David Frum
Special to CNN

I wanted to support President Obama's health care reforms if I possibly could.

The U.S. health care system costs too much, delivers too little and excludes too many. Americans pay 60 percent more per person for health care than any other nation. Yet Americans rank only 41st in life expectancy and live with the paralyzing fear that the loss of a job means the loss of coverage.

Rising health care costs are devouring worker pay. Employers pay 25 percent more per hour on average for labor in 2006 than they did in 2000. Yet not one dime of that extra money reached workers. All of it was gobbled up by the surging cost of health care benefits. The typical worker actually earned less after inflation in 2006 than in 2000.

Health care drives federal spending. The U.S. government will spend twice as much this year on Medicare, Medicaid and other health programs as on national defense, including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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Reporter's Note: After much ado the U.S. Senate passed its version of health care reform in the very early hours of this morning. Accordingly, I was up very late covering it…and then writing this letter.

Tom Foreman | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

Dear Mr. President,

Congratulations on clearing the most recent hurdle on this whole health care reform business, but when it comes to the timing, I must say “Bad form, Pan!” Seriously, do your pals over in the Senate not possess a calendar? Or watches? After so many months of talk, and deals, and talk, and compromises, and talk, and talk, and talk, how is it possible that such a key vote winds up scheduled at one o’clock in the morning, with the chimes of Christmas already sounding?

I understand that this is a very important bill for all those who favor it; and that you believe it is crucial for every citizen of the country. So, in turn, I grasp the notion that you may want to push through willy-nilly to the end no matter what the calendar or clock has to say.

But regardless of the merits or weaknesses of the plan, I’ve got to tell you it just seems shady or at least wildly undisciplined, to be voting on something as monumental as this in the middle of the night with the holidays breathing down our necks. Maybe I’ve read too many stories over the years of Congress members from both parties sledge-hammering through shoddy legislation in last minute dashes for the wire.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m emphatically NOT passing that judgment on this measure, nor am I jumping on board with the Republicans, (whom, I understand, Harry Reid blames for all the delays that led to the midnight vote.) What I’m saying is whether or not it is bad, it looks bad. (And don’t tell me that you and your Senate pals don’t care about how something looks; the whole DC crowd absolutely lives for a good photo op.) It feeds into the very criticism that some of your opponents are flinging around; that this is bad legislation sneaking into town under the dark of night.

Wouldn’t it have been much better to have held the vote at high noon on a work day? Then everyone who voted yes could have trooped out to the Capitol steps and whooped it up while they launched an effigy of Dick Cheney down the mall with a catapult. Now that would be a picture! Instead, what we got was dark images of a cold winter night, and endless mumbling about back door deals. And your opponents (who are already watching you and your party falling in the polls) got a whole belt full of new ammunition to say this is just the same old backroom politics…not change at all.

Call if you’d like, even if it’s only to ask what time it is. Ha! Just kidding. But do call.

Regards,

Tom

Follow Tom on Twitter @tomforemancnn.

Find more of the Foreman Letters here.

Reporter's Note: Do presidents get snow days? I don’t know. But I do know this one gets a letter from me every day.

Tom Foreman | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

Dear Mr. President,

I have no interest in writing a serious letter today. Zero. Just as it was when I was a kid, I like to believe that a heavy snowfall is an open invitation to sledding, snowball fights, fort building, and curling up later with a blanket and hot chocolate while steam curls off of my frozen toes. Anything, but plain old work.

So instead I’ll just tell you a little story.

When I was a kid in South Dakota, my parents used to take my brother and sister and me up to the Black Hills in the dead of winter, to shovel the snow off of frozen lakes, and strap on our skates. Sometimes we would just spend hours cutting little patterns on the ice, and playing tag. Other times we’d drag another family and our hockey sticks along, for a frenzied game. Once my dad tied a rope to a metal snow saucer. A kid would climb on board; Dad would start skating in a big loop, pulling the rope and tightening his turns until we were swinging wildly at the end of the tether in a manic circle; and then he’d let go and you’d fly across the blue black surface of Sylvan Lake, ice crystals stinging your face, and the cold cracks booming through the ice beneath you. I saw a fish frozen in the ice one time, his white mouth gaping open as if winter came all in a rush and surprised him. For a second-grader, it was high drama.

