By MARY GILBERT
In anticipation of President-elect Barack Obama's noon press conference announcing his new economic team, bloggers are chattering about what his selections say about Obama's intentions for getting the economy going again.
Andrew Busch is relieved to see Obama pick his team early and gives the Obama camp credit for "listening to what the markets have been saying." He adds, "Clearly, the incoming Obama administration wants a continuation of the aggressive polices and programs that are in place to deal with the credit crisis."
Chris Bowers at OpenLeft believes that the selection of Timothy Geithner for Treasury secretary calls Obama's dedication to change into question: "Really? Obama is going with someone who is currently executing the bailout?" That "strikes me as less than change-y."
Lawrence Kudlow, a television commentator and former Reagan economic adviser, relates that Geithner "is highly regarded by those who worked with him as a very smart, sharp, and insightful player." He highlights Geithner's youth -- he is 47 -- and points out that "to the country at large and most of the Washington political establishment, he's a new face. Yes indeed, change is coming."
Ezra Klein at the American Prospect claims that Obama's selection of Peter Orszag as director of the Office of Management and Budget shows that the president-elect is serious about tackling health care. Orszag has "shown an almost single-minded focus on health care reform" during his time at the Congressional Budget Office, he said, and is preparing to release two books on the subject. Klein points out that Orszag has even taken to his own blog to refute the idea that the current economic crisis should put the brakes on a reform agenda.
U.S. News & World Report's James Pethokoukis defends the team's free-market viewpoint: "These guys are not Marxists, protectionists, or believers in a return to 90 percent marginal tax rates. They are believers in free trade," but they do believe in a larger government role in the economy -- creating a "safety net" for workers -- and in higher taxes to pay for it.
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