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Obama Pitches Economic Plan to Corporate Leaders; Congress to Vote on Economic Bill; Peanut Plant Knew of Contamination; Eye Scanner in Development to Diagnose Brain Injury
Aired January 28, 2009 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Fredricka Whitfield.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is our sincere belief that we have to have a plan that works.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Instead of just throwing money at our problems, we'll try something new in Washington. We will invest in what works.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, HOST: Working the economic stimulus. There's agreement on the end. It's the means that are dividing Congress ahead of the first key votes. We're live on Capitol Hill.
And why not just Google the answer for the economic mess? We'll try it this hour when Google's CEO joins us live on the heels of an economic summit at the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Hello, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta and you're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
From a legal loophole that risks people's health, to a hack attack that risks identities. Updates on some things you need to know to stay safe.
The peanut plant blamed in the salmonella scandal under new fire. Get this: the plant apparently found contamination multiple times but shipped their stuff out anyway. And under Georgia law they didn't have to report it.
Plus, if you logged on to Monster.com to find a job, well, better find a new password. The employment site has been hacked, again.
But first, the first real test of President Obama's economic stimulus plan. Not to mention the president's salesmanship. Late today the House is due to vote on what's officially called the American Recovery and Re-Investment Act. Roughly $825 billion worth of new federal spending and tax cuts aimed at ending the recession and creating millions of jobs.
Debate is getting under way right now, though there is very little doubt that the thing will pass. The only real question is how many Republicans are actually on-board.
On-board for us for our live coverage this hour, CNN's Suzanne Malveaux at the White House, and Brianna Keilar on Capitol Hill.
All right. CEOs can't vote on the stimulus, but they have a big stake in the outcome, so this morning the president hosted a give-and- take with movers and shakers from the corporate world. And Suzanne Malveaux can tell us all about that.
Suzanne, it was a pretty hard sell?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Fred, it was interesting. Because it really was a who's who from corporate America, talking about in the Roosevelt Room and the East Room. We got a chance to participate and see those folks, talking about Google, IBM, Honeywell, BET, all of them coming together, President Obama trying to sell his $825 billion economic stimulus package.
And what I had a chance to ask a few out of the meeting, what was the tone, what was the argument, the case that the president was making. Because they say that their concerns are very much the concerns we've heard before from some of the Republicans and even fiscally conservative Democrats.
They're saying are these tax cuts deep enough? Do they help small and large businesses when it comes to really creating the kinds of jobs, the numbers of jobs, that the president is talking about?
And a couple of them said, "Look, you know, he was impressive, he made a good argument, a good case," but they also admit that they just don't know. One person telling me, "Look, I just hope this thing works." So there is a certain sense of uncertainty about this. Whether or not it is actually going to create those jobs. But they're at least, at the very least, willing to give the president a shot at this. It's really a leap of faith.
And one of those things, Fred, that they were talking about, the president is talking about, is transparency here, accountability. He is trying to convince the American people that, yes, we will track those dollars and figure out where they're going. Take a listen, Fred.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: This recovery plan will include unprecedented measures that will allow the American people to hold my administration accountable. Instead of just throwing money at our problems, we'll try something new in Washington. We will invest in what works. Instead of politicians doling out money behind a veil of secrecy, decisions about where we invest will be made public, on the Internet and will be informed by independent experts whenever possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: So, Fred, one of the things that he announced was a new Web site, Recovery.gov. That this is a place where folks like you and me and ordinary Americans can simply go and take a look and figure out where these dollars are going.
Now, obviously, it's just one of many steps that he is trying to do to convince Republicans to sign onto that legislation. It is far from certain, Fred, whether or not he has really convinced them that that's enough -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: And Suzanne, while this is all still very much serious business. The president still made light of the snow and bad weather. Kind of poking fun at Washingtonians for being a little wimpy. Not his words, but mine.
MALVEAUX: Yes, he was asked about that, actually. I want you to listen to this. This was actually before he'd made any comments about the economy this morning. This is what he offered this morning, a story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Can I make a comment that is unrelated to the economy very quickly? And it has to do with Washington. My children's school was canceled today because of -- what? Some -- some ice? As...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chicago.