One bitterly cold day, my brother Robert and I decided to give up on the skating and go sledding instead. We selected a particularly steep piece of terrain alongside the lake and began stomping out a trail between the lodgepole pines. Higher and higher we pushed up the slope, tramping with our boots, and packing the snow down like a luge run. Periodically we turned toward the lake to eye the daredevil path we were creating. We worked for a long time; smoothing and shaping it into a veritable gun barrel of ice. And the longer the trail grew, the more I had doubts about the wisdom of the whole endeavor, but being the younger brother, I kept them to myself.

We had only one sled, but we had a snow shovel too, which we knew how to ride like the kids in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” So when we finally decided that we had extended the run as far as we dared, we prepared ourselves for the first…and possibly only descent, depending on the injuries. We were pretty sure there would be some.

Robert, in a rare burst of magnanimity, decided that I deserved the honor of the sled. The must faster sled. The much, much faster sled. Or, as I liked to think of it, the death-mobile. And again, being the young brother, I dared not refuse for fear of being slapped with the crushing appellation, “You big baby.”

I did, however, quickly come up with a counter play. “O.K., great. But since you are taking the shovel, it’s only right that you get to go down first.” After some back and forth, and further delays for which we were both grateful, he agreed; because after all, even the “big brother” title can be sullied by any hint of cowardice.

If either one of us wanted to back out, the scope of our efforts had already made it impossible. Every extra minute we had spent sculpting the run to perfection to delay actually using it, had ironically also deepened the cosmic certainty that eventually we must. By making it so beautiful, so steep, so slick, and so daring, we inadvertently engineered ourselves out of any excuse for walking away.

Suddenly, the sun was behind the nearby hills, the purple sky going gray, our parents were making noise about leaving, and we mutually realized it was the proverbial “now or never.” So we pulled our gloves even tighter over our stiff fingers; cinched our hats down more firmly over our frostbitten ears; sniffled up our runny noses, and lowered ourselves into position.

“I’ll take off,” my brother said, “and you start right behind me.” I suppose his theory was if we stayed close enough we might enter the afterlife in each other’s company. “One. Two. Three. Go!”

We pushed off simultaneously, his shovel shooting ahead of me and throwing up a fine spray of crystals while he whooped and hollered. I was face down on my sled, hanging onto the steering mechanism like a man possessed as I ripped along right behind him. Our speed increased. The run roared beneath his shovel and sang beneath the steel runners of my sled. Faster and faster. Slight rises in the path that seemed negligible in construction, now became vaults which threw us skyward as we gained velocity.

It was all happening in a matter of seconds, but I saw him rocking more wildly at each landing, and felt my own sled careening from side to side, dangerously close to leaving the track and cracking my head like a walnut on a granite outcropping. The trees whipped past like pool cues in a barroom fight.

Only a short distance to go. The gray of the woods and lowering sky lightened over the lake. I sucked in a breath and vowed to hold on no matter what; like Shackleton, I would make it. Then the universe unraveled.

My brother slammed into the last bump, and was catapulted into the air. His shovel clanged off into the woods, and he crashed down, rolling, thundering against the snow, arms and legs flailing, and finally coming to a stop, stretched on his back across the trail in front of me. There wasn’t even time to scream. The metal runners shot across his stomach like twin Ginsu knives. My sled and I took flight. Suspended and sailing for just a moment, then pounding down, miraculously still aboard. The snow ran out, and the flat ice of the lake compressed against my chest through the sled. I kicked the toes of my plastic boots against the rime and rolled off, skidding to a stop as the sled went on. I scrambled back to the slope, sliding a step down for every one up, until I reached him, fearing the fratricide I’d surely committed.

He was lying there laughing, gasping for breath, and laughing some more. I collapsed alongside him and was soon consumed by laughter too. He was utterly uninjured.

Later, on the drive home, his belt buckle fell off, and we saw that the runner had neatly cut through all but a few wisps of his belt on either side. True story.

Hope you enjoy your snow day. Call if you can.

Regards,

Tom

Follow Tom on Twitter @tomforemancnn.

Find more of the Foreman Letters here.

