Global warming, the next partisan divide [Updated]

It's true that we have not yet seen the finale on healthcare reform.

Nor have we heard the last about President Obama's Afghanistan policy. Or about financial regulatory reform that could pit Main Street against Wall Street.

But you can tell that the next issue on the horizon, after the smoke has cleared from the current debates, is global warming.

Already, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has mustered its considerable heft against a cap-and-trade bill moving through Congress. And Republicans have been unstinting in their criticism of what one congressman, Louisiana Republican Steve Scalise, called "the global warming Gestapo."

A new poll will probably give fodder to partisans on both sides. The Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that fewer and fewer Americans -- though still a majority -- believe that global warming is a real threat. According to the poll, 72% of the public now thinks climate change is caused by people, down from 80% last year. 

Since its peak nearly four years ago, belief that people are causing climate change is down sharply among Republicans -- 76% to 54% -- and independents -- 86% to 71%. Even Democrats are growing more skeptical; their number is down from 92% to 86%. Maybe Al Gore needs to bring his movie back for reruns.

Still, whether climate change is man-made or cyclical, a majority of poll respondents (53%) support legislation to control emissions. And one analyst thinks the slippage may be due less to skepticism over global warming than concerns about the economy.

"The majority of people view it as an economic issue," said David Winston, who has polled for the House and Senate Republican leadership on the issue.

[Updated at 8:41 a.m.: As if anticipating the coming debate, the White House plans to announce today that the United States will commit to reduce its gas emissions "in the range of" 17% below 2005 levels by 2020 -- the target set out in the climate bill the House passed in June.]

-- Johanna Neuman

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Should Treasury Secretary Geithner be fired?

President Obama is just back from an eight-day trip to Asia. Perhaps he hoped to sleep in a bit today.

But amid growing discontent over the administration's handling of the economy -- and new revelations about misspent or at least misreported stimulus funds -- anger on Capitol Hill is sending a dramatic wake-up to the White House.

The target of much of the anger is Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, a former New York Federal Reserve banker who bailed out AIG and let Lehmann Bros. fall and who has watched the dollar sink to all-time lows.

At a session of the Joint Economic Committee on Thursday, Republicans let him have it.

 "Conservatives agree that as point person, you failed. Liberals are growing in that consensus as well," said Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas). "For the sake of our jobs, will you step down from your post?"

Geithner shot back at Republicans with this line: "You gave this president an economy falling off the cliff."

But Democrats are growing critical too, with progressives arguing that the administration is tilting toward Wall Street and away from Main Street. Here's Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.) calling for Geithner's resignation.

Even members of the Congressional Black Caucus apparently think the first black president in history has been slow on the uptake. They are threatening to hold up a financial regulatory reform package unless the White House takes action on jobs. "The recession has created a unique systemic risk that threatens all parts of the African American community, including the poor and the middle class," explained Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles).

Not everyone agrees. Columnist David Brooks hailed Geithner's policies the other day, saying that he was mostly right and his critics were mostly wrong. The financial sector is in much better shape than it was then. TARP money is being repaid, and the debate now is what to do with the billions that were never needed. It now seems clear that nationalization would have been an unnecessary mistake — potentially expensive and dangerously disruptive."

So far the administration is defending Geithner, with a spokeswoman saying that he has helped "steer the American economy back from the brink and is now leading the effort on financial reform."

What do you think?

-- Johanna Neuman

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Obama, heading for Asia and wrestling with Afghanistan, orders up jobs summit (text)

When they talk about presidents aging dramatically in office, this could be why.

Today, President Obama heads out on an nine-day trip to Asia -- a series of appointments in Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea that will put him out of the country as the Senate starts debate on his healthcare reform package next week and as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin grabs the spotlight for her "Going Rogue" book tour.

Burdened by a decision on Afghanistan, Obama has apparently sent military planners back to the drawing boards to redesign a strategy in the wake of concerns about the ability of Hamid Karzai's government to serve as a viable partner. He's also worried about a jobless economic recovery

So before leaving, the president announced a jobs summit at the White House in December, at which CEOs, union leaders, nonprofits and government officials can figure out how to jump-start the lagging business indicator.

Take a look.

You can read the president's remarks below, as provided by the White House.

-- Johanna Neuman

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Ron Paul to Federal Reserve: Open your books

In February, Texas Republican and Libertarian darling Ron Paul introduced a bill directing the U.S. comptroller general to audit the Federal Reserve's books.

