shelly Lombard, senior high yield analyst at Gimme Credit, an independent research firm, estimates that GM will need to get between $10 billion and $15 billion in federal assistance in order to avoid bankruptcy by 2010 and that the chance of bankruptcy without help is probably 80% to 90%."
"Among the topics discussed were a $25 billion loan to fund union-controlled trust funds that would be set up in the coming year to cover the health care costs of retirees and their family members. Shifting about $100 billion of those costs from the automakers' balance sheet to the trust funds was a key concession the companies won from the UAW in the 2007 labor deals."
"The discussions also touched on whether the government would allow the automakers to tap the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street firms and banks that was enacted last month. Treasury has so far rejected auto industry inquiries about accessing that pool of money."
"Our country right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right."
Carl Schurz - U.S. Senator 1/17/1872
HISTORY, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.
(The Devil's Dictionary.com)
this alone would be a great public service--
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/11/f... -- Fed Stonewalling on Giving Details About Collateral Accepted for Loans
unless it's ok for 1.5 trillion to go like that?
we have no clue what they're doing or how.
the country does not trust Bush or his ppl
to use this money--or the power of govt--wisely--
they need babysitters if nothing else--Congress and the media refused to do their jobs, so now it's up to Obama.
Also,
the more he holds press conferences and appears on tv "looking presidential" with his new fake seal and everything, the more people will be expecting him to do stuff.
(but not the media--they're thrilled at how "crisp" and "presidential" he looked and didn't care that he didn't say anything)
Timing on "owning" Bush's mess
The next big political event on the economic front is a gathering on November 15 of G-20 national leaders from around the world.
The ostensible purpose of this extraordinary gathering is to focus on "the underlying causes of the financial crisis, the global response and the principles that should guide any reforms." Reasonable and worthy, but why fly everyone to DC for those sorts of discussions? Modern times, with the internet and telephones and videoconferencing and all, this kind of procedural and technical stuff could easily be sorted without the rigors of international travel. Does it make sense that all these world leaders would fly all the way to DC just for this?
If it doesn't make any sense, that's because it isn't true. America isn't leading on this, we are following. The US can't dig out of this mess without foreign help, another detail that BushCo didn't factor in to their plans for economic rape. Bush already sent staffers around and reached out to foreign leaders for co-ordination and help, and basically got told to stuff it. While the problem is extremely painful everywhere, other countries have social welfare systems in place that will keep their citizens from falling into homelessness and hunger. The US does not. Some, like China, are prospering rather than suffering under the current economic climate; they are not going to pitch in to help without some concessions. Other nations have already met and decided amongst themselves what to do, while the US went its own way again and is now floundering with the realization that if everybody else calls in their chits we are well and truly fucked.
What this summit is really for is to provide the foreign leaders with a moment of payback. They'll be sending their financial ministers to a meeting in Brazil the week before, to chart their agenda away from American oversight; DC will be about ritual humiliation followed by imposition of terms. After eight years putting up with haughtiness and hubris and self-aggrandizing chest thumping sneering imperialism, BushCo now stands naked and bleeding. The wars are a disaster, the alliances so carefully built after WWII are in tatters, the American economy is bankrupt, and Bush alone is being held responsible.
The real purpose of this meeting is to make George W. Bush own his failure and compel him to beg for help. Everyone who is anyone from around the world wants to be there to see it happen.
Barack Obama has declined Bush's offer to stand at his side for this moment. Obama has refused not because he is loath to take the reins of government, but because he does not want to share the blame. This is GW's moment, the crowning achievement of his two-term presidency, and Obama wants him to have full credit and receive all that is coming to him.
Obama, and the Democrats, are focused on the legislative path, on building a "bi-partisan" congressional coalition that will serve in the short term to force a Main Street economic package on Bush that he cannot ignore or block, and a longer-lasting arrangement that will split the Republican caucus and preempt the threat of filibuster.
Obama and the Democrats are stepping in extra-constitutionally, all right; somebody has to. But they are not about to let Bush off the hook with the foreign leaders he's so gleefully dismissed in the past. This is GW's swan song, and he is being left to stand in the spotlight all by himself.
Obama claimed to own the Paulson Fix when it looked like a good
thing, after the second version passed, when he said that he had been working with "the leaders" every day on phone calls.
Since then, he hasn't said much about that claim.
So, maybe he doesn't want to own it now.