Media Overview for Monday, November 10, 2008

TRANSITION. Today at approx. 2 p.m., the President-elect and Mrs. Obama will visit The White House. Mrs. Bush will give Mrs. Obama a tour, while the President and the President-elect will meet in The Oval Office.

·         The Wall Street Journal reports today that “President-elect Barack Obama will likely use his executive powers after taking office to block new drilling leases on environmentally sensitive land in Utah and to allow federal funding of stem-cell research, putting a quick mark on policy making.” Among those executive orders reportedly being considered for reversal: “a ban on federal aid to family-planning organizations that counsel women on abortion,” “a decision in December that restricts California in regulating greenhouse-gas emissions from cars,” “the new oil and gas leases approved recently by the Department of Interior that would open up for drilling land near Arches and Canyonlands national parks in southern Utah's desert,” as well as restrictions “on the type of stem-cell research that can be funded with federal dollars.”

·         Also worth noting, under the headline “Obama transition team heavy with big fundraisers,” USA Today reports President-elect Obama "says moneyed interests won't have an inside track in his White House, but six of the 15 people he named to his transition team are top fundraisers." The fundraisers "include Julius Genachowski, a former technology and news media executive and an Obama classmate at Harvard Law who raised more than $500,000 for the campaign, and Federico Peña, a two-time Cabinet secretary in the Clinton administration who is a managing partner in a global investment firm. He collected more than $50,000."

CHINA. The Washington Post reports on its front page that China last night “announced an aggressive $586 billion economic stimulus package, the largest in the country's history, at a time when it is struggling with increasing social unrest due to factory closings and rising unemployment.” A wide-ranging program that economists are comparing to the New Deal, the package “would ease credit restrictions, expand social welfare services and launch an infrastructure spending program that would include the construction of new railways, roads and airports.” The announcement “marks a dramatic about-face” for China, “which had insisted for months that it was largely unaffected by the increasing economic chaos in the rest of the world and had remained on the sidelines while other nations constructed elaborate bailout plans.”

AIG. The Wall Street Journal reports on its front page that “the U.S. government unveiled a plan Monday to scrap its $123 billion bailout of American International Group Inc. and replace it with a new package worth around $150 billion.” The Journal says that “while the arrangement stands to considerably ease terms on the faltering insurer, it gives the government an unprecedented role as an actor in financial markets.” The new package “is a tacit acknowledgment that the original $85 billion rescue in September, combined with an additional $37.8 billion made available to the company last month, together haven't come close to stabilizing AIG.” Under the terms of the agreement, “the government would give AIG more money, including $40 billion from the U.S. Treasury's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. It would also receive less interest than on the bulk of the original loan, while freeing AIG from exposure to some of the risky financial instruments that nearly caused it to file for bankruptcy protection.”

AUTO INDUSTRY. USA Today reports that over the weekend House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, said that the Bush administration "should consider expanding the $700 billion financial rescue to include car companies." The letter, "came a day after GM painted a grim picture of its finances -- one that suggests a federal bailout is its only option to stay solvent." The Financial Times reports, "if Mr. Paulson does not consent to direct aid to carmakers through the $700bn bail-out plan, Democrats hope the administration will agree to approve new loans to General Motors, Chrysler and Ford during negotiations over a fresh fiscal stimulus later this month." The Detroit News adds that the Administration has “resisted the idea, which the carmakers and Michigan lawmakers say would help protect them from what many analysts believe is looming bankruptcy."

AL QAEDA. In its lead story, The New York Times reports that since 2004, the United States “has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere.” The order, signed in 2004 by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, “gave the military new authority to attack the Qaeda terrorist network anywhere in the world,” with a focus on “15 to 20 countries, including Syria, Pakistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and several other Persian Gulf states, where Qaeda militants were believed to be operating or to have sought sanctuary.” Even with the order, “each specific mission requires high-level government approval.”

BANKS. Under the headline “A Quiet Windfall For U.S. Banks,” The Washington Post, in a front-page article, reports that the "$700 billion bailout of the banking industry" included "a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention," but "corporate tax lawyers quickly realized the enormous implications of the document: Administration officials had just given American banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion." The Post adds, "The change to Section 382 of the tax code -- a provision that limited a kind of tax shelter arising in corporate mergers -- came after a two-decade effort by conservative economists and Republican administration officials to eliminate or overhaul the law, which is so little-known that even influential tax experts sometimes draw a blank at its mention."

·         Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reports, "Regulators seized a $5.1 billion Houston bank led by mortgage-bond-pioneer Lewis Ranieri and a small bank in Los Angeles Friday, raising the number of bank failures this year to 19 and showing how even the most experienced financial executives are struggling to survive the financial crisis."

REP. VAN HOLLEN. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) has agreed to stay on at the DCCC for a second term, with an added role “coordinating policy decisions between the House and President-elect Barack Obama's administration,” according to The Washington Post. In a statement, Van Hollen said, “"I am looking forward to taking on these new policy responsibilities and working with the Speaker and our entire leadership team as we work with President-elect Obama to enact an agenda for change.”

CIRCUIT CITY. Circuit City has “filed for bankruptcy amid rising competition from Best Buy Co., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and online electronics retailers,” according to Bloomberg. Founded in 1949, the company “has lost more than $5 billion in stock-market value in two years. Circuit City plans to stay in business while it comes up with a plan to restructure.”