CBC to Obama: Don't forget us
By *GLENN THRUSH* <http://www.politico.com/reporters/GlennThrush.html> &
*PATRICK O'CONNOR*
<http://www.politico.com/reporters/PatrickO'Connor.html>| 2/24/09 4:29
AM EST
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[image: The ceremonial oath of office is delivered to members of the
CBC] Judge Judith W. Rogers (right), from the U.S. Court of Appeals of the
District of Columbia, administered the ceremonial oath of office to members
of the Congressional Black Caucus in January.
Photo: AP
When the first African-American president holds his first meeting with 42
veteran black lawmakers Thursday, it will be a mountaintop moment for all
involved.
But members of the Congressional Black Caucus will also be sending the
president a subtle message.
“Don’t take us for granted,” said one House Democratic aide.
The meeting between President Barack Obama and the CBC, scheduled for 2 p.m.
Thursday in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, has been in the works
for several weeks, but the timing is, in part, “the result of member
concerns about certain things,” said an aide to a senior member of the
caucus.
Caucus members are pleased, by and large, with the size and composition of
the $787 billion stimulus package passed earlier this month.
But in the lead-up to the final stimulus vote, many grumbled that party
leaders, including the president, buckled by allowing the GOP to strip out
nearly $60 billion in aid to states to make way for an alternative minimum
tax extension that will largely benefit the middle class.
Moreover, many members, including CBC Chairwoman Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), are
still bothered by Obama’s selection of New Hampshire Republican Sen. Judd
Gregg as commerce secretary — an appointment that ended with Gregg’s
voluntary withdrawal over ideological differences with the White House.
Lee and other members successfully pushed the White House to remove the
Census Bureau from the commerce secretary’s direct control after raising
concerns about Gregg’s longtime opposition to the use of sampling — as
opposed to door-to-door counting — as a means of determining the population
in hard-to-count urban areas.
At the time, Lee called for “thorough scrutiny” of Gregg, saying his “record
of previously voting to abolish the Commerce Department and his attempts to
block President Bill Clinton’s efforts to secure adequate funding for the
2000 census raise troubling concerns.”
Some members, including Lee and outspoken Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.),
have privately expressed concerns that Obama hasn’t hired enough blacks for
his administration, especially in the increasingly powerful Treasury
Department.
“CBC actually got what they wanted in the recovery package; I don’t think
they were upset in the end,” said another top aide to a senior caucus
member. “I think they were more upset by the Judd Gregg nomination and the
all-white Treasury Department.”
Another aide said that members are putting together a list of a half-dozen
areas of policy concerns on which to quiz Obama, including the targeting of
anti-foreclosure programs in low-income neighborhoods, reforming the rules
regulating credit cards and the 14,000-troop increase in Afghanistan, which
Lee and Waters view as a potentially dangerous escalation.
“We don’t want to substitute Afghanistan for Iraq,” Waters said on HBO’s
“Real Time With Bill Maher” Friday night. “We don’t want to continue to send
our young people off to war without really understanding what we’re doing.”
Waters acknowledged the difficult balance Obama faces by following through
with a pledge to remove troops from Iraq while expanding the troop presence
in Afghanistan.
“He wants to show that we’re strong; we’re not weak,” Waters said. “He’s
trying to do this balancing act.”
--
"I'm selfish, impatient, and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of
control, and at times hard to handle, but if you can't handle me at my
worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best." ~Marilyn Monroe
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