| | |  Americas & Beyond | January 2009 
Obama, Bush Ready to Ask for Remaining $350b
 Steven R. Hurst - The Associated Press
go to original
| | President-elect Barack Obama meets with Mexico's President Felipe Calderon in Washington, Monday, Jan. 12, 2009. (AP/Charles Dharapak) | |
President-elect Barack Obama and the Bush administration could ask Congress as early as Monday to release $350 billion more to prop up the troubled U.S. financial system, the remaining money left in the huge bailout fund put in place last fall.
Congress may vote on the request as early as this week, according to senators briefed by Obama economic adviser Larry Summers on the financial rescue package in addition to Obama's separate plan for roughly $800 billion in spending and tax breaks to spur the economy.
The formal request for the remaining $350 in the Troubled Asset Relief Program must come from President George W. Bush, but the Obama team needs to help smooth release of the massive block of federal dollars. The incoming administration wants to use more of the fund to relieve homeowners threatened with mortgage foreclosures, said Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, a Democrat. A fuller accounting of the money already spent is needed as well, Dodd said.
Bush was to hold a previously unannounced news conference Monday morning, amid speculation he would formally ask Congress to put the money into the system.
Bush and the Obama team have had some success in selling members of Congress.
"Larry Summers made a very strong argument for why it's important and critical for the overall recovery," said Sen. John Kerry, a Democrat. "And I think that's an argument that most senators understand."
Summers sought to win over Senate Democrats even as the Republican leader of the House, John Boehner, warned that any effort to release the additional money would be a tough sell.
A request would force a vote within days on whether to block the funding, but the deck is stacked in favor of Bush and Obama winning release of the remaining $350 billion. Congress can pass a resolution disapproving the request, but the White House could veto the resolution; then, just one-third of either chamber would be needed to uphold the veto and win release of the money. Senate leaders would prefer to win a majority vote, Dodd said.
The idea is to make the money available to the new administration shortly after Obama takes office Jan. 20. The unpopular bailout has featured unconditional infusions of money into financial institutions that have done little to account for it.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson originally promised the money would be used to buy up toxic mortgage-related securities whose falling values have clogged credit markets and brought many financial institutions to the brink of failure.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said that Bush and Obama officials were near agreement.
"We're waiting to hear from President Bush and-or President-elect Obama as to what, if anything, they're going to do," said Reid, "and that's occurring as we speak."
But to prevail, Obama and his team must soothe senators who feel burned by the way the Bush administration has used the bailout.
"The (incoming) administration ... is going to fundamentally alter how this is being managed," Dodd said. "The concept is still very sound and solid and it is needed. But it's not going to pass around here unless there's a strong commitment to foreclosure mitigation."
Work continued through the weekend on Obama's economic recovery plan, which features aid to cash-strapped state governments, tax cuts for most workers and working couples, a huge spending package blending old-fashioned public works projects with aid to the poor and unemployed, and a variety of other initiatives.
Obama, meanwhile, said on Sunday he was prepared for immediate involvement in Mideast diplomacy toward a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but once again refused to show his hand about specifics that would lead him to success where his predecessors have failed for more than a half-century.
Pressed on his silence about the raging war in the Gaza Strip, Obama quickly reverted to his contention that there can be only one president speaking for the United States on foreign policy issues, a position that has caused some to claim the incoming chief executive was being callous in the face of Palestinian suffering in the Israeli offensive to cripple the Hamas organization.
"I think that players in the region understand the compromises that are going to need to be made. But the politics of it are hard," Obama said in an ABC television interview broadcast Sunday. "And the reason it's so important for the United States to be engaged and involved immediately, not waiting until the end of their term, is because working through the politics of this requires a third party that everybody has confidence, wants to see a fair and just outcome."
Obama reiterated that the violence and suffering on both sides was "heartbreaking. And obviously what that does is it makes me much more determined to try to break a eadlock that has gone on for decades now."
The incoming leader, who has been receiving daily national security briefings since his election in November, also acknowledged that his campaign pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay will be more of a challenge than he anticipated. Many of those held at he military site are suspected terrorists or potential witnesses in cases against them.
"It is more difficult than I think a lot of people realize - and we are going to get it done - but part of the challenge that you have is that you have a bunch of folks that have been detained, many of whom may be verydangerous who have not been put on trial or have not gone through some adjudication," he said.
The president-elect said that while some evidence against terrorism suspects may be tainted by the tactics used to obtain it, that doesn't change the fact they are "people who are intent on blowing us up."
Also on Monday, Obama meets in Washington with Mexican President Felipe Calderon in a session that was expected to cover U.S. immigration policy, efforts to diminish the flow of elicit drugs out of Mexico and the violence raging there that is slopping over into the United States. |
|
| |
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us