Obama faces next big goal, new hurdles

Washington — With the stimulus plan in place, President Barack Obama — who this week completes his first month in office — faces a host of opportunities and as many hurdles in choosing his next big push.

Overhauling health care is a logical choice, but there is no health secretary or White House point man now. The president has promised a summit on entitlement costs this month, but has done little spadework. Advocates want major changes in energy and immigration policy, yet deep divisions remain.

Moreover, Obama just spent considerable resources persuading a wary Congress and public to accept multibillion-dollar plans to spur the economy and rescue the financial sector. With those programs just beginning — he plans to sign the stimulus bill into law in Denver on Tuesday — he says the nation cannot wait to tackle even more expensive problems: fixing the long-term funding mechanisms for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Dealing with the immediate economic crisis means massive spending, huge deficits and widespread tax cuts. The longer-term cures for entitlements and budgets call for spending cuts, smaller deficits and likely tax increases.

“How do you mesh those two without making people get dizzy?” said Henry Aaron, an economist at the Brookings Institution who tracks government actions.

And especially when partisanship in the House and Senate appears unabated? As Aaron put it, “This is not the environment that seems conducive to grand bargains.”

But Obama says he wants to do big things and avoid playing “small ball,” even if there is no rest between innings.

For instance, five days before his inauguration he said he would convene a “fiscal responsibility summit” in February to tackle questions of entitlement overhaul and long-term budget deficits.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said late last week that the fiscal summit will be Feb. 23. The leaders of groups heavily involved with Medicare and Social Security say they have heard little or nothing about the event, so they don’t know what to expect. But some are urging Obama to be bold and ambitious, even as Republicans pound him for pushing the $789 billion economic stimulus through Congress.

David Axelrod, a White House senior adviser, said in an interview that the administration wants to move on multiple fronts and “keep the momentum going.” Besides putting the stimulus plan in place, he said, the White House will focus on housing, education, energy and health care.

He acknowledged that plans for health care were interrupted by Tom Daschle’s failed bid to become the White House’s health chief as well as health and human services secretary. But Emanuel said the administration will hold a bipartisan health care summit soon. And last week in Florida, Obama said he soon will announce “what our overall housing strategy’s going to be.” He will outline more plans in a speech to Congress on Feb. 24.

“While in other circumstances there would be real concern about trying to cram too much in big policy changes too quickly, there are real problems, and I think they have to, and will, keep going,” said Jennifer Palmieri, a former Clinton White House aide with ties to the Obama administration.