Hope & History Rhyme

The Obama transition team is preparing a major push for a capital projects stimulus package.  Tax cuts are in the mix as well.

Unnamed sources have been cited as calling for the bill to be ready for the President’s signature shortly after Inauguration Day.

Peter Nicholas reports for the Los Angeles Times:

Obama doesn’t want to see his first legislative initiative bog down in partisan infighting. So he will quickly strive to shape public opinion, casting the substantial stimulus package as crucial to the nation’s recovery.“There shouldn’t be endless debate about it,” Axelrod said. “People want this done right. And we want it to be done right. But they also want it to be done, and it shouldn’t devolve into one of those protracted Washington posturing situations that people have little patience for.

In the meantime, Senate Republicans have begun their own effort to slow down the process.  Game on…

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-obama31-2008dec31,0,7930000.story

Governor Rod Blagojevich likes to dabble in self-delusional psychosis, but children, there once was a man named Roland Burris…

For all of us who thought that there was no one pathetic, corrupt, narcissistic and stupid enough to accept the Senate appointment of Governor Rod Blagojevich, shame on us.  Roland Burris was there all along…

From the New York Times: 

Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois has named Roland Burris, a former state attorney general, to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the United States Senate.

Mr. Blagojevich, who faces federal corruption charges including allegations that he tried to sell Mr. Obama’s former senate seat for a high-paying job or money, had not been expected to try to fill the seat. As recently as ten days ago, his lawyer, Edward Genson, said he would not attempt to make an appointment, since Senate leaders had indicated they would not accept anyone whom the beleaguered Mr. Blagojevich had appointed.

The Democratic leaders of the Senate repeated that view on Tuesday, issuing a statement saying it was “truly regrettable that despite requests from all 50 Democratic Senators and public officials throughout Illinois, Governor Blagojevich would take the imprudent step of appointing someone to the United States Senate who would serve under a shadow and be plagued by questions of impropriety.”

The statement continued, “We say this without prejudice toward Roland Burris’s ability, and we respect his years of public service. But this is not about Mr. Burris; it is about the integrity of a governor accused of attempting to sell this United States Senate seat. Under these circumstances, anyone appointed by Gov. Blagojevich cannot be an effective representative of the people of Illinois and, as we have said, will not be seated by the Democratic Caucus.”

Newsweek’s  Michael Hirsh lays out the battle within the Obama Administration over financial re-regulation…

Amid the economic chaos of 2008, Arthur Levitt Jr. stands out. He’s one of the very few regulators of the Clinton and Bush eras to take responsibility for the current financial disaster—to admit that he botched things, big time. “All tragedies in life are preceded by warnings,” the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission told me in an interview Tuesday. “We had a warning. It was from Brooksley Born. We didn’t listen to that.” Brooksley Born was the head of Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) under Clinton. Beginning in the spring of 1998, she pushed for the regulation of derivatives trading. She warned of the dangers of a vast global financial market that was going unchecked by governments. But she was silenced by the then all-powerful team of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. Levitt, who along with Greenspan, Rubin and Born was part of the four-person President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, opposed her efforts as well. Today, Levitt says he was wrong. “It may well have been that the proposal was ill thought-out,” says Levitt, who served as SEC chairman longer than anyone, from 1993 to 2001. “But we could have taken that opportunity to refine it, to make it forward-looking. I think that the explosive growth of a product that was unlisted and unregulated should have occasioned greater reaction.”

Levitt’s concerns go beyond assuaging his conscience about the past. Along with other financial markets experts, he is worried that the incoming Obama administration, populated with protégés of Rubin and Greenspan, may continue to resist the necessary regulation needed to restore confidence in Wall Street and prevent another subprime-type disaster in the future. While Levitt says he doesn’t know what policies President Obama will pursue, he worries that the new administration will embrace the plan put forward last spring by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to consolidate regulatory financial authority loosely under the Federal Reserve Board, the Comptroller of the Currency and a merged SEC and CFTC.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/176830/page/1

 Today, Paul Krugman argues that if President-elect Obama intends to create an New Deal size stimulus to the American economy, he will have to also impose reform era controls on the American government…

 So what are the lessons for the Obama team?

First, the administration of the economic recovery plan has to be squeaky clean. Purely economic considerations might suggest cutting a few corners in the interest of getting stimulus moving quickly, but the politics of the situation dictates great care in how money is spent. And enforcement is crucial: inspectors general have to be strong and independent, and whistle-blowers have to be rewarded, not punished as they were in the Bush years.

Second, the plan has to be really, truly pork-free. Vice President-elect Joseph Biden recently promised that the plan “will not become a Christmas tree”; the new administration needs to deliver on that promise.

Finally, the Obama administration and Democrats in general need to do everything they can to build an F.D.R.-like bond with the public. Never mind Mr. Obama’s current high standing in the polls based on public hopes that he’ll succeed. He needs a solid base of support that will remain even when things aren’t going well.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/26/opinion/26krugman.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink