Obama’s Troubles
Published in Le Figaro
(France) on 13 September 2009
by Pierre Rousselin (link to original)
Barack Obama is not the messiah. His current difficulties are not shocking at this stage of his presidency. He finds that America’s problems are of a severity without precedent.
A few days after his defense of health care reform, Barack Obama is again putting himself out there - today in New York, a year after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. He is using this occasion to advocate for the necessary regulation of the financial system. He is also going to make certain that everyone knows he is not responsible for the crisis, but inherited it from the previous administration.
Heading up several reforms at once is a choice Nicolas Sarkozy has also made. In the United States, where it is Congress who decides economic mattes, the wager is riskier. It would be better to score a victory before throwing himself into a new battle. It is always a matter of timing.
Must they truly choose the pit of a recession in order to turn the health insurance system upside down? Couldn't we expect the recovery to do what has been long overdue: give coverage to the 46 million deprived Americans? Obama is hardly convincing when he says that his project, costing $900 billion over 10 years, "will not add one dime to the deficit." But politically, everyone understands that the president needs his reform. If that flagship element of his administration does not pass now, before the midterm elections in 2010, it will never be adopted. This should already have been accomplished by using the sufficient majority in Congress favoring the White House.
As for financial regulation, shouldn’t they have expected it earlier? The large banks display some positive results. Wall Street has rebounded more than 50 percent compared to its lowest point at the beginning of March. American finance is no longer in free fall and the feeling of urgency has dissipated. Will Obama be able to reach his goals and pass a package of measures, albeit short of what is dreamed of by Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy?
The anti-Obama demonstration Saturday in Washington was a caricature. It succeeded in bringing together people who just want to use the president as a foil. But their message deserves to be heard. Never, in the United States, has the government been as tied to the economy as it is now. It is true especially for the banks and the auto industry, in a country where the large majority distrusts state intervention.
The most serious part of this tumultuous time is that exiting the financial crisis is not being accompanied by a return of confidence. Since December 2007, the beginning of the recession, approximately seven million jobs have been lost. A large number of laid-off workers are nearing the end of their unemployment benefits. Everything indicates that economic recovery will not lead to a sharp decline in the unemployment rate, which is as close to 10 percent today compared to only five percent at the beginning of the year.
Right at the moment when these numbers translated into a major shock for public opinion, Obama stalled. Deepening the deficits and leaving Uncle Sam to cover the debts was the easy part. The hard part still lies ahead.
A few days after his defense of health care reform, Barack Obama is again putting himself out there - today in New York, a year after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. He is using this occasion to advocate for the necessary regulation of the financial system. He is also going to make certain that everyone knows he is not responsible for the crisis, but inherited it from the previous administration.
Heading up several reforms at once is a choice Nicolas Sarkozy has also made. In the United States, where it is Congress who decides economic mattes, the wager is riskier. It would be better to score a victory before throwing himself into a new battle. It is always a matter of timing.
Must they truly choose the pit of a recession in order to turn the health insurance system upside down? Couldn't we expect the recovery to do what has been long overdue: give coverage to the 46 million deprived Americans? Obama is hardly convincing when he says that his project, costing $900 billion over 10 years, "will not add one dime to the deficit." But politically, everyone understands that the president needs his reform. If that flagship element of his administration does not pass now, before the midterm elections in 2010, it will never be adopted. This should already have been accomplished by using the sufficient majority in Congress favoring the White House.
As for financial regulation, shouldn’t they have expected it earlier? The large banks display some positive results. Wall Street has rebounded more than 50 percent compared to its lowest point at the beginning of March. American finance is no longer in free fall and the feeling of urgency has dissipated. Will Obama be able to reach his goals and pass a package of measures, albeit short of what is dreamed of by Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy?
The anti-Obama demonstration Saturday in Washington was a caricature. It succeeded in bringing together people who just want to use the president as a foil. But their message deserves to be heard. Never, in the United States, has the government been as tied to the economy as it is now. It is true especially for the banks and the auto industry, in a country where the large majority distrusts state intervention.
The most serious part of this tumultuous time is that exiting the financial crisis is not being accompanied by a return of confidence. Since December 2007, the beginning of the recession, approximately seven million jobs have been lost. A large number of laid-off workers are nearing the end of their unemployment benefits. Everything indicates that economic recovery will not lead to a sharp decline in the unemployment rate, which is as close to 10 percent today compared to only five percent at the beginning of the year.
Right at the moment when these numbers translated into a major shock for public opinion, Obama stalled. Deepening the deficits and leaving Uncle Sam to cover the debts was the easy part. The hard part still lies ahead.
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