Struggling to keep health care reform moving, the White House is stepping up claims that President Barack Obama’s economic policies are beginning to show results.
Within the administration, a growing awareness that public doubts about the president’s stewardship of the economy are dragging down support for health care has the White House shifting message — away from the merits of its plan to a broader claim about recovery.
“In the last few months, the economy has done measurably better than expected,” Obama said. “And many economists suggest that part of this progress is directly attributable to the recovery act.”
He added, “This and the other difficult but important steps that we’ve taken over the last six months have helped put the brakes on this recession.”
Obama’s efforts — part of a broader public relations push by the administration — are an attempt to answer persistent Republican criticism that his $787 billion stimulus package has proved a failure.
The underpinnings of Obama’s claim include a better than expected report last week on the nation’s gross domestic product, and positive signs from the housing industry.
On Friday, however, the government is set to release the latest employment figures — a potential setback for the administration because job losses are expected to continue.
“Economic estimates aren’t the administration’s strong suit,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Monday.
McConnell cited the administration’s recent claims that it misread how bad the economy was and its still-unfulfilled promises that the stimulus spending would save or create millions of jobs.
“There’s a pattern here, a pattern that amounts to an argument,” he said. “When the administration comes bearing estimates, it’s not a bad idea to look for a second opinion.”
Obama has said that job creation is the best yardstick to measure the success of his economic programs, but he increasingly reminds audiences that employment lags behind other economic indicators.
Further complicating the administration’s message were remarks over the weekend by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, which seemed to leave on the table a prospect for middle-class tax increases.
On ABC’s “This Week,” Geithner acknowledged that the government must do more to control the budget deficit, which is expected to reach a record $1.8 trillion this year.
Obama campaigned on a promise not to raise taxes on individuals making less than $250,000 a year, and also has vowed that health care reform will not drive up the deficit.
“We can’t make these judgments yet about exactly what it’s going to take and how we’re going to get there,” Geithner said.
At the White House on Monday, press secretary Robert Gibbs declined to speculate on Geithner’s thinking, but said Obama remains firm in his tax promise.
“I don’t think any economist would believe that, in the environment that we’re in, raising taxes on middle-class families would make any sense, and the president agrees,” Gibbs said.
