Political Hotsheet
March 18, 2009 7:30 PM

Day 58: Obama Calls For More Regulation

(AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
On his fifty-seventh day in office, President Obama called for greater regulation on AIG-like institutions so that “we're not going to find ourselves in these kinds of terrible positions again.”

He called for “a resolution authority that would be similar, not identical but similar, to the powers that the FDIC currently has over banks” for institutions like the insurance giant, which has received more than $140 billion in bailout money from the government.

Mr. Obama also took the blame for the IAG situation, despite the fact that the AIG bonus contracts generating such outrage were drafted before he came into office.

"Ultimately I'm responsible, I'm the president of the United States," he said. "We've got a big mess that we're having to clean up. Nobody here drafted those contracts. Nobody here was responsible for supervising AIG and allowing themselves to put the economy at risk by some of the outrageous behavior that they were engaged in. We are responsible, though. The buck stops with me. And my goal is to make sure that we never put ourselves in this kind of position again."

In addition, the president headed to California for town hall meetings to make the case for his budget initiatives on education, energy and health care – and tapes a Tonight Show segment with Jay Leno.

And finally, the president released his NCAA men’s basketball tournament bracket today. His pick? North Carolina.

Check out Chip Reid’s CBS Evening News report on the president’s day below.

Tags:
obama ,
aig ,
regulation ,
bracket ,
ncaa ,
california
Topics:
Obama Day By Day
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