The Answer We Needed to Hear

It was the first question of the night: "With the economy on the downturn, and retired and older citizens and workers losing their incomes, what's the fastest, most positive solution to bail these people out of the economic ruin?" Obama's answer was fine -- anodyne, uninspiring, reasonable, and utterly uninspiring. But the answer he could have given, the answer I was hoping to hear, the answer I want to hear somebody, somewhere articulate would go something like this:

"We have taken the first step in enacting legislation to rescue the financial system, legislation that both Senator McCain and I supported despite the fact that we each have reservations about it and despite the fact that the final version contained $150 billion in pork barrel spending. That's the thing about pork barrel spending; no matter how much we might not like it, railing against it ignores the reality that sometimes you have to hold your nose and vote for a measure because it is so important to pass that you are willing to tolerate the pork that goes along as the price of its passage. It's all very well to posture and rant about the evils of earmarks, but at the end of the day you have to decide whether a bill is important enough that it deserves to be supported, just as Senator McCain and I both did with this rescue bill. When Senator McCain tells you that as President he would veto any bill that crosses his desk if it has pork attached to it, remember that the first bill he would have to veto is the same rescue bill he just finished supporting.

So that rescue bill was a necessary first step. But I know that Senator McCain agrees with me that there is much more that the government needs to do. There are three things in particular that I would make priorities in my administration right from the beginning.

First, we have to keep people in their houses. That's not just a matter of doing something good for the families facing foreclosures. The first reason for keeping people in their houses is that an empty house loses its value. And not only that, an empty house drags down the values of the houses around it and threatens the neighborhood in which it is located. A house with a family living in it is an asset that can increase in value; that's what makes it possible for the taxpayers to get our money back in the long run. An empty house is a sinking asset, it is a drag on the values of the homes around it, and most of all it is a blight on our communities. As the Treasury Department buys up mortgages under the rescue plan that Congress just approved, the Secretary has the option of creating a system to refinance those mortgages and keep people in their homes. I'm not talking about using taxpayer money to help people keep their second and third homes, or the condos they invested in hoping to make a killing. What I am talking about is keeping families strong in tough economic times by ensuring that they can stay in their homes. My first act as President will be to issue an executive order that the new Treasury Secretary is going to find a way to do exactly that.

But keeping families in their houses is only one part of what needs to be done to help people through these hard times. The second is jobs. We hear a lot of talk about the bad loans that people took out, but what we don't hear about is why those folks could not afford good loans, at more favorable terms to begin with. The reason is that for twenty years while CEO and executive compensation and the wealth of big shareholders and hedge fund owners have gone through the roof, the salaries of working people have not even kept up with inflation. People have been working harder - more jobs, more hours in their jobs - just trying to keep up, and then all too often they have seen their jobs disappear overseas. Senator McCain likes to talk about how hardworking and how productive and how innovative American workers are, and he's right about that - what he leaves out is that American workers have not been paid for all their hard work and their productivity. There is a limit to how long we can keep asking American workers to produce more while paying them less. And this year we have added a new strain on the system, we have lost hundreds of thousand so jobs, and it's not over yet.

Now let's be clear about something: we are not going to let those folks who have lost their jobs go hungry. So we have a choice. We can give them public housing, and food stamps, and Medicaid, or we can give them real, meaningful work. We can put people who have lost their jobs and can't find another one to work making desperately needed infrastructure repairs. That's a much better investment in a much better asset - the American worker - than anything else I can think of. And it helps people who are having a hard time in a bad economic situation in a way that preserves their dignity. Americans aren't afraid of work. Americans want to work hard and bring home a paycheck that they earned doing work that benefits their nation and their community and use that paycheck to support their families. I would make the government the employer of last resort and get our unemployed workers back to work.

The third thing that will be the immediate focus of my administration is education. We have already seen that among the first casualties of the credit squeeze are student loans. Lenders are cutting back or canceling those programs. Senator McCain has proposed an across the board spending freeze. The effects of that would be catastrophic for higher education in this country. The State of California has just announced a $7 billion shortfall, and that's just one example; states cross the country are facing similar deficits in their budges, and some of them have already started cutting back on public expenditures. Without help from the federal government, that is going to mean more cutbacks in student loans, higher tuition at public colleges, fewer scholarships. And that's not all; soon colleges - small private colleges and public colleges, community colleges and technical training institutes - are going to start to fail, because those schools depend on the ability of their students to get student loans and scholarships.

The consequences of the contraction in our educational system could be terrible. Making education available to more young Americans has been one of the signature achievements of the post-World War II era, and we have done it with public investment - in the GI Bill, in the expansion of the public college system, and in student loans. Investment in education is investment in the future. We cannot allow a generation of young people to see their chance at a future be sacrificed; the cost to them is too great, but more importantly the cost to our nation is too great. I say if we can come up with $700 billion to rescue the financial sector, we can come up with a fraction of that amount to preserve the future opportunities of our young people by keeping colleges open, tuition at public institutions affordable, and student loans available.

So those are the three steps that I would take right away as President: order the Department of the Treasury to keep people in their homes when the government purchases mortgages from the banks that hold them; create a jobs program focusing on repairing our infrastructure so that American workers who cannot find jobs elsewhere can earn a living with dignity and continue to contribute to our nation rather than having to depend on government handouts; and invest the resources that are needed to keep our public system of higher education working to create future opportunities for young Americans today just as it has done for young Americans for the past 50 years."

Now THAT would have been an answer to the question.

