Obama: Stimulus 'no blank check'

by Mark Silva

President Barack Obama, who played host to the nation's governors in the first formal state dinner of his administration on Sunday, a black-tie affair with Earth, Wind and Fire for after-dinner entertainment, brought them back into the State Dining Room this morning for some straight talk.

"First of all, thanks for not breaking anything last night,'' Obama said, on the light side of the ledger today. "Thank you also for waiting until I had left before you started the conga line.''

On the serious side, he spoke of the $787-billion economic stimulus - "we got this passed through Congress in record time. And because of what we did together, this plan will save or create at least 3.5 million jobs in every state across the country.''

And he directly chided some of those in his audience for picking apart a small part of the stimulus - its unemployment benefits - as something their states must reject. That would be a shot across the bows of a few Republican governors in the audience.

"If we agree on 90 percent of the stuff and we're spending all our time on television arguing about 1, 2, 3 percent of the spending in this thing, and somehow it's being characterized in broad brush as wasteful spending, that starts sounding more like politics,'' Obama told the governors. "And that's what right now we don't have time to do.''
And to "show you that we are serious about putting this recovery plan into action swiftly,'' he said, he announced that the administration will begin distributing more than $15 billion under the recovery act this week to assist states with their Medicaid expenses.

One of the critics, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, said later: "I do appreciate the president acknowledging there are legitimate concerns, legitimate issues when it comes to taking temporary federal dollars that could create permanent state spending obligations. For example, the money we identified in Louisiana on Friday that we will not be accepting.

"However,'' the GOP's Jindal said, "I continue to say as I've said before that certainly I think there could have been a very different stimulus bill written.''

"Let me be clear, though,'' Obama said, explaining his plans for policing the spending of the stimulus funds. "This is not a blank check.''

(Photo of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden preparing to address governors today by Dennis Brack / pool via Bloomberg News.)

As expected, Obama announced that Vice President Joe Biden will oversee the recovery program "to make sure our efforts are not just swift but also efficient and effective.

And the administration is appointing one of the government's top cops, Earl Devaney, inspector general at the Department of Interior, as chairman of the Recovery Act Transparency and Accountability Board.

"For nearly a decade as inspector general at the Interior Department, Earl has doggedly pursued waste, fraud and mismanagement,'' Obama said. "He has the reputation of being one of the best IGs that we have in this town.... You know, he barely cracks a smile.''

He also said this: "There has been some healthy debate over the last few weeks, the last few days about this stimulus package, even among the governors. And I think that's a healthy debate. That keeps me on my toes. It keeps our administration on our toes.

"But I just want us to not lose perspective of the fact that most of the things that have been the topic of argument over the last several days amount to a fraction of the overall stimulus package. This sometimes gets lost in the cable chatter.''

He directly addressed one of the elements of the stimulus that Southern Republican governors have been challenging, and threatening not to accept: Broadened unemployment benefits that also require some states to extend that aid to people who haven't been eligible.

"For example, I think there are some very legitimate concerns on the part of some about the sustainability of expanding unemployment insurance,'' he said. "What hasn't been noted is, is that that is $7 billion of a $787 billion program. And it's not even the majority of the expansion of unemployment insurance. So it is possible for those who are concerned about sustaining a change that increases eligibility for part-time workers to still see the benefit of 30 billion (dollars) plus that is going, even if you don't make the change.

"So the reason I make that point is I just want to make sure that we're having an honest debate and presenting to the American people a fulsome accounting of what is going on in this program. You know, when I hear people say, well, there's a lot of waste in this program, well, from my perspective at least, keeping teachers in the classroom's not wasteful.

"From my perspective, tax cuts to 95 percent of working families is not wasteful,'' he said. "From my perspective, providing all of you additional resources to rebuild roads and bridges and levees and dams that will enhance the quality of life of your state, but also make it more economically competitive, that's not wasteful.

"And so if we agree on 90 percent of the stuff and we're spending all our time on television arguing about 1, 2, 3 percent of the spending in this thing, and somehow it's being characterized in broad brush as wasteful spending, that starts sounding more like politics. And that's what right now we don't have time to do.''