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Press Briefing by Press Secretary Dana Perino
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For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary November 19, 2008

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Dana Perino James S. Brady Press Briefing
Room

˙ /news/releases/2008/11/20081119-2.wm.v.html ˙˙Press Briefings
˙˙Audio


12:05 P.M. EST

MS. PERINO: Good morning. A couple of announcements for you. This morning
the President and Mrs. Bush celebrated the reopening of the National
American History Museum and viewed a naturalization ceremony as part of the
occasion. I know I'm glad that it's back in business because I have a lot
of out of town guests that love to see it and I'm sure you do, too.

I want to point out to you today that at 12:30 p.m. this afternoon at the
National Press Club, HUD Secretary Steve Preston will give an important
speech on the latest steps the administration is taking to help keep
families in their homes. There are a number of programs that we already
have underway to help Americans avoid foreclosure. There's the FHASecure
program, the HOPE NOW program. And then out of HUD we have also Hope for
Homeowners, which was the new program created by Congress last summer.

In his speech today Secretary Preston will announce reforms to the Hope for
Homeowners program. The reforms will help more distressed borrowers
refinance into affordable government-backed mortgages. Specifically -- I'll
give you just three of the changes, and then I'll refer you to his speech.
One is to reduce program costs for lenders and borrowers. Two, help lenders
qualify more borrowers for the program. And three, put more borrowers into
sustainable mortgages with permanently lower monthly payments.

And then one fun announcement. Today we kick off the contest to name the
2008 National Thanksgiving Turkey. We have a couple of ideas, as I look out
into the room. (Laughter.) The President will pardon the turkey during the
annual ceremony, which will take place at the White House on November 26th.
And we encourage everyone to log on to our website, whitehouse.gov, to vote
for your favorite name for the National Thanksgiving Turkey. This year
marks the 61st anniversary of that presentation.

And with that, I can take your questions. Deb.

Q I just have a quick one on Iraq. The Hill is being briefed on the final
agreement. What happens if the Iraqi parliament does not approve it on
Monday -- or Sunday or Monday? Do you have to then go to the U.N., or what
happens there?

MS. PERINO: Well, our focus is on Plan A, and trying to get Plan A to work,
which is to get this agreement done. I think that all we need to do is to
have them -- have the reading, let the parliament debate, as you would in a
democratic society, and then have a vote. We think they'll be able to do it
later this week, or early next week.

Q So you don't think there's any Plan B that's going to take place?

MS. PERINO: We think we're on a good trajectory right now.

Q If I can follow up on that, Dana. In the past, lawmakers have not been
given a copy of that classified briefing. Can you just tell us whether they
will now and what the basic gist of that talk is going to be?

MS. PERINO: Members of Congress on the committees and those that have
expressed an interest have been given briefings all along the way. We've
had a concerted effort to make sure that they knew the pace of the
negotiations, the status of the negotiations; and the content of the
document. And we do have people up on the Hill today working to brief
Congress more, and they'll also hear from the Secretary of State and
Secretary of Defense as well. So I don't know exactly who else is getting
the briefings and at what levels of classification they're getting them,
but they have been briefed, and I'll just have to get back to you on
specifics if I can.

Q The Senate Republicans and Democrats right now are trying to work out
some sort of compromise on the auto bailout on the Hill. What kind of a
deal would be acceptable to you?

MS. PERINO: Well, Senator Reid appeared to foreshadow this morning that the
Congress will fail to address this issue before they leave. And I'd like to
just make a few points clear on that. One, there is legislation that's
being introduced by Senators Bond and Voinovich that the administration
supports. That proposal would redirect existing funds already appropriated
for the auto industry, rather than spending an additional $25 billion on
top of the $25 billion we already support using, as we've said over the
last few days.

That proposal of theirs would not rob the Treasury program of much needed
funds to help save and strengthen the financial system. The purpose of the
$700 billion was clearly intended for financial institutions, and we wanted
to keep that whole.

The Bond-Voinovich amendment would require that the auto manufacturers make
the hard choices necessary to become financially viable. The Reid proposal
does not. And we think that is a key difference. There's a difference
between restructuring a loan for viability and just an out and out bailout.
And we think that that is something that the American people would not
want. We think that the American taxpayer dollars should go to firms that
can prove long-term viability. And there's some hard decisions that they're
going to have to make in order to get there.

