Obama On Cutting Red Tape: No We Can’t
James Gattuso /
For the past week or so, President Obama has been trying to jawbone banks into lending more in order to jump start the economy. He continued the push yesterday, meeting with a group of small community bankers to urge them to open up the spigots. Interestingly, he acknowledged that federal regulation is itself a barrier to increased lending. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, he said the White House is working on ways to decrease that red tape, but warned that: “We don’t have direct influence over our independent regulators.”
That’s a surprisingly diffident response from a president who campaigned under the theme “yes, we can.” A president who is trying to remake the American health care system, refound the U.S. auto industry, and regulate the earth’s climate can’t clear up some red tape on loans?
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