Tag Archives: Toxic

20 questions you won’t hear at Obama’s press conference tonight

From Keith Hennessey. He groups the questions into 4 categories, so I’ll excerpt one from each category below. The press conference is scheduled for Wednesday at 8 PM Eastern time.

Economy:

You proposed spending money from the TARP to prevent foreclosures, help small businesses, and to buy toxic assets from banks.  In June CBO said they had found no evidence that any money has been spent for any of these programs.  How many foreclosures have been prevented, how many small businesses have received loans from, and how many toxic assets have been purchased?

Health care:

Your Administration has said that health care reform is the key to addressing our long-term budget problem.  Yet you have adopted a lower standard, that health care reform legislation simply does not make our deficit problems worse.  If health care reform leaves the unsustainable budget situation unchanged, and since CBO says your budget would result in nine trillion dollars of new debt over the next decade, then how else do you propose to deal with the projected explosion of government debt over the long run?

Global Warming:

Does it make sense for the U.S. to impose higher energy costs on American workers and manufacturers if the two largest developing economies [India and China] are unwilling to slow their emissions growth?  Won’t that just disadvantage American workers with little reduction in future global temperatures?

Trade:

The top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Finance Committee have called for you to submit to Congress for their approval the signed Free Trade Agreements with U.S. allies Colombia, Panama and South Korea.  Why have you not submitted them to Congress?  When will you do so?

These questions really expose how things have gone awry with the Obama presidency.