Showing posts with label THE ECONOMY. Show all posts

Saturday, 23 October 2010

Obama: Consumers lose if financial law repealed

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President Barack Obama says consumers would lose if Republicans regain power in Congress and try to roll back his hard-won Wall Street overhaul.

He says the GOP's promised repeal of the law would mean the return of a financial system whose near-collapse led to the worst recession since the Depression.

"Without sound oversight and commonsense protections for consumers, the whole economy is put in jeopardy," Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address. "That doesn't serve Main Street. That doesn't serve Wall Street. That doesn't serve anyone."

The law passed despite nearly unanimous Republican opposition. It sought to rein in a financial system that had sped ahead of outdated rules, allowing banks, traders and others to take increased risks.

Separate legislation tackled bank overdraft fees and abuses such as retroactive interest rate increases on credit card balances.

The financial overhaul law came in the wake of a $700 billion bank rescue passed in the final months of George W. Bush's presidency. While the bailout is credited with providing stability, it's deeply unpopular with voters angry of taxpayer money being used to help prop up huge banks.

Obama promised that the measure ensures that taxpayers will "never again be on the hook for a bailout."

Obama's address came less than two weeks before elections in which Republicans have a good chance of taking over the House, if not the Senate. The financial regulation measure hasn't been a central campaign issue.

House GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio has called for a repeal, as have top Senate Republicans. But Obama still would stand in the way through his veto power.

In the GOP's weekly message, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota denounced Obama's economic stimulus bill, overhaul of the health care system and plans to allow Bush-era tax cuts for wealthier people to expire.

"We have learned the lessons not only of what hasn't worked over the past two years, but what didn't work the last time Republicans controlled Congress," Thune said. "We are determined to take this country in the right direction."Added Thune: "Are you better off today than you were two years ago?"

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer

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Thursday, 21 October 2010

Obama: US a 'pushover' on trade with nations like China

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President Barack Obama said Thursday the United States had been a pushover on trade with developing nations like China and vowed to drive a tougher bargain for American products.

Obama, on a four-day swing through western states less than two weeks before congressional elections, argued that the global trading regime needed to be restructured so that it was more fair.

"When a lot of the trade rules were initially set up, I think we neglected to drive as tough of a bargain as we could have," Obama said, specifically mentioning China amid rising trade and currency tensions with Beijing.

Obama said that US trade negotiators had initially allowed China to base its economy on low wage or low skilled assembly line production which at the time was not a huge loss to the US economy.

But, he argued, at the latest of his nationwide series of "backyard" conversations with voters, that inevitably China had wanted to begin making more advanced products like computers and cars.

"They move up the value stream of the economy.

"If we have the same rules as we had where they are able to keep our products out but we are wide open to anything they want to send in then we are going to be at a huge disadvantage."

"I want to expand trade ... but I want to do so by driving a better bargain with our trading partners," Obama said.

"The truth of the matter is they probably expect it. They are probably trying to figure out why we have been such pushovers the last couple of decades anyway."

Obama has made repeated calls on China over its yuan exchange rate, which his administration contends is grossly undervalued to boost Chinese exports.

However, last week his administration delayed a controversial report on China's currency until after a key Group of 20 summit in Seoul in mid-November, averting for now a showdown between the two superpowers.

Beijing pledged in June to allow limited currency reform, since when the yuan has risen less than three percent against the dollar.

The US trade deficit with China ballooned to a new record in August, sharply widening the overall trade gap, according to official date released this month.

And in another side of rising tensions over US-China trade, the House of Representatives last month passed a bill allowing the government to impose countervailing duties on imports from nations found to be manipulating their currencies.

(AFP)

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Obama to meet Apple supremo Steve Jobs

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US President Barack Obama will meet Apple chief executive Steve Jobs in the San Francisco area on Thursday, to discuss technology's role in the economy, the White House said.

Obama, visiting California on a campaign swing ahead of mid-term elections on November 2, wanted to talk to Jobs about the "economy, innovation and technology education," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Gibbs told reporters aboard Air Force One that the meeting would last around 45 minutes, and that Obama last met Jobs on the presidential election campaign trail in 2008.

The meeting will take place a day after Jobs unveiled Apple's new MacBook Air notebook computer inspired by its winning iPad tablet devices.

Obama was also expected to attend a Democratic Party political fundraising event on Thursday hosted by Google executive Marissa Mayer.

