Emanuel Sets a Challenge By JONATHAN WEISMAN
President-elect Barack Obama's incoming White House chief of staff challenged chief executives and other business leaders Tuesday night to join the new administration in a push for universal health care, saying incremental increases in coverage won't be acceptable.
"When it gets rough out there, a lot of business leaders get out of the car and say, 'We're OK with minor reform.' I'm challenging you today, we're going to have to do big, serious things," Rahm Emanuel said, speaking to The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council, a conference convened to elicit corporate opinion on the challenges facing the new president.
Since the president-elect named Mr. Emanuel his chief of staff, the famously voluble Chicago congressman has limited his public appearances and strained to stay out of the news. But on Tuesday night, he was combative with a business audience.
He was asked his views on the push by labor unions to allow workplaces to be organized with the signing of cards attesting to union support rather than a secret ballot. Mr. Emanuel declined to say whether the White House would support the legislation, but he said the unions are addressing the concerns of a middle class that has seen U.S. median income slide over the past eight years, while health care, energy and education costs have soared.
He said business leaders should help find solutions to the middle- class squeeze or face a revolt. "We need a strategy as a country to make sure they have an opportunity to move up that ladder," he said.
Mr. Emanuel said that when Mr. Obama and his former White House rival, Republican John McCain, met in Chicago Monday, they discussed making a market-based system to control global warning "a top priority" of the new administration.
Mr. Emanuel promised that a major economic stimulus would be "the first order of business" for Mr. Obama when he takes office Jan. 20. The focus of spending will be on infrastructure, specifically "green infrastructure," which he said would include mass transit, upgraded electricity transmission lines, "smart" electrical meters that allow consumers to save money by using electricity at off-peak hours, and universal broadband Internet access, which he said would encourage telecommuting.
Emanuel Speaks of 'Era of Reform'
He stressed that the new administration would "throw long and deep," taking advantage of the economic crisis to push wholesale changes in health care, taxes, financial re-regulation and energy. "The American people in two successive elections have voted for change, and change cannot be allowed to die on the doorsteps of Washington," Mr. Emanuel said.
Mr. Emanuel spoke to the conference after an emotional Capitol Hill appearance before the House Democratic Caucus, which he heads. According to notes taken by leadership aides, Mr. Emanuel choked up when he told the colleagues his decision to leave the Hill and join the Obama administration was "not an easy decision for me." But, he said he tells high-school student that at some point in their lives, they need to do something bigger than themselves. "I decided it's about time to take my own advice," he told House Democrats.
Mr. Emanuel will serve as a bridge between the White House and Congress -- and a tough-minded enforcer of Democratic discipline. He let House Democrats know he would have the same expectations of them from the White House as he did when he helped keep errant Democrats behind the House leadership.
"I want you to know, I've got your back," he told them. "I'll feel better knowing that you you've got my back."