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Obama's Day of Reckoning
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The president did an excellent job explaining how the federal government has spurred economic growth in the past, but, historian Sean Wilentz asks, when is he going to lay out a specific vision for America’s future?
It’s been nearly a decade since the country has heard a vibrant, full-throated Democratic speech from a president of the United States. President Obama gave one tonight. In presenting his budget priorities to the Congress and the American people, he provided a clear defense of the federal government’s historic role as a catalyst for economic growth and the nation’s welfare. From the Transcontinental Railroad to the Interstate Highway System, he explained, private wealth has always expanded with the help of the national government. And with that, the president exorcised the political spirit of Ronald Reagan from Capitol Hill.
Energy, health, education—these are at the top of the administration’s agenda. If nothing had happened last September, when Lehman Brothers was allowed to collapse, these policies also would have been at the top. But a great deal has changed since the Democratic convention ratified the party’s platform, with these same priorities. The country and the world have plunged into the greatest economic crisis since the Depression. And that must be the president’s chief preoccupation.
No matter what the White House decides to do, it should have made some decisions by now—and President Obama should have announced them tonight.
When Franklin D. Roosevelt took office on March 4, 1933, the nation had been in a depression for nearly four years. The banking system had virtually collapsed; the credit markets were frozen; and unemployment had exceeded 25 percent. The calamity that President Obama confronts is still in its earliest stages. He faces the challenge of sparing the country the kind of suffering that Roosevelt inherited from Herbert Hoover and that led to the New Deal.
Today, the banking system is near collapse; the credit markets are nearly frozen; and unemployment is rising dangerously. And the system is vastly more complex than it was in the early 1930s. This is the heart of the crisis—and the president lucidly explained much of it in his speech. But he should also have proposed specific solutions because until he does the crisis will continue to deepen.
The White House enjoys great latitude and leverage at this moment to offer dramatic action. Yet since the Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner appeared before the Congress two weeks ago, the administration has failed to propose any concrete program. The elements remain uncertain. President Obama and his team have told us that the administration is negotiating the terms upon which the government will help stabilize major banks. But the process cannot be allowed to drag on for weeks on end. There are plenty of bold proposals making the rounds, including new public-private partnerships to restore the flow of credit, and a tax holiday on regressive payroll taxes to stimulate the economy from the grassroots up. But no matter what the White House decides to do, it should have made some decisions by now—and President Obama should have announced them tonight.
The longer this uncertainty is prolonged, the greater the damage to the economy—and the greater the potential damage to the extraordinary opportunity presented to the president. We cannot say when it will be too late for the White House to move expeditiously and specifically—but it should have been done already.
Sean Wilentz is a history professor at Princeton University whose books include The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln and The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008. He is a contributing editor at The New Republic, and historian-in-residence at Bob Dylan's official website.
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Sean Wilentz is a history professor at Princeton University whose books include The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln and The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008. He is a contributing editor at The New Republic, and historian-in residence at Bob Dylan's official website.
Grade: Incomplete
Sean Wilentz is a history professor at Princeton University whose books include The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln and The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008. He is a contributing editor at The New Republic, and historian-in residence at Bob Dylan's official website.
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Sean Wilentz is a history professor at Princeton University whose books include The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln and The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008. He is a contributing editor at The New Republic, and historian-in residence at Bob Dylan's official website.
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If Sean Wilentz really is such an eminent historian, is he then so narrow-minded as to fail to see that energy, healthcare and education are all intrinsically linked to the banking system, through their contributions to the health of the economy. If America's supposed intelligentsia is so nihilistic that they really want to see Obama - and the US by extension - fail then they may as well go and slit their wrists right now...
Too bad you faild to mention that by 1938 the US unemployment rate was STILL 20-22% and the down was still hovering at 100 (where it was when FDR took office). Amazing how you (and all my history teachers) fail to point this out. The NEW DEAL DID NOT WORK! Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice . . .
To willbarb
The Dow nearly quadrupled during FDR's first term, 52 to 180. http://www.djindexes.com/DJIA110/learning-center/
Maybe that's where your teachers went so wrong...they were presenting facts and stuff.
Gosh Sean you might try listening the next time Obama speaks. 80% of the Americans who listened last night got it. If you would stop dribbling your party line long enough to listen you might get it too......
Reading through the news March and April, 1933, there was a constant and sophisticated flow of information from the new Roosevelt administration that addressed the crisis directly and in depth. It was not censored, not reluctant, not reticent, and the sense of urgency and sobriety is routine. They used the technological phenomenon of the moment, the radio, as if they were veterans. It was not about show business or sound clips. For example, Monday April 3, on WEAF at 1030 PM, Secretary of the Treasury William H. Woodin, the man at the center of the storm about the bank crisis and the new Federal Reserve notes, inagurated the National Radio Forum's "Cabinet" series.Woodin's topic was the dry, dense, critical and nervous making, "Our Federal Fnacial Outlook." No popcorn served. Professor Wilentz's excellent point is that we need to hear much more, much denser, much more dry, speculative, candid dialogue from the Obama finacial team, chiefly Geithner, Romer, Summers. If a man as unschooled in media as Woodin was willing to try radio, let us see Tim Geithner in a chat room, or blogging, or on Twitter. Communicate. Get a Facebook up for the office of the secretary. Sean Wilentz asks where are the finacial plan decisions? Good question. Let's hear from the makers. What is happening? Hurry, guys.
Here's what I don't get: the call for "more" from this speech. How, in an hour, can any president lay out a vision for the country, support his argument for forthcoming programs and inspire us all to be responsible citizens? I'm sorry, but if he ponderously weighed in on data/stats and examples, he would have been panned as boring and too detailed.
The purpose of such a speech is to lay out key (abstract) principles by which the administration will run, foreshadow what's coming and keep the American public abreast of key initiatives. I got all that from last night's speech and was inspired.
To the critics of that speech, take your criticism to the Cabinet meetings, sub-committee meetings and hearings where the real work of govt. gets done, but don't ask the president (any president) to do the real work in live broadcasts. That's preposterous.
Needs a new speachwriter. One thing I have noticed about Obama, he's like the character in Being There. Nothing he says has any meaning. He's a great BS artist, probably a Harvard thing. Clearly he's a marxist megalomaniac from what he has done thus far. I think the country will survive him. He's just not that substantial.
A vision of America's future? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? That is EXACTLY what he talked about for 50 minutes yesterday--energy, health care and education, and, yes, a very progressive vision for the guiding hand of the Federal Government in all of these areas. I haven't heard such a clear vision of a direction for a society in years. Not even Bill Clinton had such a coherent picture of where he wanted to take the country. Whether you like Obama or not (and it seems that you don't), it is undeniable that his vision for the future of America is translucid and as clear-cut as any. Just as Ronald Reagan strove to undo the New Deal (and thankfully did not succeed), Obama aims to undo Reaganism. I bet my chips on Obama.
it's a state of the union address. The target audience is the american public. It would be wrong to get into the economic nitty gritty. As far talking about the vision of america, I thought it was pretty clear.
Sean, you seem to have failed to listen to yourself. You're demanding that Obama fix the extremely complex problem in the banking system RIGHT NOW! but you previously mentioned that the Great Depression had been going on for years when FDR took office. If he tries to rush this solution into the marketplace, you'll be saying the same thing about the guy who succeeds Obama because of his failed banking plan that arrested the potential of any of his proposals to move forward. Borrowing the words of Lawrence Lessig, this banking crisis is "the first problem" that opens up the door for all other things to be dealt with, so let's make sure we get this one right among all others instead of selfishly asking for the quick fix.
Thank you.
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