OBAMA: As my -- as my children pointed out, in Chicago, school is never canceled. In fact, my 7-year-old pointed out that you'd go outside for recess in weather like this. You wouldn't even stay indoors!
So, it's -- I don't know. We're going to have to try to apply some flinty Chicago toughness in this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you saying (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
OBAMA: I'm saying when it comes to the weather, folks in Washington don't seem to be able to handle things. But anyway.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Fred, I'm one of those wimpy, wimpy people. You know, I was backing out of my driveway in an inch of ice, and our roads were just completely a sheet of ice, like an ice skating rink. But, you know, I got here. It was tough, though.
WHITFIELD: I'm glad you made it. But you know, I'm a wimp, too. And I'm not afraid to admit to it. You and I both went to school in the Washington area, and so we reveled in those snow days.
MALVEAUX: Absolutely. School wouldn't be the same without them.
WHITFIELD: No. All right. Thanks so much, Suzanne. Appreciate it.
MALVEAUX: Thanks, Fred. Sure.
WHITFIELD: Stay warm. All right. Well, today's White House media briefing still about to get under way, 1:30 p.m. Eastern, bottom of the hour. And you'll see it right here in the CNN NEWSROOM, snow or no snow.
But before that, we'll do a search for economic recovery with the CEO of Google.
So the speech-making is getting under way on the House floor. So let's turn to our Brianna Keilar. More on this economic stimulus package.
So Brianna, have the good vibes from the president's event yesterday worn off?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I would say not, Fred. Members -- House members who are Republicans are grateful for the visit, but that's not translating into votes. The vast majority of them expected here later tonight, really. And I'm just steps from the House floor. They're expected to vote no in very much a party line vote later this evening.
Some big issues for them. They think that there aren't enough tax cuts, especially for businesses. They are zeroing in, Republicans are, on what they call wasteful spending: money to refurbish the headquarters for the USDA, money for more vehicles for the federal government. And you hear them saying this is not stimulus; this doesn't create jobs.
An don the flip side, you have Democrats saying, this package is about short-term stimulus, but there's also a long-term economic investment. So obviously an ideological difference there.
But for all of this talk about Republicans and how they're not on-board, it's Democrats, as well. A small number of Democrats that are getting some attention. According to one House Democratic leadership aide that we spoke with, they are expecting to lose as many as two dozen Democrats.
Who are these folks? They're fiscally conservative Democrats, and some of them are not. Some of them are liberal. And they want more spending on things like bridges and highways, and they're not getting that.
But one example of one of these fiscally conservative Democrats who's very much torn on this issue is Jim Cooper of Tennessee, undecided at this point. Here's what he told us just a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JIM COOPER (D), TENNESSEE: Still undecided. I'm trying to work my way through the 647-page monster here. My goals are, No. 1, to strengthen the economy. And No. 2, to make sure that Barack Obama is a successful president.
I'm deeply worried that his administration may be settling for a bill that's not worthy of Barack Obama. There are a lot of old congressional bulls here who put all their wish lists, their pet projects in this bill. And so I'm trying to weigh the good stuff that's in the bill versus the bad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Now still, keep in mind: 90 percent of the Democrats in the House are expected to vote for this, and this is expected to pass, this economic stimulus package.
But this still is symbolic, because you have Democrats voting against their own president, a very popular president, on what is his biggest priority. But bottom line, this is expected to pass. The point to be made, Fred, is that not with the bipartisan support that President Obama said that he wanted.
WHITFIELD: All right. Brianna Keilar on Capitol Hill, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
Well, before the House votes on President Obama's stimulus bill, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders will speak to reporters. Their news conference is expected at 2 p.m. Eastern. You can see it live right here on CNN.
All right. The bailout, the handouts, stimulus package. CNN's Lou Dobbs pulls them apart line by line to separate the pork from what might really help fix the economy. Don't miss Lou's "Line Item Veto" on "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT," 7 p.m. Eastern.
