Despite the recent setbacks to President Obama”™s jobs plan, Congress will likely extend payroll tax cuts and increase federal funding for infrastructure projects, according to Pat Buchanan and Eleanor Clift.
The political pundits were in Rye Oct. 6 for the Business Council of Westchester”™s 2011 Annual Dinner, capping off what has been a trying but resilient year for the county”™s business community.
The evening also marked an occasion to celebrate the achievements of Charles W. Brown Jr., who was chairman of the Business Council and one of Westchester”™s foremost business leaders who died in June.
“Certainly there”™s no way to describe the work of the Business Council of the last year without paying tribute to Charlie,” said Stephen J. Jones, chairman of the Business Council and managing partner of the law firm Jones L.L.P. “He is very much missed.”
The keynote presentation featured a face-off between Buchanan and Clift, the former a senior adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan and a past presidential candidate himself, and the latter a prominent liberal television pundit and author and contributing editor of Newsweek.
The two speakers, who regularly appear together on “The McLaughlin Group” TV program, discussed a range of topics from the 2012 presidential campaign to the Occupy Wall Street protests. Both agreed that many of the answers to the country”™s economic issues will depend heavily on the outcome of next year”™s elections.
“I think we”™re in as much a psychological slump as a real economic slump,” Clift said, indicating that there is serious concern behind close doors within the Obama administration. “I know there”™s a lot of concern in the White House. They (the Republican Party) seem determined to block whatever Obama proposes.”
Buchanan said that there will likely be “indefinite gridlock” as long as Obama is president and the Republican Party has at least a partial hold over Congress.
“I think that the political forces are very much directed toward deadlock, but there are other forces out there I think and it may take a new election” before any major policy changes are enacted by Congress, Buchanan said. “I think there”™s a possibility we could get some of what President Obama is proposing, like infrastructure and if there are some tax cuts for businesses ”¦ but he”™s going to have to break that thing, his program, apart.”
Clift agreed, saying that she thinks Congress will pass some aspects of the jobs plan announced last month by the president. “I think at the very least the Congress is going to extend the payroll tax cuts ”¦ (and) Congress ought to pass some of the infrastructure stuff.”
Both said they thought former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney would be the eventual Republican nominee for president, and that if it came down to him versus Obama, either could pull off the election victory.
While reports on the state of the economy and the 2012 campaign dominate the news cycle, Jones said that Westchester businesses have weathered the storm, by and large.
“Despite the bad economic news from various quarters, many, many businesses have flourished during these difficult times and they”™ve done that by focusing on what works (and) what”™s really needed.”
