President Obama, speaking to the nation in his first prime-time news conference, last night warned of an economic "crisis that could become a catastrophe" if Congress does not act quickly on a massive stimulus package making its way through a Congress sharply divided along party lines.
By SUSAN MILLIGAN
President Obama, speaking to the nation in his first prime-time news conference, last night warned of an economic "crisis that could become a catastrophe" if Congress does not act quickly on a massive stimulus package making its way through a Congress sharply divided along party lines.
In a dire assessment of the nation's economy, the president pointed out that the country lost 598,000 jobs last month alone - approximately the total number of "every single job in the state of Maine," he said - and the jobless rate shows no signs of slowing. Meanwhile, he said, people are losing their homes and their health insurance, the nation's infrastructure and schools are crumbling, and the credit markets are still tight, making it harder for people to get loans and businesses to function.
"This is not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill recession," Obama said.
"We are going through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression."
The president said he is "absolutely confident" the nation can overcome this crisis, but he warned that the government, business, and consumers must change their ways. He also declared Republicans who oppose his massive spending plan on ideological grounds should not engage in "revisionist history," noting their party presided over a doubling of the US debt and helped create the ailing economy he inherited.
The first and most critical step, he said, was for Congress to approve his economic stimulus package, which he said would put more money into the hands of consumers, encouraging them to spend money, and which would create jobs in both the public and private sectors.
But Wall Street needs to be more responsible, Obama added, by reining in executive compensation and resisting the temptation to make risky loans and investments. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner today is scheduled to reveal the administration's new approach in releasing the rest of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout package approved under the Bush administration; Obama last night declined to detail it.
Consumers, too, need to learn to live within their means, Obama said, and not buy a house "with zero down" and taking on mortgages they cannot afford.
Obama's first evening news conference included a wide array of questions, including whether he would reverse a Bush administration policy of barring media coverage of military casualties being brought home as well as his positions on Iran and Afghanistan. He said he would study the matters before commenting.
He called the disclosure that professional baseball player Alex Rodriguez used performance- enhancing drugs earlier in his career
"depressing," and said he hoped it would make young people realize "there are no shortcuts" to success. Obama also declined to comment on a proposal by Vermont Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy establishing a
"truth and reconciliation commission" to investigate alleged Bush administration crimes, including violations of international bans on torture.
"Generally speaking, I'm more interested in looking forward than I am in looking backwards," Obama said.
But the news conference was dominated by questions about the economy, and Obama's high-stakes effort to persuade Congress to approve his economic rescue package, which already totals more than $800 billion.
While Obama won an important victory just hours before his news conference, securing enough Senate votes to move the stimulus package forward, he still faces another dramatic showdown on Capitol Hill, as the House and Senate race against a self-imposed Friday deadline to reconcile the differences between the bills each chamber has approved.
In a rare display of annoyance at his GOP detractors, Obama chided unnamed lawmakers who he said felt it was better to "do nothing" than to set aside ideology and increase government spending.
"There are politicians who are arguing that we don't need a stimulus. There are very few economists who are making that claim," Obama said. Noting that some of the skeptics are the same people who
"presided over the doubling of the national debt," Obama added,
"I get a sense . . . there is some ideological blockage there."
Despite some of the rhetoric coming from Capitol Hill,
"over time, people respond to civility and rational argument," the president said.
Obama's first three weeks in office have been marked by several significant accomplishments. With the help of a Democratic-controlled Congress, he achieved a long-fought-for expansion of children's health benefits and expanded the rights of workers to sue for past discrimination. The new president moved quickly on two campaign promises - signing a ban on torture and setting in motion the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
But Obama's early successes and political stumbles - including tax problems that scuttled two of his high-profile nominations - have been dramatically overshadowed by the ailing economy and Obama's fervent effort to rescue it.
Many economists agree with the president that a fast fix is required to keep the economy from spiraling further downward. But Republicans on Capitol Hill, eager to display their power despite minority status, have complained that Democrats have not given them enough time to study the details of the massive package.
The partisan schism has hampered Obama's stated desire to
"change the way Washington works" and to operate in a bipartisan manner.
The new administration has indeed reached out to Republicans; Obama invited GOP lawmakers to the White House the same night House Republicans voted en masse against the stimulus plan. And Representative Louis Gohmert, a conservative Texas Republican, marveled at how White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, a former congressman known for his hard-driving approach, quickly returned Gohmert's call to discuss tax cut alternatives in the stimulus effort.
But Obama is finding that old politics die hard in the building where he served just four years - with much of the last two spent on the campaign trail. The GOP opposition to the stimulus package in both chambers deprives Obama of the true bipartisanship he sought on the package.
But Republicans are protected, too, since they knew their opposition would not hold up final passage of the package in either chamber. If GOP lawmakers defeat the stimulus, Democrats could accuse them of obstructionism and blame them if the economy continues to slide. But if the president's plan passes without substantial Republican support - and fails to ease unemployment - Republicans can claim they were right all along, and set themselves up for recovering some of the congressional seats they lost in the past two election cycles.
Obama has largely avoided attacking Congress or the GOP in his first three weeks in office. But he did tweak the Washington establishment he needs to get his agenda passed, telling a town hall audience in Elkhart, Ind., yesterday the bill had flaws.
"I'm not going to tell you that this bill is perfect. It's coming out of Washington," Obama said, drawing laughter.
