Change for America: The White House
A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President
Chapters:
Managing the White House for a Successful Presidency, John Podesta and Sarah Rosen Wartell
National Security Council, Samuel Berger and Tom Donilon
National Economic Council, Sarah Rosen Wartell
(full chapter available here)
National Energy Council, Todd Stern and David Hayes
(full chapter available here)
Domestic Policy Council, Tom Freedman
(full chapter available here)
Office of the White House Counsel, Elena Kagan
White House Communications and Press Operations, Michael Waldman
Office of the Vice President, Lisa Brown
A New Office of Social Entrepreneurship, Michele Jolin
(full chapter available here)
Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, Shaun Casey
Office of Science and Technology Policy, Neal Lane
White House Chief Technology Officer, Mitchell Kapor
Overview:
Every successful presidential transition requires vision and talent. But the transfer of power in 2009 will demand extraordinarily clear and focused strategic thinking from the president-elect and his team given the economic and foreign policy challenges facing the country. When the new president takes over in January 2009, he will confront a range of challenges that have emerged since the last presidential transition in 2001.
More than 150,000 American troops are fighting in Iraq and 33,000 in Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden remains at large, and Al Qaeda and the Taliban are resurgent in Afghanistan and western Pakistan. The U.S. military is under enormous stress from repeated conflicts, hardware use, and troop rotations. And new global challenges ranging from climate change and disease to poverty and nuclear proliferation threaten international stability. At home, Wall Street and Main Street are undergoing a financial crisis of proportions not seen since the Great Depression. The American middle class is imperiled as unemployment continues to rise, wages stagnate, benefits decline, and household costs increase. Economic inequality is higher than it has been since the late 1920s. The national debt has doubled to more than $10 trillion and annual budget deficits are approaching $500 billion per year. Over the past eight years, 4 million more Americans have fallen into poverty, and 7 million more have joined the ranks of the uninsured.
Whether he likes it or not, the new president faces a monumental task in first righting the ship of state and then charting a new course to smooth water for the country. This book aims to make this navigation a bit easier and more coherent. The first section focuses on the structure of the White House Office and Executive Office of the President. It provides detailed recommendations for the organization and agenda of all existing offices including the National Security Council, the National Economic Council, White House Counsel, the Office of the Vice President, and others as well as suggestions for three new executive offices to carry out the nation's need for energy transformation, innovation, and research: the National Energy Council, the Office of Social Entrepreneurship, and Chief Technology Officer.