Reporter's Note: The president went to Denmark and says he got a good deal on global climate change. I once went to Mexico and got a hammock for five dollars! And considering all the snow on the east coast, a hammock in Mexico sounds pretty good right now. Anyway, here’s my daily letter to the White House.

Tom Foreman | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

Dear Mr. President,

Forgive me, but I can’t help laughing over the idea that Nancy Pelosi had to leave the global warming summit early because a major snowstorm is bearing down on D.C. I know that this is a big, serious issue and all, but you’ve got to admit that is some fine irony. These are the things that make me believe God has a sense of humor.

I’m not sure what to make of your announcement of a “meaningful” deal with China and all the others on the climate over there in Copenhagen. Some people are giving you pats on the back, and others are saying it’s a sham. I have to admit it sounds kind of vague, but what do I know? Seems like the only way any of us will know for sure is to wait thirty years and see where we stand. Kind of like marriage.

I was once told that a hummingbird’s metabolism is so fast, that we appear to that little critter to be moving as slowly as a cloud…or an act of Congress. That’s how they can fly away from us so easily. Even when we run up, we look like enthusiastic glaciers. I don’t know if it’s really true. If I ever meet a talking hummingbird, I’ll ask.

In the meantime, I have been thinking about how that notion applies to a lot of issues we face. Global climate change, the aging of the population, the deficit, the management changes for the Washington Redskins; no matter how fast these matters may be moving on the grand stage of history…they appear to be absolutely creeping on the human scale. And of course that’s your whole problem. It’s just way too easy to push off dealing with long-term issues, when we have pressing short-term ones staring us in the face. Have you ever tried to discuss retirement planning with a 19 year old who wants lunch?

You asked for advice long ago, and that’s mine for today: For as much as you feel that global warming is an urgent matter; you need to remember that not even everyone who believes in the science of it, necessarily thinks we have to take action immediately. They’re hummingbirds, and they see the trouble creeping up on us with plenty of time ahead in which it can be addressed. They are on your side, but be careful. If you sound the alarm too loudly suggesting that all is lost unless we do something today, then what reason would they have to pay attention tomorrow?

I presume as you read this I will be trapped by snow, like a marmot in the Yukon. But I assure you, I won’t be trapped for long. Have cross-country skis, will travel! Call if you get a moment…guess who has a new Blackberry?

Regards,

Tom

Follow Tom on Twitter @tomforemancnn.

Find more of the Foreman Letters here.

President Obama arrived in Copenhagen on Friday morning for the final day of climate change talks.

CNN

President Obama spoke in Copenhagen on Friday to push for an agreement with world leaders on climate change.

The meeting at the United Nations Climate Change Conference included nearly 20 other heads of state and government leaders.

The following is a transcript of Obama's prepared remarks:

Good morning. It's an honor for me to join this distinguished group of leaders from nations around the world. We come together here in Copenhagen because climate change poses a grave and growing danger to our people. You would not be here unless you - like me - were convinced that this danger is real. This is not fiction, this is science. Unchecked, climate change will pose unacceptable risks to our security, our economies and our planet. That much we know.

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CNN

President Obama took a risk by heading to Copenhagen Thursday to take part in the final stage of the U.N. Climate Conference with no firm assurance of an agreement - but the trip is worth the effort, according to Fareed Zakaria, CNN foreign affairs analyst.

The conference has been hampered by tension between developed nations including the United States, and nations such as China and India, whose developing economies are reliant on carbon-intensive energy.

"It's important to get the Indians and the Chinese to take this seriously and agree on common goals," Zakaria said. "There's no better way to impress on them the seriousness of the issue than for Obama to go to the conference.

"That's leadership," he said. "You've got to take these risks. If it was worth going to pitch the Chicago Olympics, it was surely worth doing this." Obama traveled to Copenhagen in October to support Chicago, Illinois', bid for the 2016 Olympics, but the games were awarded to Rio de Janiero, Brazil.

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Reporter's Note: The voters have once again been polled about President Obama. The short story is, half of them think he’s doing a decent job, a little less than half don’t, and the rest are off buying shoes, or eating lunch, or something like that. The longer story is that he is wrestling with some tough issues and paying a political price. Thank goodness he gets free advice every day in my letter to the White House.

