When asked if his agenda is too broad, President Obama typically references past presidents who multitasked: "President Roosevelt didn't have the luxury of choosing between ending a depression and fighting a war," he'd say, "President Kennedy didn't have the luxury of choosing between civil rights and sending us to the moon." But this morning, speaking before a meeting with the chairs of the two Budget Committees, Kent Conrad and John Spratt, Obama had a slightly different spin:
I know that there are some on Wall Street and in Washington who've said that we should only focus on the banking crisis and one problem at a time. Well, we're spending a lot of time focusing on this banking crisis, and we will continue to do so because until we get liquidity flowing again, we will not fully recover. But the American people don't have the luxury of just focusing on Wall Street. They don't have the luxury of choosing to pay either their mortgage or their medical bills. They don't get to pick between paying for their kids' college tuition and saving enough money for retirement. They have to do all these things. They have to confront all these problems. And as a consequence, so do we.
This angle seems a lot more accessible to me. People may not remember exactly what FDR and JFK did, but they certainly understand that in their day-to-day lives they have to juggle many challenges at once, as does this administration.
-- Tim Fernholz
