One on One with Roger Altman, Senior Economic Policy Advisor for Senator Clinton
Monday, March 03, 2008
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SUSIE GHARIB: More now on the Texas and Ohio primaries tomorrow. The key issues for many voters, especially in Ohio, are the economy and jobs. Earlier today I talked with Roger Altman, the senior economic policy advisor for Senator Clinton and asked him how Clinton, if elected president, could help the hard-hit Ohio economy.
ROGER ALTMAN, SR. ECONOMIC ADVISOR, HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN: Universal health care is number one. That would be an enormous change in this country, make it so much easier for Americans in Ohio and elsewhere when it comes to health care availability and health-care costs, making college more affordable and available. Universal pre-K, enforcing our trade agreements more aggressively which we have done a poor job on. I could go on and on, but there is a whole series of steps right there.
GHARIB: Senator Clinton's campaign ads in Ohio say that NAFTA was a mistake. Now Roger, you lobbied very hard for NAFTA when you worked in the White House for President Bill Clinton. Now are you advising Hillary Clinton. What about NAFTA was a mistake?
ALTMAN: It's been unbalanced. And so as she said, it has worked in parts of the country and it has not worked in other parts of the country. And she cited upstate New York and Ohio as places where it hasn't worked. So it is not a matter of saying it is a total failure or it a total success. It hasn't worked across-the-board. It hasn't worked as -- as major way as it was expected to and so it has to be fixed.
GHARIB: Senator Clinton has been talking tough on trade. Are you worried about the message that this is sending to the United States' trading partners all around the world?
ALTMAN: No. I'm not worried. Senator Clinton has a consistent voting record on trade. And I'm sure that our friends around the world will appreciate that in this country, there is tremendous anxiety about trade. It's well placed. It's understandable and we have to respond to it.
GHARIB: With oil prices at $100 a barrel, Senator Clinton is proposing a windfall profits tax on large oil companies. How is that playing out in the primaries, especially in rich oil state like Texas?
ALTMAN: We have to get going on a serious energy program. And we really haven't had one in a very long time. And with the price of oil where it is and with the threat of climate change as central as it is, this has to be one of the very, very highest priorities and one element of that has to be a big increase in energy research and an acceleration of the whole approach to alternative energy, getting away from fossil fuels.
GHARIB: On the housing situation Senator Clinton has called for a freeze on foreclosures for interest rate limitation. It seems that that might discourage lending at a time when that is exactly what the economy needs.
ALTMAN: She called for a voluntary freeze on -- a moratorium on foreclosures, 90 days and a voluntary five-year freeze on resets on adjustable rate sub-prime mortgages, voluntary. She's fundamentally saying it is in the interests of the lenders to go slow on foreclosures because the costs to those lenders of foreclosing are so high, that they are better off themselves by providing the distressed mortgagees or at least a lot of them, more time to try to work this out.
GHARIB: Fed Chairman Bernanke said last week that the housing slump has not hit bottom. Does Senator Clinton think that we are getting to a point where government intervention might be needed to stop this downward spiral?
ALTMAN: There have been a whole series of proposals already for Federal action. And some of them have already been enacted into law. So it is not a matter of no government help versus some government help. The question is whether we should do even more than has been talked about. She hasn't taken a position on that. But I'm sure she would be very seriously addressing that if she were sitting in the oval office right now.
GHARIB: Roger, Senator Clinton says that she is a candidate for working class Americans. She is also the senator of New York which means that she represents Wall Street and business interests. Is there a contradiction here? Can she be both?
ALTMAN: Well, yes, because most Americans are working class folks. And you know, a example a very, very small percentage, very smaller percentage of Americans are high earners, working in the financial centers around the country. That is a very tiny percentage. So -- so -- any president or at least Democratic president, has to be fundamentally about strengthening the middle class. And that is what she has committed herself to. So I don't think it is a question of choice, I think it is a question of necessity.
GHARIB: Roger, thank you so much for your time.
ALTMAN: Well, thanks for having me.
