Washington -- Democrats are growing impatient with President-elect Barack Obama's refusal to inject himself in the major economic crises confronting the country. Obama has sidestepped some policy questions by saying there is only one president at a time. But the dodge is wearing thin.
President-elect Barack Obama listens to a question at a news conference in Chicago, Wednesday, December 3, 2008. [Agencies]
"He's going to have to be more assertive than he's been," House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., told consumer advocates Thursday.
Frank, who has been dealing with both the bailout of the financial industry and a proposed rescue of Detroit automakers, said Obama needs play a more significant role on economic issues.
"At a time of great crisis with mortgage foreclosures and autos, he says we only have one president at a time," Frank said. "I'm afraid that overstates the number of presidents we have. He's got to remedy that situation."
Obama has maintained one of the most public images of any president-elect. He has held half a dozen press conferences, where he has entertained question after question about the economy, the mortgage crisis, and the flailing auto industry. But he has meticulously avoided dictating policy or pressing members of Congress to embrace specific remedies.
Earlier this week, Obama declined to take a stand in a debate over the source of money for an auto loan package. The dispute has divided Democrats and hindered progress on assistance for the industry. At issue is whether to take money from the $700 billion Congress authorized to help the financial markets or to take it from a previously approved loan aimed at manufacturing more energy efficient cars.
"I think it's premature to get into that issue," Obama told reporters at a Chicago news conference Wednesday.
He also was asked whether he worried that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson might begin spending the second half of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program money before Obama takes office as president on Jan. 20. Again, Obama demurred.
"Until Secretary Paulson indicates publicly that he's drawing down the second tranche, the second half of the TARP money, it would be speculation on my part to suggest that that money's going to be used up," he said.
Obama did stress that a significant component of the fund should be used to reduce the number of foreclosures. But he did not specify a particular remedy.
Presidents-elect typically spend the transition period assembling their cabinets, their White House staff and preparing to take the reins of power. But this transition is occurring at an extraordinary time, with bad economic news mounting by the day and with one of the country's major industries begging for a hand to keep from collapsing.
Two senators involved in trying to salvage the auto companies have said Obama could help move the process along and should become more engaged.
"The Obama team has to step up," Sen. Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and one of the lead negotiators, said Nov. 21 in Hartford, Conn. "In the minds of the people, this is the Obama administration. I don't think we can wait until January 20."
Two days later, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., a point man in helping his state's main industry, called on Obama to help resolve the dispute over money for the auto loan package.
"It would be very helpful if the president-elect would become more involved in resolving the issue over the source of the funds," he said. "I want him to offer his assistance. He is a person who can really bring people together."
Frank, shrewd and quick-witted, also poked fun at Obama's calls for a "post-partisan" governing environment in Washington. Frank predicted that regulatory legislation aimed at preventing abuses related to subprime mortgages and credit cards stood a much better chance next year, when Democrats have greater majorities in the House and Senate.
"It is a grave mistake to assume that parties are irrelevant to this process," he said. "My one difference with the president-elect, about whom I am very enthusiastic, is when he talks about being post-partisan.
"Having lived with this very right wing Republican group that runs the House most of the time, the notion of trying to deal with them as if we could be post-partisan gives me post-partisan depression," Frank said.
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