The New New Deal
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359 the president visited the Chesapeake Machine Company: Obama remarks, Baltimore, Maryland, January 29, 2010, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=87464.
360 breaking the Senate filibuster record: Brian Beutler, “111th Senate Breaks a Filibuster Record,” Talking Points Memo, December 23, 2011, http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/12/111th-senate-breaks-one-filibuster-record.php.
361 about $200 billion in additional fiscal pop before the 2010 elections: Jobs-related bills enacted after the Recovery Act and before November 2010 added up to another $212 billion in fiscal aid. They included extensions of emergency unemployment benefits and COBRA, a hiring tax credit, bond subsidies for school construction and renewable energy projects, aid to states for public sector workers and Medicaid, tax cuts for small businesses, and a new small business lending fund.
362 “Environmentalists Need a New President”: Glenn Hurowitz, Grist, July 22, 2010, http://grist.org/politics/environmentalists-need-a-new-president/.
16. Green New World
363 “Let me ask you a question”: Obama and Biden remarks in Tampa, Florida, January 28, 2010, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=87462.
364 The Tampa–Orlando line: Grunwald, “Will High-Speed Rail Get on Track?” Time.
365 It felt like a teachable moment: I’m afraid that I’ve bucked the groupthink on the spill as well; Michael Grunwald, “The BP Spill: Has the Damage Been Exaggerated?” Time, July 29, 2010.
366 “Did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?”: Obama press conference, May 27, 2010, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=87963&st=&st1=#axzz1r6IS4jg6.
367 Obama archly noted that some stimulus opponents: Obama remarks in Holland, Michigan, July 15, 2010, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=88188.
368 “Green jobs may be the fad of the moment”: Rattner, Overhaul, p. 309.
369 It took less than two years: Joseph Aldy, “A Preliminary Review of the Recovery Act’s Clean Energy Packages,” Resources for the Future, January 2012.
370 By 2010, only 40 percent of the typical turbine was imported: Michaela D. Platzer, “U.S. Wind Turbine Manufacturing: Federal Support for an Emerging Industry,” Congressional Research Service, September 23, 2011.
371 the pioneering mega-state that gave us microchips: Michael Grunwald, “Why California Is Still America’s Future,” Time, October 23, 2009.
372 “through programs such as ARPA-E”: Jackie Kucinich, “Romney’s Rhetoric Differs from Record as Governor,” USA Today, September 7, 2011.
17. Political Recovery
373 Bartley was introducing Biden at a Recovery Act event: I attended the event at the UQM facility in Longmont on April 29, 2010.
374 the White House estimated the Recovery Act: “The Economic Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: Third Quarterly Report,” White House Council of Economic Advisers, April 14, 2010, http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/CEA-3rd-arra-report.pdf.
375 it nearly tripled the domestic content: Michael Grunwald, “GOP Attacks on Stimulus Wind Power Money: Hot Air,” Time, October 15, 2010, http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,2025886,00.html.
376 Obama visited a factory under construction: Remarks at Solyndra, Fremont, California, May 26, 2010, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=87950.
377 USEC, a former government enterprise: The U.S. Enrichment Corporation was privatized during the Clinton administration; Larry Summers was a big advocate, while Peter Orszag argued against it.
378 Boehner and McConnell have slammed the White House: David Roberts, “GOP Tries to Explain Away Loan-Guarantee Hypocrisy, Fails,” Grist, October 14, 2011, http://grist.org/politics/2011-10-13-republicans-try-to-explain-away-loan-guarantee-hypocrisy-fail/.
379 “I hope you will realize the importance of such job creation to Kentucky”: Eric Lipton, “Republicans Sought Clean-Energy Money for Home States,” New York Times, September 19, 2011.
380 Obama kicked off Recovery Summer: Obama speech in Columbus, Ohio, June 18, 2010, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=88080; Kendra Marr, “Obama’s 58 Minutes in Ohio,” Politico, June 18, 2010, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38739.html.
381 “He created 70,000 new jobs this month”: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, NBC, August 9, 2010.
382 The House Republican committee borrowed Schumer’s wind farm rhetoric: Grunwald, “GOP Attacks on Stimulus Wind Power Money: Hot Air,” Time, October 15, 2010.
