Press Briefing by Dana Perino

Business Wire, April 15, 2008

MS. PERINO: Sheryl, I really don't think that the President is planning to spend a lot of time talking about the issues of Iraq with the Pope. There's many different issues that they can talk about, all the ones that I listed before in response to Jennifer's question.

But I do think that the root cause of -- the root issue of terrorism and extremism is something that they will talk about. And the President will thank Pope Benedict for deciding to go and visit Ground Zero and pay his respects there, and the President thinks that's a very important gesture.

Jim.

Q Dana, we often get a readout of world leaders the President is talking to. How often does he actually talk to the Pope?

MS. PERINO: Not very often. Obviously he was there last year when he saw him in June. I can't even remember if there's been a phone call, so it's not very often.

Q Is there ever a regular -- is there ever a phone call? I mean, would he ever be in the rotation of world leaders?

MS. PERINO: Let me check for you.

Q Dana, another visitor to the White House this week will be British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and he's coming at a time when oil prices are hitting a new peak. Brown is also pushing for oil-producing countries to increase production, rather significantly, to ease prices. Is the President ready to join in a concerted effort, a new push for OPEC, by oil-consuming countries?

MS. PERINO: I think it's a little premature to say exactly what the President and Prime Minister Brown will talk about, but certainly economic issues is sure to be high on the agenda. And within that, energy is one of the issues. Let's, I think, let the meeting take place and see if anything comes out of that in terms of a concerted effort.

But I think that if you look back to what the President has said, and then the Vice President, across the board, the administration, along with other countries that are dependent on foreign sources of energy, we do believe that because there is a supply and demand problem, that we would like to see more supply. OPEC has disagreed and they think that the market is well-supplied. So, at the same time, the other thing that we have to do as developed countries is to work on technologies that will reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy, but also be clean-burning so that we can prevent pollutants from going into the air, as well as combat the problems -- the challenges that are posed by global climate change. So let's let the meeting take place.

Q And what does the President think about Senator McCain's proposal for a gas tax holiday during the summer?

MS. PERINO: Well, as I said this morning, I'm not going to comment specifically on the proposal. I know in the world of -- in a campaign, everybody wants a quick reaction. The White House, when new policy proposals are poised to the White House, it's not always necessarily the quickest way to get an answer. In theory and in our philosophy, we are always for lower taxes. And I think what John McCain has laid out is his proposal for how he would get there. But anytime there's a proposal such as that, whether it would come from Senator McCain or Senator Kennedy or Senator Dodd, there's a policy process we go through to look at that.