Tom Foreman | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

Dear Mr. President,

Is there something I don’t know about Joe Lieberman? Does he cheat at golf, or steal pens, or never pick up the check during Senatorial Happy Hour? I ask only because I am a little puzzled by all the venom being sprayed at him by many of your Democratic pals this week over the health care debate.

Certainly I can understand the frustration of folks who felt like he was proving to be a stumbling block to their dreams of having a government option for health insurance as part of this reform package. I get the equation: The measure could not pass without his vote; he wouldn’t give it if the public option remained in the legislation; so it was dropped to get him to play along. What I don’t get, (and I’m really not trying to be a wise guy about this) is what’s wrong with that?

I thought the whole point of democracy is that we elect people who we believe represent our interests (ha! I laugh every time I say that) and they duke it out over the issues. And that means sometimes they disagree. And sometimes they disagree down to the last vote. But it seems to me if people on the losing side in any debate want to be mad at someone it should be their leadership for letting the issue come down to such a fine line. Could Lieberman’s vote (or the vote of some other Senator) eventually make or break this legislation? Technically yes, but you could just as easily say every single person who votes against it is the “deciding” vote; why didn’t the proponents of this measure do a better job winning them over?

If you have reason to expect some kind of dirty dealing, I guess that would be a different matter. But I haven’t seen evidence of that here, any more than I do in pretty much every contentious vote up on the Hill. And btw, isn’t that what politics is all about?

One more thing: Although Lieberman generally votes with the Democrats, he had to run as an Independent to keep his seat because the party bosses were not exactly in his corner. Why is everyone so surprised now that he’s not going out of his way to be in theirs?

Just wondering. If you have any insights on all this, give me a call. I’m always ready to hear the case against a lawmaker, but in his case, I’m not sure I’ve heard it yet.

Regards,

Tom

Follow Tom on Twitter @tomforemancnn.

Find more of the Foreman Letters here.

As 2009 comes to an end, about half of the country is giving President Barack Obama a thumbs up.

Paul Steinhauser
CNN Deputy Political Director

As 2009 comes to an end, about half of the country is giving President Barack Obama a thumbs-up.

According to a CNN Poll of Polls compiled and released Thursday, Obama's approval rating in polls taken in the past week averages out to 50 percent, with 44 percent saying they disapprove.

"Obama's average approval rating was at 52 percent or 53 percent every week from early October to mid-November. Each week since then, his average approval rating has been between 48 percent and 50 percent," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "The bad news for the White House is that his current rating is down by roughly 15 points since the start of the year. The good news is that it appears to have stabilized as the end of the year approaches."

Since scientific polling began more than seven decades ago, only one popularly-elected president has ended his first calendar year in office with an approval rating below 50 percent.

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Reporter's Note: President Obama apparently wrote a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Maybe now he’ll invite him over to watch football too, or perhaps for a game of badminton on the South Lawn. My daily letter to the White House comes pre-steamed.

President Obama, left, sent a personal letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, a U.S. official says.

Tom Foreman | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

Dear Mr. President,

What? You wrote a letter to North Korea’s Kim Jong Il? Seriously? As you know, I try to be a patient man, and I don’t ask for much. Just a note when you can, maybe a call now and then. I always make allowances for your busy schedule, and assume the best when I don’t hear from you, which so far has been…uh…forever. So this, as they say in Asia, takes the rice cake!

Let’s got through a list of reasons why I deserved a letter more than the disagreeable Mr. Kim.

1) I have never, nor do I intend in the future, to lob missiles over Japan. It’s just not the kind of thing I would do and any of my friends will tell you so. Even if I had a brace of intercontinental missiles to heave into the sky, I would most likely save them for a special occasion like Fourth of July or Bastille Day and they would be purely for fun. Like sparklers or a corn maze.

2) As far as I can tell, I’ve never been involved in letting my people starve. My family and I once got caught on the Pennsylvania Turnpike very late and it took us much longer than expected to find a place for dinner, and even then it was a sort of dingy diner-joint, but that’s about as close as I’ve come to that particular crime against humanity.

3) I didn’t get my job just because Daddy had it first. I earned it.

