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Press Gaggle by Press Secretary Dana Perino
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For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary November 11, 2008

Press Gaggle by Press Secretary Dana Perino Intrepid Sea, Air _ New York,
New York

˙˙Press Briefings


10:47 A.M. EST

MS. PERINO: All right, so, sorry that we couldn't do this on the plane, but
I -- as I told you I ran out of time and doing the gaggle on ascent -- or
on descent has proved dangerous in the past. So thanks for gathering here.

The President is here at the USS Intrepid. This is the aircraft carrier
that came -- that left active service in 1982. About two years ago it began
a major restoration, and this ceremony is the official reopening. Nearly
55,000 Americans have served aboard the Intrepid, and some of them will be
in the audience for the speech. The President will pay tribute to them. I
will see if I can confirm if some of the gentlemen that he met when he came
off Marine One, if they were -- if some of those gentlemen served on the
USS Intrepid. We'll find that out for you, okay?

The President will tell the remarkable story of the Intrepid, which served
in World War II, Vietnam, the space program, and then a variety of other
missions. He will talk about the new generation of Americans serving in
uniform today, including five of the outstanding service members, one from
each branch of the Armed Forces, who flew up with him to New York. Their
names are Chief Petty Officer Shenequa Cox, U.S. Navy -- she's from Dallas,
Texas; Petty Officer First Class Christopher "Chris" Hutto, U.S. Coast
Guard -- Augusta, Georgia; Staff Sergeant Michael Noyce-Merino, he's with
the National Guard -- is that right? I don't know, I don't have their full
names on here. Oh, you have a backgrounder. You know what, I'm not going to
read all these out for you. I'll just tell you the rest of their names.
Their backgrounders with their bio is out from the White House, so you'll
have that. Sergeant John Badon and Senior Airman Alicia Goetschel. Since I
don't have their full information here, I'll just refer you to that
backgrounder.

They've been invited --

Q Did they talk to the President?

MS. PERINO: They did. They spent almost the entire flight from Washington
to New York with the President. And so they had a chance to meet with him.
He told me that they were very inspiring and a very impressive group of
people, and he enjoyed spending time with them very much.

A couple of facts for you. Under this administration we have nearly doubled
funding for veterans over the past seven years -- provided more than $1
billion over the past three years for the VA to support traumatic brain
injury and post-traumatic stress disorder -- both the research and the
treatment of that disorder; expanding the time that family members of
injured service members can take away from work to care for loved ones --
that's something that we announced more recently; made it easier for
active-duty service members to transfer unused education benefits to family
-- that was part of the legislation that we worked on, one of the things
that the military members said that they wanted the most. And since taking
office, we helped enroll more than 1.9 million veterans in the health care
system, and we've also cut the number of homeless veterans by nearly 40
percent. But there's no time to waste and there's more work to do in that
regard.

Had a lot of questions today about two reports, one in The New York Times
and The Washington Post that were sourced to an unidentified aide,
suggesting that they knew what the President and President-elect Obama had
spoken about yesterday in regards to the economy. What I would tell you
about that is that they did speak about a range of issues, both domestic
and international, and they did spend some time talking about the economy.
But in no way did President Bush suggest that there was a quid pro quo when
it came to Colombia free trade agreement or the other free trade
agreements. They both shared their ideas as to what could be done to help
improve the economy. President Bush has long stood for the free trade
agreements. He believes that they can and should pass on their merits. We
are a country that should be open to foreign investment and also we should
try to continue to grow our export business, which has been one of the
things -- the bright spots in our economy, even during this downturn.

We have 20 leaders that are going to gather together Friday and Saturday in
our nation's capital to talk about the financial markets, and one of the
things that the President will be talking about there is the importance of
free trade. But while there's been a lot of discussion in regards to what
the Democrats may or may not propose in regards to a second stimulus, as
well as discussion about the auto industry, we have said we are willing to
listen to ideas that the Democrats would come forth with if they have some
on how to accelerate loans to the auto industry through that 136 program
through the Energy Department. We've been saying that for a few days. We're
anxious to see if the Democrats are going to come forward with anything. We
don't think we've seen anything yet.

