President-elect Barack Obama said Sunday that the dire economic situation means he can’t worry about the federal deficit “in the short term,” but that if his stimulus plan is crafted properly, the nation can emerge “leaner and meaner.”
Appearing Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Mr. Obama did not commit to a dollar figure but said his economic team is “crunching the numbers” to craft a substantial stimulus package.
The Democrat said he knows he is inheriting an “enormous budget deficit” that could top $1 trillion before any of his plans are implemented.
“We understand that we’ve got to provide a blood infusion to the patient right now to make sure that the patient is stabilized, and that means that we can’t worry short-term about the deficit,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure that the economic stimulus plan is large enough to get the economy moving.”
Mr. Obama warned several times that the economy would get worse before it gets better, but also said he was optimistic.
“I am absolutely confident that if we take the right steps over the coming months, that not only can we get the economy back on track, but we can emerge leaner, meaner, and ultimately more competitive and more prosperous,” he told reporters in Chicago.
Mr. Obama also spoke about his promise in his Saturday radio address to create jobs by weatherizing buildings and making them energy efficient.
“The key for us is making sure that we jump-start that economy in a way that doesn’t just deal with the short term, doesn’t just create jobs immediately, but also puts us on a glide path for long-term sustainable economic growth,” he said.
He said the stimulus package would include at its core a “strong set of new financial regulations” to hold the financial industry more accountable.
He stressed that he wants a moratorium on home foreclosures because: “If my neighbor’s house is on fire, even if they were smoking in the bedroom or leaving the stove on, right now my main incentive is to put out that fire so that it doesn’t spread to my house.”
Mr. Obama said his philosophy that the rich can afford to pay higher taxes has not changed but that his economic team hasn’t decided how it will approach the Bush tax cuts, which he repeatedly criticized on the stump as a giveaway to the wealthy.
“We don’t yet know what the best approach is going to be, but the overall thrust is going to be that 95 percent of working families are going to get a tax cut, and the wealthiest Americans who disproportionately benefited not only from tax cuts from the Bush administration but also disproportionately benefited when it comes to corporate profits and where the gains and productivity were going, they are going to give up a little bit more,” he said.
He said he believes that the economy grows best when “the benefits of the economy are most widely spread.” His words recalled one of the most-discussed moments during the presidential campaign, when he told an Ohio plumber, “I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”
Mr. Obama also used the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor to name his choice for secretary of Veterans Affairs, former Army chief of staff Gen. Eric Shinseki.
Gen. Shinseki, 66, is best known for sparring over Iraq policy with Donald H. Rumsfeld, who was secretary of defense.
Mr. Obama lauded his pick as someone who “has always stood on principle because he has always stood with our troops,” and pledged that the VA would be modernized “to meet the challenges of our time.”
Gen. Shinseki, a veteran of the Vietnam War and the conflict in Bosnia, said at the Obama news conference Sunday that troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan “deserve a smooth, error-free, no-fail, benefits-assured transition into our ranks as veterans. And that is our responsibility, not theirs.”
On the “Meet the Press” interview and during Sunday’s press conference, Mr. Obama did not echo the calls from some top Democrats that auto industry leaders step down from their positions, but said he has yet to see a “sense of urgency” coming from automakers, noting “executive compensation packages for the auto industry that are out of line compared to their competitors, their Japanese competitors, who are doing a lot better.”
He said a taxpayer-funded package to help automakers must be conditioned on an industry “emerging at the end of the process that actually works, that actually functions. The last thing I want to see happen is for the auto industry to disappear.”
Asked about engaging with Russia, Mr. Obama said the conflict with Georgia shows that Moscow has been “acting in a way that’s contrary to international norms.”
“We want to cooperate with them where we can. And there are a whole host of areas, particularly around nonproliferation of weapons and terrorism, where we can cooperate,” he said. “But we also have to send a clear message that they have to act in ways that are not bullying their neighbors.”
Host Tom Brokaw asked Mr. Obama about Hillary Rodham Clinton’s soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat in New York. Gov. David Paterson must name a successor for the remainder of Mrs. Clinton’s term, which runs through 2012, once she is confirmed as secretary of state.
Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg has emerged as a leading contender, and her uncle, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, has been lobbying on her behalf.
But Mr. Obama demurred: “Caroline Kennedy has become one of my dearest friends … but the last thing I want to do is get involved in New York politics.”
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