Well, the world turns to Google for answers for questions, large and small. And so President Obama included the search engine's CEO in his economic think tank. Well, it probably didn't hurt that Eric Schmidt supported candidate Obama in the campaign and served as an economic advisor on his transition team. He joins us now from the White House lawn.
Mr. Schmidt, good to see you. So what is the Google view of this economic stimulus plan? We just heard from one Tennessee congressman who says he's afraid that the administration is settling for a bill that is not worthy.
ERIC SCHMIDT, CEO, GOOGLE: Well, first, thanks for having me here. And let me tell you that we need action quickly. So the Google view is the view of all the other executives that I've talked with, is that it's important to move now. Things are not necessarily getting better. They may be getting worse. The government needs to act.
The stimulus bill needs the support of the business community and many, many other people, and it's better to get it done even if it's not perfect.
WHITFIELD: All right. Well, let's talk about perhaps some of the imperfections. What do you see as some of the imperfections of this bill?
SCHMIDT: There's a lot of concern about some of the details. And from our perspective, we're pretty happy with it. We like the significant increase in funding for Internet broadband. We like the significant increase in renewable energy. We think a lot of the things that are in there are going to really help.
It's designed to be stimulative over a two-year period. What I particularly like about the bill is that with it comes transparency. The government has promised that there will be a way to track where the money goes, and whether you can actually measure whether it's working or not.
WHITFIELD: And that is, of course, by that Recovery.org? Meaning anyone -- you, me, anyone...
SCHMIDT: That's right.
WHITFIELD: ... can simply go to Recovery.org and find out where the money is going, to whom, how it's being spent. What more details can we get out of that?
SCHMIDT: It seems to be the transparency...
WHITFIELD: Recovery.gov. Sorry.
SCHMIDT: Recovery.gov. Seems to me transparency is a very big deal. A lot of people believe that the government is not using the money correctly. So here's a perfect way for us to test that.
Furthermore, you'll be able to use software to actually add it all up and measure it. And you can imagine there will be a million people who will track whether the stimulus package goes to where it's supposed to go.
WHITFIELD: Well, you know, the president has this plan. The business community such as yourself has thrown its weight on this but of course it still needs Congress to support it.
SCHMIDT: Sure.
WHITFIELD: We have a feeling, you know, where House may go this evening. But then we also know that people have been scrutinizing how the treasury secretary, the last administration, doled out the funds and how the lending institutions handled that money.
So how can you assure the American people that this is not going to be a repeat of what many critics said was a near disaster?
SCHMIDT: Well, they're two different things. The financial bailout, the so-called TARP program, was handled essentially by the previous executive branch and previous Treasury Department. I'm sure the Obama administration is going to work on something new that will address that.
Our meeting today was about the stimulus, which is a separate issue. The stimulus goes through Congress. It goes through all the lobbyists, all the committees, and so forth and so on, and it's a big, big, big bill, as your congressman said earlier.
So what we need to do is to have transparency: write it all down, track it, see how it goes. They need to do the same thing with the financial bailout, as well, which they didn't do in the previous administration.
WHITFIELD: How encouraged are you when you hear the president just in a word, you know, say that his administration is about accountability, as it pertains to this stimulus package? You believe it?
SCHMIDT: President Obama, as Senator Obama, was often not taken seriously enough. This is a very, very, very smart person. He's very committed to making this happen. He's not weak. He's a very, very strong-willed individual, and he's willing to take on this challenge.
WHITFIELD: OK.
SCHMIDT: What's funny about him is he's also -- he's also just fun to be with. He's interesting in private. He jokes and so forth. He's a man who's very comfortable with who he is. It makes a great...
WHITFIELD: Down to business but having a good time doing it, as well.
SCHMIDT: Absolutely.
WHITFIELD: Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google. We appreciate your time and joining us there from the White House.
SCHMIDT: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Eric Schmidt of Google.
All right. From the southern plains to New England, staying warm is priority No. 1. A brutal winter storm has knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of people. Roads, highways impassable. Schools, businesses and government offices are closed.