We believe that the Bond-Voinovich amendment would have bipartisan support
if Senator Reid would allow it to come to a vote. And we are extremely
concerned that he may not even be willing to allow a vote on such a
proposal. It's hard to imagine that the U.S. industry -- auto industry, in
it's current condition, that Senator Reid would just go home and
unilaterally decide that they don't need to have a vote on something that
actually could be supported for manufacturers that have a plan to become
financially viable.

Senator Reid said this morning that if the Senate fails to act, he would
hope that Secretary Paulson would just go ahead and use the TARP money.
There's no appetite for that, and Secretary Paulson discussed that
yesterday with members of Congress.

If the Congress fails to act, the most logical interpretation would be that
they don't agree than an additional $25 billion needs to be given to the
auto industry. And therefore we would hope that they would look at this
bipartisan solution of using the $25 billion that's already been agreed to,
authorized, and appropriated, and is there for the taking.

We support the Bond-Voinovich amendment. What we are concerned about is
that Congress could leave without acting on it. And if Congress leaves for
a two month vacation without having addressed this important issue, and
especially if the Senate leaves without Senator Reid even allowing a vote
on this amendment, then the Congress will bear responsibility for anything
that happens in the next couple of months during their long vacation.

Q So you take issue then with what Reid said -- you were obviously quoting
in there, but he says, well, if they're not able to work things out, he
says, "It will still be up to the White House and the Treasury Department."
So he's trying to say, no, you're going to be the ones to blame.

MS. PERINO: Look, I think if they don't act, what is clear is that they
don't agree that there needs to be an additional $25 billion for the auto
industry. And if he doesn't even allow a vote on it, it hardly seems that
it would be our fault.

Q What if they come back, though? There's been reports they might come back
after Thanksgiving.

MS. PERINO: I think you'd have to ask them. I don't think that they have
indicated that they would come back. Now if Congress doesn't act on the
proposal that the President can sign and a firm faces imminent failure,
then we would expect that the Congress would want to come back. But they've
certainly not said that they would. And I don't think that that would be
necessary. We have a bipartisan solution that could be voted on if they
would just allow a vote. And let's see how that goes. And if it doesn't
pass, well, then we'd have even more clarity as to where everybody stands.

Q How come you didn't put as many caveats on Wall Street in viability in
terms of $700 billion?

MS. PERINO: I'll disagree and say that there is. The firms that we have
invested in are ones that we think will hopefully make the taxpayers whole,
or even make the taxpayers money in the long run. And there are executive
compensation limits on the firms, and a whole list of things that they have
to agree to. And part of it is that they have to pay back the taxpayers,
and they have to pay them back first. And so that is one of the limits
we've put on them.

I'm going to go to April and I'll come back to you.

Q Dana, on the tape, what is the White House saying about the tape from al
Qaeda's number two? And also, does this raise the question again to the
government officials here and those who are trying to work on this bin
Laden case that he could, indeed, be dead? Does that raise that question
that he did not do this tape?

MS. PERINO: I'd have to refer you to the intelligence community for that. I
don't believe that we have any intelligence that suggests that he is not
living. But let me address the tape. What we have here is more despicable
and pathetic comments by al Qaeda terrorists. And in America, we are going
to have a smooth transition from one administration to the next, and that
will be a period of change in our country. What won't change is our
commitment as a country to fighting terrorism. And I think that these
comments just remind everybody of the kind of people that we're dealing
with.

Q A follow-up. Does this make it clear that it's not necessarily about
race, it's about the presidency, what al Qaeda is attacking? I mean,
granted, they've put a lot of racial statements in the statement, but it's
mostly about the power structure, what America represents, not --

MS. PERINO: I think that the comments that al Qaeda makes are totally
irrational. They attack everything and anything that is American. And so
they just look for targets of opportunity, both verbally and physically,
and that's why we have to stop them.

Mike.

Q Dana, you've had to deal with a lot of difficult economic news from the
podium. Why not use the second half of the TARP funding before you guys
leave office?

MS. PERINO: Well, the decision of whether or not to use the additional
funds -- he asked for the first $350 billion of the total $700 billion; I
want to make sure people don't think we're asking -- we're not asking for
an additional $350 billion. He used the first -- not quite, hasn't used all
of the $350 billion to start with.

