Washington, DC
January 11, 2008

The Economy — Anxiety — Bush, Pelosi — New Hampshire Voters

Over the past few weeks there has been a stirring from The White House that all is not well with our national economy. In Chicago this week President Bush, in a most dramatic change from his usual optimism over our economy, said that our nation faces economic challenges. Economic experts say this anxiety is caused by the home mortgage crisis, rising oil prices and a weakening job market.

President Bush did not go so far as to say we are about to enter a recession.

Others are more pessimistic and have said so. At our New Mayors School at The JFK Institute of Politics in November, Mr. Lawrence Summers, former President of Harvard and Clinton Treasury Secretary, sat at a table with the new mayors and gave quite a strong statement for a recession that is coming to us soon.

President Bush and his advisors are considering a stimulus package to send to Congress to ward off a national recession.

On Capitol Hill, not to be outdone, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has met with a group of economic advisors. All present have urged Speaker Pelosi to move out ahead of President Bush. Included in the Pelosi group are two strong friends of The Conference of Mayors, Financier Felix Rohatyn and former Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. Mr. Summers told the Pelosi group the same thing that he told the mayors six weeks ago. He believes we should think “now” about policies that would provide recession insurance. He said further that if we wait until it is entirely certain there is a recession, it will be too late.

Further, the people are getting restless too. Exit polls in New Hampshire show 98 percent of voters in New Hampshire were worried or somewhat worried about the economy. “That’s an amazing number,” says Howard Glaser of The Washington based Howard Glaser Group. Glaser reports also the economy was the number one issue among all voters, with the war and health care being second and third. This confirms, says Glaser, “The shift to domestic issues that has been brewing.” More from Glaser — “Among those who cited the economy as their number one issue, Hillary beats Obama by 9 points. For those who say Iraq is their top issue, the result is reversed with Obama beating Hillary by 9 points. As economic issues eclipse Iraq, there is an advantage for Senator Clinton. In her victory speech Tuesday night after the thank yous was: foreclosures. No doubt, she is eyeing Nevada with one of the highest foreclosures in the nation.”

Glaser says as the candidates head toward February 5th, “Obama has to close not only the gender gap but the economic gap. In any event it is fair to conclude that the spiraling mortgage and housing mess has tipped the economy onto political center stage — a focus that is likely to intensify as the President looks to begin to inoculate Republicans from economic fallout with an economic stimulus package in the State of the Union Address — and Democrats begin to argue that the GOP has handled the economy with the level of competence as Iraq and Katrina.”

While many of the above observations and predictions have some aspects of partisanship, and we have individual mayors in both parties supporting individual Presidential candidates, certainly we cannot ignore the advice from the experts that a serious economic downturn is coming. And if so, it will hit many of our already challenged cities.

I am very pleased to report that Mr. Robert Rubin, Director and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Citigroup and former Clinton Administration Treasury Secretary, will give a major address sharing his expert view on global and our local metro economies at our opening session Wednesday, January 23 during our Winter Meeting. I spoke with him on Christmas Eve, and we talked about the many issues mayors have before them today. Secretary Rubin was most active and involved with us on many critical issues during his tenure as Treasury Secretary with President Clinton in the 90’s. Throughout his very successful life he has continued to be a friend of the Conference of Mayors and our cities. We welcome him for a major address with questions and answers to follow as we open our Winter Meeting discussing the nation’s economic health.

Conference President Doug Palmer, since our leadership meeting in Trenton last September has been struggling along with others and has developed through his efforts key strategies and solutions as the nation copes with a national home mortgage crisis that looms to be larger as each day passes.

Mayor Palmer has had us working throughout the holidays pushing us to have the home mortgage crisis up front and center at our upcoming Winter Meeting. Mayors Kilpatrick of Detroit and Abramson of Louisville have been most active on this subject and they have worked to come forth with solutions to the economic challenges brought forth by the home mortgage crisis.

Mayor Palmer has said we have to ask ourselves, how we, The United States Conference of Mayors, will stand up, come together with the mortgage industry, work locally with non profits and faith based groups, and seek a partnership with the federal government to provide solutions.

At our Winter Meeting this month, January 23–25 here in D.C., we are devoting a good portion of our time on learning more about what all affected cities can do to help their citizens cope with the economic pain caused by the home mortgage crisis. Specifically, the home mortgage crisis is on the agenda of the Community Development and Housing Standing Committee, Chaired by Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will have this on his agenda as he Chairs our Task Force on the Council for the New American City. In addition, we are bringing the home mortgage crisis to center stage with a special lunch dedicated to this critical issue on Thursday, January 24. We will have a strong lineup with questions and answers to follow.

