Obama Set to Unveil New Economic Team
President-elect to formally unveil his team of economic experts to battle the most severe U.S. financial crisis in eight decades
WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama names his economic team Monday and may call for the next Congress to quickly pass a massive stimulus plan that would dwarf even his campaign proposals to salvage the country’s financial wreckage.
Timothy Geithner, left, and Larry Summers (AP Photo).
Obama speaks at a Chicago news conference against a backdrop of increasing calls for him to assert himself well before he takes office Jan. 20 in the midst of the most severe U.S. financial crisis in eight decades.
Obama senior adviser David Axelrod confirmed that the president-elect would name Timothy Geithner, the New York Federal Reserve president, as his treasury secretary. Wall Street stocks jumped on Friday when word of Geithner’s appointment began to leak. Geithner will team with Lawrence Summers, a treasury secretary under former President Bill Clinton and former Harvard University president, who will take over the National Economic Council. Both Geithner and Summers will appear with Obama at a Monday news conference in Chicago.
Democratic officials also said Obama plans to name New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as commerce secretary, adding a prominent Hispanic and one-time Democratic presidential rival to his Cabinet. Richardson served as U.N. ambassador in the Clinton administration and later as energy secretary.
The troika will confront an economic crisis that continues to deepen in spite of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal emergency spending in recent weeks.
Top aides said Sunday that Obama also wants Congress to use its large Democratic majority when it convenes Jan. 6 to prepare tax cuts for low- and middle-income earners as part of the massive government intervention designed to pull the country out of its frightening economic nosedive.
Some economists have endorsed spending up to $600 billion to revive the economy. Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, and former labor Secretary Robert Reich, a member of Obama’s economic advisory board, both suggested $500 billion to $700 billion. Before winning the presidency Nov. 4, Obama had said he looked to create a $175 billion stimulus package. While the new plan will be significantly larger, it was expected to incorporate his campaign other ideas for new jobs in environmentally friendly technologies and tax cuts.
“I don’t know what the number is going to be, but it’s going to be a big number,” Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee said on Sunday. “It has to be. The point is to, kind of, get people back on track and startle the thing into submission.”
Over the weekend Obama directed his team to erect plan to create 2.5 million new jobs by the end of 2010, and aides said his broader economic program was designed to quickly offer tax relief to lower- and middle-income earners. Significantly the plan would not offer an immediate tax increase on wealthy taxpayers. During the campaign, Obama said he would raise taxes on people making more than $250,000.
Axelrod unambiguously voiced Obama’s overall expectations.
“Our hope is that the new Congress begins work on this as soon as they take office in early January, because we don’t have time to waste here, ” he said on Sunday. “We want to hit the ground running on January 20th.”
Congress will have two weeks to hold hearings and write legislation between its return to Washington in early January and Obama’s inauguration.
Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the second-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, acknowledged a readiness for quick action.
“We expect to have during the first couple of weeks of January a package for the president’s consideration when he takes office.”
Axelrod also warned executives of the U.S. auto industry to draw up plans to retool and restructure their industry if they want the billions of dollars they are seeking from Congress. Otherwise, Axelrod said, “there is very little taxpayers can do to help them.”
Obama also delved into one of the most pressing foreign policy issues facing his presidency, calling Afghan President Hamid Karzai by telephone and telling him that fighting terrorism there and in the region would be a top priority, Karzai’s office said on Sunday.
The Saturday conversation between Obama and Karzai was the first reported contact between the two leaders since the Nov. 4 U.S. election. The United States has some 32,000 American troops in Afghanistan, a number that will be increased by thousands next year.
Fighting terrorism and the insurgency “in Afghanistan, the region and the world is a top priority,” Karzai’s office quoted Obama as saying during the conversation.
Read more at http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/11/24/obama-set-unveil-new-economic-team/
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
[...] Obama Set to Unveil New Economic Team President-elect to formally unveil his team of economic experts to battle the most severe U.S. financial crisis in eight decades WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama names his economic team Monday and may call for the next Congress to quickly pass a massive stimulus plan that would dwarf even his campaign proposals [...] [...]
[...] Obama Set to Unveil New Economic Team | Time4Revolution Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, and former labor Secretary Robert Reich, a member of Obama’s economic advisory board, both suggested $500 billion to $700 billion. Before winning the presidency Nov. 4, Obama had said he looked to … [...]
Good post, I like your writing style! I’ve added http://time4revolution.net/ to my feed reader, and will be reading your posts from now on. Just a quick question – did you design your header image yourself, or have it done professionally? If you had it done by a professional, who was it?
[...] Obama Set to Unveil New Economic Team President-elect to formally unveil his team of economic experts to battle the most severe U.S. financial crisis in eight decades WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama names his economic team Monday and may call for the next Congress to quickly pass a massive stimulus plan that would dwarf even his campaign proposals [...] [...]