4) Look all over my backyard all you want. Send in the U.N. inspectors. You will not find a single nuclear facility. I even keep the water heater turned down to a safe and environmentally-friendly level.

5) I have never captured any American journalists who strayed too close to my border. To the contrary, I have been trapped at long, tedious dinners by large groups of journalists before, and yet I have never taken retribution. (I must say, however, I once made a dazzling escape. I said I had to get change to tip the coat check guy and I ran for it. Ha!)

6) I’ll write back. One of the first rules of correspondence I learned as a child is, if you want to get mail, you have to send mail. And your response to my missives to the contrary (ahem!) I have generally found that to be true. Not to be mean about it, but frankly don’t expect any sympathy from me when you don’t hear anything back from your pen pal in North Korea. “Barack? What are you doing sitting here in the dark?” “Oh, I don’t know, Michelle. It’s been three weeks and I just expected something. At least a postcard…”

7) You can always safely and comfortably drive around my house because I never stage massive parades of soldiers just to show how important I am.

As you can tell, I am disappointed. I hope your new little friend can take time out of his busy schedule of repressing his people to write back, but I just want to suggest that attempts to cozy up to a bully often go badly. They make your real friends feel neglected, and they reward the bully for being one.

I hate to say it, but don’t call today even if you feel like it. Maybe I should start writing to someone else who might appreciate it more. Biden seems to have some time on his hands. And Joe Lieberman seems pretty lonely lately.

Regards,

Tom

Follow Tom on Twitter @tomforemancnn.

Find more of the Foreman Letters here.

The pharmaceutical and health products industry is the year's top industry, in terms of lobbying dollars spent.

Center for Responsive Politics

How much did drug makers spend to lobby the federal government? The pharmaceutical and health products industry is the year's top industry, in terms of lobbying dollars spent.

Take a look at a list of lobbyist spending, by sector.

And read more about how Big Pharma may have played a role in killing a proposal that allows pharmacies and wholesalers to import U.S.-approved medication from Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, where drug costs are far lower because of price controls.

Reporter's Note: President Obama continues to push the fluids, band-aids, and aspirin on the health care reform bill, trying to keep it alive. I keep working the same three to keep myself at the keyboard, writing my daily letters to the White House.

Tom Foreman | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

Dear Mr. President,

Well, I had to run back to New York again to work more on my special, All the Best, All the Worst of 2009. I’m rocking along on the train as I write, and hoping I can get back home soon because this will be my elder daughter’s last complete Christmas at home before heading off to college, and I want to enjoy every moment I can. Last night we decorated our tree and she put the star on top. And yes, that sound you heard was me sniffling. Can’t imagine our home without her or her sister. Oddly enough, I think my wife can easily imagine the house without me. Go figure. Ha!

Anyway, to business: I’ve been watching your fellow Dems flinging water out of their rowboat at a furious rate, trying to keep some version of health care reform afloat, and I have something you might want to think about. When I see a any person anywhere, in business, politics, military matters, dry cleaning, or even family finances, making huge compromises to reach some goal I assume it must be very important to that soul. Why else would he or she endure such turmoil and struggle? To that extent, their willingness to adjust their hopes to practicality is admirable. Sometimes, however, I have also seen people lose sight of what they are fighting for in the first place, and merely wind up battling to win.

As I like to put it, you have to be careful not to burn the furniture to heat the room, unless you are certain that is the only way to make it through the night. Whether you pass health care reform or not is up to you and your pals in Congress; and whether that is a good thing or not is up to the public. All I’m saying is make sure you ask yourself before your pen touches paper if what you wound up with was what you can live with, what you think we should live with, and not just a check mark in the political win column. Because if it is nothing more than that, you may find that it sets up innumerable losses down the line.

On a more pleasant note, it was lovely seeing you and Mrs. Obama at the Christmas in Washington concert. I noticed you looking my way, and I assume you wanted to come over and chat, but I understand why you didn’t make it. The room was crowded, it would have made the Secret Service nervous (Hey, I’m not a Salahi, but still…) and that snake, Ed Henry, was standing right between us.

No worries. Just call when you can.

Regards,

Tom

Follow Tom on Twitter @tomforemancnn.

Find more of the Foreman Letters here.

