Obama: Capitalism Could be Facing 'Slippery Slope'

"Off the record" comments detail President's plan to transform economy
September 16, 2009
Peter Acheson

The White House is condemning this morning reports that an "off the record" conversation took place in which the President described his plans to revamp the US economy.

The reporter, who wishes to have their identity withheld for safety purposes, states that in early September the President agreed to an interview offer. "I knew that President Obama would give me the same talking points about Health Care and the Stimulus," the journalist stated. "But he didn't really open up.

"I knew there was something more. Too many questions were shoved aside, too many were ignored; I figured that I had to make him comfortable, so I told him that the rest of the interview was off the record. That's when the interview really began."

According to the source, the President began to answer questions much more directly and candidly. "Before, I'd ask him about the Stimulus and he'd say it did what it was supposed to, that it saved an ailing economy. But after, he went into greater detail; he described some of its faults, things he wished he could have done differently."

However, the interview strayed into the unusual when the source asked the President about the US economy as a whole. "I just meant to ask what he thought the economy was doing, would we come out of the recession with new growth, stuff like that.

"The President caught me totally off guard. He began talking about the struggle that capitalism was facing in the coming years, that if we not careful, it would fall like feudalism did. He said that anyone who knows anything of history knows that great social changes are impossible without upheaval and that we must avoid that by integrating 'new' practices into the economy."

According to the journalist, the President proposed plans to regulate the economy heavily and enable new government oversight into industry. "'We saved the car industry,' he told me. 'Why should we stop there?'"

"I'm not proud of what I have done," the source stated, "but this is information I just couldn't sit on."

The White House responded quickly, saying that the writer "broke all journalistic integrity" by releasing the conversation after promising it was off the record. President Obama could not be reached for comment.



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