NDN Applauds Direction of Stimulus, Auto Talks - On Saturday, President-elect Obama released more details of his economic recovery plan, which contains many ideas long advocated by NDN, including massive infrastructure investment, computers in our schools, universal connectivity to the Internet, health IT, and greening the federal government. NDN applauds this bold, timely agenda from the incoming administration and is pleased that the plan is indeed a stimulus for the long run. As this package begins to take shape, Michael Moynihan has argued that such a vast and time-sensitive distribution of money will not be able to go through the normal agency process and that a specific board should be created.
Additionally, with Congress considering the automakers' loan request, NDN Globalization Initiative Chair Dr. Robert Shapiro has argued that the bailout should happen, with strong conditions, and NDN is pleased by the progress made in the last week. Moynihan also discussed sympathy – or lack thereof – for the "car guys."
NDN Event Thursday, December 11: Forum on Latin America and the Economic Crisis - NDN is proud to host a forum to discuss "The Current Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Latin America." Joe Garcia, our good friend and collaborator and former NDN Vice President for Hispanic Programs, will moderate a panel that includes: The Honorable Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the Inter-American Development Bank; Dr. Nora Lustig, international visiting Professor at the George Washington Elliot School for International Affairs; and Mr. Paulo Sotero, the Director of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Brazil Institute.
This briefing will take place this Thursday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Please RSVP as soon as possible. The event is open to the public, but space is limited. Refreshments will be served. For directions, maps, parking, and other information, please visit the event page.
NDN Event Friday, December 12: A New Coalition and a New Map - This Friday, NDN will be hosting a special-post election event to take a look at one of the most important outcomes of this year's election - the emergence of a new and very 21st century progressive electoral coalition, and a new and very 21st century Electoral College map. Joining NDN President Simon Rosenberg for the discussion will be Morley Winograd, new NDN fellow and co-author of Millennial Makeover, and Andres Ramirez, Vice President of NDN's Hispanic Programs.
The event will take place at NDN's offices from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Lunch will be served, and seating will be first-come, first-served. Space is limited, so please RSVP as soon as possible. For full event details, please visit the event page.
New Tools Feature - In my latest New Tools Feature, I explore how the incoming Obama administration has begun putting new tools to work to fix the U.S. healthcare system. From a Washington Post article last week on the subject:
The Obama team, which recruited about 13 million online supporters during the presidential campaign and announced its vice presidential selection via text message, is now moving to apply those tools to the earliest stages of governing.
"This is the beginning of the reinvention of what the presidency in the 21st century could be," said Simon Rosenberg, president of the center-left think tank NDN. "This will reinvent the relationship of the president to the American people in a way we probably haven't seen since FDR's use of radio in the 1930s."
Click here to read more about how Obama continues to reinvent the presidency.
NDN Seeking Winter and Spring Interns - NDN is looking for interns to join our staff this winter and spring. If you or someone you know is interested in working at NDN during this exciting period, please refer to the internships page on our Web site or contact jobs@ndn.org for more information.
NDN Breaking Through - NDN's thinking about how Obama will reinvent the presidency (see Simon's last video blog on the subject here) was featured this week on NPR and in the Guardian, the Washington Monthly, the Globe and Mail, and PopMatters. From Michael Tomasky's piece in the Guardian about how Obama will use new tools to pass healthcare reform:
The Washington Post reports today that the Obama transition team is trying "to harness its vast and sophisticated grassroots network to shape public policy" – specifically, major healthcare overhaul.
Tom Daschle, the former senator whom Obama has nominated to be his health department secretary and his healthcare reform czar, has been having lots of meetings, and other members of the team are reaching out to the nationwide network of some 13 million Americans who signed up during the campaign for email action alerts.
Very little is new under the sun. But this, friends, is new. No one has ever done it like this before. Simon Rosenberg, a sharp Democratic insider known for his enthusiasms, is dead-on accurate in describing the healthcare effort to the Post in these terms: "This is the beginning of the reinvention of what the presidency in the 21st century could be. This will reinvent the relationship of the president to the American people in a way we probably haven't seen since FDR's use of radio in the 1930s."
Rob's commentary on bailouts was featured in the Associated Press, the Hill, and the San Francisco Chronicle. From the AP article by Tom Raum:
Rob Shapiro, a top Commerce Department official in the administration of former President Bill Clinton who is on Obama's team of transition advisers, said that if these were good economic times, his view would be to let the automakers fail.
"But demand for everything has collapsed because we're in a deep recession. The movement of the auto industry from dire conditions to near-terminal conditions has been driven by the financial crisis," said Shapiro, now an official with NDN, a think tank formerly known as the New Democratic Network.
Rob also made appearances in Carbon Tax Center and MarketWatch.
Finally, Michael's essay about the need for an emergency board for the stimulus was featured in Grist.
Odds and Ends - To find out what's new in the world of immigration reform, check out Zuraya Tapia-Alfaro's weekly immigration update. Also, be sure to read Sam duPont's daily roundup of political and economic news. Finally, if you are intrigued by President-elect Obama's call to create 21st century schools by putting computers in every classroom, you may want to read NDN's 2007 paper, "A Laptop in Every Backpack."