House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) discusses how reckless fiscal policy moved from Main Street, to Wall Street, to Congress, and how this irresponsibility drastically hurt America because everyone, including the government, lived “beyond its means.” (0:29)
By Suzia van Swol, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service
One-time giant Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protection today, but President Obama says he has every confidence it will emerge from this process stronger and more competitive.
After speaking with the President today, U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) said that the auto industry is important to the U.S. defense industrial base and the economic power of Northern Ohio. “Most important are the 30,000 jobs saved at Chrysler,” said Kaptur.
Kaptur said that the auto industry was brought down by Wall Street and it deserves to flourish. “The government will stand behind the working capital for Chrysler in the form of working capital and loans,” said Kaptur.
Striking comparison with other bailouts, Kaptur said that if you look at who got the big money, “the AIG gets 70 billion, one company?” She went on to say that TARP should have been opened up for vehicle sales
and for the financing of dealership showroom floors. Instead, there was a total credit strangle hold, which still is impacting this industry, and unemployment started to tick up all across the country.
The federal bankruptcy court will ultimately determine Chrysler’s immediate future, but Jeeps might still get a chance to four-wheel over mountains.
The latest incarnation of the “special relationship” between the United States and Great Britain was on display Tuesday, as President Obama welcomed British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to the White House for a two-day visit.
Obama said ties between Washington and London were strong and would stay that way, calling it “a
a bond that will not break.” He said it was critical to the security and economic well being of both nations.
For his part, Brown said “It’s a partnership of purpose that is driven forward now by the need for us all to work together in unity to deal with the world economic problems.”
Those problems – which have engulfed the global economy – dominated the meeting between the two men, their first since Obama’s inauguration. White House officials said the two leaders have begun to outline a new set of financial regulations that they hope will help stabilize the global economy. Brown, in fact, has called for a new Bretton Woods agreement, referring to the 1944 conference that established global monetary and financial order after World War II.
The meeting laid the stage for next month’s Group of 20 Summit meeting, which Brown will host in London. The G20 is comprised of financial ministers and central bankers from 19 countries and the European Union.
STRAINED TIES DENIED
Reports the two men would hold a formal joint news conference were unfounded, causing some correspondents to wonder if somehow Brown was being slighted – pointing out that President Bush always held news conferences with Brown and his predecessor, Tony Blair. A top White House aide denied it, and Obama appeared to address the issue directly saying “I’d like to think our relationship is terrific.”
RUSSIA AND IRAN
Meantime, Obama knocked down a New York Times report saying he had offered an explicit deal to Russia in which the United States would halt the deployment of an anti-missile shield in Poland in return for Kremlin help in getting Iran to stop its “commitment to nuclear weapons.”
Obama admitted sending Russian President Dimitri Medvedev a letter, but said the Times “didn’t accurately characterize” it.
The president said the letter, which was “very lengthy,” dealt with a broad range of issues of concern to both Washington and Moscow, including Afghanistan, terrorism. He added there was nothing in the letter that he hadn’t spoken of publicly, “which is that the missile defense that we have talked about deploying is directed towards not Russia but Iran. That has always been the concern, that you had potentially a missile from Iran that threatened either the United States or Europe.”
Russia has deep business ties with Iran, including Kremlin assistance in building two nuclear reactors for Iran at Bushehr; Moscow is also weighing the sale of its sophisticated S-300 surface-to-air missile to Tehran. A Russian newspaper reported in February that the sale is on hold, at least until the G20 meeting in London, when Obama and Medvedev will meet for the first time.
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In a Senate Budget Committee hearing Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT.) criticizes Wall Street executives for creating the economic crisis the U.S. is in. He states that the American people have lost their jobs while the CEO’s of the largest institutions who caused this crisis still have theirs. Sanders questions Timothy F. Geithner whether or not these people in the financial institutions be let go and new leadership be brought in. (02:49)
In an act of satirical political theater, Billionaires for the Bailout held skits in front several Washington D.C. banks (0:39).
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) makes a reference to Vice President Dick Cheney’s statement “that deficits don’t matter.” He says that Wall Street must have taken that to heart. (0:41)
Briefer: Dana Perino
President’s Schedule
President Bush had his normal briefings this morning. At 10.30 am he signs H.R. 3403, the New and Emerging Technologies 911 Improvement Act of 2008, in the Oval Office of the White House. At 10.55 am, the President will drop by the National Security Advisor’s meeting with the Defense Minister of Columbia. At 12.55 pm the President travels to the Pentagon to participate in U.S Department of Defense briefings. At 3.25 pm, President Bush participated in a photo opportunity with the 2008 Boys and Girls Nation delegates. Later this afternoon, the President also signs the Presidential Proclamation in honor of the 60th anniversary of the Armed Forces Integration. (more…)
At the CWA Conference, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) says when she says solutions, she says, she will rebuild the middle class, and will end 55 billion dollars in tax breaks for oil companies, drug companies, insurance companies, and Wall Street, and will give that money back to hard working middle class families instead. You will get more help with student loans, health care for all, and millions of jobs that cannot be sent overseas because they will be created right here. I will cut middle class taxes, she says, by at least 100 billion dollars a year, and I will let taxes increase on people earning more than $250,000 a year. They have had their run, it’s time we shifted our priorities in the tax code. (:50)
