Jesse Jackson Jr., Obama-seat: 'Ready'

Jesse Jackson Jr., Obama-seat: 'Ready'
by Mark Silva
The Swamp
November 7, 2008

CNBC's Donny Deutsch last night asked Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois if he'd be interested in an appointment to the opening seat of Sen. Barack Obama, who will be sworn in as president on Jan. 20.

"I'd be honored, I'd be humbled and yes, I would,'' Jackson replied on the cable network's The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. "But it is the decision of the governor of the state of Illinois, he'll have to make that judgment.

"I have 13 years of service in the Congress, I have only missed two votes,'' Jackson said. "No Democrat or Republican can say that - I have a perfect voting record in Congress and I think I am up to the task.''

What will "Job One'' for the new president be?

"The economy. Returning comsumer confidence,' Jackson said. "We are suffering from an economic crisis that is two-fold. First, we have a liquidity problem and second we have an economic growth problem and I know that Barack Obama is focusing on both at this hour.

"The solution is either to both build our economy by creating good paying jobs, thus promoting consumer and investor confidence,'' Jackson said. "And so, on day 1 Barack Obama said if I win this election I'm going to wake up every day thinking about the American public.

"Thinking about the economy. He's tried to fix, and we have tried to fix, as a Congress, the liquidity problem by loaning money to banks... money that they are obviously going to have to pay back. But then there is also the second problem: The rescue package will not completely solve the second problem, and that is the economic growth problem. And as I was listening to the conversation you were just having, it's becoming increasingly clear to me, and obviously Barack understands the gravity of it - that we are going to have to wrestle with some very, very difficult choices - from Congress' perspective in terms of spending cuts, but also we're going to have to dig a little bit deeper, possibly, and I'm not speaking for the Obama campaign here, I am not speaking for the president elect, I am just speaking for myself, we may have to dig a little bit deeper into debt in order to create the economic stimulus that is necessary to put Barack's long-term vision for the country on the fast track.''

What might Obama do differently?

"Here is part of the problem: we've got to stop the hemorrhage,'' Jackson said. "All of the big 3 automakers are walking the halls of capitol hill right now suggesting that fourth quarter sales for them are going to be very problematic.

"Which means in January and February, just as Barack Obama is taking the oath of office, and I agree that this is going to be a very short honeymoon, the big three automakers, along with a number of very large American business interests are coming together saying what didn't do in the fourth quarter, and we're not going to do in the next several quarters what we thought we would be able to do. If we collapse, people who contract with our businesses are going to be devastated, which means record unemployment, unprecedented economic pain for millions of Americans, therefore we have got to stop the hemorrhage. That is going to be Barack Obama's problem. ''

Source: http://www.jessejacksonjr.org/