I've also gotten several requests wanting to know if there is irritation at
the White House towards the Obama team, and you're not going to hear that
from me, because I think when you're dealing with unidentified aides, as we
have done over the past eight years, from all different types of aides that
choose to be nameless rather than to say what they feel like they want to
say on the record -- it happens. And we just want to make sure that we let
everybody know that the President did not suggest a quid pro quo, but he
did talk about the merits of free trade in hopes that the next
administration will recognize that not only is that good for our businesses
-- especially if you want to create jobs, one of the best ways to do that
is to open up new markets for our businesses and our entrepreneurs.

And we've talked about, when it comes to Colombia -- in Colombia our goods
go there and are taxed at a high rate, whereas the Colombian goods come
into our country free of charge. We think that that's unfair, and sitting
in front of Congress right now is the opportunity to change that. We also
are pushing for free trade agreements with South Korea and Panama, and we
think that by doing so, we would be able to help create a better job market
and also bring in more money into our economy.

Q Dana, so just to make that even clearer, is it wrong to say that the
President told President-elect Obama that he would consider loans to
automakers if Congress passed the free trade agreement or took up the free
trade agreement?

MS. PERINO: As I said, there was no linkage between --

Q So this was an incorrect report?

MS. PERINO: Well, look, there's two anonymous aides -- or one anonymous
aide who is apparently telling this story. I know from some reporters who
told me that they were encouraged by others on the Obama team not to write
that story because it was inaccurate. So, look, I'll let unidentified aides
defend themselves, if you guys can find them. But I can tell you here, on
the record, not afraid to say it, the President does support free trade;
that's no secret. Everyone knows the President has talked about that a lot.
He even spent time in his State of the Union address talking about the
concerns he has about protectionism and isolationism, which could lead to a
further weakening of our economy. That's what he's trying to work against.
And when he has the leaders here this weekend, he's going to talk a lot
about that.

And tomorrow at 3:00 p.m., there will be an on-the-record but off-camera
briefing by our sherpa Dave -- I'm sorry, our sherpa Dan Price from the
NSC, for that meeting, and Dave McCormick of the Treasury Department, the
Assistant Secretary for International Affairs. They will both be there to
brief and set up that meeting for you tomorrow.

Q Dana, anything from the President's conversation either yesterday with
President-elect Obama or from other Democratic leaders that would give them
hope that the free trade deals would get approved before he leaves office?

MS. PERINO: Not that I'm aware of. I think that we've just been talking
with members of Congress to the extent that they're in town and that
they're in touch, as they start to shape their agenda for next week. It's
very unclear what the Democrats will or won't do next week when they have
their lame duck. We've seen a lot of trial balloons floated out there, but
there's no concrete proposals.

And so I think yesterday that both the President and the President-elect
put forward ideas that they had to help improve the economy. That's, I
think, the goal that both leaders share. And as I said yesterday, they have
policy differences, but that doesn't mean they're not both interested in
helping improve the economy for the benefit of American citizens. But also,
President Bush is thinking of the leaders around the country who are coming
here this weekend, and he wants to make sure that they know that America is
open for business.

Q Putting aside the newspaper reports about suggestions that the President
made, would he be supportive of an economic stimulus package that include
-- as long as the free trade agreements were also given an up or down vote?

MS. PERINO: You're trying to get me to do the same thing that that article
did. I'm saying that the President believes that the free trade agreement
should be given an up or down vote on their merits. And how Congress puts a
package together, or even if they put a package together, will be up to the
Democratic leadership. And we really don't know what they're going to do.

Q But would the administration be --

MS. PERINO: The President supports the free trade agreements on their
merits. When it comes to a second stimulus package, what I have told you
for a week or so is that so far we have not seen something that would
stimulate the economy right away. We want to promptly help the economy, and
the best way for us to do that is to implement the rescue package that we
are currently doing to help improve the credit markets. That's at the root
-- that's the root cause of our problems.