Louisville, Kentucky is one of the hardest hit areas. Just north of Louisville in Indiana, a huge traffic backup after authorities shut down a stretch of interstate 65 because of stalled tractor-trailer rigs.
And then in Ohio, schools across the state, including Ohio State University, are actually shut down. Power companies are bringing in reinforcements.
And then there's New Jersey and New York, a messy morning for commuters there. That region is bracing for heavy snow today. And parts of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine could get nearly two feet.
Chad Myers is watching this huge storm for us in the CNN severe weather center.
It's amazing how many states are being hit at once.
MYERS: Well, yes. This was a storm that just stretched itself out all the way from Texas all the way to New England. And now the airports aren't doing very well. DFW, even the American Eagle flights are slow there. From La Guardia and JFK and Newark, those are the areas now had two-, three-, four-hour delays, and that's going to be the case for most of them.
Plus, there are 15 other airports that are not on this map that are de-icing right now. And that's never a one-minute thing, because you have to wait for the plane to get ready. Everybody gets on the plane. Then you've got to get -- wait for the de-icing machine to come spray your plane down. Then you get out there in a hurry and then go back out so -- and then you get to take off. So that's going to slow down some planes, as well. And those don't show up even as delays with the airport travel with the FAA.
You know, we always say send us your iReports at iReport.com. Do you know you can go to iReport.com and look at everybody else's iReports, too? I was just looking at some of the people -- the pictures coming out of Louisville. Like you said, trees down all over the city, power lines down.
And for a while, Fred, 700,000 people without power.
WHITFIELD: Wow.
MYERS: That number coming down a little bit right now. But if the wind picks up and you have all those trees loaded with ice, those numbers could go back up tonight as those trees fall, as well.
WHITFIELD: Oh, yes. Nasty situation. All right. Thanks so much, Chad. Appreciate it.
All right. Also a nasty situation is the job scene. Layoffs just keep piling up. Just a short time ago, Boeing announced a big downsizing. We'll tell you how many jobs are being cut there.
And you might be outraged by the alleged actions after Georgia peanut butter plant linked to the nationwide salmonella outbreak. We'll find out what the FDA says the plant did wrong years before the outbreak.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just want to work. I want to support my 4- year-old son. I want to be able to pay my bills, and I want my life to go back the way it was.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Wanting life to return to what it was, an all-too- common plea from hundreds of thousands whose jobs have been wiped out by the recession. And if you've lost your job or would like to share your thoughts about these very bleak economic times, e-mail us at iReport.com, and we'll share as many responses as we can with our viewers.
Hardly a day goes by without more job cuts, sadly. The latest, Boeing says it will slash 10,000 jobs or about 10 percent of its workforce. The total includes 4,500 previously announced.
Well, yesterday, 11,500 jobs were cut by six companies. Monday, even worse. Seven companies announced that they were eliminating more than 71,400 jobs. And last month alone, more than 215,000 jobs have been wiped out.
So to Wall Street now. Stocks jumped out of the starting gate and have yet to look back as shares of beaten-down financial companies seem to soar. Stephanie Elam is at the New York Stock Exchange with much more on today's rally.
Hey.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fred. It's true. We have some nice gains we're seeing here today for the major averages. Financial shares are actually leading the charge. Right now Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo are all jumping roughly 13 percent.
Let's show you the big board now so you can show -- see what the numbers look like. The Dow on the up side by 136 points at 8,310, a gain of more than 1.5 percent. NASDAQ is up more than 3 percent right now. So very solid gains on the day.
Much of the positive sentiment comes from reports that the FDIC may be given responsibility to manage a bad bank program the Obama administration is likely to set up. Now, the FDIC would simply help banks by buying up these so-called toxic assets. A lot of experts say that's critical to easing the credit crisis and getting money flowing again via consumer and business loans.
This afternoon we'll also hear the Fed's decision. That's in focus today. That's a two-day meeting that's about to wrap up with an announcement at about 2:15 Eastern Time.
But there's not really any suspense this time. The key benchmark lending rate is essentially at zero right now anyway. So they can't use the rate cutting tool to boost the economy.
