RECENT POSTS
- Under the Stars, Obama Toasts India’s Prime Minister
- White House State Dinner – Who Made the Exclusive Guest List?
- Admiral Mike Mullen To Geneva for START Talks
- VP Biden to Indian Prime Minister: “You’re the Hottest Ticket in Town”
- FLOTUS on the State Dinner: Like a Swan, "Calm and Serene Above Water, But We're Paddling Like Mad, Going Crazy Underneath"
- White House State Dinner: The Menu, Entertainment, and Decor
- Dan Pfeiffer, White House Blogger
- Guests Begin to Arrive for White House State Dinner Festivities
- President Obama on Afghanistan Strategy: “It Is My Intention to Finish the Job”
- The Obamas Kick off their First State Visit, Welcome India's Prime Minister to the White House
MONTHLY ARCHIVES
« Previous | Main | Next »
Today's Q's For O's White House
July 02, 2009 2:34 PM
ABC News' Yunji de Nies reports: Robert, just to follow on what Dan was saying earlier, yesterday, the president, at a health care forum, said the stimulus has done its job. Are we to take that as an indication that the president thinks the stimulus is working?
GIBBS: The stimulus is working. The stimulus -- the stimulus plan is injecting money into the economy. The stimulus plan has obligated $160 billion to deal with the dip in the amount of growth. The stimulus plan is creating 1900 road and construction projects. I think you'll hear the president say today, as he's said each and every day of his administration, that we've got a long way to go; that he's not going to be satisfied until we see positive job growth, positive economic growth. And that's going to take some time.
de Nies: Well, is it working fast enough?
GIBBS: Well, again, this was a -- a program over the course of spend-out, I think, 75 to 80 percent of the money over the course of two fiscal years to do so in a way that's transparent, to do so in a way that's accountable, which is what has happened in this piece of legislation. And it's just going to take some time. We understand that. Again, the president sees this through the eyes of the American people. The American people are hurting. More and more people are losing their jobs. They're losing their health care. They're losing their home and their opportunity. And that's what the president is focused on each and every day.
de Nies: But the message seems to be, well, just wait; it's coming, it's coming.
GIBBS: Well, again, let's look at -- in the second -- in the second quarter of 2008, we just finished the second quarter of 2009, in the three-month average, we were losing 153,000 jobs a month. This past quarter, it's 436,000. Because that trend line shows that, in the third quarter, we went from averaging 153,000 a month in that quarter to 208,000. In the fourth quarter of 2008, we had gone to 553,000 jobs a month. In the first quarter of 2009, we were almost at 700,000 jobs lost a month including a January number, 741,000 jobs lost, which is the greatest one-month total in the history of our country. That is not something that's going to turn around overnight. The American people understand that; the president understands that. That's why we've taken important steps to get the economy moving again. Is it going to take some time? Absolutely. Is the president impatient for results? You heard him say that last week when you all had a chance to ask him questions about our economy.
July 2, 2009 in Today's Qs for Obama's WH | Permalink | Share | User Comments (231)
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
To j scott davis...are you really still crying about his birth certificate....
That is the weakest, most lame, least thought-out whining that I have ever read....too funny....
Posted by: vanhoopcoach | Jul 8, 2009 1:17:53 AM
Folks, remember that 92% of the recrovery funds have not been spent...those checks have NOT been cut.
The republicans need to start coming up with more excuses for the slaughtering they have coming in 2012.
Maybe Sarah, 'Duh,' Palin can get things in order by calling the 'department of law'...heeheeheehee!
Posted by: vanhoopcoach | Jul 8, 2009 1:12:19 AM
"Typical from an Obamabot. Everything is a "smear tactic" and "cheap shot."
Posted by: jennifert7 | Jul 6, 2009 9:26:22 AM"
5 minutes later jennifer proves danita right
"I thought that was was said by Deval Patrick in 2006. Oh wait, it was. Obama didn't say it until 2008.
Posted by: jennifert7 | Jul 6, 2009 9:31:33 AM"
Posted by: Ryan C | Jul 6, 2009 8:12:47 PM
The plan is to start spending the stimulus money just before the 2010 elections, so the democrats can get a boost in the polls. The worse it gets now will just help them more next year. The more unemployed there are depending on their handouts, the more votes they can count on.
Posted by: fwtxn | Jul 6, 2009 5:17:52 PM
"Just words? - Don't Tell Me Words Don't Matter!" ~ Obama
Posted by: Chiquita | Jul 5, 2009 9:24:40 AM
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I thought that was was said by Deval Patrick in 2006. Oh wait, it was. Obama didn't say it until 2008.
