Press Briefing by Dana Perino

Business Wire,  June 24, 2008  

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

WASHINGTON -- James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

12:36 P.M. EDT

MS. PERINO: One announcement. President Bush continues to call on the Senate to swiftly clear the pipeline of all pending nominations. Currently there are 394 nominations pending in the Senate. These nominations cumulatively represent more than 50,000 days of missed opportunity in roles that are critical to our nation's security and prosperity. Most of these nominations are for military promotions, career promotions, or non-controversial appointments whose terms expire at the end of this administration. And before leaving for its 4th of July recess the Senate should fulfill its constitutional obligations to provide these pending nominees a fair up or down vote. The President believes it's time for the Senate to finally judge the President's nominees by their qualifications and not by the political calendar.

With that, we'll take questions.

Q Consumer confidence dropped to its lowest level in 16 years. Clearly people aren't satisfied by what the President has done to try to stabilize the economy. What is the administration's reaction to this? And what can you do?

MS. PERINO: I think you've got to take a step back. One, I think that, first of all, we know that Americans are concerned about the economy; we have been concerned about the economy. And the President worked very hard to make sure that we put in place a stimulus package that was put in place earlier in the year. And we made it clear then, and we have continued to, that it's going to take a while for the stimulus to take effect.

We know that about 75 million Americans have received their checks -- that's about a little bit more than halfway through the process. There's some evidence that they are spending that money, and that's what the purpose was for, to -- people could do whatever they wanted with the money, but our economists believed that they would spend it. But it's going to take a while to see that reflected in economic numbers such as retail sales.

We are confident that it will have the impact that we thought it would towards the latter half of the year. We believe that the long-term resilience of our economy is very strong. And Secretary Paulson, last week, gave a speech in which he said -- and I consider him our best authority on the issue -- that our economy is resilient, deep and competitive, and that the long-term fundamentals are very strong, and that if it were him, he would not bet against the U.S. worker, the U.S. economy, or the U.S. financial system.

Q But when you did the stimulus package you weren't facing $4-a-gallon gasoline, and that's been a tremendous shock.

MS. PERINO: Sure. Gasoline was certainly high, because it was around that time that at least one reporter said that there might be $4 gasoline. So higher energy prices have been having an impact. That's one of the reasons that we're working to do something to send the market a signal that we want to increase supply so that we can start to bring back into balance the law of supply and demand.

It's going to take a while, and we've been very careful and cautious to make sure that we tell people there's no magic wand that anybody can wave. That's not just the President, but members of Congress, as well.

One thing that is happening on the energy front is an increase in conservation here in our own country, which is to be expected when you have higher prices. And that, coupled with aggressive research and development into new technologies, like battery-powered vehicles, will get us into a better position in the long run. But for the short term, it's important that we make sure everyone understands there's nothing we can do overnight.

Q What does the President think about John McCain's $300 million reward for somebody who comes up with a --

MS. PERINO: Haven't spoken to him about it, but obviously President Bush has been very interested in pushing R&D. And I think that since 2001 we've spent $21 billion on alternative fuel and efficiency type of technology.

And one thing that's very encouraging that the President has heard across the board from the private sector is that venture capitalists are increasingly investing in companies, entrepreneurial companies, that are looking to the next wave of energy technologies, or the next wave of vehicles that we'll be able to drive that, one, will be safe, but will also run on -- less polluting vehicles and ones that don't use traditional oil and gas.

Kathleen.

Q Dana, is the United States considering opening an interest section in Iran? How close are we to reaching a decision on that, and why would the U.S. do that?

MS. PERINO: Well, I think that Secretary Rice said it best yesterday when she said that there might be some ideas out -- floating out there, but there's nothing concrete at the moment. In regards to us reaching out and talking directly to the Iranians, President Bush goes out of his way every time he talks about the Iranian issue, which is often; he gets asked about it and he brings it up proactively himself.