Lawrence Ari Fleischer

“ I think, given where our nation is on energy, given the fact that people are paying $2 a gallon for gasoline, and given the fact that people in California and several other states are at risk of brownouts and blackouts, whoever was in the White House right now would have similar ratings from the American people because it's a reflection of how serious the energy problem is in America. The difference is, President Bush has a comprehensive, fundamental solution to reduce our reliance on foreign oil, through conservation and through more exploration. ”

“ It's important to bring additional power plants onto line. But it's an excuse to lurch from one crisis to the next. If policymakers relax, this nation still has fundamental energy imbalances that can only be addressed, in the President's opinion, through greater conservation and through increased exploration and through fixing America's infrastructure. ”

“ We are a nation that is increasingly consuming energy, as a result of the strength of the Internet economy, and that trend is foreseen to continue well into the future. And the President believes very strongly that the best way to address it is in a comprehensive, fundamental way that solves this problem once and for all, so the American people do not have to lurch from crisis to crisis. ”

“ He doesn't look at it as if he's losing ground or if somebody else is losing or gaining ground. He views it as, will patients get the protections they need in their dealings with HMOs? Will people be able to keep their health insurance as a result of the legislation that the Congress proposes, or will that legislation result in such increased liability expenses that people are unable to get their insurance through their employers anymore. ”

“ The President has been unequivocal that he intends to protect patients, and that means preventing any legislation from being signed into law if it means that patients are going to lose their insurance. In the meeting yesterday with House members, the President saw that the likelihood of a patient dying in a hospital is three times more likely for someone who does not have insurance than for somebody who does. ”

“ All the votes seem to be lopsided, almost party-line votes, where very few Democrats are willing to cross parties. The Democrats are voting on block. And that's a sign that the Democrats are not willing to compromise, at a time when to get patient protections to people, to get 90 percent of what everybody agrees to, signed into law, there's a focus on voting on block to create a bill that everyone knows has a poison pill, where 10 percent of the poison stands in the way of 90 percent of the remedy. ”

“ The United States enjoys an important security relationship with Japan. There's a very clever man here with a sign over his head that has his name. Bill. Q Thank you. I am new. That's the problem. MR. FLEISCHER: Welcome, Bill. Q Thank you. Given the fact that researchers have discovered and isolated stem cells of adult fatty tissue, and billions of stem cells are discarded every day in umbilical blood in hospitals, and being that the President is pro-life, will he resist efforts to continue creating human embryos, robbing them of the stem cells and then destroying those embryos? ”

“ And he is cautious about any actions the Congress would take that would increase American reliance on unstable foreign supplies of oil. He does worry that we are a country that seems to lurch from energy crisis to energy crisis. And even though there are some encouraging signs -- a new power plant went on in California -- the margin of error in California is far too small for anyone to rejoice. ”

“ The invitation -- first of all, the President is going to welcome to the White House on July 4th thousands of people who work for the government and their families, so they can have an enjoyable July 4th, watching the fireworks. In the past, there have been 11,000 people on the lawn of the White House, and it was too many people to be able to have any type of enjoyable event. So this year, and on a rotating basis, everybody will be covered over the course of the four years, so the gates will be open to all White House employees and their families. ”

“ Some days it goes up, some days it goes down. But the President has emerged from one of the closest elections in American history to have received solid support from the American people. And the best evidence of that is the fact that the President's agenda is moving forward on the Hill, and gone are the days in Washington where people are talking about gridlock. Instead, people are talking about getting things done. ”

“ Our nation's refineries are running full out. And any way that can expand them, whether it's an expansion of an existing refinery or whether it's the building of new ones, will help create more supply, which will get the price down for the consumers at the pump. Q On the subject of what's going on in the Senate, Republicans have been pretty direct in criticizing the Democrats for holding up this legislation. Senator Murkowski today said that if they continue to delay, they're threatening the economic security of this country. ”

“ You can't get compressed hydrogen down at your Exxon station. But the people who build these fuel-cell cars say if there were incentives for energy companies to start doing that, that we could see fuel-cell cars, clean technology on the roads very soon. ”

“ The ultimate outcome gets determined often by the conference committees. So I think it's important and the President believes that it's important to continue to work with the House of Representatives, to continue to work with the Senate, to see if the Senate makes any changes here in the last few days of the debate on the bill, potentially. But I think it's always important to give Congress time to work things out. ”

“ There is a uniformity and a benefit to having a national standard when it comes to health insurance. And putting court cases in state court threatens that uniformity and, therefore, threatens the ability of people to have insurance. Q On the hydrogen cars the President saw today, miraculous devices, available -- the technology is available today. The problem has always been infrastructure. ”

“ The President thinks it will be very helpful for people who are paying sky-high bills for gasoline, for electricity, and for people who worry about whether their lights are going to go on or have additional blackouts, for the Senate to set a date so that we know that an energy plan can and will be received in the Senate. ”

“ Well, I'm sure that Senator Murkowski is just thinking back to the things that were said two months ago by Senator Daschle, when Senator Daschle indicated that there is an urgent need to move on energy, that people are paying very high prices. So there is a lot of agreement in the Senate that there is an immediate short-term problem that needs to be addressed, and that's why the President believes the Senate will act within its responsibility. ”

“ It allows somebody to go to an emergency room without having to dial an 800 number. And those are the areas that average patients care most about. There are unrelated provisions in there, 10 percent of the bill, that deals with liability issues. The President believes people should have a right to go to court. But then, the bill bogs down on a question of whether it should be state court or federal court, whether there should be no caps when people go to court, or whether the caps should be set at a very high level of $5 million. ”

“ The President believes very much that many of these issues would be addressed by a continuous focus on technology. The technology can make amazing changes in our society. Just as energy efficiency as a result of technology has saved the nation the construction of many power plants, it's made the nation a much more energy-efficient country because of the technological changes that have taken place. Q Ari, about last night, speaking of money issues, last night the Republicans raised over $20 million at the fundraiser. ”

“ And the President believes that the market will respond, just as the market has responded to natural gas vehicles, for example. The more vehicles that get powered with natural gas, the more gas stations respond and have pumps that pump natural gas. ”

“ The President believes that people should work hard to enter into agreements. And the President believes that there's too much litigation in our society, generally speaking. Q Ari, when you say the President will discuss the ruling, who will he discuss it with? ”