Paul, who ran for president last year, wants the Fed to open the door on all of its secret transactions -- the talks with foreign banks, the deliberations on monetary policy, the activities of the Open Market Committee, and the communications with the regional reserve banks.

In the shadows of Wall Street's collapse last year, he has attracted more 300 co-sponsors, including 130 Democrats.

But this week, he charged, the provision was gutted from the landmark financial reform legislation being marked up by Barney Frank's Financial Services Committee. Paul blamed the chair of the subcommittee on monetary policy, North Carolina Democrat Mel Watt, whose Charlotte district is home to the headquarters of Bank of America, the nation's largest commercial bank.

Arguing that the Fed is hiding the extent of U.S. dependence on printing new money, Paul -- who is hoping to get the provision restored in the bill before it gets to the House floor --  told MSNBC today that the big spending masks a serious crisis in the value of the dollar.

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Critics worry that robbing the Fed of its ability to deliberate in private will result in a weakened central financial structure -- and put Congress in charge of managing the nation's money supply.

But Paul, a physician, argues that a doctor would never hide from a cancer patient the extent of his illness, and that hiding the Fed's books amounts to kidding ourselves about the impact of its policies.

"We're still kidding ourselves," he said. "You have to bite the bullet, you have to admit the truth.... It's sort of like trying to get somebody off drugs.... Keeping them on the drug -- which is  easy money, easy spending and huge deficits and all that -- that will kill the patient, and the patient for me is the dollar.... And when you see gold up at $1,100 at ounce, that's a little bit of a warning signal."

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo credit: Bleier / Getty Images

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Obama: looking for a 'post-bubble' recovery after pulling economy back from brink (text here)

President Obama convened an economic round table discussion at the White House today to figure out how to put more jobs into the economy and sustain the recovery.

His statement is below, as provided by the White House.

-- Johanna Neuman

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November 2, 2009
 
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
DURING MEETING OF THE
PRESIDENT'S ECONOMIC RECOVERY ADVISORY BOARD
 
Roosevelt Room
 
11:24 A.M. EST
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everybody.  I am pleased to be joined this morning by my Economic Recovery Advisory Board.  Each of these men and women have extraordinary and diverse expertise in the economy.
 
     I want to especially thank Paul Volcker, who has been a terrific advisor to me since....

Is the recession over?

The government today unleashed new numbers showing that in the third quarter, the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 3.5% in the third quarter, snapping four straight quarters of economic contraction.

Wall Street was happy, and stocks rallied after a four-day losing streak.

But the White House was careful to avoid declaring victory.

"After four consecutive quarters of decline, positive GDP growth is an encouraging sign that the U.S. economy is moving in the right direction," said Christina Romer, head of the Council of Economic Advisers.  "However, this welcome milestone is just another step, and we still have a long road to travel until the economy is fully recovered."

Crediting President Obama's $787-billion stimulus package, Romer said conceded that until the 15 million out-of-work Americans get jobs, the champagne stays in the locker room.

"It will take sustained, robust GDP growth to bring the unemployment rate down substantially. Such a decline in unemployment is, of course, what we are all working to achieve."

-- Johanna Neuman

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Angry taxpayers burn bank execs in effigy, demand end to using bailout dollars to fight bank reform

Remember those summer protests against healthcare reform, when angry conservatives overwhelmed congressional town hall meetings with accusations that President Obama was a closet socialist?

Well, apparently the Right does not have a lock on voter rage.

Today, for the third day in a row, taxpayers, mobilized against the big banks for taking $17.8 trillion in government bailout money and then using some of it to lobby against reforms, are gathering at the American Bankers Assn.'s annual meeting in Chicago.

True, these are organized protests, spearheaded by the Service Employees International Union and other advocacy groups that support the White House effort to enact reforms.

Still, the protesters are making a splash. Yesterday they took over the lobby of Goldman Sachs headquarters in the Windy City, demanding the dismantling of banks deemed "too big to fail."

And Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin joined the protests, urging voters "to push back" against the business lobby's efforts to fight financial reform.

Inside the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, industry officials defended their practices. "You did not make any abusive subprime loans; you did not take big bonuses for products that later blew up," ABA President Edward Yingling said during his opening remarks, blaming a few bad apples for last fall's financial collapse. "We can never again let bad actors and bad policies create a financial disaster."