And the decision whether to use the additional funds will be made by
Secretary Paulson and we would have to ask Congress to be able to use that.
And he's continuing to work and design and develop programs to be able to
help strengthen and make safe the financial system. We're starting to make
some headway in that, but if he doesn't think that he needs the additional
$350 billion right now, then I think the prudent thing to do is not to ask
for it.

Q Any reaction to Senator Inhofe's piece of legislation basically
suggesting freezing what is left of the first $350 billion and then forcing
the Treasury Secretary or the administration to go to Congress for an
affirmative vote to get access to the second $350 billion?

MS. PERINO: Well, I think that there is already a process in place that was
passed into law when we first got the rescue package that required a
notification and a request of Congress for the second $350 billion. And
when I say he hasn't used all of the first $350 billion, I think it's
close, I think there's only, like, $50 billion or $60 billion more.

So I haven't seen Senator Inhofe's specific proposal -- and we understand
that we are accountable to the Congress and that's why Secretary Paulson
and Fed Chairman Bernanke spent hours up on Capitol Hill yesterday, and
they'll continue to work with Congress as we go through this.

Mark.

Q Dana, Paulson took a pounding on the Hill from some members yesterday. Is
the White House satisfied with the degree of results from the TARP funds
that have been spent?

MS. PERINO: Well, we always want to see more and we want to see -- we want
to see more improvement. But that's what Secretary Paulson wants to see, as
well, and he gets up every day, hardly sleeps, working to make sure that
the investments that we're making will help solve the problem and get
credit moving again -- which we're starting to see; help stabilize and
strengthen the markets, which we're starting to see. But it's going to take
a while for all of this to shake out. The economy suffered a tremendous
shock.

And so we know that the Secretary of the Treasury and many other people
across the administration are working on this day in and day out and we're
satisfied that they're giving it their all. We just know that,
unfortunately, we're going to have to ask the American people for a little
bit of patience as we put these monies to work on their behalf. It's just
going to take a while.

Q Another issue. What is the U.S. going to do about the Somali pirates? And
has the President been briefed about the situation? Is unilateral or a
concerted effort planned?

MS. PERINO: The President has been briefed about it, and ensuring the
safety and well being of the crew is of paramount importance in preventing
or dealing with issues of piracy. We're working with other members of the
Security Council right now to see if there are actions that we can do to
more effectively fight against piracy and prevent it.

It's a very complicated issue. There's a lot of international laws that
factor into these efforts. One of the things that's clear is that piracy is
something that is affecting a lot more -- many more waters than any of us
would have known about. I mean, if you look at some of the charts that have
come out, that piracy is not something that just happened back in the
1500s. This has been going on for a while. The problem is now that it's
much more dangerous and they have a lot more weapons that they're using.
And the goal would be to try to help get this ship to safety, secure the
crew, and then work with our international partners to try to alleviate the
piracy problem full stop.

Q Dana.

MS. PERINO: I'm going to go to Ann.

Q Is President Bush planning any pardons before he leaves office? And will
he do what some other Presidents have done, and wait to release the names
of those pardons in the very last minutes of his administration?

MS. PERINO: We never discuss pardons and the process. Of course, anybody
who is eligible to request a pardon can do so, and they are given due
consideration at the Justice Department, at the Office of the Pardon
Attorney. I can't tell you when the President would be issuing pardons; I
expect that there would be some. I don't expect them in the last day,
though.

Paula.

Q On these HUD program changes, do you know -- do you have an estimate of
how many more or what percentage more of homeowners facing foreclosure
could be helped by this?

MS. PERINO: I don't. Hopefully, several hundred thousand more. But
Secretary Preston will be able to tell you more when he does his speech
here in about 20 minutes.

Q And I guess one of the other arguments is that the economic impact of
losing your home would be far worse than keeping it. So is there any
response to that --

MS. PERINO: I can barely hear you, Paula.

Q -- that one of the concerns is that the economic impact of losing a home
would be worse than keeping it. Is there any response to that?

MS. PERINO: We take -- I think that circumstances are different for lots of
different homeowners, and that's one of the reasons that this problem is
hard to solve. There's not a one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to
helping homeowners keep their homes. And so we're taking all of that into
consideration.

Mark.

