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Bold, quick action to be key, especially on economy. Stimulus plan might be on his desk Inauguration Day
By Zachary Coile
San Francisco Chronicle
Published on Monday, Dec 01, 2008
WASHINGTON: In his first 100 days in office, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt reorganized the nation's banking system, created the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Civilian Conservation Corps, raised farm incomes, ended the gold standard and helped millions of homeowners avoid foreclosure.
President-elect Barack Obama has been studying Roosevelt's quick start — widely viewed as the most productive first days of any U.S. president — as he sets his agenda to tackle the worst financial crisis since the one Roosevelt inherited during the Great Depression.
''What you see in FDR that I hope my team can emulate, is not always getting it right, but projecting a sense of confidence, and a willingness to try things, and experiment in order to get people working again,'' Obama said recently.
The 47-year-old Democrat already is running his transition at a breakneck pace, having held four news conferences, picked most of his senior White House staff and named a new economic team, all before Thanksgiving.
Obama plans today to announce six experienced hands to fill top administration posts.
His selections include longtime advisers and political foes alike, most notably Democratic primary rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state and President Bush's defense secretary, Robert Gates, staying in his current post. The two were among six whom Obama planned to announce at a news conference in Chicago, Democratic officials said.
The officials said Obama also planned to name Washington lawyer Eric Holder as attorney general and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as homeland security secretary. He also planned to announce two senior foreign policy positions outside the Cabinet: campaign foreign policy adviser Susan Rice as U.N. ambassador and retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones as national security adviser.
The Democratic officials disclosed the plans Sunday on a condition of anonymity because
they were not authorized for public release ahead of the news conference. Those names had been discussed before for those jobs, but the sources confirmed that Obama will make them official today in his hometown.
Obama also has settled on former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle to be his secretary of health and human services and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to be commerce secretary, but those announcements are not yet official.
''It's one of the fastest transitions I've ever seen,'' said Stephen Hess, who worked in the Eisenhower, Nixon, Carter and Ford administrations and has written a guide to presidential transitions.
Obama could set a milestone by signing his first major piece of legislation within hours or days of taking office.
Democrats in Congress have been working with the president-elect on an economic stimulus package of as much as $500 billion that would invest in infrastructure projects and cut taxes for the middle class. The 111th Congress could pass the bill in early January and have it to his desk by his Jan. 20 inauguration.
''Whether it's the first day or the first week or the first month, it's going to be very speedy,'' Hess said. ''It's going to be a huge package. . . . He's trying to fold in all sorts of things under the rubric of 'infrastructure' which have to do with his agenda on health care and energy and the environment.''
Obama has made clear that he sees the fiscal meltdown as a once-in-a-generation chance to reset the nation's priorities. His chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said recently, ''You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.''
Some of Obama's first actions will probably include using his executive powers to undo several Bush administration decisions, including loosening restrictions on federal spending on stem-cell research and blocking the Bureau of Land Management from opening 360,000 acres of sensitive public lands in Utah to oil and gas drilling.
With the stroke of a pen, he also could close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba, which he has promised to do. But he must first figure out how to try complex cases involving classified information in U.S. courts, a challenge even for someone who taught constitutional law for 12 years at the University of Chicago.
Tackling the economy
Obama is well aware that his presidency will be judged on whether he is able to breathe life into a seriously ailing economy. If he succeeds, he could be seen as a 21st-century FDR. If he fails, he's the new Herbert Hoover, whose ineffectual efforts plunged the country even deeper into depression.
Obama has spent much of the last three weeks assembling a team of economic heavyweights, from former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers to New York Federal Reserve Bank President Tim Geithner.
To lead his Council of Economic Advisers, he chose Christina Romer, a UC Berkeley economist whose expertise in Depression-era policies could help him avoid the collapse of investor and public confidence that helped fuel the Great Depression.
Obama has assigned his economic team to devise a plan to create 2.5 million jobs in the next two years. The centerpiece of his plan is the stimulus package, which House and Senate aides believe could cost between $300 billion and $500 billion. Obama said last week that it must be big enough ''so it really gives a jolt to the economy.''
Describing his plan, he said, ''We'll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children and building wind farms and solar panels, fuel-efficient cars and the alternative energy technologies that could free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years ahead.''
Obama's economic plans, at some point, will run into the realities of a strained U.S. budget. If you include the new proposed stimulus spending, the federal deficit could hit $1.5 trillion next year. While Obama has said that reviving the economy must trump deficit concerns in the short term, the rise in red ink could sharply limit his hand in dealing with other challenges, especially health-care reform.
Foreign challenges
Just weeks before the Nov. 4 election, Vice President-elect Joe Biden warned, ''It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama, like they did John Kennedy.'' In fact, the tests for Obama might start even sooner.
The terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, could worsen India's relations with Pakistan, its nuclear-armed neighbor, complicating Obama's efforts to enlist Pakistan's help in rooting out al-Qaida and Taliban elements near the Afghanistan border.
Obama will also face an early challenge in how he handles drawing down U.S. forces in Iraq.
He got a boost last week when the Iraqi parliament approved an agreement to remove all American combat troops by the end of 2011. But his calls for a speedy redeployment could be tested if violence flares next year around regional and national elections.
In his early trips abroad, Obama is expected to signal his desire to break from Bush's foreign policy by focusing on multilateralism, more direct diplomacy and cooperation with allies on issues from the economy to climate change. In return, he'll ask U.S. allies, especially NATO countries, to shoulder more of the burden in hot spots like Afghanistan.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON: In his first 100 days in office, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt reorganized the nation's banking system, created the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Civilian Conservation Corps, raised farm incomes, ended the gold standard and helped millions of homeowners avoid foreclosure.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Posted 03:57 AM, 12/01/2008
FDR didn't do anything to end the 1930's depression. WWII did it for him. WWIII will do it this time.
Akron, OH
Posted 04:26 AM, 12/01/2008
Scary, but probably true.
Mogadore, OH
Posted 07:50 AM, 12/01/2008
FDR created soil conservation thus ending the dust bowl; the CCC in which two of my uncles worked; banking regulations in which the republicans deregulated thus causing the present crisis i.e. commody furtures act of 2000; the Tenn Valley Authority which brought electricity to rural ares; FDR did many more things ending the great depression...
Akron, OH
Posted 08:14 AM, 12/01/2008
Republican created the current crisis????
Funny, I thought it was Slick Willie's plan to make sure ever-buddy could own a home, whether they could afford them or not.
Sorry, but WWII did more to end the depression than anythin' FDR did.
Mogadore, OH
Posted 09:13 AM, 12/01/2008
Beta, did you look up the futures commody act of 2000? It was written by republican P Gramm of Texas, and passed by a republican veto proof majority...The Dems repealed this act when they were a majority two years ago, Bush oppossed repealing it! Clintons plan let people tap into their 401k, and ira's to come up with the down payment...Are you familiar with the Bush Dream down payment act of 2003, or the forgiveness act two years later!!!The republicans put us into the Great Depression of 1929, President Hoover, and Bush's out of control deficit spending, deregulations put us in this mess. I don't see any facts in your reply, simply broad generalities!
Posted 07:30 PM, 12/01/2008
Forget logic Martin. The Republicant's have never been about logic, just worthless fodder for their minions. Beta and the rest of them will never change. Black is White, UP is Down, as long as they think their team is winning, that's all that matters with hem.