(AFP)

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Wednesday, 13 October 2010

ObamaCare blowback

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‘WE HAVE to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,’’ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said last spring about her party’s 2,000-page health care overhaul. What she didn’t realize was that the more Americans find out about ObamaCare, the more they turn against it. Virtually from the day it was signed, a majority of Americans have favored repealing the massive law. According to two polls released this past week — one a national survey by Rasmussen, the other a poll of key congressional districts for The Hill — they still do.

So naturally congressional incumbents are touting their opposition to the health care law.

Representative Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania has a TV spot in which a woman says approvingly: “You saw him when he voted against health care.’’ Virginia congressman Glenn Nye plays up the way he “took on Congress . . . voting against the health care bill because it cost too much.’’ South Dakota’s Stephanie Herseth Sandlin makes the same point in a humorous commercial starring her 22-month-old toddler, Zachary. Ads with similar messages have been aired by US Representatives Frank Kratovil of Maryland, Walt Minnick of Idaho, and Bobby Bright of Alabama. Plenty of Republicans are playing up their vote against the unpopular law — but these are all Democrats who voted no.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

“When people better understand the Affordable Care Act, they’ll understand, I think, that this isn’t something being done to them but is something that’s really going to be valuable to them,’’ President Obama insisted last month. “The debate in Washington is over.’’

The debate is anything but over. As health insurers are forced to raise premiums in order to cover the cost of the new benefits required under ObamaCare, Americans are finding out just how “affordable’’ the Affordable Care Act really is. In recent weeks, Aetna, Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield, and other carriers have announced rate increases, attributing at least part of the higher charges to the richer benefits mandated by the new law — such as the elimination of lifetime coverage limits, “free’’ immunization for children, and the elimination of co-pays for mammograms and other preventive care. Presidents can promise to bend the cost curve, but the laws of supply and demand do not bow to presidential promises: More health care coverage costs more money — money that sooner or later comes out of consumers’ pockets.

Insurers are not responding to the new law and its expensive new mandates solely by raising premiums. Some are dropping out of insurance markets altogether.

Late last month, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care announced that it will stop providing Medicare Advantage insurance policies at the end of the year, forcing 22,000 senior citizens in New England to find some other way to pay for health benefits those policies covered. Harvard Pilgrim’s hand was forced, a company spokesman said, by the “cuts in Medicare . . . being used to fund national health care reform.’’

Another insurer pulling the plug is the Principal Financial Group, an Iowa-based company that currently insures 840,000 customers. “The company’s decision reflected its assessment of its ability to compete in the environment created by the new law,’’ reported the New York Times. “More insurers are likely to follow Principal’s lead.’’

Principal is a relatively small insurer, but even insurance giants are walking away from some segments of the business. UnitedHealth, Wellpoint, and Humana will no longer write individual child-only insurance policies, thanks to the new law’s requirement that such plans must also cover children who are seriously ill. Insurance companies are not charitable foundations; they cannot stay in business by insuring the health of people who are at a 100 percent risk of getting sick. As The Washington Post explained, “the pool of children insured by child-only plans would rapidly skew toward those with expensive medical bills, either bankrupting the plans or forcing insurers to make up their losses by substantially increasing premiums for all customers.’’

Meanwhile, 30 major corporations are still able to offer low-cost health insurance to their employees only because they have received one-year waivers of the new rules from the Department of Health and Human Services. What happens when those waivers expire is anybody’s guess. But this much is clear: If the law with its expensive mandates remains on the books, millions of Americans are going to lose the health care plans they have now — plans the president repeatedly promised they could keep. Which is why just about the only Democrats campaigning on ObamaCare today are the ones who voted against it.(By Jeff Jacoby
Globe Columnist /)

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Obama to highlight benefits of college tax credit

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President Barack Obama wants Congress to make permanent a $2,500 college tuition tax credit that's set to expire at the end of the year.

The American Opportunity Tax Credit was part of the $814 billion economic stimulus bill Obama signed early in 2009. He had proposed making the tax credit permanent in his 2011 budget proposal, but Congress has not acted on his request.

Obama planned an event Wednesday at the White House with area college students to discuss how they benefited from the tax credit, and why it should be made permanent.

A Treasury Department analysis says 12.5 million people used the credit to help pay for college last year. The average credit was $1,700, about 75 percent more than under other existing college tax credits.