But analysts expect the Fed will take additional steps to help the economy and ease the credit crisis. One such step might be to expand a program that increases the availability of consumer loans. Another could be to buy long-term treasury securities.
Some analysts say the Fed needs to prove to Wall Street that it's willing to do absolutely everything it can to combat this recession. So we'll be keeping our eyes on that, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Stephanie. Appreciate it. All right. Well, as if times were not tough enough, some monstrously bad news for millions of job seekers. Employment site Monster.com says it has been hacked for the second time in two years. The company confirms that crooks got into its database and made off with users' information. So how many users? Well, they won't say.
The federal work site, USAjobs.gov is affected, as well, since it is powered by Monster. So if you've got accounts at either, change your passwords and look out for phishing e-mails pretending to be from those sites. Be very wary.
And we're watching the White House, where press secretary Robert Gibbs is about to face a press corps bursting with questions today. You'll hear his answers right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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WHITFIELD: All right. Well, some disturbing developments in the nationwide salmonella outbreak linked to eighth deaths now and being blamed for making more than 500 people sick. The FDA says a Georgia peanut butter plant linked to the outbreak found salmonella in its products but didn't halt shipments. Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is looking into all of this.
Not very encouraging.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, it certainly isn't. I mean, the FDA press conference yesterday -- yesterday was really quite astounding.
What they said is not just once, not just twice but several times the Peanut Corporation of America had tests that showed that there was salmonella in their products, and they sent it anyway.
Specifically, the FDA says that PCA found salmonella in its food ten times in 2007 and 2008, and shipped it out anyways.
We have a statement from Peanut Corporation of America. They say, "PCA has cooperated fully with FDA from day one during the course of this investigation."
Now the FDA says that sometimes when the Peanut Corporation of America found salmonella, they would then send that sample out for a second test. And if the second test said there was no salmonella, they would go with that test and ship it out.
WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh! So where did this product end up?
COHEN: This product ended up, it seems, in 43 states. That's a lot of places. Now, we're not talking about grocery stores. We're talking about nursing homes, schools, restaurants, places like that.
So let's take a look at the map. All of these states in orange and Canada, there have been reports of illnesses. The green states seem to be the only ones that are not affected. And again, to reiterate those numbers that Fred mentioned a minute ago, 502 people have become ill in this outbreak in 43 states, also in Canada, and there have been eight possible deaths linked to this.
WHITFIELD: So what are we -- what do we do with this information? I mean, this makes me say I'm staying away from anything with peanut butter in it. Am I going to extremes?
COHEN: The FDA would say, yes. What they would say is, look, the peanut butter in supermarkets, the kind you just buy in the jar, that that is safe, because they don't have any kind of association with the Peanut Corporation of America, which is where this all seemed to start.
However, it gets tricky from here on out. Any peanut butter that's served, let's say, in a school lunch cafeteria or that's served in a nursing home might possibly be questionable, because it might have come from PCA.
Also, if you have products like a peanut butter cracker or candies with peanut butter, or peanut taste in it, they may be on the recall list.
So if you go to CNNhealth.com, you'll see our story about the salmonella outbreak. There is a link there to all of the recalled products that -- recalled products from the FDA's Web site.
And here's where it gets even trickier, Fred. Let's say you've got your peanut butter candy, and it's not on the recall list. You might think, "Oh, OK, I can eat it." The FDA says, no, because it might end up on the list tomorrow. There are so -- there are so many products with peanut taste and peanut butter in it.
So even if it isn't on the recall list, the FDA says still don't eat it. Hold onto it and maybe we'll be told in the days or weeks to come that it's OK. But still don't eat it.
WHITFIELD: So I don't want all those peanut butter cookies that I ordered and haven't received yet. And I'm like, forget it.
COHEN: Well, if they're not on the recall list, keep them on -- keep them on your shelf. Maybe you can eat them in a while.
WHITFIELD: Forget it. All right. But thanks for the warning.
COHEN: OK.
WHITFIELD: We appreciate it.
