November 7, 2010 11:35 PM
- Text
Obama On The Political Price of The Election
Kroft: Are there things that you wish you could do over? Pull back?
Obama: I think there are things every day that I think about doing better. I mean, I think that one of the areas that a lot of folks have focused on, obviously, is the health care bill. Because after we took a whole series of these emergency measures, to save the economy, the stimulus, the steps to shore up the banking system, the auto bailout. I think there were some that argued, "Well, you should just stop and let people digest all these changes. And so, you shouldn't take on something as big as health care." And I'll be honest with you, Steve, at the time, we knew that it probably wasn't great politics.
Kroft: You were told that by your aides.
Obama: Absolutely. And the reason is there's a reason why our health care system hasn't been reformed over the last several decades. Why every president talks about it and it never happens. Because it's hard. It's a huge, big complicated system. I made the decision to go ahead and do it and it proved as costly politically as we expected. Probably actually a little more costly than we expected, politically.
Kroft: In what ways?
Obama: Well, partly because I couldn't get the kind of cooperation from Republicans that I had hoped for. We thought that if we shaped a bill that wasn't that different from bills that had previously been introduced by Republicans, including a Republican governor in Massachusetts who's now running for president. That we would be able to find some common ground there. And we just couldn't. And that was costly partly because it created the kind of partisanship and bickering that really turns people off.
Kroft: You've mentioned a couple of times the emergency that you faced when you came into office. And you've mentioned continually the unemployment problem. And the economy. This emergency, is it over?
Obama: Not for the people who are out of work. I think that the way to think about it is the dangers of a second big recession are now much reduced. The danger of us tipping into a Great Depression, I think most economists would say, is not there on the horizon. What is a danger is that we stay stuck in a new normal where unemployment rates stay high. People who have jobs see their incomes go up. Businesses make big profits. But they've learned to do more with less. And so they don't hire. And as a consequence, we keep on seeing growth that is just too slow to bring back the eight million jobs that were lost. That is a danger. So that's something that I've spent a lot of time thinking about.
Kroft: Do you get discouraged? Are you discouraged now?
Obama: I do get discouraged, I mean, there are times where I thought the economy would, had gotten better by now. One of the things I think you understand as president is you're held responsible for everything. But you don't always have control of everything. Especially an economy this big. There are limited tools to encourage the kind of job growth that we need. I am constantly reminded that we have been through worse times than these, and we've always come out on top. And I'm positive that the same thing is gonna happen this time.
Kroft: You spent nearly a trillion dollars on the stimulus package. Short term interest rates are zero, practically zero. And still the unemployment rate is 9.6 percent. What can you do to create jobs that hasn't already been done?
Obama: Some of this is going to be just a matter of the economy healing. There are some things we can do to accelerate growth. We've got a couple of trillion dollars' worth of infrastructure improvements that need to be made around the country. I mean, there are construction crews all across the country that are dying for work. And companies that are willing to take a very small profit in order to get work done. And so, for us to say now's the time for us to rebuild this country and equip ourselves for the 21st century, that's something that could make a real difference.
Kroft: But the Republicans aren't interested in spending on infrastructure right now. They don't want stimulus programs.
Obama: Well, you know, again, historically, rebuilding our infrastructure is something that has garnered Democratic and Republican support. I want to have a conversation with them and see if that's still the case.
Copyright 2010 CBS. All rights reserved. Obama: I think there are things every day that I think about doing better. I mean, I think that one of the areas that a lot of folks have focused on, obviously, is the health care bill. Because after we took a whole series of these emergency measures, to save the economy, the stimulus, the steps to shore up the banking system, the auto bailout. I think there were some that argued, "Well, you should just stop and let people digest all these changes. And so, you shouldn't take on something as big as health care." And I'll be honest with you, Steve, at the time, we knew that it probably wasn't great politics.
Kroft: You were told that by your aides.
Obama: Absolutely. And the reason is there's a reason why our health care system hasn't been reformed over the last several decades. Why every president talks about it and it never happens. Because it's hard. It's a huge, big complicated system. I made the decision to go ahead and do it and it proved as costly politically as we expected. Probably actually a little more costly than we expected, politically.
Kroft: In what ways?
Obama: Well, partly because I couldn't get the kind of cooperation from Republicans that I had hoped for. We thought that if we shaped a bill that wasn't that different from bills that had previously been introduced by Republicans, including a Republican governor in Massachusetts who's now running for president. That we would be able to find some common ground there. And we just couldn't. And that was costly partly because it created the kind of partisanship and bickering that really turns people off.
Kroft: You've mentioned a couple of times the emergency that you faced when you came into office. And you've mentioned continually the unemployment problem. And the economy. This emergency, is it over?
Obama: Not for the people who are out of work. I think that the way to think about it is the dangers of a second big recession are now much reduced. The danger of us tipping into a Great Depression, I think most economists would say, is not there on the horizon. What is a danger is that we stay stuck in a new normal where unemployment rates stay high. People who have jobs see their incomes go up. Businesses make big profits. But they've learned to do more with less. And so they don't hire. And as a consequence, we keep on seeing growth that is just too slow to bring back the eight million jobs that were lost. That is a danger. So that's something that I've spent a lot of time thinking about.
Kroft: Do you get discouraged? Are you discouraged now?
Obama: I do get discouraged, I mean, there are times where I thought the economy would, had gotten better by now. One of the things I think you understand as president is you're held responsible for everything. But you don't always have control of everything. Especially an economy this big. There are limited tools to encourage the kind of job growth that we need. I am constantly reminded that we have been through worse times than these, and we've always come out on top. And I'm positive that the same thing is gonna happen this time.
Kroft: You spent nearly a trillion dollars on the stimulus package. Short term interest rates are zero, practically zero. And still the unemployment rate is 9.6 percent. What can you do to create jobs that hasn't already been done?
Obama: Some of this is going to be just a matter of the economy healing. There are some things we can do to accelerate growth. We've got a couple of trillion dollars' worth of infrastructure improvements that need to be made around the country. I mean, there are construction crews all across the country that are dying for work. And companies that are willing to take a very small profit in order to get work done. And so, for us to say now's the time for us to rebuild this country and equip ourselves for the 21st century, that's something that could make a real difference.
Kroft: But the Republicans aren't interested in spending on infrastructure right now. They don't want stimulus programs.
Obama: Well, you know, again, historically, rebuilding our infrastructure is something that has garnered Democratic and Republican support. I want to have a conversation with them and see if that's still the case.
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