383 testy interview with the lefty comic Jon Stewart: Obama interview on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, October 27, 2010, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=97095.
384 “You don’t have to be a savvy political analyst”: Obama interview on MSNBC, July 15, 2010, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=88316.
385 the electorate thought he had raised middle-class taxes: Bloomberg poll, October 24–26, 2010.
386 “I think anybody who’s occupied this office”: Peter Baker, “Education of a President,” New York Times, October 12, 2010.
387 the White House’s “unrealistic expectations”: Robert Pear, “Doctors and Hospitals Say Goals on Computerized Records Are Unrealistic,” New York Times, June 7, 2010.
388 Obama hit the road with a modest new jobs plan: Obama speech in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, September 6, 2010, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=88418.
389 “We got our mops and our brooms out”: Obama speech in New York City, May 13, 2010, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=87922.
390 a “shellacking”: Obama press conference, November 3, 2010, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=88668.
18. Not Quite Done
391 Before he did anything else: David Corn has a nice recap of the lame-duck negotiations in Showdown: The Inside Story of How Obama Fought Back Against Boehner, Cantor, and the Tea Party (New York: William Morrow, 2012).
392 “the swindle of the year”: Charles Krauthammer, “Swindle of the Year,” Washington Post, December 10, 2010.
393 “If that’s the standard by which we’re measuring success”: Obama news conference, December 7, 2010, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=88781.
394 the Tampa–Orlando line would create 27,000 jobs: “The Economic Impacts of High-Speed Rail on Cities and Their Metropolitan Areas,” U.S. Conference of Mayors, June 2010, http://www.usmayors.org/highspeedrail/documents/report.pdf. The firm of Steer Davies Gleave projected a $30 million annual surplus by 2026; Wilbur Smith Associates predicted a $45 million surplus. “High-speed Rail Would Have Been Profitable, State Report says,” Tampa Tribune, February 6, 2012. Instead, the governor relied on a policy brief by the libertarian Reason Foundation.
395 It’s got the nation’s least educated population: Alan Berube, “Degrees of Separation: Education, Employment, and the Great Recession in Metropolitan America,” Brookings Institution, November 2010; “State of the Air 2011,” American Lung Association, April 2011, http://www.stateoftheair.org/.
396 “determine if the company still had a viable business”: Department of Energy loan office presentation provided to the author.
397 the state’s unemployment rate would have reached 14 percent: Mark Price and Stephen Herzenberg, “The State of Working Pennsylvania 2010,” Keystone Research Center, September 2010.
398 “Rendell Declares Stimulus a Success. Don’t You Feel Better?”: The Scoop blog, January 13, 2011, http://blogs.phillymag.com/new_philly_post/2011/01/13/rendell-declares-stimulus-a-success/.
19. The Legacy
399 At the progressive Netroots Nation conference: Michael Grunwald, “Earth to the Left: Obama Is into You,” Swampland blog, Time.com, June 21, 2011, http://swampland.time.com/2011/06/21/earth-to-the-left-obama-is-into-you. At the conference, Dan Choi, the nation’s most prominent critic of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, ripped up an Obama flyer—even though Obama had just overturned Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
400 prime-time spe
ech to Congress: Obama speech, September 8, 2011, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=96661.
401 The number of Americans without shelter actually declined: Housing and Urban Development point-in-time estimates of homelessness, http://www.hudhre.info/index.cfm?do=viewResource&ResourceID=4568; “The State of Homelessness in America 2012,” National Alliance to End Homelessness, January 17, 2012, http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/4361/.
402 analysis by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities: Arloc Sherman, “Poverty and Financial Distress Would Have Been Substantially Worse in 2010 Without Government Action, New Census Data Show,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, November 7, 2011, http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3610.
403 major private forecasting firms: Private forecasters’ assessments were listed in the Council of Economic Advisers’ eighth quarterly report on the Recovery Act’s impact. “The Economic Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Eighth Quarterly Report,” CEA, December 9, 2011.
404 80 percent of the economists: IGM Economic Experts Panel, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, February 12, 2012, http://www.igmchicago.org/igm-economic-experts-panel/poll-results?SurveyID=SV_cw5O9LNJL1oz4Xi.