All right. Barack Obama makes his first trip as commander in chief across the Potomac River to the Pentagon, checking in with his commanders on what they think is the best strategy for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
All right. But first, traumatic brain injuries are considered the signature wounds suffered by troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Well, this has prompted the military to look for ways to make a quick assessment of those injuries in the field. Deborah Feyerick reports on a new device that is using eyes to see what's wrong with the brain.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This device tracks eye movements. In a matter of seconds it can detect brain damage caused by anything from traffic accidents and sports injuries to bomb blasts. The eye tracker didn't exist when Sergeant Major Mike Welsh was injured in a car bomb explosion in Afghanistan.
SGT. MAJOR MIKE WELSH, BRAIN INJURY VICTIM: They removed fragments out of my temple.
FEYERICK: Two years after the blast, Welsh still has trouble balancing his checkbook and has constant headaches.
WELSH: You could say that having a traumatic brain injury is almost like sometimes you're dead and you don't remember that you're dead.
FEYERICK: It took a month just to diagnose his brain damage, and Welsh says he's fortunate.
WELSH: There's guys that have gone a year or two without even being treated, because it wasn't diagnosed immediately.
FEYERICK: The eye tracker is being developed by a team of researchers led by Dr. Jamshid Ghajar. Every thousandth of a second, a camera snaps a high-resolution image of the eye and special software looks for subtle eye jitters, a sign there's damage to the area of the brain that lets us focus and pay attention.
DR. JAMSHID GHAJAR, NEUROSURGEON, WEILL CORNELL: That jitter is responsible for a lot of attention problems and memory problems. And this eye tracker picks that up very quickly.
FEYERICK: So treatment can start right away. Welsh looks forward to the day the device will be portable enough to take to the front lines.
SGT. MAJOR MIKE WELSH, BRAIN INJURY VICTIM: The sooner that can be done, the sooner they can enter treatment.
FEYERICK: Deborah Feyerick, CNN.
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WHITFIELD: All right, live pictures right now, because we're moments away from the daily White House media briefing, where you never know exactly what might come up. Today, however, it's a pretty safe bet we'll hear a lot about the economic rescue plan to be voted on later today in the House. You'll hear all the Q and A live right here in the NEWSROOM. It was campaign promise that rang loud and clear. Candidate Barack Obama vowing to quickly bring American troops home from Iraq. Well now, President Obama is going to the Pentagon to hear from defense chief Robert Gates and the joint chiefs on what they think should actually be done. CNN's Chris Lawrence is at the Pentagon with a preview -- Chris.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fredricka, the president will be here probably in the next hour and a half to two hours. And it really fulfills another part of one of his campaign promises, and that was to get direct opinion from some of the joint chiefs, the secretary of the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, to hear their views and allow them the chance to express their views directly to him.
We expect that he will have -- walk a short rope line, that he possibly will meet with some enlisted members of the military while he's here. The meeting will probably last an hour, and we know that it will cover not only Iraq but Afghanistan. It was just yesterday when Secretary Robert Gates talked to Congress and told them that plans are in place, if necessary, to start a buildup of troops in Afghanistan.
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ROBERT GATES, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Should the president make the decision to -- the final decision to deploy additional brigades to Afghanistan, we could have two of those brigades there probably by late spring, and potentially a third by mid-summer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAWRENCE: So, all in all, you're talking about anywhere between 15,000 and 20,000 troops. That is starting to come close to what General David McKiernan, the general in charge of Afghanistan, has ultimately in the big picture requested. He's asked for about 30,000 troops --
WHITFIELD: Sorry, Chris. I need to interrupt you there. We need to go to the White House press briefing right now with Robert Gibbs.
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY (joined in progress): Before we get started, I wanted to introduce Secretary Salizar, who's going to make his second trip as our secretary of the interior tomorrow. He's going to go out west. And I've invited him here to talk a little bit about the reform agenda that he's going to take with him on that trip and answer a few questions, and then we'll get back to our regularly scheduled programming. So, Secretary?
KEN SALAZAR, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR: Thank you, Robert. President Obama has immediately set high ethical standards for all of government as part of his reform agenda. As part of that commitment and implementing the reform agenda, I intend to do my part in the Department of Interior to make sure that scandals that have occurred in the past are properly dealt with and that the problems that we uncover are fixed so that they don't occur again.