Read more reactions to the Obama-McCain Town Hall Debate from HuffPost bloggers

Comments

[robXdion]

This was a debate. NOT a campaign speech, geeeeeeeezzzzz

[SavvySigma]

LOL! I agree.

[itmaybetoolate]

He actually did say we need to keep people in their homes and we need to make sure folks have jobs - several times during the evening. I don't recall an emphasis on education but he did mention the need to keep student loans available. If you read the transcript of the entire debate, you will see the majority of the points you mention covered by Obama. McCain, not so much.

[ElBruce]

I like to play Armchair Obama too.

[Alexandro]

It is always easy to come up with a better reply if you have all night long to think about it - it is challenging to say the least, to come up with an honest, thoughtful and "safe" answer during the 1 minute you have available.

I think Obama did good. Much more substance than what McCain offered; he explains the situation, possible options for a solution and why he supports one or another.

All McCain does is saying: I know how to do it, i have done it. Period. No examples, no proof of qualification. Just his old grumpy word we have to take for it.

That is not what we need - we had that for 8 years - and "that guy" clearly didn't have a clue about what he was doing.

[kate eryn]

The purpose of this post, from what I can see as a registered independent, is *finally* someone who answers a political question with an introduction, three bullet points, and a reiterative conclusion. It is called "Answering a direct question with a direct answer..."

Not what passes for answers in the current political stage.

Well done. I wanted someone to explain the damn bailout and be frank with me. I can handle the truth.

I want answers. Solutions. And you know what? I want it even if the answer is, "The economy is more complex than I can boil down in 2 minutes, but I'd be happy to explain at another time why I think at a top level, using the government to prop up mortgages, offer the government projects to employ Americans in this challenged job market, and make sure the credit squeeze does not begin to suffocate student loans, will solve the most pressing issues of shelter, income, and education, which are the cornerstones of freedom and liberty for all promised in our Constitution. And if new issues arise that may render these decisions of mine impractical, or not in the best interest of the country, then I will pursue all alternatives possible that preserve our individual freedoms. That is up to and including possibly removing the government from this "rescue" effort once Americans are thriving on their own."

/sit down
/do not mention other party
/ideas stand on own merit

[dgrayson]

It may have gone a bit long- but what Senator Obama said was clearly the same as what he has said in the first debate and that was during the current meltdown/bailout. I wanted to hear what he thought since we are finding that the markets are still fluctuating and the credit markets are dry. He may say more on his stump speech- but being from Illinois we don't get many of these. I was hoping for more specifics because I am not sure if he has any more answers- even though I am a supporter.

[Doomestic]

I am all for that answer, if you have either:

A. Time compression device that would slow time inorder for you to get this whole thing out in one minute.

B. Was the fastest speaker on earth, but that might be a bit risky since people will think Obama is rapping the whole speech.

Or C. Just held the speech on a paper and let the camera zoom in on it.

In other words, don't be silly.

[DarthNihlus]

+1

Typical Monday morning quarterback response.

I think Obama's response reasonable given the circumstances.

[jhNY]

This is sort of political "fan fiction", you know, where a fan of, say ,Battlestar Galactica writes his own episode using the chartacters and scenes from the series to make his own addition to the series. Very often the fiction resolves various plot lines that the series does not or has not as yet, depicts love affairs between foils, etc. I'm betting that seldom if ever it happens that the actual writers of the original property read any of the fan fiction or base any of their storylines on stuff they might find in fan fiction.

Obama is not exactly the man we wish he was, and to some extent that's probably a good thing, in that if he were less of a centrist, he'd probably enjoy less of a lead in the national polls. Nearly all his ideas for 'change' are pretty ordinary stuff, sort of the way a revolution in men's fashion really often amounts a subtle narrowing of lapels, but he's the nominee and a fabulously gifted public speaker, who has the power, if not all the ideas, to inspire the American public. In the coming years, we will need steady, evenhandedness, a president who can articulate a collective sense of national identity that is inclusive of every citizen, or we will be in for terrible political times. I'm hoping Obama will provide that sort of leadership once he gets in office. Maybe by then he'll actually need some new ideas from progressives.

[HHarvey]

Gee Howard Schweber maybe you should have gone to work for the Obama campaign as a speech writer. That's a long winded answer and very well put but I can't help wondering if Tom Brokaw would not have let Obama get all that info out. There is much Obama says about the economy, when he's not having to do a presidential debate. This was not the format for the long winded answer.

[Repub4Obama]

All that in one minute. Cute.

[MoeB]

Howard:

How much can you say in two minutes? These formats are NOT set up to give long, drawn out answers...­have you not watched a debate before? His stump speeches are MUCH more specific and go into lots of detail...a­nd my goodness his website may possibly have too much information!

[londongal]

Er, Mr. Schweber, I think that response would've taken up more than two minutes, wouldn't you say?

[InjunTrouble]

Obama's job right now is to win the elections. There is no need to get specific about anything.

If you spent your time criticizing McCain instead, that will be a great help.

[lisak2008]

Mr. Schweber, exactly how many Presidential debates have you won? How many elected positions have you held? I think that Sen. Obama and his very experienced campaign staffers will tell you, thanks but no thanks for your Monday quarterbacking advice.

[Laptam]

Hey, man, I will vote YOU in as President. This was exactly right. Though Obama was clearly more articulate than McCain, the substance of answers was lacking on both of their parts. I wish Obama had said exactly this. Exactly. You should be writing his speeches. You'd probably get paid a lot more than you're getting right now.