With the Economy in Free Fall, Barney Frank Wants Slacker Obama to Start Being President Now

by Damozel | Ah, the pressure of sky-high expectations.  Obama might be the first president in history to be blamed by his supporters for failing to fix the economy before he's even in office.  According to Jim Kuhnhenn at Huff Post and House Financial Services Committee Chair Barney Frank "the dodge is wearing thin." 

Democrats are growing impatient with President-elect Barack Obama's refusal to inject himself in the major economic crises confronting the country. Obama has sidestepped some policy questions by saying there is only one president at a time..."He's going to have to be more assertive than he's been," House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., told consumer advocates Thursday.  (Huff Post)

Wow, he's "sidestepping" major issues---the auto industry bailout, etc.--- before he's even been sworn in, the slacker.  

Instead, he's evading his responsibilities by keeping busy "assembling [his] cabinet..., [his] White House staff and preparing to take the reins of power."  SLACKER.  Because according to Chris Dodd, never mind the de jure:  de factor the president-elect is president-in-fact now.

"The Obama team has to step up," Sen. Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and one of the lead negotiators, said Nov. 21 in Hartford, Conn. "In the minds of the people, this is the Obama administration. I don't think we can wait until January 20."

Anyway, Barney Frank and Huff Post seem a little displeased that Obama hasn't lifted a finger to "dictate" whether Congress should spend the rest of the $700 billion bailout or to tell Bush whether to spend the second half of the funds allocated to TARP. 

"At a time of great crisis with mortgage foreclosures and autos, he says we only have one president at a time," Frank said. "I'm afraid that overstates the number of presidents we have. He's got to remedy that situation."

Obama has maintained one of the most public images of any president-elect. He has held half a dozen press conferences, where he has entertained question after question about the economy, the mortgage crisis, and the flailing auto industry. He called for passage of extended unemployment benefits _ which has passed _ and even a stimulus package if possible before Jan. 20. But he has stayed away from trying to dictate remedies for the toughest problems Congress is confronting: the auto industry's troubles and how to spend the $700 billion bailout.  (HuffPost)

Yes, why won't Obama tell Paulson what to do with TARP?  That's a chance many of us would like. 

Barney Frank isn't the only Dem who is demanding that Obama step up to the plate, shove Bush and his crew right off it, and start fixing things now.

Carl Levin, and Chris Dodd have... publicly asked Mr. Obama to get more involved in the auto industry bailout negotiations.  Congressional Democrats seem to want Obama to either publicly endorse a specific set of conditions for the automakers to adhere to, or to more aggressively (and privately) bargain with the Bush White House. (Ambinder)

Instead, the cagy slacker Obama insists on staying on the bench till it's his turn up at bat.

Earlier this week, Obama was asked whether he worried that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson might begin spending the next installment of the money before he assumes the presidency. Obama demurred.

"Until Secretary Paulson indicates publicly that he's drawing down the second tranche, the second half of the TARP money, it would be speculation on my part to suggest that that money's going to be used up," he told reporters at a Chicago news conference Wednesday....

Obama did stress that a significant component of the fund should be used to reduce the number of foreclosures. But he did not specify a particular remedy.

He also declined to take a stand in a debate over the source of money for an auto loan package. The dispute has divided Democrats and hindered progress on assistance for the industry. At issue is whether to take money from the $700 billion designated for the financial sector or to take it from a previously approved loan aimed at manufacturing more energy efficient cars.

"I think it's premature to get into that issue," Obama said at the conference. (HuffPost)

See there?  Evasive! 

I bet Hillary or McCain-Palin would have marched up straight to the White House, grabbed the Bush administration by the scruff of its neck, and those suckers right out.  Both of them would have the economy solved by now.  Instead, McCain is relegated to the back benches, Palin is still being hounded by a press which just wants to talk about those fancy-ass clothes she hasn't returned as promised, gifts to her family, and the $150,000 the campaign paid to her stylist, and Hillary is relegated to fixing only our international problems. 

On a related note, Barney Frank is upset that incoming Treasury Secretary Geithner wants to eject the current FDIC Chair Sheila Bair.

Congressional Democrats — Frank first among them — on the other hand have heaped praise on Bair, a Republican, for her advocacy of foreclosure prevention, which she distilled into a proposal to use taxpayer money to refinance more than a million troubled mortgages. She has suggested that some of the $700 billion be used to fund her plan.

Needless to say, any decisions regarding Bair’s career that are seen as punitive could hurt Geithner — and Obama — on the Hill at a time when congressional cooperation is desperately needed to quickly move Obama’s economic proposals once he takes office.

Barney Frank blames male chauvinism.  As we all know from old I Love Lucy reruns, the mens likes to control where the money's goinng, when there is any:

Frank credited the current resistance to doing more about foreclosures to ruffled male feathers. “I think part of the problem now is that, to be honest, Shelia Bair has annoyed the Old Boys Club.” He likened the situation to several regulators “up in the treehouse with a ‘No Girls Allowed’ sign.”

Anyway---just to cheer you up a bit---it looks as if Neel  "Is Kashkari a Chump?" Kashkari is in for more being beaten with sticks like a pinata.  Fun!  Frank was "less than pleased" when he read that GAO report the other day that said---in effect---that not only is Paulson's plan not working; he and his minions don't even know what the last $350 billion that is so swiftly melting away is being spent on. 

