A series of progressive groups, including our own Campaign for America's Future, quickly mobilized against the Summers nomination. A core contingent of progressive Senators on the Senate Banking Committee publicly declared they would not vote to confirm him. The commentariat exploded with criticisms of the choice. More than 350 economists signed a letter of opposition and supported Fed vice chair Janet Yellen instead.
This weekend Summers acknowledged that he didn't have the votes, withdrawing his name from consideration.
What the public wants
None of this should have been a surprise. Anybody who was paying attention to the public mood would know that it was as hostile to Wall Street as ever. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll (available here) shows that, by a margin of two to one, Americans believe it was the wrong decision to bail out the banks. Nearly one-third of the public wants the big banks broken up, twice the number of those who oppose such a move.
And in a telling statistic for the White House, more than half of those polled want the government to do more to prosecute bankers for their wrongdoing.
Polls also show that Americans overwhelmingly want Social Security benefits increased, despite bipartisan Washington talk of cutting them, and that jobs and the economy are the public's highest priority.
The White House has improved its public communication on the economy somewhat, especially with the President's renewed emphasis on jobs and the middle class. But the rhetoric hasn't been matched with equally bold proposals.
Nor have the president and other Democrats explained what we now know: That the stimulus should have been larger (thanks in large part to Summers, it wasn't). That we've cut spending, and the federal deficit, too quickly. And that Republicans have obstructed the kind of government spending the economy needs and the public wants.
The worst-timed victory lap ever?
This week the administration is reacting to another anniversary. It's been five years since the economic crisis began. Unfortunately the White House hasn't gotten the message yet. Its report on the government response to the 2008 crisis, issued this week, consists almost entirely of triumphal pronouncements that will ring false to millions of suffering Americans. There is only one small paragraph in the entire 49-page document devoted to the theme of "there is still work to do."
For 22 million Americans in need of full-time work, for the 90 percent of Americans frozen out of our post-crisis "recovery," the only work that really matters is the work still to be done. They'll need more than celebratory words to get their lives back, and more than a paragraph's worth of attention from our nation's leaders.
Presidential economic advisor Gene Sperling struck a welcome combative tone on a phone call with reporters Sunday regarding Republican plans to use the debt ceiling limit as the opportunity for more fiscal hostage-taking.
"The President is not going to negotiate over whether we should be paying our bills," Sperling said. "No (one) should ever consider it an acceptable form of debate ... to threaten the default of the government of the United States for the first time, specifically to get their way on a budget or policy issue."
That aggressive posture is overdue, and the change in tone is welcome. But this kind of fire has been absent from both Sperling's comments and the president's regarding the unfinished work of restoring the American economy.
What the public still wants
The president's poll numbers are slipping again, falling to lows not seen since the Occupy movement came along to give him a new political life. Only 45 percent of the electorate like the way he's handling the economy, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, while 51 percent disapprove.
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