Q Yes, sorry, Dana, back to the Iraq agreement again that the Hill is being
briefed on. Can you remind us again why this agreement is not the timetable
that the President fought so hard against, and also how this does not
attempt to tie President-elect Obama's hands in any way?

MS. PERINO: You remember back in the debate when we were talking about
arbitrary dates for withdrawal, that was when there were some members of
Congress just suggesting that we get our troops out of Iraq, win or lose,
without any sort of planning or thinking about the conditions on the
ground. What we've seen since then is that as a result of the surge, we've
been able to have tremendous successes on the security front, both because
of the bravery of our soldiers and the work that they've done, and also the
provincial reconstruction teams that are peopled by people from the State
Department and USDA and other places to try to help on the political and
diplomatic side of the equation, as well.

This is a mutually agreed to agreement. And that is one of the things that
is different about an arbitrary date for withdrawal, when you want -- when
you say you're going to leave, win or lose. We believe that the conditions
are such now that we are able to celebrate the victory that we've had so
far, and establish both a strategic framework agreement, which is a much
broader document and talks about all sorts of cooperation that we'll have
with Iraq from here on out -- from trade and health care and exchanges on
science, and a real strong bilateral agreement that you would hope we would
have with any of our allies.

These documents usually take years to negotiate. We've been able to
compress that and do it within the year so that we can look at the
conditions on the ground, work with the joint command and with the Iraqis
at the plans that they have. And some of the dates that are identified in
the document follow the joint command plan. So we are able to consider now
having a date that we could have our troops come home. And the details of
all of this will be finalized hopefully soon, and then hopefully you'll
hear from the President, as well.

Q So the difference is that we're winning now, so the time line is okay?

MS. PERINO: Well, look, this is a mutually agreed to agreement. This is two
sovereign countries, having worked for over a year on negotiations, coming
together, recognizing what the conditions on the ground are, what their
capabilities are, their competence, their confidence has increased
tremendously. And so that's why we're able to work on a date. Now,
remember, this is also a negotiation and in a -- you don't start at the
final point. We asked for some things that we didn't get, they asked for
some things that they didn't get. And we met them somewhere right in the
middle.

Q And this does not tie President-elect Obama's hand into a long-term
commitment?

MS. PERINO: Absolutely not. And both the next President and the Iraqis can
consider the conditions on the ground and think about making changes to
this either way. Hopefully we'll be in a situation where we can actually
speed up even more than we already are bringing our troops home. Remember,
we had 20 brigades in Iraq; we're going to get down to 14. That's sooner
than we thought we would be able to bring all of those troops home, and
hopefully we'll be able to bring more home sooner based on the conditions.

Les.

Q Thank you, Dana. Two questions. The new Capitol Visitors Center was
supposed to have cost $265 million -- and the final tab was $621 million
for, among other things, a 530-seat restaurant, 26 public bathrooms, and
two theaters. And my question: What is the White House's reaction to such
profligate spending by Congress?

MS. PERINO: Well, obviously it wouldn't be -- we would have preferred for
all projects to come in on time and under budget. That's not always
possible. And I think that the American people will benefit from having a
visitors center. And we'll all get to take our guests not only to the
American History Museum but to the Capitol, as well.

Q Does the President believe or reject the contention that the First
Amendment grants the 33-year-old Summum organization a right to erect a
monument to its Seven Aphorisms in the city of Pleasant Grove, Utah,
because there's a Ten Commandments monument?

MS. PERINO: Les, I really don't understand why you ask me these questions
at the briefing. It's kind of a waste of your time, and it's a waste of
everybody else's time. And it's really a waste of my time.

Q No. This was page one.

MS. PERINO: I missed it.

Q It was page one.

MS. PERINO: Lambros.

Q Ms. Perino, FYROM, before yesterday, addressed the main issue to --
(inaudible) -- against Greece delaying the solution at least for another
five years. I am wondering if the President is concerned, who wanted very
much -- you know that better than me -- filed to become a NATO member in
December 2008?

MS. PERINO: We've been disappointed with the pace of progress on getting
Macedonia into NATO. We think that they deserve it, and we're going to
continue to work on it.

Q Any -- (inaudible) -- the White House not to delay the solution for
another five years?

MS. PERINO: Look, we have 62 days, so I can't really talk about the next
five years.

Thank you.

END 12:23 P.M. EST
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