405 A Washington Post review of early stimulus studies: Dylan Matthews, “Did the Stimulus Work? A Review of the Nine Best Studies on the Subject,” Wonkblog, Washington Post, August 24, 2011, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/did-the-stimulus-work-a-review-of-the-nine-best-studies-on-the-subject/2011/08/16/gIQAThbibJ_blog.html. There were two other negative studies, but one had statistically insignificant results, and one didn’t make empirical sense.
406 by prominent Republican economist John Taylor: John B. Taylor, “An Empirical Analysis of the Revival of Fiscal Activism in the 2000s,” Stanford University, Journal of Economic Literature, September 2011, http://www.stanford.edu/~johntayl/JEL_Taylor_Final%20Pages.pdf.
407 “killing solar energy by having the government play the role”: Charlie Rose, PBS, December 19, 2011, http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/12045.
408 expanded sixfold: U.S. Solar Market Insight Reports for 2009–2011, Solar Energy Industries Association, http://www.seia.org/cs/research/solarinsight.
409 $50 million to build wing dikes and weirs along the Mississippi River: Michael Grunwald, “The Floods: A Man-Made Disaster?,” Time, June 25, 2008, http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1818040,00.html.
410 It also pushed thirty-nine states to rewrite their eligibility rules: National Employment Law Project data, http://www.nelp.org/index.php/site/issues/category/modernizing_unemployment_insurance.
411 renewable electricity doubled during Obama’s first three years: Net electricity generation for solar, wind and geothermal, Energy Information Administration, http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_1_1_a.
412 “The reports of Solyndra’s death have been greatly exaggerated”: Michael Grunwald, “The White House Wouldn’t Answer Republicans’ Questions, So I’ll Try,” Swampland blog, Time, June 24, 2011, http://swampland.time.com/2011/06/24/the-white-house-wouldnt-answer-republican-questions-so-ill-try/.
413 “No, I don’t … overall, it’s doing well”: Jake Tapper, “Seeking to Muddy Waters on Layoffs, Conservative Group Unleashing $6 Million Ad Campaign Against President Obama and Solyndra,” ABC News, January 13, 2012, http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/seeking-to-muddy-waters-on-layoffs-conservative-group-unleashing-6-million-ad-campaign-against-president-obama-and-solyndra/.
414 “Is there criminal activity? Perhaps not”: Darren Samuelsohn, “GOP Running Out of Gas on Solyndra,” Politico, March 27, 2012, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/74564.html.
415 the former finance chairman of John McCain’s presidential campaign: Herb Allison, who served as McCain’s national finance chairman, conducted the independent review that found that the loan guarantee program would cost less than expected. “Report of the Independent Consultant’s Review with Respect to the Department of Energy Loan and Loan Guarantee Portfolio,” January 31, 2012, http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/report_on_doe_loan_and_guarantee_portfolio.pdf. Jim Snyder and Brian Wingfield did the report for Bloomberg Government, February 11, 2012, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-10/risk-management-needed-for-energy-loan-guarantees-report-says.html.
416 Innovation doesn’t move in a straight line: The Energy Department did an insightful report on its Recovery Act work. “Making a Down Payment on the Nation’s Energy and Environmental Future,” October 20, 2010.
417 While Congress has squabbled over Obama’s supposed ban on incandescents: Michael Grunwald, “Incandescent Light Bulb Insanity and the Groucho Marx Republicans,” Swampland blog, Time, July 12, 2011, http://swampland.time.com/2011/07/12/incandescent-light-bulb-insanity-and-the-groucho-marx-republicans/.
418 health IT firms that used to spend their time: Ezekiel Emanuel, “An Unsung Victory in Health care,” Reuters, March 6, 2012.
Epilogue: The Choice
419 “A stimulus plan is needed”: Mitt Romney, A Republican Stimulus Plan, National Review, December 19, 2008.
420 “what’s left is the government sector”: Mitt Romney, Testimony before House Republican Economic Stimulus Working Group, January 15, 2009.
