'Meet the Press' transcript for Nov. 23, 2008

MR. BROKAW: So if the--President-elect Obama came to you and said, "Bill, what do you think? Should I go meet at the White House if we have sherpas in advance work something out?" Do you think that that's a...

MR. DALEY: I, I, I don't think there's a, a meeting that's going to give the confidence that Jim is talking about. I think what's going to take place is you're going to have the confidence by the actions of this administration in consultation with the president-elect, in--and then President-elect Obama, as he has done, telling his team, "Quickly, in 60 days, put together a plan that we can pass, even before I become president." That's the sort of aggressive leadership that I think President Obama's going to give. And I think the markets, as shown by Friday's action, maybe, indicate that there is some belief that, as his team gets appointed and they then develop a plan, that we're going to begin to see some confidence come back into the--and there, this is a difficult period, no doubt about it, in this transition period, but the administration is also, as I understand it from press reports, moving very quickly to possibly even change the plans that they've put forward at this point.

MR. BAKER: The appointment...

MR. BROKAW: Here, here is part of the problem as I see it.

MR. BAKER: The appointment of the team...

MR. BROKAW: Go ahead.

MR. BAKER: Tom, the appointment of the team did, the appointment of the team did, did stabilize things for a day or so, and Bill's quite right about that. And then when it's formally announced Monday, it may do so again. But I'm not sure that it's going to be enough to, to, to stop the problem. And, and, boy, nothing would do more. And, and the president-elect would not have to take ownership. This would be a joint program, and it would only--it would be limited to trying to do further stabilization of the financial system only.

MR. BROKAW: Well, let, let me take this to the next phase, if I can. I want to share with you what Secretary Paulson had to say recently, November 13th, about the stabilization of the American banking system. Here's what he had to say.

(Videotape)

SEC'Y HENRY PAULSON: I believe the banking system has been stabilized. No one is asking themselves anymore is there some major institution that might fail and that we would not be able to do anything about it. So I think that is a positive.

Unidentified Man: There could be a failure of another major institution?

SEC'Y PAULSON: I, I got to tell you, I think our, our major institutions have been stabilized. I believe that very strongly.

(End videotape)

MR. BROKAW: And shortly after that statement, as we all know, Citibank, one of the largest financial institutions in the world, had its stock drop by 64 percent in a matter of days, hours. It was in free fall. It's now looking for additional government assistance. Tom Friedman in The New York Times today is suggesting that Tim Geithner be moved up as the secretary of Treasury, that he be put in place before the inauguration on January 20th. Is that the kind of thing that the Obama team is going to explore?

MR. DALEY: Well, I, I, I think we're going to stick to the schedule, as has been laid out, and that is the secretary of the Treasury will be nominated. He has to go through a confirmation process. No one takes for granted the Senate's action in that. But, but I think what Secretary Paulson said was there are, there are tools they have today to prevent that sort of collapse, and hopefully they will take them if they're faced with that. But these are unprecedented times, no question about it. I don't think anyone's ever seen them. It took us a long time to get to this. It's going to take us a long time to get out of it. And we've just got to be confident that we have the tools which Secretary Paulson said we do as a government, and then how to build on those in this new administration.

MR. BROKAW: Detroit and what to do about it has been a central part of the discussion in the past week, not just in Washington, but across the country. Will President-elect Obama address Detroit tomorrow on what he thinks ought to be done about that?

MR. DALEY: I, I think at his press conference, I'm sure they'll--one of your colleagues will ask the questions. He has been very up-front in saying, and strong in saying that the auto industry is an important part of our economy. This is an unprecedented time of difficulty. Much of the difficulty in our auto industry brought on by the industry itself, but much also brought on by this confluence of economic problems that have hit the country at once. There's no question there is no desire for a bailout. That's not going to work. They have been charged by the Congress, after failure last week, to come back to the Congress with a plan that can begin to convince people that they have some opportunity, out of a plan, to survive and to grow and bring new cars and help address the economic problems. But to let them go down just as though it won't affect this country and this economy is just unrealistic. It's the backbone of our manufacturing, it affects the small towns throughout America, and we've got to do all that we can. But they have to do--the responsibility is on the auto companies and the union to come back to Congress and give them a plan. That's what Congress has asked for. President-elect is strongly encouraging them to do that, and he will support some sort of short-term, if needed, to get to the point where they can honestly come in with a plan that will show long-term growth and opportunity for the auto industry in America.

MR. BROKAW: Secretary Baker, is there anything short of bankruptcy that the Republicans would sign off on to help Detroit?

MR. BAKER: Well, I can't speak for the Republicans generally, Tom, but what I think the president-elect could do in, in this case is take a page from, from President Ronald Reagan's book back in 1987 when every major automobile company chief executive came in pounding on my desk as secretary of the Treasury and then over at the Oval Office demanding protection against Japanese and Korean imports. And it wasn't easy for President Reagan to do this, but he said, "Wait a minute, I'm not going to do that. We believe in free trade. What you're going to have to do is get competitive, you're going to have to downsize and streamline," and they did that. When, when, when a bailout-type approach was denied them and when they were not given protection, they did downsize, they streamlined, they became one of the most effective and efficient automobile industries in the, in the world. And that's the kind of approach, I think, that most Republicans would like to see to the problems of Detroit.