President Obama immediately made clear that the type of ethical transgressions, the blatant conflicts of interest, wastes and abuses that we've seen over the last eight years will no longer be tolerated. Nowhere is President Obama's commitment to reform and to cleaning up the waste, fraud and abuse of the past more important than at the Department of Interior, which I now lead on his behalf.
Over the last eight years the department of interior has been tarnished by ethical lapses of criminal behavior that has extended to the very highest levels of government. The former deputy secretary of the department under the Bush administration, Steven Griles, was sent to prison. It is a department that the American people associate with Jack Abramoff. And it is a department that was tarnished by a scandal involving sex, drugs and inappropriate gifts from the oil and gas companies that the employees were in charge of overseeing.
The Lakewood, Colorado office of the Minerals Management Service is tasked with making sure that taxpayers, the American taxpayers, collect their fair share from oil and gas development on their public lands. Last year that office collected $23 billion. That's $23 billion on behalf of the American people.
Yet during the last administration, some of the employees of that office violated the public trust by accepting gifts and employment contracts from the very oil and gas companies that they were supposed to be holding accountable. Some employees engaged in blatant and criminal conflicts of interest and self-dealing. It is one of the worst examples of corruption, abuse and of government putting special interests before the public interest.
Tomorrow I will be traveling to the Lakewood MMS office to meet with the employees. I there will be announcing our own review of what happened, what has been done to address it and what additional steps need to be taken. It will be clear that we will no longer tolerate those types of lapses at any level of government, from political appointees or career employees.
This is only the first step of our long-term effort to enact comprehensive top-to-bottom reforms within the Department of Interior. The American people should be proud of their government, all of their government. Those who work for the government should be proud of their service to the American people. We will work to reform the Department of the Interior to restore the public's trust and confidence in the highest levels of ethics and accountability that the American people deserve.
And with that, I'd be happy to take your questions.
ED HENRY, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Mr. Secretary, can you clarify where the administration is right now on whether you are going to everturn the Bush pollty on exploring offshore oil and gas drilling, et cetera?
SALAZAR: You know, with respect to the outer continental shelf, as President Obama made very clear during the campaign, we will look at the OCS in connection with the comprehensive energy program for the nation. You know, one of the signature issues that President Obama will work on very hard, has worked on very hard and will continue to work on very hard is the development of a comprehensive energy strategy.
We need to address the economic opportunity here at home, the environmental insecurity that comes from global warming and also the national security issues. And so, as we move forward with development of our oil and gas resources, both onshore and offshore they have to be set of a comprehensive energy program.
QUESTION: Does that mean it's on hold? Does it mean there will be no drilling under this order until you've done this review? Is that what that means?
SALAZAR: No, not at all. The current status of the ocs --
QUESTION: No expansion? I mean, obviously there is some now. But it was expanded by Congress. Are you saying that expansion is on hold pending this comprehensive energy policy?
SALAZAR: The status of the OCS right now is that the five-year plan of the Department of Interior that governs the OCS has been opened up. OK? And so it is now a plan that is being formulated.
As that plans gets formulated, it is going to have to fit in with the comprehensive energy plan that President Obama wants for the nation, which is a signature issue and one in which the Department of Interior will be intimately involved in supporting the president's goals to get America to a point of energy independence for all the reasons that I articulated earlier.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, during the transition, the co-chair of the transition for President Obama, John Podesta, said that the president would be overturning some of the executives orders that -- presidential orders President Bush had put in place about oil and gas exploration on federal lands.
We have not seen any executive orders for presidential orders overturning them, and I am wondering if they're pending and if you think it's wise to limit where the United States is able to explore for energy during a time of energy crisis where we're getting all our oil from abroad.
SALAZAR: The answer to that question is that there are a number of different regulations and actions that were taken by the Bush administration, some of them in the midnight hour as their term expired here. And we have all of those on the table, and we're taking a look at them.
