Obama’s ‘strong message’ to bankers: Start lending

Barack Obama’s administration will “send a
strong message to bankers,” pushing them to resume lending and
jump start the economy, a senior adviser to the president-elected said Sunday.

With the
president-elect just 48 hours away from being sworn in, senior adviser David
Axelrod said on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” that Obama wants “to see
credit flowing again.”

{mosads}The Senate this
week approved to release to Obama the second $350 billion that were earmarked
to help the financial markets. Axelrod indicated that, with the federal
government doing its part, Wall Street must follow suit.  

“We don’t want
them to sit on any taxpayer money,” Axelrod stated.

Axelrod also said
he is confident that Obama’s nominee to be treasury secretary, Timothy
Geithner, will be confirmed despite issues raised on his failure to pay taxes while
he was serving overseas.

Axelrod, one of
Obama’s chief advisers during the campaign, said the president-elect will
follow through with his campaign promise to order the joint chiefs of staff to
deliver a plan to withdraw troops from Iraq within 16 months.

“Well, that is
something he’s consistently said,” Axelrod said when asked about the issue. “He
believes that that is a reasonable timetable. We’ve moved a great distance from
the time he started talking about that, and now we’re in an area where
everybody agrees that we should be on a path to withdrawing those troops.”

Axelrod also gave
a glimpse of the highly anticipated inaugural address, saying those who have
come to admire Obama’s speeches will not be disappointed.

“I think he’s
going to talk about where we are as a country but also who we are as a people
and what responsibilities accrue to us as a result of that and what we have to
do to move forward,” he stated.