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Monday, 13 September 2010

Obama could name Warren interim consumer head

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As President Barack Obama looks for someone to head a new consumer protection bureau, he could name Elizabeth Warren, the popular but polarizing consumer advocate, on an interim basis, a move that would allow her to avoid a potentially contentious Senate confirmation hearing.

However, officials at the White House cautioned that no decision on a nominee has been made, and they wouldn't say whether Obama had settled on a plan that would allow his choice to bypass confirmation.

Two people briefed on the appointment process told The New York Times that the White House was exploring ways Warren could run the bureau without having to endure confirmation hearings. Though Warren is a favorite of consumer advocates and labor groups, she has little support within the financial community and her nomination could set the stage for a divisive confirmation.

The financial regulatory bill Obama signed into law earlier this year created a consumer protection agency that will have vast powers to enforce regulations covering mortgages, credit cards and other financial products. The law also included a provision that would allow the president to appoint an interim agency head that would not be subject to congressional approval.

The process of forming the agency is already under way, led by officials from the Treasury Department.

Warren long has been considered a front-runner to lead the agency. She currently heads the Congressional Oversight Panel, which has been a watchdog over the Treasury Department's bank bailout fund.

Last month, she met with senior administration officials to discuss the role and had a White House meeting with the president last week.

On Friday, Obama praised Warren as a "dear friend" who has been, "a tremendous advocate" for the establishment of a consumer protection bureau. But he said that while he has had conversations with Warren over the past several months, he wasn't ready to make an official announcement.

Others mentioned as contenders to lead the consumer agency are Michael Barr, an assistant treasury secretary who was a key architect of the administration's financial regulatory plans, and Eugene Kimmelman, a deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's antitrust division.(By JULIE PACE, Associated Press Writer)

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Obama weighs interim appointment for consumer agency

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The Obama administration is weighing the appointment of Elizabeth Warren as the temporary director of a newly created U.S. consumer financial regulator, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

Naming Warren as the interim head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is an option available to President Barack Obama if he wants to avoid what would be a tough fight for her confirmation.

Warren is an outspoken consumer advocate whose appointment many on Wall Street oppose.

The sources said, however, that the option of naming her temporarily was only one scenario under consideration and was not necessarily Obama's preferred option.

Warren, 61, is a Harvard law professor and bankruptcy expert who has served as chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel, a watchdog for the U.S. financial bailout program.

The White House has described Warren as a leading candidate to head the agency, which will oversee an array of products from mortgages to credit cards and was a key component of Obama's

The reform legislation, which overhauled U.S. financial regulation, gives Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner the authority to set up the consumer agency, including naming an acting director, if he chooses.

Last week Obama praised Warren as a "dear friend," whom he has known since law school, and said he had been "in conversations with her." He highlighted her role in conceiving the agency -- a hint that he was leaning strongly toward selecting her for the post.

Another option available to Obama would include giving her a "recess appointment" while the Senate is out of session. This would also allow her to serve on a temporary basis.

A third option would be to go through the Senate confirmation process, an alternative that would spark a battle with Republicans, who are likely to try to paint her as an ideologue whose zeal for regulation would hurt the competitiveness of the U.S. financial industry.

The White House may not want to run from such a fight. It would counter by depicting Republicans as favoring the interests of Wall Street over the middle class, an argument officials believe could play well politically for Democrats ahead of the November 2 elections.

An announcement about the post could come as early as this week.

"The president will have more to say about the agency and its mission soon," a White House spokeswoman said on Monday. "Elizabeth Warren has been a stalwart voice for American consumers and families and she was the architect of the idea that became the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau."

(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason, Dave Clarke and David Lawder; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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Friday, 12 March 2010

Need for results drives Obama's domestic juggle

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President Barack Obama's intense juggling of domestic issues reflects all the realities he faces: a vast agenda, a smaller window for results this year and a need to keep promises to constituencies that will have a huge say in the fall congressional elections.

Obama is in the heart of a period in which he has pledged to do everything in his power to make the case for health reform, a time-consuming blitz that he hopes will end in a final vote in Congress this month. That's on top of his commitment to make jobs his top priority.

Yet his agenda this week alone signals that Obama is moving — or at least trying to move — Congress on other matters affecting most every American. The coming months likely amount to his best shot to pass the heavy legislation that defines his domestic agenda and that will help drive the midterm elections in November.

At the moment, health care is the chief campaign. Obama pitched his plan in both Pennsylvania and Missouri this week and will again in Ohio on Monday.

