Daily economic briefings disappear from Obama’s White House schedule

At some point during the first two years of his administration, President Obama stopped receiving the daily economic briefing that he requested when he took office.

Former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs announced at his own first daily briefing reporters that Obama asked for the daily economic briefing, described then as comparable to the daily intelligence briefing the president gets every morning.

“The president asked that this be added every day to his schedule,” Gibbs said at the time. Gibbs added that Obama believed it is “important that each day he receive the most up to date information as it relates to the economy.”

{mosads}But at some point, the daily economic briefings stopped showing up on Obama’s daily schedule.

White House officials said the meetings slowly petered out, but Obama still receives a daily economic briefing on paper.

“The president requests regular meetings several times a week and daily updates from his economic policy team, just as he does with his national security team and other senior advisers in the White House,” one administration official said.

Additionally, the official said, the president gets daily briefing documents from his National Economic Council and regular updates from Vice President Biden.

White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said the president receives updates and briefings on the economy in a number of ways.

Brundage said in an email that “the president routinely meets with
members of his economic team, both on an individual basis and in
groups, and receives updates from his economic staff from their daily
staff meeting.”

“In addition, he receives daily briefing documents from the National
Economic Council and gets regular updates from the vice president on a
series of issues, including the ongoing deficit negotiations,” Brundage
said. “The president also requests meetings with outside economists and
experts.”

When Obama entered office, the economy was shedding as many as 600,000 jobs a month and the nation was in the midst of a deep recession.

Since then, the economy has recovered to a degree, though it remains a huge political issue and is seen as the big topic for the 2012 presidential race.

The national unemployment rate for May was 9.1 percent, and while the sum of 54,000 jobs added was far less than the administration had hoped, it did bring the streak of months with positive job growth to 15.

— This story was updated at 8:22 p.m.