MR. BROKAW: But then they lost their way, and a lot of people blame this administration and others for always pushing back when people wanted to raise the CAFE standards on mileage and not saying anything about Detroit and its great binge when it came to SUVs and big gas-guzzling vehicles of all kind. So...

MR. BAKER: Well, that's part of--of course, that's a big part of the problem. But another large part of the problem is that they're simply not competitive. Given the pension benefit obligations that they've incurred over the years under both Republican and Democratic administrations, and given the, the wage rates and salaries that they pay, I mean, other automobile companies come into this country, they locate in the South or the West and they build cars and they build them very effectively and very competitively. I think it costs maybe--I think Detroit has to find $2,000 to compete with some of the cars of--similar type car that Toyota builds in some of its plants in the South. So that, that problem is endemic, and it's going to have to be addressed.

MR. BROKAW: Secretary Baker, I can't let you go without getting your reaction, as a former secretary of state, to the prospect that Hillary Clinton is going to be the new secretary of state in the--in an Obama administration. What do you think of the choice of Hillary Clinton?

MR. BAKER: Well, well, as I said earlier, I think all of the choices that have been surfaced out there so far are, are quite good. I, I see them as--maybe I'm wrong in this, I hope I'm not, but I see them as being sort of center-right of the Democratic Party. With respect to Senator Clinton, she's got the qualifications. She's extraordinarily intelligent. she is--her appointment, should it come, will be well-received by a lot of people around the world. It will certainly do a lot, I would think, speaking now as a politician, perhaps, to solidify the Democratic Party. But the key is going to be whether or not she and her president are seamless in their approach to foreign policy issues. As I think Tom Friedman wrote in a column last week, a, a foreign leader can see daylight between a president and his secretary of state from a hun--from a thousand miles away. So she will be successful depending upon how seamless she is with her president and how they operate together and how he protects her back and vice-versa, how he formulates foreign policy, she picks up on that formulation, and she implements it. That's going to be the key, but I think she is clearly well qualified, provided that seamless approach is, is undertaken.

MR. BROKAW: And Mr. Daley, finally, are they going to work out the Bill Clinton issues to get her appointed?

MR. DALEY: I, I, I'm not confirming anything, but I would hope that things work out because I, I agree with Secretary Baker that she would be a tremendous addition to this administration. Tremendous.

MR. BROKAW: All right. Bill Daley, representative of the Obama administration incoming; and, of course, Jim Baker, in Texas, secretary of the Treasury under Ronald Reagan, secretary of state under Bush 41, White House chief of staff, now down in Texas playing the part of an elder statesman of the Republican Party.

Coming up next, does Joe Lieberman have any regrets over his support for John McCain during the presidential election? I'll be asking him that in our exclusive interview. Also, our political roundtable. All coming up next only here on MEET THE PRESS.

(Announcements)

MR. BROKAW: Joe Lieberman, plus our political roundtable after this brief station break.

(Announcements)

MR. BROKAW: Senator Joe Lieberman, welcome back to MEET THE PRESS. You were last here in early August at a time when you were supporting John McCain. Before we get to that and the consequences of it all, I want to ask you about President-elect Obama's economic stimulus program that we'll hear more about tomorrow, but we're already getting the broad outlines of a two and a half million job program of some kind. Apparently based on what Mr. Daley was saying, it will include not just public works, but some incentives for the private sector as well.

SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (I-CT): Right. Well, I was very encouraged by what President-elect Obama had to say yesterday. As everyone knows, this is an unprecedented economic situation. I mean, just think about the effects. We've lost about $8 trillion of value in the stock market. There are millions of Americans whose home mortgages are either in foreclosure or about to go into foreclosure. Unemployment is rising. We need to work together to, to get the economy going again. I was impressed by what Secretary Baker said, although, frankly, I'd address it a little bit differently. I, I'm concerned that we're between presidents now and in the meantime, the economy is continuing to cycle down and, to, to a lot of people, out of control. I'd like to see President Bush work with President-elect Obama and the Democrats and Republicans in Congress to see if we can agree on a short-term stimulus that would be in effect some time right after the first of the year, perhaps a, a tax rebate or, or a, a program of grants to state and local governments, money that would move right out into the economy. Because, when you think about it, Tom, we're two months from Inauguration Day. It's hard to imagine Congress moving a short-term stimulus program of President-elect Obama in less than a month. We're going to be into the second quarter of next year before we get the stimulus, and that's too long. We need some action right now.

MR. BROKAW: Everybody's gone home. Should they be called back?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Yeah. Well, we are coming back in December to deal with the auto industry crisis, but what I'm saying is I, I think President Bush ought to take the lead here and reach out to President-elect Obama and Democrats in Congress and see if we can agree on a short-term stimulus for the economy. We need it now. Now, Secretary Baker talked about financial institutions. I, I think Secretary Paulson and the administration already have enough authority to deal with financial institutions. And, and Hank Paulson might have been right in what he said that our financial institutions are stable, but that's not enough. They're not lending money, and until they do, this economy is going to go nowhere. So I, I, I think Secretary Paulson ought to call in Mr. Geithner, if he's the choice tomorrow, and begin to work with him on trying urgently to find a better way than they've found so far with the $700 billion in authority that we, in Congress, gave Hank Paulson to get banks to start lending money again.

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