(Adds Rahm Emanuel comments, CEOs on other priorities)
By Rachelle Younglai and Kim Dixon
WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Chief executives of leading
U.S. companies called for a fiscal stimulus package worth at
least $300 billion and urged president-elect Barack Obama to
swiftly name his economic team.
Dozens of chief executives met at the Wall Street Journal
CEO Council event in Washington D.C. to identify what they
think should be priorities for the Obama administration and the
new Congress.
Wachovia Corp's Robert Steel and pension fund TIAA-CREF CEO
Roger Ferguson were among those calling for a fiscal stimulus
package to encourage consumer spending in the short term.
Overall, chief executives agreed that the U.S. economy
could not recover independent of the rest of the world, and
they urged the international community to coordinate stimulus
plans.
A global financial crisis has led several countries into
recession, tightened credit markets, raised unemployment and
wrecked havoc on consumer spending.
Leaders of industry emphasized investment in infrastructure
and programs with long-term benefits, and said the United
States should favor permanent tax cuts over tax rebates.
However, a broad economic stimulus bill, which Obama wants
the U.S. Congress to pass promptly, is opposed by many
Republican lawmakers and is unlikely to be approved by the
current Congress during its short legislative session this
week.
Obama's chief of staff, Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois,
later told the conference that key components of a stimulus
package would include tax cuts and what he called investments
in "green" infrastructure. "The economy needs it, the American
people need it," Emanuel said.
CEOs lamented lack of young talent in science, technology
and math, and called for a partnership with the private sector
to promote a more competitive workforce. Improving education
was the group of executives' second-highest priority after a
global economic stimulus plan.
New York Sen. Charles Schumer told the executives, "I see
lots of businesses, and they come in and lobby on everything
and rare is the business that comes in and lobbies on
education."
A subgroup of chief executives said the Treasury Department
should use funds remaining from the $700 billion financial
services rescue plan, and possibly additional funds, to buy
illiquid assets from financial institutions, the original
intent of the plan.
"These are assets that need to get moving," said Wachovia
CEO Steel, who until early July was under secretary for
domestic finance and a close advisor to Treasury Secretary
Henry Paulson. But buying the troubled assets was the lowest on
a wish list of 18 priorities voted on by the larger group of
chief executives present at the conference.
The finance subgroup, that included Steel and Time Warner's
Jeffrey Bewkes, also called for creation of a panel to
consider changes to financial regulations.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington state,
urged the CEOs to be more specific on all fronts. In terms of
financial regulation, Cantwell said she only had three words:
"Transparency, transparency, transparency."
"If you don't work hard on transparency, you will get
another Sarbanes-Oxley (corporate reform law)," she told the
conference.
A sub-group of CEOs voted to support "comprehensive reform"
of the U.S. healthcare system. About 47 million Americans lack
health insurance, and the group backed universal access to
affordable care, with a requirement that individuals buy their
own health insurance, known as an "individual mandate."
(Reporting by Rachelle Younglai; Editing by Toni Reinhold and
Tim Dobbyn)
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