Robert Gibbs

“ I think it'll be more illuminated on Thursday, but the President believes that obviously there's a little bit of a push-pull here that we -- we need to ensure the recovery and reinvestment necessary to get our economy moving again.
There's virtually no way to bring down the deficit, long term, unless there is some economic growth. Continued unemployment, increasing unemployment, is certainly not a recipe for our ability to demonstrate progress on the fiscal side of the ledger. ”

“ Reform is important in order to cut the incredible increases in cost that we see each and every year as businesses and families and individuals struggle to keep up with the pace of health care inflation. What the President will talk about and begin to outline over the course of the next several weeks is to build on the reforms that we saw in the recovery plan, as I mentioned, on health IT that will begin to streamline the process and make it more affordable. ”

“ Two groups -- National Security Archive and CREW -- filed a suit to force the White House to locate up to perhaps 5 million missing emails and protect others. And the Justice Department filed to dismiss that suit -- the Bush Justice Department filed. You just missed a deadline on Friday, the Obama administration, to remove that Justice Department motion. So is it the Obama administration's position -- is it the same as the Bush administration position on the White House emails? And do you not want to have a full accounting of what might have been missed, lost during the Bush administration? ”

“ Any speculation about a task force or whatever aside, do you think that it's politically and practically possible at this time to tackle major Social Security reform when you've got all these other big economic challenges that the President has been talking about doing? ”

“ I think the President would say if we had significant legislation that began to address climate change and allowed us to spend even more money investing in alternative energies to ensure that we weren't adding to the amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, whether that's this year or next year, I think both of us would agree that that's a big change that we would welcome. ”

“ Well, I think that -- I think the discussions that were -- I mean, all of what we're talking about, whether it's fiscal responsibility, financial stability, health care, education, energy independence, recovery -- all of those are -- I think are contained in the larger economic challenges that this country faces right now. The President understands he wasn't elected to preside over a series of fundamentally easy choices and decisions to get us from where we are to where he knows this country can be. ”

“ I think I would posit that the recession was big at the end of the campaign. Again, I think there's an element first of tax fairness. And I think that -- I think this President understands that there have been many benefits for the few at the expense of a few benefits for the many; that through the recovery plan and in the coming years, the President believes it's important that those that have not seen much in the way of an increase in their paycheck have more money in their pockets. ”

“ The President and his team work every day on, as you saw today, implementing the recovery through a very strong -- the naming of a former IG at the Department of Interior that's used to rooting out waste and abuse, fiscal responsibility summit to get us on the pathway towards a sustainable budget. Work goes on in financial stability and later this week we'll have legislators down to talk about regulation in the financial industry. A lot goes on to continue to meet each and every one of these challenges. ”

“ The health IT in the economic recovery plan will make health care more affordable, will save patients' lives, and increase the quality and the outcome of the health care that millions of people are provided. ”

“ On Afghanistan, the Progressive Caucus plans to send a message to the President that they're a little frustrated with his decision to send more troops there. And Congresswoman Maxine Waters said Friday, "We don't want to send our young people off to war without really understanding what we're doing." Is the President concerned about these more liberal members and voters out there frustrated with his decision with Afghanistan? ”

“ You saw the President talk about, in Iowa and throughout the campaign, ways in which to strengthen the solvency and the longevity of Social Security. You'll see the President talk about, as I just talked about with Chip, take actions to reform our health care system, which will add life to the Medicare trust fund.
[REPORTER] : Speaking of the health care issue, one of the executive orders that I think some people expected the President to sign pretty quickly was something lifting some of the restrictions that President Bush had put on stem cell research. ”

“ And reports over the weekend about a budget -- that will be outlined in greater detail on Thursday -- that shows a deficit that was inherited before the stimulus of nearly $1.3 trillion that the President believes and the economic team believe that we can cut in at least half at the end of four years, the end of his first term. I think the American people are rightly concerned about the path of this economy, but also concerned that for many years we've had a borrow-to-spend attitude. ”

“ That may require those that shared in great benefits, huge benefits in the tax cuts from 2001 and 2003 -- again, importantly, for those making more than $250,000 a year, I think the top 1 percent of all wage earners in this country -- is fairness that the President believes is important. ”

“ But understand that the way the program is structured, and although the solvency may go to 2040 or 2041, there I think is great concern that the number of people paying in and the number of people -- what is paid in no longer equals what is going out. ”