-- Johanna Neuman

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Photo: Reuters

Wall Street exec pay cuts: boon or bust for taxpayers?

The Obama administration plans to announce -- as early as today -- new 90% pay cuts for 175 Wall Street executives at the seven firms bailed out by the government  amid the economy's collapse earlier this year.

Many are applauding.

“It’s about time that somebody stands up to these folks we bailed out,” Maryland Democrat Elijah Cummings, told Bloomberg. “They seem to have forgotten that they would not have jobs in many instances if it were not for taxpayers.”

Republicans agree. “Politically it’s a slam dunk for the administration,” said Dan Schnur, communications director for Arizona Republican John McCain’s presidential campaign against George W. Bush in 2000.

But others are cautioning that the pay curbs could lead to a brain drain at the seven companies, making it less likely that taxpayers will ever be reimbursed for their "too big to fail" TARP investment.  Steven Hall, a New York compensation consultant, put it this way, “The fear is, will this make people throw up their hands and say, ‘I have to leave?’ ”

Even more concerning, some critics worry that the pay cuts, authored by pay czar Kenneth Feinberg, won't make a dent in the Wall Street culture of greed. And chief among these critics is billionaire Warren Buffett, who pays himself $100,000 a year in salary for running Berkshire Hathaway.

There has to be "a downside to people who really mess up large institutions," Buffett said in an interview with Berkshire subsidiary Business Wire. "Too many people have walked away from the troubles they have created for society, not just for their own institution, and they have walked away rich."

Let us know what you think.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo Credit: Reuters

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White House war against Fox, Wall Street, Chamber of Commerce: a new Nixonian enemy's list?

The war between the White House and Fox News keeps getting louder. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on Tuesday continued the assault, even as some pundits and analysts voiced concern that the tactic could backfire by giving the already-popular FNC network more attention. “It serves to help Fox, not punish it, by driving up ratings," said Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus. "And it deprives the White House … of access to an audience that is, in fact, broader than hard-core Obama haters.”

Elsewhere on the White House radar, President Obama went into the heart of the lion's den Tuesday night to chastise Wall Streeters for fighting him on regulation of the financial sector -- a scolding for which they paid $15,200-a-ticket. And the White House has also dispatched its top lieutenants -- Valerie Jarrett and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel -- to undercut the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, its most powerful opponent on climate change legislation, by meeting personally with top executives at the biggest companies in the country.

This morning, in a lengthy speech, Tennessee Republican Lamar Alexander offered a "friendly suggestion," warning the White House not to create a new "enemies list" as President Nixon famously did back in the day.

"An 'enemies list' only denigrates the presidency and the republic itself," Alexander said, adding that the White House tactics amount to "street brawling."

Alexander -- a former governor of Tennessee and former secretary of Education under the first President Bush -- should know. He worked for Bryce Harlow, Nixon's executive assistant, in 1969 when he was a "wet-behind-the-ears 29-year-old staff aide in the West Wing of the Nixon White House."

Politico argued this week that the White House tactics amount to a deliberate drive to marginalize the president's critics, modeled on the 2008 presidential campaign. As Politico noted, Gibbs has mocked radio conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh from the White House podium, and everyone from political guru David Axelrod has piled on Fox News by contending it’s not a legitimate news operation. "All of the techniques are harnessed to a larger purpose: to marginalize not only the individual person or organization but also some of the most important policy and publicity allies of the national Republican Party."

Read the full text of Alexander's remarks, as provided by the senator's office, are below.

-- Johanna Neuman

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Obama scolds Wall Streeters, who paid $15,200 each to hear him, at Dem fundraiser (text, video)

President Obama went to New York on Tuesday to raise money for Democratic candidates. And since much of the money in the Big Apple resides on Wall Street, many in the audience at a $30,400-a-couple fundraising dinner last night make their living on the Street.

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Chastising Wall Street executives for excessive bonuses and pushing for regulations of the financial sector  that many in the industry oppose, Obama drew nervous twitters (the verbal kind, not the social-networking kind) from the crowd when he said, “So if there are members of the financial industry in the audience today, I would ask that you join us in passing what are necessary reforms. Don’t fight them.”

Check out the text below, as provided by the White House. And of course, the video.

-- Johanna Neuman

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