Some of the other suggestions that have been floated by Democrats wouldn't
put a lot of money into the economy right away. If you want to stimulate
the economy, that would be the test that we think that you would have to
pass. We're willing to listen to their ideas of how they would like to move
forward; open to suggestions as to what they think needs to be done.

But what we really also need to see them do is to talk with their
Republican counterparts, because it does take three to tango in this town,
and there's a House and a Senate. There are a lot of Republicans who need
to be heard on this because they can help push something forward, or not --
they could also prevent something from going forward. So we'd like to see
them actually exercise some of this bipartisanship that they're talking
about.

Q One thing you and other administration officials have said repeatedly is
that passing the free trade agreements would stimulate the economy in the
short term. Therefore, if the Democrats do come up with a stimulus package
with their Republican counterparts, would you want the free trade
agreements to be a part of that package?

MS. PERINO: I think that's a hypothetical that I'm not going to be able to
answer, because I don't know what kind of package the Democrats are going
to put together. So, say they put something together next week and then you
would come back to me and say, but you said he would support it if the free
trade agreements were attached. I'm not going to go down that road. What I
will tell you is we support the free trade agreements, and we're willing to
listen to what Democrats think about what they would want to put forward in
terms of a package that would stimulate the economy.

So far, what we've seen would not actually stimulate the economy and get
money moving into the system again. That doesn't mean that they don't have
good ideas across the board, but to call it a stimulus package would be a
stretch at this point.

Q Dana, what is the President's position on this aid for the auto industry,
beyond any linkage or anything, but just -- and beyond the loans that were
approved by Congress earlier this year? Is he open to more help for the
auto industry right now?

MS. PERINO: What we've said is that Congress created a loan program for the
auto industry. When they were discussing the TARP program, Troubled Asset
Relief Program, as we read it, we don't see anything in there that would
give us the authority to help individual industries, but we are willing to
listen to Congress as to how they might choose or not choose to provide
additional authorities so that we can accelerate those loans to viable
companies, as laid out in the statute.

We haven't seen that yet. We understand that they're going through a very
difficult time. There's been business decisions they've made over the years
that have led to this situation, but we have gone as far as we can with the
authority Congress has given us in order to help industries. We rushed
through those regulations to write the rules so that they could apply for
those loans. If they believe that that's not enough for them, they need to
continue to work with Democrats, and then we'll see what they can come
forward with.

Q Do you think something is more that's needed for the auto industry beyond
what's already in there?

MS. PERINO: I think that we'll just have -- I think we'll have to see what
the Democrats decide to put forward, and what they can work out with their
Republican counterparts, if anything.

Q He's not ruling it out.

MS. PERINO: I'm saying that we are willing to listen to them if they can
figure out a way to give us more authority to accelerate loans to viable
companies, as laid out in the legislation.

Q So you're saying that under the TARP there is no authority to help the
automakers.

MS. PERINO: That has been our position, that the Troubled Asset Relief
Program was for financial institutions, and that definition doesn't
translate over to individual industries. But if Congress wants to work out
a way to help us accelerate the loans that we have rushed through to try to
get to them, we could listen to that. Over the weekend, Speaker Pelosi and
Leader Reid sent a letter to the Treasury Secretary asking him to study the
feasibility of using the TARP program. And I believe he's still reviewing
that letter and would respond accordingly, but I don't have an answer from
him yet.

Q So, just -- sorry, just to clear that up, accelerate the loans they have
already been given -- just speed up the way they can actually get to the
companies?

MS. PERINO: That's right.

Q A couple weeks ago at the briefing, you mentioned GMAC and the finance
arms of the automakers potentially applying for TARP and access. Is that
now just -- you guys gave gone through that?

MS. PERINO: I would refer you to the Treasury Department for more, as
they've tried to look at -- they've exhausted all possibilities to try to
find out how they could help them, but I believe that because it's not the
parent company, how the legislation is written in the original intent of
Congress, which we are trying to follow and follow quickly, that's not
included.

END 11:00 A.M. EST

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