President Bush in a press conference said that he was willing to release additional bailout funds, but that Senator Obama had not asked for them. Cite. I like Obama, I voted for Obama, but until he takes the oath of office he’s just one of 100 senators, and a pretty darned junior one at that.
I don’t remember anyone allowing the President-elect any more input into policy than his current position dictated. Have I not been paying attention, or is this transition different?
Obama isn’t a senator anymore. He resigned a month or so ago.
Having the incoming and current president consult on policy issues that will extend into the new presidents term. This is especially true of the TARP funds, since even if Bush requested them now, he wouldn’t have time to spend them. As a practical matter, I don’t think the Congress will OK the release of the funds to Bush simply so he can pass them to Obama with no idea how they’d be used, so he basically would need to work with the incoming administration if they really wanted to get the funds released before Jan 20th.
Obama has said repeatedly that he is not the President when asked to comment on various issues such as Israel. Obama has been very explicit on this.
That Bush consults with Obama however is natural. In two weeks Bush will be leaving and Obama will have to deal with the country. Decisions Bush makes today are ones Obama will have to deal with tomorrow. It is in everyone’s best interest that Obama and Bush work together to have a smooth transition. Someday Obama will be doing the same to another incoming president.
Bush only has 7 more days in office. What would be the point of being a pain in the ass and direct $350 billion to be spent how he sees fit? It would be all for nothing because if Obama didn’t like it, he would just put the brakes on the plan in one week.
Obama is president elect. That is something. Bush has had plenty of time to screw things up. He can forgo one more week of ineptitude and thievery.
blurp.