Posted by: jennifert7 | Jul 6, 2009 9:31:33 AM
Typical from an Obamabot. Everything is a "smear tactic" and "cheap shot."
Posted by: jennifert7 | Jul 6, 2009 9:26:22 AM
"Interesting, Danita, how you've magically shortend the time the stimulus has had to work from originally claiming "only 4 months" to now some "only 3 months.""
Posted by: And Atlas Shrugs Yet Again | Jul 5, 2009 4:23:35 PM
Atlas, the point is this plan has only had A FEW SHORT MONTHS, something you choose to ignore and instead pick at threads. Again, pretty cheap tactics.
You expect magical results in a few short months, you live in a fantasy land.
The Recovery and Reinvestment plan is a 4-year plan. It's on the White House web site.
Posted by: danita | Jul 5, 2009 5:50:06 PM
Timmy,
"Obama re: William Ayers - He's just a guy in the neighborhood."
You mean, like Mr. Rogers? ;0)
Posted by: And Atlas Shrugs Yet Again | Jul 5, 2009 4:31:41 PM
Interesting, Danita, how you've magically shortend the time the stimulus has had to work from originally claiming "only 4 months" to now some "only 3 months." Gee, and at the same time, you're now promoting what was to be a "TARGETED, TIMELY, AND TEMPORARY" (per Obama) stimulus bill to help with the recession, to a 4 year program. Did you miss where Obama's own projections were for the recession to be over mid-year 2009?
Do you think fudging your number claims somehow helps your argument?
By the way, Obama signed the porkulus into law Feb 17, 2009 -- do the math.
Posted by: And Atlas Shrugs Yet Again | Jul 5, 2009 4:23:35 PM
Obama re: William Ayers - He's just a guy in the neighborhood.
Posted by: Traffic Cop Timmy | Jul 5, 2009 3:19:36 PM
It's not so surprising you would pull the words TOTALLY out of context - it's a common, cheap tactic used to smear someone. However your credibility suffers terribly.
What a bunch of cheap shot artists.
Posted by: danita | Jul 5, 2009 2:50:47 PM
"mission accomplished" - Bush still being vilified after all these years...
"the stimulus has done it's job" - Obama being defended because that's not what he meant
Exactly, and you have to have a functioning brain to see the difference.
Keep taking President Obama's comments WAY out of context, it shows the cheap smear tactics and the lack of credibility.
Posted by: danita | Jul 5, 2009 2:46:08 PM
"mission accomplished" - Bush still being vilified after all these years...
"the stimulus has done it's job" - Obama being defended because that's not what he meant
Posted by: Traffic Cop Timmy | Jul 5, 2009 2:17:39 PM
'Lest your own kind turn their noses up at you and cast you to the streets with the dogs.
Posted by: MarkLeavenworth | Jul 5, 2009 1:23:32 PM
It wouldn't be so bad if they weren't so classist and racist.
Posted by: MarkLeavenworth | Jul 5, 2009 1:17:12 PM
No, not with that. That's definitely British. They have a lot of nerve, comming over here with our liberal foreign bank operations policies, deploying their national strategies with their socialized banks and subsidized corporations. We should really be tightening up on that sort of strategic activity.
Posted by: MarkLeavenworth | Jul 5, 2009 1:05:09 PM
Everyone knew the "stimulus" was not stimulative at all. Everyone knew it would fail. Everyone knows it has failed.
In January Obama told us that without the stimulus unemployment would reach 8%. So we got his stimulus, and we got 9.5% unemployment.
Everyone knows that Obama's words are meaningless. Only the few remaining fools are still in denial.
Posted by: Fructuoso Solano-Revieltelte | Jul 5, 2009 12:31:23 PM
Probably Euro-centered academic political science 'activists'.
Posted by: MarkLeavenworth | Jul 5, 2009 12:24:19 PM
If the stimulus is working, why are insiders and companies selling stock (22-1) while Wall Street and the Obama administration (including Timmy the Wonder Boy, as in 'I've always wondered about that boy, Timmy') are telling you to jump back in the market?
You make the call.
Posted by: WhereWasThePress | Jul 5, 2009 9:46:46 AM
YUNJI DE NIES: ...yesterday, the president, at a health care forum, said the stimulus has done its job. Are we to take that as an indication that the president thinks the stimulus is working?"
GIBBS: The stimulus is working."
U.S unemplyment figures surge.
"The stimulus has done its job", not is doing its job. Past tense, "done".
"Just words? - Don't Tell Me Words Don't Matter!" ~ Obama
Posted by: Chiquita | Jul 5, 2009 9:24:40 AM
Post a comment