As discussed and called for in three National Climate Protection Summits held in Chicago, Atlanta and Seattle, we will have a major discussion co-joined with a political strategy on how the nation is experiencing an opportunity for more new green jobs and new green careers from the strong sentiment of the American citizens demanding alternative fuels, more efficient and less expensive energy.

No doubt any stimulus package must have a job producing element. We will be arguing for appropriating the $2 billion contained in our Energy Block Grant program that has passed Congress and has been signed into law by President Bush. The money must come now; It will help us grow the economy with the federal grants that will come to cities, counties and states because new jobs will be created.

So once again, The United States Conference of Mayors has to play hard to keep up, to adapt, and to stay focused. As Mayor Palmer and I say we must be agile and mobile. And we are! We welcome the opportunity to get in the mix as President Bush and Speaker Pelosi start proposing stimulus packages. We believe sincerely that the funding of our newly passed Energy Block Grant must be a number one priority in any stimulus package.

You will hear more from President Palmer at our Winter Meeting about what we have to do to keep pressure on Washington to respond to our issues. While there is political turbulence around the Democratic and Republican Presidential primaries in the heartland, the Southland the East and the West, we must stay focused on what President Bush and Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid are doing about our monies that have been authorized for us.

No doubt, we are disappointed with Congress and the White House on losing COPS and CDBG money in the waning days before Christmas, but we did have a big win with the passage of the $2 billion dollar Energy/Environment Block Grant initiative in the Energy Bill that was signed into law by President Bush.

Everyone knows and it is not to be doubted that the passage of the Energy and Environment Block Grant is because of us. President Doug Palmer, me, conference staff, your staff, and YOU, the nation’s mayors. Last year at this time, it was number one on our Ten Point Plan. At our Winter Meeting last January, it was a figment of a lot of people’s imaginations, some pondered. Some said it couldn’t be done. But as Frank Sinatra sang the song, “They all laughed at Christopher Columbus when he said the world was round.” We knew what we were doing. We were focused. Our three national summits gave us the opportunity to build the political momentum. We worked Capitol Hill like a laser. We did it!

President Doug Palmer, Vice President Manny Diaz and Advisory Board Chairman Greg Nickels and I are aware of the coalition we must have to win the appropriations for our newly authorized Energy Block Grant as the next phase of our campaign begins. Together we will lead the coalition composed of friends and foes alike, to bring the money home. That’s the way it is done here in Washington and we know how to do it. Passage of the new authorizing block grant legislation and Presidential signature was a huge historic step. But I have been here long enough to know that while we appreciate the leadership of all who have helped us with authorizations, we must now give Congress the support and more pressure for even more leadership and courage to provide the money authorized under our new law.

We must not rest on our laurels. We will use the Winter Meeting to push our appropriations strategy forward. We will organize and use the same force we had before — the nation’s mayors — to lead this effort. And we will build a coalition to move those grants out to cities, counties and states to boost our economy and of course to help us with the serious, dramatic and dangerous challenges and, yes, opportunities related to global warming, energy efficiency, and climate control.

It’s our moment to seize. We must continue in 2008 to push our 10 Point Plan to all those who want to be President. At the same time, we must be fierce and forceful with Congress. We must focus and be ready to fight. 2007 proved we played hard and won the first round.

We must continue to follow President Palmer. We must continue to get out there and stay in the mix — in the Presidential sweepstakes across our great nation and here in Washington in the battle of Congress. We woke up in 2007. President Palmer will keep us all awake and focused in 2008! Our officers and our USCM staff are ready. As President Reagan once said, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!” As the executive director of your headquarters staff, we welcome the opportunity to work even harder this year. And we know we can count on the continued energy and response from our mayors in every region of our nation.

Now, if you are not coming to Washington to our Winter Meeting, you are going to miss out. So tell your staff, your council, your wife, your husband, children, friend, significant other, partner, friends and family alike, you gotta be at the 76th Winter Meeting of The United States Conference of Mayors, January 23–25, 2008, at the Capital Hilton Hotel in Washington.

President Palmer wants all mayors to know how important each mayor is to our overall efforts. We appreciate the tremendous response you gave us in the 2007 passage of our Energy/Environment block grant. Now in this new phase $2 billion is at stake. Every one of you will get some part of this. Let’s bring it home. Be with us! Stay with us. 2008 will be great! See you in Washington soon.