 British Prime Minister Gordon Brown |
NEW YORK – Meeting with President Obama at the White House today, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown repeated his request for a “Global New Deal,” answering questions to a select group of reporters in the Oval Office.
Critics of Brown in Britain assert the Labour Party leader has come to the U.S. to ask for economic assistance as a way of stemming his sharp drop in the polls after the failure of his government’s bank-bailout measures.
Brown, the first European leader to meet with Obama at the White House, is also scheduled to address a joint session of Congress tomorrow.
By calling for a “Global New Deal,” Brown suggested an expansion of globalism was the only possible solution to the current world crisis and that the two left-leaning leaders would share common ground on a New Deal-like expansion of government and social welfare programs, instead of tax cuts or favorable regulatory treatment for small businesses to stimulate job creation.
“There is the possibility in the next few months of a Global New Deal that will involve all the countries of the world in sorting out and cleaning up the banking system,” Brown said. “And there is the possibility of all the different countries of the world coming together to agree the expansion in the economy that is necessary to both restore confidence and to give people jobs and growth through prosperity for the future.”
Brown suggested his view of a Global New Deal could be implemented through international institutions rather than through nation-states.
“There is the possibility of the international institutions for the first time being reformed in such a way that they can do the job that people want them to do and deal with some of the problems that exist in the poorest countries of the world,” he added.
Brown also told reporters the recovery could be a “green,” or low-carbon, recovery, suggesting support for the type of cap-and-trade carbon tax Obama has proposed as part of his $3.7 trillion federal budget.
Last Sunday, before leaving for the U.S., Brown wrote an editorial published in the London Times in which he proclaimed, “Globalism is not an option, it is a fact, so the question is whether we manage it well or badly.
“Rebuilding global financial stability is a global challenge that needs global solutions,” Brown wrote. “Our task in working together is to secure a high-growth, low-carbon recovery by taking seriously the global challenge of climate change.”
Obama did not specifically address or endorse Brown’s call for a Global New Deal, nor did he propose any specific financial aid for Britain or the European Union to expand social welfare services or to provide additional funds for government bailout programs.
At home, Obama ‘s $787 billion economic stimulus program and his proposed $3.7 trillion 2009 federal budget have been sharply criticized as an unprecedented amount of deficit-spending aimed at creating an unprecedented expansion of the federal government and the building of a massive U.S. welfare state on the European model.
Referring to the “special relationship” between the two countries, Brown appeared to suggest the U.S. and Britain could come up together with a proposed solution for the world economic downturn in advance of the G-20 meeting scheduled for April in London.
Prior to today’s meeting with Brown, the Obama administration appeared to play down the Brown’s visist by not scheduling a joint press conference broadcast nationally on live television.
WND reported previously that on April 30, 2007, President Bush signed an agreement with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, then-president of the European Council, and with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to create a Transatlantic Economic Council.
The Transatlantic Economic Council was aimed at “deeper transatlantic economic integration” between the U.S. and the EU, without the agreement being ratified by the Senate as a treaty, and without the passage by Congress of a law authorizing the new international entity.
WND also reported on a meeting held at the U.S. State Department in March 2008 under the auspices of the Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy that discussed the integration of the U.S., Mexico and Canada in concert with a move toward a Transatlantic Union, linking a North American community with the European Union.