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste today urged President Barack Obama to veto the $446.8 billion omnibus spending bill. The bill, H.R. 3288, passed the House of Representatives on December 10, 2009 and the Senate on December 13, 2009. The omnibus is an amalgamation of six of the seven remaining fiscal year (FY) 2010 spending bills: Transportation, Housing and Urban Development; Commerce, Justice, Science; Labor/Health and Human Services, and Education; State and Foreign Operations; Financial Services and General Government, and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs. The omnibus appropriations bill contains thousands of earmarks worth billions of dollars and an average 12% increase in the departments and agencies funded in the six appropriations bills.

Here are some of the earmarks in the bill:

TRANSPORTATION-EDI (Economic Development Initiative)
• $1,000,000 by Senate appropriator Judd Gregg for repairs, restoration
and modernization of a theatre and construction of an additional space at the Portsmouth Music Hall
• $400,000 by House appropriator Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) for restoration
and renovation of the historic Ritz Theatre
• $400,000 by Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) for construction and renovation
for safety improvements at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden
• $350,000 by House appropriator Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.) and Rep. Robert
Brady (D-Pa.) for renovation of the Uptown Theatre
• $250,000 by Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) for construction of the Monroe
County Farmer’s Market
• $250,000 by Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) for building renovation of the
Murphy Theatre
• $194,000 by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) for completion of the
historic restoration project at the Historic Slater Mill
• $150,000 by House appropriator Jose Serrano for Safe Harbors of the
Hudson, Inc., for renovation and buildout of the Pregones Theatre
• $100,000 by Rep. House appropriator Calvert (R-Calif.) for construction
on the Santa Ana River Trail

FINANCIAL SERVICES-SBA
• $200,000 by House appropriator Marion Berry (D-Ark.) for the Arkansas
Commercial Driver Training Institute at Arkansas State University
• $150,000 by House appropriator James Moran (D-Va.) and Eleanor Holmes
Norton (D-D.C.) for education programs and exhibitions at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.
• $134,000 by House appropriator Dennis Rehberg (R-Mont.) for Montana
Growth Through Trade at the Montana World Trade Center
• $100,000 by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Rep. Henry Brown (R-S.C.)
for the Myrtle Beach International Trade and Conference Center

LABOR/HHS
• $500,000 by Senate appropriator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Charles Grassley
(R-Iowa) for exhibits relating to the Mississippi River at the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque
• $200,000 by Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Thad Cochran
(R-Miss.) for the Washington National Opera for set design, installation, and performing arts at libraries and schools
• $150,000 by Louis McIntosh Slaughter (D-N.Y.) for exhibits and
interactive displays at the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site Foundation in Buffalo

Gene Bloch
CNN New York Managing Editor

President Obama continues his economic focus with a trip to Home Depot in Alexandria, Virginia. The topic: the economic impact of energy efficiency for homes in its so-called Cash for Caulkers program. While there, he'll also meet with business leaders and get ideas from them. In his remarks he'll talk about energy saving ideas and retro-fitting homes.

We’ll drill down on the President’s plan for energy efficiency in American homes (likely offering up to $12,000 in incentives for homeowners to retrofit houses and make them more energy efficient), we’ll look back at a similar program CNNMoney covered in Babylon, NY earlier this year that has now expanded to 8 neighboring towns on Long Island and has been a boon for the local economy. Will a national program have the same impact?

Those better than expected signs on the economy keep trickling in, though they don’t mean much until the economy begins adding jobs.

Industrial production increased in November by a better than expected 0.8%, while economists had expected a half percent jump. Wholesale inflation as measured by the Producer Price Index jumped 1.8% in November, more than twice the gain expected, but most of that was due to a sharp run-up in energy prices.

Without food and energy, PPI’s so-called core rate was up half a percent.

The news comes as Federal Reserve policy makers meet in Washington – expect an announcement on policy tomorrow at about 2:15pm.

Bank of America pledged to step up small business lending on Monday, the same day President Obama asked the country’s major bank CEOs to do their part to help the economic recovery. Bank of America says it will increase small business lending by $5 billion next year. The bank’s small business lending fell 5% this year.

