The House investigative committee’s top-ranking Republican wants White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to answer for allegations that he used “Chicago-style scare tactics” to intimidate lawmakers who say the economic stimulus has failed.
According to reports, Emanuel directed four Cabinet secretaries to send what Issa characterized as “threatening letters,” in which they asked whether Brewer preferred to “forfeit the money [they] are making available to Arizona,” in light of Kyl’s comments one day prior when he “publicly questioned whether the stimulus is working and stated that he wants to cancel projects that aren’t presently under way.”
Well, not that anything will come of it, but it's great to see that Chicago CAN be macro-ed out to the whole nation! As if we didn't have enough problems...
Source: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/issa-wants-answers-from-emanuel-on-allegations-2009-08-04.html
Showing posts with label Rahm Emmanuel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rahm Emmanuel. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Obama Pretends That He Underestimated The Crisis
Barack Obama's advisors want us to believe that he did not know that revenues were going to be weak when he wrote the FY 2010 budget earlier this year.
Christina Romer, chairwoman of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors, said in a POLITICO interview that the administration — like many independent economists — did not fully anticipate the severity and pace of this recession. She said the White House will be updating its official forecasts.
Another challenge was that the slowdown “was going from a relatively normal recession into
something much worse, and we were at a pivot point, if not a turning point,” Romer said.
"Relatively normal recession"? That was not what Obama was saying at the time. The focal point of the last two months of his campaign (besides "Yes, We Can" rhetoric) was discussion of the worst crisis since the Great Depression. Once elected, he used the severity of the crisis to claim that we needed a massive expansion of government spending and power. Here is him speaking on the topic as President-elect:
There are only two answers to this apparant contradiction. He was either playing up the severity of the crisis to increase the government's control over the economy (as his Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel said, "you never waste a crisis.") Or, more likely, he downplayed the severity during his budget because he knew there was no way to appease his deficit hawk AND liberal progressive supporters at once, and showing that he could expand health care and stifle growth with Cap-and-Trade while still working the post-recession budget back towards stability was the closest he could get.
The fact of the matter is, tough decisions will need to be made concerning the deficit, and hopefully the President will stop playing coy and start thinking about what his choices will be.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24899.html#ixzz0LGAv87Vx&C
Christina Romer, chairwoman of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors, said in a POLITICO interview that the administration — like many independent economists — did not fully anticipate the severity and pace of this recession. She said the White House will be updating its official forecasts.
Another challenge was that the slowdown “was going from a relatively normal recession into
something much worse, and we were at a pivot point, if not a turning point,” Romer said.
"Relatively normal recession"? That was not what Obama was saying at the time. The focal point of the last two months of his campaign (besides "Yes, We Can" rhetoric) was discussion of the worst crisis since the Great Depression. Once elected, he used the severity of the crisis to claim that we needed a massive expansion of government spending and power. Here is him speaking on the topic as President-elect:
There are only two answers to this apparant contradiction. He was either playing up the severity of the crisis to increase the government's control over the economy (as his Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel said, "you never waste a crisis.") Or, more likely, he downplayed the severity during his budget because he knew there was no way to appease his deficit hawk AND liberal progressive supporters at once, and showing that he could expand health care and stifle growth with Cap-and-Trade while still working the post-recession budget back towards stability was the closest he could get.
The fact of the matter is, tough decisions will need to be made concerning the deficit, and hopefully the President will stop playing coy and start thinking about what his choices will be.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24899.html#ixzz0LGAv87Vx&C
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