PRESIDENT Barack Obama has hit back at conservative critics of his massive economic recovery plan, accusing them of clinging to “failed theories” that led to the current crisis and warning of catastrophe if the US Congress fails to act quickly.
In an attempt to regain political momentum a day after admitting that he “screwed up” key cabinet appointments, Mr Obama reminded Republicans that he had won a mandate to change direction in Washington.
“In the past few days I’ve heard criticisms of this plan that echo the very same failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis – the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems; that we can ignore fundamental challenges like energy independence and the high cost of healthcare and still expect our economy and our country to thrive,” the president said.
“I reject that theory, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change.”
Republicans complain that the economic recovery plan is loaded with unnecessary spending that is designed to please Democratic interest groups but will do little to stimulate the economy or create jobs. The House of Representatives approved the plan without a single Republican vote but a new version of the Bill, costing almost $900 billion, does not have enough support to pass in the Senate.
“A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe and guarantee a longer recession, a less robust recovery and a more uncertain future,” Mr Obama warned yesterday. “Millions more jobs will be lost. More businesses will be shuttered. More dreams will be deferred.”
Polls show growing opposition to the president’s economic recovery plan amid Democratic grumbling that Mr Obama has yet to persuade the public of the need for such massive spending.
The White House hopes that the withdrawal of former Senate leader Tom Daschle as health and human services secretary will allow the president to focus on selling the stimulus plan without the distraction of tax scandals surrounding his cabinet choices. In a series of television interviews following Mr Daschle’s decision, Mr Obama said he took responsibility for the trouble caused by the former Senate leader’s failure to pay almost $140,000 in taxes.
“I campaigned on changing Washington and bottom-up politics. And I don’t want to send a message to the American people that there are two sets of standards, one for powerful people, and one for ordinary folks who are working every day and paying their taxes,” the president told CNN. “I think this was a mistake. I think I screwed up. And, you know, I take responsibility for it and we’re going to make sure we fix it so it doesn’t happen again.”
Mr Obama yesterday ordered financial institutions that receive a government bailout to limit the pay of their top executives to $500,000 a year and to ban the sale of bonus shares until all taxpayers’ money is repaid.
“This is America. We don’t disparage wealth. We don’t begrudge anybody for achieving success,” the president said. “But what gets people upset – and rightfully so – are executives being rewarded for failure. Especially when those rewards are subsidised by US taxpayers.”
Meanwhile, former vice-president Dick Cheney has warned that there is a “high probability” of a terrorist attack on the US using nuclear or biological weapons in the coming years and that Mr Obama’s policies make it more likely that the attack will succeed.
Describing the protection of national security as “a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business”, Mr Cheney defended the Bush administration’s anti-terrorist policies, including the detention centre at Guantánamo Bay and the torture of captives during interrogations.
“When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an al-Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry,” he told the Politico newspaper. “These are evil people. And we’re not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek.”