The big dilemma for President-elect Barack Obama’s domestic agenda, ever since the economy collapsed, has been whether to put his major initiatives on hold because of the crisis.
At today’s press conference, he hinted that he may be looking at a partial solution: use the stimulus package to create jobs in energy, health care and education so he can quickly claim some incremental progress toward the larger goals.
Here’s how Obama described his idea of a “down payment” toward long-term economic growth:
“The first job of my economic team is to shape that economic stimulus package so that it is delivering on the 2.5 million jobs that we talked about and is also providing a down payment on the long-term strategies we need in terms of making this economy work for all Americans.
“That means we have to invest in clean energy. We’re going to have to invest in the systems in our — in health care that can reduce costs for families and for businesses.
“It means that we’re going to have to invest in the education system to ensure that we’re competitive over the 21st century.
“So not only do I want this stimulus package to deal with the immediate crisis, I want it also to lay the groundwork for long-term, sustained economic growth.”
That’s not the same as saying he’ll try to get his entire energy, health care and education plans right out of the box. But ever since Obama was elected, his advisers have suggested they’re trying to find ways not to put those plans entirely on ice, either.
Five days after the election, transition team co-chair John Podesta told CNN that dependence on foreign oil and dysfunctional health care and education systems are all contributing to the economic crisis, and therefore should be part of the early congressional agenda.
“These are all core, if you will, economic questions and they need to be tackled together and I think he’ll have a program and a strategy to move aggressively across all those fronts,” Podesta said.
Congressional leaders, by contrast, have warned against trying to force Congress to do more than it can handle. But Obama will have at least one important ally: House Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey of Wisconsin, who also has been looking for ways to draft a stimulus package that can create jobs immediately while also making some movement toward long-term energy, education and infrastructure goals.
Judging from the $60.8 billion stimulus package that passed the House in September, only to have a similar version stall out in the Senate, the end result might just be more of the kinds of projects congressional Democrats have already proposed — such as research into car battery technologies and rebuilding crumbling schools — on a more massive scale.
It would be a way to use “the cover of the stimulus to advance as much of their agenda as they can,” said Ronald M. Peters Jr., a congressional expert at the University of Oklahoma.
But if it allows Obama and the Democrats to say they’ve made some progress toward the bigger energy, health care, and education plans, they might gain just enough momentum to keep working on the big plans a little while longer.
— David Nather
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