— ILLUSTRATION CREDITS —
Time Magazine: 1
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza: 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 13, 14, 16, 23
US Department of Housing and Urban Development: 4
Ohio Department of Transportation: 11
US Department of Energy: 12, 21
House Republican Conference: 15
Steve Jurvetson: 18
National Park Service: 19
Metropolitan Transportaion Authority: 20
US Navy: 22
— INDEX —
Pages numbers beginning with 465 refer to notes.
A123 Systems, 267, 361–63, 365, 375
Abound Solar, 372
Abramoff, Jack, 32, 260
Accountability Every Day, 269
Acela trains, 355
ACORN, 199, 227, 231, 270, 290, 315, 317
Afghanistan War, 18, 111, 291, 349, 383, 473
AFL-CIO, 118, 225
African Heritage Dancers and Drummers of Washington, 310
aggregate demand, 58
AGILE, 378
Agnew, Patrick, 314
Agriculture Department, U.S., 231–32, 332
AIG bailout, 71, 90–91, 280, 284, 392
air conditioning, 377
Akerlof, George, 84
Aldy, Joe, 164, 166, 168
algae, 365–67, 440
Alliance for Climate Protection, 317
Alliance to Save Energy, 167
Allison, Herb, 494–95
al Qaeda, 38, 423
Alter, Jonathan, 91
Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), 212–13, 218, 229–30, 237, 240, 405, 430, 483
American Economic Recovery Plan, 107, 472
American Jobs Act, 420–21, 433
“American Option, The,” 218
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009; Recovery Act; stimulus package):
accountability for, 128, 148, 177–78, 260–62
as agent of change, 7, 12, 18–19, 170–76, 249, 291, 441–48
attempts to revive support for, 301–2, 382–84, 390–96
bipartisan goal of, 132, 178, 225–26
Congressional support needed for, 131–39
cost projections for, 10, 63, 75, 79–80, 94, 99, 102, 107, 110, 111, 115–17, 119, 120, 133–34, 145, 161, 168, 194, 212, 213, 219, 229, 237, 484
as counterfactual policy, 424–34, 445
crafted during transition, 92–96
Democratic attacks on, 383
as Democratic partisan process, 188–89
depression avoided through, 447
derision of, 7–9, 180–81, 278
as earmark free, 177, 180, 322, 327
effectiveness of, 7, 9, 11–12, 13, 19, 36, 39, 263–65, 297–301, 310, 311–14, 318–19, 322, 324, 326–30, 338, 341, 349, 365, 367, 370–72, 396, 398, 415–17, 424–34, 441–48, 452–53
final House-Senate version of, 228–49
as fraud free, 15, 262, 396, 445
goals of, 8, 9, 14, 425–29
GOP alternative to, 142, 197–200
GOP amendments to, 218–19
GOP negative recasting of, 149–50, 180–204, 298–302
GOP support for, 215
GOP unanimity against, 189–98, 404; see also Republican obstructionism
as hodgepodge, 177, 431–32
in House, 189–204, 240–41
identification signs for, 236, 447
implementation obstacles in, 303–15
lack of formal draft of, 132–33
legacy of, 447–48
lessons learned from, 244–49
liberal criticism of, 9–10, 19, 120, 212, 219
logo of, 302
management challenges of, 253–77
messaging failure in, 202–3, 235, 244–45, 318–19, 338, 391, 393, 416–17
misrepresentation and misinformation about, 180–85, 203, 278, 296, 299–300, 310, 316–25, 343
misunderstanding of, 301
New Deal vs., 9–12
new precedents set by, 10–12
Obama’s call to arms for, 154–55
Obama’s concessions in, 236–37, 240, 243
Obama’s victories in, 237–40, 243
as outlined in inaugural speech, 26, 183
as overshadowed and ignored, 18–19, 75, 157, 235, 262, 264, 373–74, 416
oversight for, 11, 177–78, 256–66, 296, 320, 397–98
perceived as failure, 333, 382–83
pitching of, 105, 132–39
precursors of, 18, 63–64, 75, 79–80, 107
as representative of Obama, 19–20
in Senate, 207–26, 241–42
signing of, 7, 241–44, 321
spending cuts in, 219–26, 229–34, 302
spending deadlines in, 254–55, 263–65, 270, 408
as transformative, 10–11, 16–18, 263–64, 372, 413, 435, 450
transparency in, 11, 177–78, 260–62, 320–22, 445