Robert Gibbs

“ This President has decided that we're going to make tough choices and invest in health care and education and energy independence in order to ensure sustained long-term economic growth. And one of the only ways we're going to do that is to deal with the health care problem. ”

“ The number of people that lack access increase every year. Each year more and more businesses are forced to either lay off people or can't afford to offer health care to their employees, because of the sky rocketing inflation for medical costs. That's why the President sought, and thought it was important to seek funding for medical technology and health IT that would begin the process of driving down costs by bringing our health care system into the electronic age. ”

“ I think many people have written today in stories about a number of people that opposed health care reform 15 years ago, 15 or so years ago, were in a room today with others that wanted health care reform working together to try to come to a solution. The President wanted to get stakeholders involved from differing viewpoints, representing different constituencies, into the same room to begin this process, understanding that there are shared goals, but there may be differences as to how to achieve them. ”

“ Robert, can you tell us about the Columbus trip tomorrow, and is this just to talk about the job situation, or is there a larger -- larger point here?
GIBBS: Well, I think that we'll have a little bit more information on it later on today. Obviously Ohio has been hard hit by the economic crisis that we face. They've seen a lot of job loss. The President will certainly talk about the figures that will come out tomorrow, and also talk about how the Recovery and Reinvestment Plan is being implemented, and implemented in a way that will save and create jobs. ”

“ But what we have to do and what the President believes strongly is that we can -- we cannot wait for health care reform any longer; that we have to do all that we can. And I think today's event was an important start in that process. ”

“ The President is focused on a strategy that he believes will best get our economy moving again quickly but also get our economy in a position to grow continually for the long term. That may or may not be what gyrates the stock market up or down on any given day. The President is focused instead on that long-term strategy for the American people. ”

“ Obviously Afghanistan is something that presents a great challenge not just for our country but for the rest of the world. I would expect that Iran would be invited, as a neighbor, and that we hope, if they decide to come, that they'll bring constructive solutions and ideas in working with the international community to address the challenges that are involved in Afghanistan. ”

“ David, as I've said before and the President believes, that he's here to look at the long-term solutions and to get our country on a path to create jobs, stabilize our financial system, deal with our home foreclosure crisis, most importantly, as I said, get people back to work. ”

“ I'm sure that you could certainly rationalize virtually every priority waiting until a different time to do that. I think the President believes that we should not miss the important opportunity to finally get something done for the American people.
[REPORTER] : On that point, do you -- it seems like -- he talked about it today, he said that it's the very foundation of our economy, health care, and a lot of things have been wrapped into the economic crisis. ”

“ The President wants to have a lengthy discussion on what any benefit would look like and how we can get a process moved forward that finally cuts the cost for health care for businesses and for families. ”

“ It is important that we take a number of steps. I've told you quite a bit about the Economic Recovery and the Reinvestment Plan. The best way to get people back to buying cars is to put them to work, see their wages go up, put some money back in their pockets. ”

“ General Motors says its auditors have raised doubts about its ability to survive without bankruptcy, and now General Electric says that it may have -- may face a cut in its credit rating, which raises some concern that it might have to also resort to federal bailout money. ”

“ There's -- I do think the American people are going to have crisis fatigue. They want somebody to begin to lessen those crises and start solving some of these problems for the American people. And I think they have confidence that this President and this Congress will be able to work together to get something done and deal with many of those challenges that they face in their everyday lives.
Yes, sir.
[REPORTER] : About the markets, have there been conversations within the White House about how best the White House can respond to or should respond to the ups and downs in the markets? ”

“ You've said that the goal is to have this done by the end of the year. I understand that as a goal, but can you explain why, given the history and the complexity to this, why that's feasible, how that's feasible?
GIBBS: Well, again, I think it's feasible largely because we can't wait for it to happen. The problem has only gotten more intense over the past few years. ”