Obama challenges lobbyists to legislative duel

Sunday 01st March, 06:31 AM JST

WASHINGTON —

U.S. President Barack Obama challenged the nation’s vested interests to a legislative duel Saturday, saying he will fight to change health care, energy and education in dramatic ways that will upset the status quo.

“The system we have now might work for the powerful and well-connected interests that have run Washington for far too long,” Obama said in his weekly radio and video address. “But I don’t. I work for the American people.”

He said the ambitious budget plan he presented Thursday will help millions of people, but only if Congress overcomes resistance from deep-pocket lobbies.

“I know these steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight,” Obama said, using tough-guy language reminiscent of his predecessor, George W Bush. “My message to them is this: So am I.”

The bring-it-on tone underscored Obama’s combative side as he prepares for a drawn-out battle over his tax and spending proposals. Sometimes he uses more conciliatory language and stresses the need for bipartisanship. Often he favors lofty, inspirational phrases.

On Saturday, he was a full-throated populist, casting himself as the people’s champion confronting special interest groups that care more about themselves and the wealthy than about the average American.

Some analysts say Obama’s proposals are almost radical. But he said all of them were included in his campaign promises. “It is the change the American people voted for in November,” he said.

Nonetheless, he said, well-financed interest groups will fight back furiously.

Insurance companies will dislike having “to bid competitively to continue offering Medicare coverage, but that’s how we’ll help preserve and protect Medicare and lower health care costs,” the president said. “I know that banks and big student lenders won’t like the idea that we’re ending their huge taxpayer subsidies, but that’s how we’ll save taxpayers nearly $50 billion and make college more affordable. I know that oil and gas companies won’t like us ending nearly $30 billion in tax breaks, but that’s how we’ll help fund a renewable energy economy.”

Passing the budget, even with a Democratic-controlled Congress, “won’t be easy,” Obama said. “Because it represents real and dramatic change, it also represents a threat to the status quo in Washington.”

Obama also promoted his economic proposals in a video message to a group meeting in Los Angeles on “the state of the black union.”

“We have done more in these past 30 days to bring about progressive change than we have in the past many years,” the president in remarks the White House released in advance. “We are closing the gap between the nation we are and the nation we can be by implementing policies that will speed our recovery and build a foundation for lasting prosperity and opportunity.”

Congressional Republicans continued to bash Obama’s spending proposals and his projection of a $1.75 trillion deficit this year.

Almost every day brings another “multibillion-dollar government spending plan being proposed or even worse, passed,” said Sen Richard Burr, R-NC, who gave the GOP’s weekly address.

He said Obama is pushing “the single largest increase in federal spending in the history of the United States, while driving the deficit to levels that were once thought impossible.”

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On the Net:

Obama address: http://www.whitehouse.gov

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Latest 15 of 43 Total Comments Show All

rollonarte at 10:54 PM JST - 1st March

Even Obama's chief "vetter", Gregory Craig, has also turned out to be a tax cheat.

These people have no shame.They want you to pay taxes but they apparently regard themselves as above the law and obligation.

Is there anyone on his staff who isn't a crook?
YangYong at 11:01 PM JST - 1st March

Sounds like some on here need to go and dig up Junior Senator Joseph McCarthy... the seconding coming of what they need.
YangYong at 11:09 PM JST - 1st March

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men.... why then are so many Americans scared of living up to the ideals of their Founding Fathers?
rollonarte at 11:14 PM JST - 1st March

I predict that an observable trend will emerge on the forums of the internet's busiest political sites - when foreign support and mindless cheerleading for Obama exceeds or even replaces domestic Democrat support, that particular issue will invariably become a failure or a setback for Obama or a victory for his opponents.
SushiSake3 at 11:19 PM JST - 1st March

rollonarte, the Dems are looking like picking up seat number 60 in Congress.

Will total Democrat domination change your mind and put you on a pro-American path for the first time ever? :-)
GJDailleult at 11:19 PM JST - 1st March

The 1977 Community Reinvestment Act was the root of the bubble, but it was the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that made it grown.

Actually, those are red herrings, as with all the talk about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Clinton, Greenspan, etc. As yabits already pointed out, this is all about securitization, which allowed the USA to export its debt and basically launder money to get around the reserve requirements of the banking system. Without securitization there is no bubble.

