DEBORAH AMOS, Host:
And for some analysis, we turn to NPR's Cokie Roberts, who's a regular on our Monday program. Good morning, Cokie.
COKIE ROBERTS: Morning Deborah, how nice to talk to you and have you on these shores.
AMOS: Indeed. The president still has many more legislative battles to wage. Yesterday, Christina Romer, chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, said that the administration plans to do more to try to create jobs. Will Congress go along with that?
ROBERTS: And the deficit can't be in the way of that right now, because you can't get a deficit down when you have this many people out of work and not paying taxes. So, you have to get them back to work. She's definitely ready to talk about tax breaks from - tax credits for small business to hire people, as well as provided measures like extended unemployment benefits.
AMOS: But that's not going to be so easy. The previous stimulus packages are unpopular; the bailout of the financial institutions are extremely unpopular.
ROBERTS: Romer said yesterday, that the big bonus season is of, quote, "of course going to offend the American people. It offends me," she said. And the big bank CEOs will have to show up Wednesday at the first hearing of a 9-11-style commission that's been created to investigate the causes of the financial crisis. But they're not likely to make the public feel much better about them.
AMOS: Now, in the middle of this, President Obama is facing another crisis, and this is a flap over comments of the majority leader, Harry Reid. Some Republicans are calling for him to quit. Is that going to happen?
ROBERTS: But Harry Reid has a rough road ahead. I mean, you just heard in Don Gonyea's piece about Democrats representing areas that voted Republican and how they have got a hard election year ahead. And if Democrats start to see Reid as a liability in this election year, then, you know, all bets are off.
AMOS: Thank you very much. NPR's Cokie Roberts.
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AMOS: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News.