----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com>
SUMMERS: I think it in the end we would've been better served if there had been more push to the economy. We would've been better served if the measures that the president put forward in the fall of 2009 for expanded infrastructure investment, for expanded support for state and local governments that passed through the House had also passed the Senate. But the choices that were made were made in a given political context and I think given the slender margins of one vote by which the Recovery Act was passed I suspect an effort to push it to a higher level might well have backfired and resulted in legislation not passing. And at that moment that would've have catastrophic consequences in terms of depression.
HOBSON: Well politics aside, do you think there's anything that the administration should've done differently in the midst of the financial crisis or the depths of the recession?
SUMMERS: I don't know what you mean by politics aside. Administrations exist in a political context. I've already indicated that I think that the imperative was to push the economy forward. I think the administration was successful in achieving as large a fiscal program at was possible in the political environment they faced. That it would've been desirable if it was still larger fiscal program could've been passed. ___________________________________
But the initial political context for this administration was huge/unprecedented grass-roots support that elected a Obama despite his race and inexperience. That support was based on certain promises O made during the campaign. They included transparency, accountability, support for states, jobs program, end to the wars, single payer, etc. He did none of those things. He had the mandate to create his own political context. He could have gotten on TV and eloquently, passionately called for universal pressure on the legislature to push forward with support for the working class. He did none of this. He moved to the right as fast as he could.
Joanna