The rest of the week, though, provides a revealing snapshot of Obama's balancing act.

A trade speech took precedence Thursday morning. Then he devoted coveted time to lawmakers and activists involved in immigration reform, a far-reaching and sensitive issue that rose and crashed in the second term of President George W. Bush. Friday he meets with his national security team to assess the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, then assembles his science and technology advisers.

Earlier this week, Obama had 14 senators of both parties to the White House to try to build support for stalled climate and energy legislation. Throw in that twice in recent days Obama promoted his education agenda of boosting standards and graduation rates, with federal money as leverage.

The president is also invested in pushing through an overhaul of the rules governing Wall Street. A bipartisan effort on that front appeared to break down Thursday, but the White House hopes that will change as the legislation advances, still optimistic that financial reform will get done this year.

"There are lawmakers who care deeply about these other issues. There are constituency groups. There are substantive policy reasons for pursuing them," said Thomas Mann, a congressional scholar at the Brookings Institution. "A president doesn't have time to deal with matters just one at a time."

Obama has a key edge in setting the agenda: public approval. His job-performance rating is holding mainly steady at 53 percent, while a new Associated Press-GfK poll finds that fewer people approve of Congress — a mere 22 percent — than at any point in Obama's presidency.

Yet polls don't change people's lives. Results do. And ultimately, the search for results is what drives how Obama spends his time.

A closer look at the factors:

• The agenda. Obama is still early in his presidency and trying to use his clout on all the big items he promised. The massive economic stimulus plan came first, but health care, energy and global-warming legislation, further jobs bills, a financial regulation overhaul and immigration all remain. Obama is trying to push that agenda around the rush of other events — from terrorism threats to natural disasters — that can demand his time.

• The calendar. The realistic window for getting major legislation passed in this election year at best runs only until August, when Congress takes its summer break before the final, frantic weeks before Election Day. So Obama must do overlapping legislative work on matters nearing an end, like health care, and ones needing much work, like immigration.

• The bully pulpit. Obama has little say over when Congress does its business, as evidenced best by the health care debate, which in Obama's vision was supposed to be finished last year. He can, however, control what issues get public attention by scheduling events designed to drive the debate.

• The election. Obama isn't on the ballot in November, but in a lot of ways, his presidency is. To help stem the expected loss of Democratic seats in the House and Senate in November, Obama needs to show results, demonstrating that both he and the candidates from his party can use their power to lead.

• The coalitions. Obama appears clearly headed toward a Democrats-only health care bill, if he is able to get it. But he knows he must have Republican support to get comprehensive energy and immigration reform passed. His meetings this week on both topics were designed largely to foster that kind of backing.

• The quiet work. Obama gets scores of briefings and holds domestic meetings that never even make it on his public schedule. So, in one sense, announcing an event on immigration can give an outsized, all-of-a-sudden importance to a matter he has been trying to finesse for months. But it can also signal to key groups and the nation at large that he is working on several issues at once and that he takes them all seriously, which can play to the White House's advantage.

• The constituents. People mainly want jobs and an economy that restores the value of their homes and 401(k) accounts. There are plenty of other issues though that matter to groups such as the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, both of which met with Obama on Thursday. Obama must pay some heed to all the concerns of those who elected him: 95 percent of black voters supported him in 2008; 67 percent of Hispanic voters did the same.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama doesn't have time to schedule events that, on the surface, might be seen as a political response to those who helped get him his job.

"Anytime you do these meetings, you're going to be judged on whether you can accomplish anything out of them," Gibbs said. "So I think doing them just to say you're doing them, in the end, doesn't usually work."

___

Associated Press Polling Director Trevor Tompson and AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

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Saturday, 23 October 2010

Obama: Consumers lose if financial law repealed

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Thursday, 21 October 2010

Obama: US a 'pushover' on trade with nations like China

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http://obamaforusa.blogspot.com/

Obama to meet Apple supremo Steve Jobs

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Wednesday, 13 October 2010

ObamaCare blowback

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http://obamaforusa.blogspot.com/

Obama to highlight benefits of college tax credit

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http://obamaforusa.blogspot.com/

Monday, 13 September 2010

Obama could name Warren interim consumer head

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http://obamaforusa.blogspot.com/

Obama weighs interim appointment for consumer agency

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Friday, 12 March 2010

Need for results drives Obama's domestic juggle

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