And Wells Fargo is joining the list of major banks that will pay back the TARP money loaned by the federal government. Wells says it will pay back the $25 billion it received during the crisis. And this morning, General Motors Chairman & CEO Ed Whitacre says the company will pay back $6.7 billion in government loans by next June. The company has also received $45 billion from Uncle Sam which it converted into an equity stake (meaning taxpayers own it).

And finally, whether it’s Goldman Sachs CEO saying the company is doing “God’s work,” Chris Farley appearing in new Direct TV ads, or the new AIG CEO calling Congress a bunch of “crazies” – they all qualify for some of the dumbest moments in business this year. In one of its smartest moments, CNNMoney compiled them.

Go here and check it out

Reporter's Note: President Obama met with some high-finance banker types to urge them to be more helpful to the recovery by making more loans available to taxpayers and easing up on some of the customer fees they are requiring. Ha! Good one! The subject of my daily letter to the big house on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Tom Foreman | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

Dear Mr. President,

While I appreciate your appeal to the better nature of those bankers, I suspect you are a bit like a rabbit appealing to the kinder side of wolf. Even if the wolf eats more slowly, the rabbit is still dinner.

The high finance crowd, (you know, the ones with gold Krugerrands stuffed into their penny loafers, and trophy wives who no longer bronze at the tanning salons, but instead are custom ordered with a platinum coating) has made it screamingly clear that they are not in the same boat with us; heaven forbid, they don’t even want to share our ocean. Oh sure, they’ll take our money to bail out their mistakes, and they’ll show up to have their picture taken with you, but if you think they have even the faintest glimmer of concern about the “greater good,” you’ve been sharing too many lunches with Geithner.

How many times do I have to say this? You keep hoping these guys and gals will see the error of their ways and realize their country needs help. You forget, however, that they don’t think they did anything wrong. Have you not heard these folks before Congress or in interviews? The way they tell it, their greed, manipulation of the markets, deceit, and gouging of customers had absolutely nothing to do with the problems we now face. CEO pay out of hand? Nonsense! Poor judgment in taking on outlandish risks to pad their own pockets? Poppycock!

What has happened, according to them, is some sort of freakish, economic natural disaster, in which they are victims too; huddling terrified in their corporate jets as they wing to Switzerland for dinner and a massage, worried sick that when the kids come home from boarding school for the holidays they may be forced to fly, gasp, commercial! (Uh…but not coach. Come on, let’s be serious.)

Whatever they said to you at your meeting, I can assure you what the real message was (and use your best Scrooge voice if you are reading this out loud): “Mr. President, we are not in the business of nation building or social assistance. We make money. For ourselves. And while we are proud defenders of the U.S., the truth is, we always thought that spelled ‘us,’ meaning…well, us…not all you rabble. Sure you bailed us out at a critical time by giving us a loan on terms that would make us leap from a cliff if we ever had to be so generous, and for that we happily say, ‘Thanks, suckers.’ But you did that for your own interests. And as the old saying goes, what have you done for us lately?”

You said that you “expect” them to help us rebuild? Yes, and I expect you to one day pick up the phone and give me a call. I expect to play lead guitar on the next Foo Fighters tour. I expect Lawrence Summers to flap his way through the night to bite into my ATM machine’s neck, and render my checking account immortal. And we see how all that is working out.

Seriously, you “expect” them to help? I’m sorry; I have to stop writing now. I’m laughing so hard I can’t see the keyboard.

Regards,

Tom

Follow Tom on Twitter @tomforemancnn.

Find more of the Foreman Letters here.

Kenneth Lewis is the CEO and chairman of Bank of America, the nation's largest bank.

Roland S. Martin
CNN Political Contributor

If you told me that I could take billions of dollars in bailout money from the government and shower myself and my fellow comrades on Wall Street with $140 billion in bonuses – and all I have to take is a tongue lashing from the president and nothing more, tell me where to sign up.

President Barack Obama and his administration have undertaken their latest round of berating Wall Street for its bad ways.

On CBS’ “60 Minutes” Sunday, the president bristled at questions about helping the banks, saying "I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street.”

You didn’t, but you have. In your defense, this economy stinks, and the mess of the Troubled Assets Relief Program was left behind by President George W. Bush’s Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, and you and your administration have been trying to figure it out, to no avail.

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