In fact, he's furious with the Treasury Department for refusing to implement a "metric" for keeping track.  Such a hot-head, that Barney Frank!  Only very small-minded taxpayers would expect an accounting for a mere $350 billion in corporate welfare, especially since keeping track would mean that small government-lovin' Republicans would have to hire more staff. (Buck Naked Politics here and here).

Um....okay, that is worrying.  Maybe Frank has a point.  If we leave it to Bush, all that money we handed over might be mysteriously disappeared before Obama even takes office, yes?

And echo answers:  "Yes."  So what should Obama do now?

Constitutional scholar Jack Balkin doesn't know, given that Congress---and didn't Frank play a role in this?---voted to give Paulson a blank check.  Blame it on our defective Constitution!

Given our defective Constitution, I am genuinely curious what the "remedy" would be. Obama could, presumably, indicate more strongly his views on the current subjects of controversy, including the (un)wisdom of bailing out the Big Three auto manufacturers. But, when push comes to shove, Barack Obama has no more legal authority to affect the present crisis than do any of the readers of this posting; he no longer even has whatever legal authority might be attributed to a senator, given that he has resigned that position. At this point, he is simply Citizen Obama, having only the power of persuasion.

An additional vital question is the audience he must persuade. After the new Congress convenes on January 6, 2009, President-elect Obama would be speaking to a significantly more Democratic Congress than is now the case. Until then, again thanks to our defective Constitution, the Congress would be far more closely divided, and Republicans in the Senate could easily rebuff any advice given by Obama, especially, obviously, if the legal president who has no apparent interest in leaving office prior to Jan. 20 is offering contrary advice.

Is there any way to give [Obama Treasury Secretary] Geithner the relevant authority to countermand Paulson prior to Jan. 20? I'd be extremely surprised, but I welcome the intervention of those who are convinced that any of the defects in our Constitution can be remedied by "workarounds" that will provide happy endings to our constitutional dilemmas.

Marc Ambinder comments that Congressional Dems are getting a bit pissy (my words) that Obama won't use his "implied authority as the person who would administer the bailout anyway."  I suppose he means that the Congressional Dems are implying that Obama has that authority, since Ambinder comes to the same conclusion as Balkin with respect to Obama's ability to intervene effectively at this stage:

[N]o matter what Obama would say, the White House is not likely to yield its position. It's not as if he's in a position to bargain.

Shortest.  Honeymoon.  EVER.  Well, at least as regards his pals in Congress. 

Representatives of the American people who participated a couple of days ago in polls were still all starry-eyed about him a couple of days ago, but how long before the public turns on the president-elect for not fixing everything the way he promised?

Memeorandum has more.

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Comments

[All Mi T]

the way i see it it is enuff slack to go around for all them lames

[Samantha Rhodes]

Time to move on.

[DeLores P. McGavock-Gordon]

I have always admired Rep. Barney Frank for his sincere endeavors of helping citizens with housing and mortgage issues. I have had great respect for his involvement with grassroot issues; etc.>However, now I think that Rep. Frank may be pushing too hard for the BIG 3 issue>My background in employment, labor, TRA/NAFTA; etc. gives me great knowledge of this issue>The industry has milked the economy: UAW past officials coming out of the meatpacking (high paying industry they milked-until the demands could no longer be met) did not want to work in the auto industry because the pay was much lower than they had been making - hard times found them taking the jobs and then start tooling UAW the same way they had in the meatpacking industry>These workers have laughed at other hard working citizens not in their league and have gotten paid for reading comics, watching tv, playing cards; drug rehab, double time; triple time on Sun to read the comics; immorality; you name it because of the protection under UAW>They get the best of health care, eyeglasses, auto discounts, paid vacation, when laid off they get additional sub-pay (which totals more than the average worker makes in 40-60 hrs), take early retirement and then take another job or open a business; because they have so much time on their hands from laxity on the job they sometimes have side businesses. They are loaded with real estate agents and mortgage brokers>They hire family and friends; others have little or no chance of getting into the click because one generation pulls the next in>Occas a few slots have been held for Welfare Mothers (WIN), but bottom line these workers have had it better than the average taxpayer and now they want sympathy>This isn't the first time they have expected bailout and then the same old, same old.>Nothing is said about the profits that they make abroad...>Noting is said when they redirect parts operations and use overseas companies and squeeze the little companies in the US>If they find that everyone is not asleep and they have to find for themselves they will find a way to retool>Fair is fair and it is not fair for the same families, generation upon generation to get all of the gravy and the rest of society have to cater to their whims and buy their inferior over priced products> If they don't get a handout or some enormous amount, trust me they will find a way to survive, when others have no resource>IF CONGRESS IS GOING TO BAIL THEM OUT TO KEEP THEM EMPLOYED, ALL LAYED OFF WORKERS EMPLOYERS NEED A BAILOUT SO ALL CAN WORK!

[Golda Smith]

Let me get this straight, a politician who currently is in office and probably has been for at least saaaay, ooooh about 4 years and has voted on major issues in the existing administration is demanding that the president elect ignore policy and take over as president immediately. What a genius, I think he should have ran for president. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!