The truth is that attempting to "save" the investment side amounts to following the same failed Keynesian policies that extended the Japanese recession and left it in a weakened state.

you are mixing two different things here, the banks and the stimulus. Keynesian policies have nothing to do with fixing the banking problem. And the point of the stimulus is not to fix the problem, it's to avoid collapse and depression (though the government is not going to say that). Which is pretty much what Japan did.
smithinjapan at 12:01 AM JST - 2nd March

rollonarte: "predict that an observable trend will emerge on the forums of the internet's busiest political sites..."

Who knows what trends will emerge. I know one, at least, that will stay, and that's the banning of people like yourself (for the umpteenth time) who have no idea how to argue/debate, and can only resort to calling people foreigners and suggesting cheerleaders when you are shown the door (again).
smithinjapan at 12:18 AM JST - 2nd March

sarge: "OnTheRecord - Smith will never admit to being wrong about anything. Tee hee!"

I notice you've brought in your 'tee-hee' fan club again. Good. Anyway, I notice you didn't take up my challenge the other day, which means that you simply could not, so you feel that running away from it (typical republican approach) and calling names from the sidelines makes you feel you are correct. I know you like to avoid like the plague threads in which you've taken a serious beating, but still.

Once again, though... good challenge by Obama.
SuperLib at 12:37 AM JST - 2nd March

Mindless Obama supports vs. mindless Bush supporters.

Who will win in the end?
TheQuestion at 12:42 AM JST - 2nd March

Oh! He's going to challenge lobbyists now is he? Thats like challenging a form in the fog. Only the low budget nonprofit groups are public lobbyists the rest are wealthy intelligent individuals that are motivated by the primal urge of greed and self interest. A smart man would use their assets to his advantage, a foolish man will punch at the mist until he collapses from exhaustion.
adaydream at 12:45 AM JST - 2nd March

Barack Obama is just slapping some lobbyists right in the face. This means no more secret energy meetings where the participants and notes are either destroyed or buried under rules of secrecy.

The lobbyists are the ones who have kept the US from going into alternate energies. Instead of finding new energies sources and new ways of powering the country. By keeping us using petroleum at the same time screaming more drilling and less spending for wind power.

I'm all for bringing everything out into the open and making this a conversation between the American people and the congress without some lobbyists sliding a few bucks in to stop the process or steer it their way. < :-)
Badsey at 04:40 AM JST - 2nd March

With all the government money that is being spent the lobbyists are busy-ier than ever shaking their cups.

Obama is right that the lobbyists are a problem and holding America back and behind. Having some transparency would help, but having politicians not accept these lobbyist's moneys would help even more. A new system is needed where politicians do not decide where money is spent.
JoeBigs at 07:31 AM JST - 2nd March

President Obama has undertaken a noble cause. I for one fully support President Obama in this cause. Our nation needs to wrench away the power of these lobbyist. I hope that the people will be behind him in this cause.
Sarge at 09:55 AM JST - 2nd March

Sushi: "That's it for the GOP. Would the last one to leave please turn out the lights?"

I thought the GOP's lights were already out.
OldGeezer at 06:43 AM JST - 3rd March

yabits and GJDailleult, If you read the entire paragraph, you would note that I wrote the following: "Moreover, GLBA allowed the mixing of consumer banking and investment banking, setting into motion a series of M&As and investment products based upon those sub-prime loans."

The sub-prime collapse and the securities collapse are tied together. If the sub-prime market did not collapse, the securities based upon them would not have collapsed. That's why Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with the CRA are part of the mess. The Democrats insisted on including those items. This ensured that sub-prime financing would become part of the market expansion. As the market ballooned, more non-CRA institutions got involved in sub-prime products, either by issuing their own sub-prime mortgages or by purchasing bundled instruments containing those loans. As with other bubbles, purchasers of those securities did not understand the risk, relied upon almost arbitrary ratings, and thought that they couldn't lose in the bull market. The result of the Republican and Democrat legislation was a proliferation of toxic loans and their concentration in investment securities.

The market poisoned itself, but the politicians provided the poison.