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Press Gaggle by Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto
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For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary October 15, 2008

Press Gaggle by Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto Aboard Air Force One En
route Grand Rapids, Michigan

˙˙Press Briefings


11:43 A.M. EDT

MR. FRATTO: How are you doing? We're on our way to Michigan, as you know.
Before departing the White House this morning the President had the Cabinet
meeting. He also participated in a video teleconference with Iraqi
provincial reconstruction team leaders and brigade combat commanders.

Shortly after taking off the President called Prime Minister Harper of
Canada to congratulate him on his election. They had a good conversation.
They spent some time talking about the global financial crisis and the
efforts by the G8, certainly the U.S., and what European nations are doing
to address the crisis.

At 12:45 p.m., after landing in Grand Rapids, the President will
participate in a lunch with local business leaders, will discuss the
economy -- you'll get a backgrounder of the participants. And following the
lunch, the President will make some remarks to the pool. And this afternoon
the President will attend a Congressional Trust 2008 reception. This is at
a private residence in Ada, Michigan. And that event is supporting the
Congressional Trust 2008, which, as you know, is a joint RNC/NRCC Committee
helping Republicans across the country.

Questions.

Q What does the President think about the drop in retail sales? And does
this foreshadow basically a recession on our hands in the fourth quarter?

MR. FRATTO: We've been through how you label what the economic conditions
are. There's no question -- not just the recent retail sales data, but the
payroll data that we've seen in recent months and some other economic data
recently, combined with this severe shock because of credit, that our
economy is in a weak state right now and it's going to take some time to
recover. And I think everyone is very understanding that we're looking at
some period of time where growth is going to be weak.

So what we're focused on is putting in place the policies right now as
quickly as possible that will support growth in the future. That's what we
should be focused on, and that's where we're focused on.

Q Can you tell us what the President knows about Vice President Cheney's
procedure?

MR. FRATTO: Sure, yes, I'm sorry, I'm glad you asked. The President saw the
Vice President this morning. The Vice President was in the morning
briefings with the President, as he is usually, and the Vice President
updated the President on his health condition that he'll be dealing with
today. I think the Vice President's office put a statement out on this, but
the President was made aware by -- directly by the Vice President.

Q What was he told? I mean, was he having pains or --

MR. FRATTO: I'm not the Vice President's doctor. I'll refer you to the Vice
President's office for that.

Q Are you able to at all characterize this for us -- characterize it for
the country as to how serious this condition is?

MR. FRATTO: The Vice President? No, I'm not. I'd prefer to leave that for
his doctors. And the Vice President will deal with his health situation,
and at an appropriate time if an update is warranted, I'm sure the Vice
President's office will do that. But I don't have anything more for you
right now. I don't know any more.

Q And any particular reaction from the President?

MR. FRATTO: Much like he would with any friend, he's concerned for him,
wish him well, and told him to go and make sure the doctors do what they
need to do.

Q The phone call was -- to Canada was from the plane here, right?

MR. FRATTO: Here from the plane shortly after takeoff, yes.

Q Any response to the report that the number two al Qaeda agent in Iraq has
been killed?

MR. FRATTO: I haven't heard that. This is the first I've heard of it --
sorry.

Q Iraqis are saying that they've got a deal on the status of forces
agreement that would require U.S. troops to leave by 2011 and allow U.S.
soldiers to be tried in Iraqi courts. Is that true?

MR. FRATTO: We've never at any point in time gotten into the details of any
of our discussions with the Iraqis on our agreements. Obviously we continue
to talk. We're working on forging ahead to finalize an agreement with the
Iraqis so that the Iraqis can take over more control -- can take over
control of their country, and allow U.S. forces to return home having
completed their mission successfully.

So that's where our focus is on. Obviously we saw the -- the President met
with PRT leaders this morning. They're working on improving economic,
political, and security conditions in Iraq, helping with governance, and I
think everyone would like to see that continue. But for now, we're
communicating with the Iraqis. The talks continue. We're updating Congress
and consult -- having our discussions --

Q There's no agreement?

MR. FRATTO: No. No, talks continue.

Q Tony, what should we expect in the President's comments to the pool with
the business leaders -- I mean, substantively, do you think they'll be
similar to what he said after the Cabinet meeting?

MR. FRATTO: Well, I don't want to say exactly what they would be because,
as they usually are with these kinds of things, they're reflective of what
he hears in the meetings. And so he'll want to hear directly from these
business leaders as to how they're dealing with the present conditions. One
thing we're fairly confident that we will hear from them is the difficultly
that they've had in dealing with the tightness of credit in -- certainly in
recent months and especially recent weeks.

And so we'll want to hear on how they're dealing with it. And the President
will have an opportunity to talk to them about the very bold steps that
we've been taking to try to loosen up credit in the economy. We are
confident that it will have a positive impact on the credit markets.

The effort -- or the announcement yesterday from Treasury to inject capital
into the banking system is a -- it's a very important measure. It's exactly
what the system needs right now, which is more capital so that banks can go
out and support lending in this economy for consumers and businesses. It's
done in a very -- it's a passive investment in these banks. It will allow
the banks to run their businesses as they ought to. Banks are in the
business of lending money; we'd like to see them get back to the business
of lending money to consumers out there. It's critical for our economy.

Thank you.

END 11:50 A.M. EDT

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