Here are some excerpts from Newsweek's interview with the NYC mayor:
President Obama has selected a superbly talented team, and I am not just saying that because many of them are from New York. (Though that doesn't hurt: Shaun Donovan, my former housing commissioner, was a brilliant choice for secretary of housing and urban development.) He hired first-rate public servants, including some of the finest minds in finance. Will Americans agree with Tim Geithner and Larry Summers on everything? Of course not. Finance has become like football—we all think we know better than the coach, and we all engage in Monday-morning quarterbacking. That's a healthy thing for a democracy: citizens should have opinions about economic policies. But as we battle our way out of the global recession, we could hardly ask for a more capable team than Geithner, Summers and Ben Bernanke. And the president, like the best head coaches, is directing the game plan but not drawing up every play.
Forget the low hanging fruit:
Is he looking for easy victories or taking on the toughest battles? Management gurus love to tell incoming executives to "pick the low-hanging fruit first." I couldn't disagree more. When I became mayor, my administration lived by the opposite maxim: do the hard things first. And so in year one, we raised property taxes, prohibited smoking in bars and restaurants and closed several firehouses to spread resources and manpower more effectively and efficiently. Mr. Popularity I was not, and my approval rating sank into the 20s. But here's what happened: we turned record budget deficits into record surpluses; improved services, including faster response times to fires; increased business in bars and restaurants; and grew the overall economy. And the public came to respect us for making the tough decisions.
I am certain that President Obama has heard from friends or advisers who tell him to hold off on tackling the really big issues. And it is incredibly encouraging that he seems to be ignoring them. He is moving to pass health-care reform—this year. In 1993, President Clinton made health-care reform an immediate priority, but the debate on the plan didn't begin in earnest until 1994, an election year. Everything is harder in an election year. The Obama administration has learned from that experience and is working closely with congressional leaders to expedite the legislation. What shape it will take is impossible to know. But the important thing is that the president is throwing down the gantlet and saying: "The time is now." And he's indicated that immigration and climate change will also be priorities. But can he actually pass any of this? And that brings us to the next question. Read the rest
