LITTLE ROCK — The Delta Grassroots Caucus, a group that promotes economic development in the Delta region, pegged health care as its No. 1 issue this session of Congress.
The bill that passed the Senate didn’t satisfy all caucus members, but Lee Powell, the group’s director, said he was satisfied with the outcome.
Though including government-run health care - the so-called public option was on the group’s wish list, Powell called the result a “reasonable compromise.”
He and several local leaders in the Delta region praised Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s role in the debate.
“We don’t always agree with all her positions,” Powell said in a statement, “but she is catching flak from hard-liners on both sides and people ought to just lighten up and give her credit for all the hard work she has done on such a traumatic issue.”
Powell said that opinion on the issue within the group was mixed - many wanted to include the public option, others favored a system of insurance exchanges pushed by Lincoln and some members did not want to enact health-care legislation at all.
Desha County Judge Mark McElroy said he would have preferred including a public option, but he praised Lincoln’s role in voting with her fellow Democrats and blocking a Republican filibuster on the bill.
“Everybody knew that if we were going to have a bill at all, it would have to be a compromise,” he said.
An Arkansas banker was among a dozen leaders of regional community banks who met Tuesday at the White House to talk about their lending practices with President Barack Obama.
Larry Bauer, president of Planters & Merchants in Gillett joined the gathering in the Roosevelt Room, where the bankers discussed their problems with regulatory agencies while the president urged them to step up their lending to small businesses.
“There remains enormous opportunities as we come out of this recession for businesses to start growing again and to start hiring again,” Obama said after the meeting. “And everything that we’re going to be doing here in the White House over the next several months is going to be geared towards catalyzing and spurring additional lending, particularly to small businesses.”
The president also indicated that he was listening to the concerns of the bankers, who were from regions ranging from Taos, N.M., to Jasper, Ind., to New York City.
“We are looking to see if there are possibilities to cut some of the red tape,” he said.
While community banks in general did not contribute to the financial crisis, Obama said they can help drive the recovery.
“The pendulum may have swung too far in the direction of not lending after a decade in which it had gone way too far in the direction of getting money out the door no matter the risk,” he said, adding that “if we can get that balance right... there are businesses and communities out there that are ready to grow again, and we just need to help make that happen.”
Also attending the meeting were some of the president’s chief economic advisers, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett along with Larry Summers, director of the White House’s National Economic Council; Christina Romer, head of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers; and Gene Sperling, an adviser to Geithner.
Sen. Mark Pryor wrote a letter Monday to Earl Devaney, who is in charge of catching waste and fraud in this year’s economic stimulus package, asking him to identify specific cases where Devaney has identified potential fraud.
Pryor’s letter to Devaney, the chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, asked him to describe how many referrals he’s made to agency inspectors general, and to detail the use of analytical tools and investigative staff Devaney has made available to sniff out wrongdoers.
“Every dollar wasted or siphoned off by criminals is money not spent on creating jobs,” Pryor wrote.
Pryor asked for a response by Jan. 8.
Front Section, Pages 18 on 12/27/2009