There are some which are bad and which need a new direction. There are probably some which will be kept in place. And so, we are now in the process, having now been in the Department of Interior's position really for only about a week, taking a look at all of these regulations. On the more fundamental issue, which I think you are addressing, which is the approach to oil and gas development, it has to be done in the context of a comprehensive energy plan, and it also has to be done with the right kind of balance. There are places where it is appropriate to explore, and to develop oil and gas resources, and there are places that are not appropriate. That's part of what we'll move forward with in the agenda at the Department of Interior.
QUESTION: Thank you, sir. Of the incidents that you cited in your opening statement, were most of those political appointees? Were some career? And in the week in which you've been in office, have any ongoing ethics violations been brought to your attention?
SALAZAR: The report of the inspector general referred to -- there are actually three investigations that were conducted by the inspector general. Some of them had to do with very high-level employees within the Department of Interior engaging in self-dealing and in other kinds of inappropriate relations with outside interests.
Some of the -- two of the investigations dealt with gifts and sex and drugs actually taking place in transactions in the very government buildings where MMS has its responsibility. So, we're taking a look at that, and tomorrow we'll have some additional announcements on where we want to take all of those issues.
QUESTION: Are they political appointees or are they career people who are still working for you?
SALAZAR: They are both. They are both.
Thank you.
GIBBS: Thank you. Come back.
SALAZAR: I will.
GIBBS: All right.
SALAZAR: Now you get the (INAUDIBLE).
GIBBS: Exactly.
SALAZAR: (INAUDIBLE)
GIBBS: He wants to sit there. Under one condition, that I don't get any hard questions from you in the middle of that chair. I might have spoken far too soon. Definitely no talking to those guys on either side of you. I'm going to get asked about some acreage leasing.
QUESTION: This is the first time we have a secretary on the press tour.
GIBBS: I want to show you this. This was helpfully provided to me by CBS News so that I would be confused. This is day nine of the Obama presidency, a service of CBS News, so I thought I would -- got a kick out of that. I thought that was pretty good.
Let me make a few announcements before we entertain everyone but Secretary Salizar's questions. The president has made a call to the President Motlanthe of South Africa. We'll have a readout of that at the conclusion of this.
The president met -- had his economic daily briefing this morning in the Oval Office. In addition to Secretary Geithner and Dr. Summers, he was joined by Paul Volcker who, as you know, is in charge of the president's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. And the main topic of discussion was financial re-regulation, a topic that the president spoke about yesterday on Capitol Hill, and you'll hear certainly more of as we move forward.
Lastly, as you all know, the president intends to make his first foreign trip as president to Canada. He will make that trip on February the 19th. Canada's a vitally important ally, and the president looks forward to the opportunity to speak with Prime Minister Harper and visit our neighbor to the north. So, please add that to your appropriate planning schedules.
And lastly, the president looks forward to the House's action this evening on a recovery and reinvestment plan that he believes tonight is likely to take an important first step in getting our economy back on track and saving -- plan to save or create 3 million or 4 million jobs. As I said, begin to get our economy moving again. The president looks forward to that vote and will have some comments on that later. I think again, tonight starts the beginning of what we know is going to be a long process as it relates to that, but I think tonight will be a very important first step. With that -- Jennifer.
QUESTION: Thanks. I want to talk about the meeting he's having at the Pentagon this afternoon. You talked and Secretary Gates has talked about a process that's under way. There was a meeting last week, there's a meeting today, there's going to be one specifically on Afghanistan. I understand (ph) there will be others.
But can you talk a little bit more about how long you guys expect this process to take, how it works? I mean, You said yesterday that he has to go through all this in order to make decisions on troop posture. There are several different options, different formulations being put together at the Pentagon to be presented to him as to how he can do what it is he wants to do. So, can you just explain more about how that works?
GIBBS: Well, I think the most important thing is that -- and the president spoke about this, as many of you heard, throughout the campaign, and he's -- both during the transition and now as president of the United States that -- and as I said yesterday, the secretary of defense was very clear on this -- that he wanted to put everybody that was involved in these decisions in front of the president so that the president could hear all of their advice.
The president committed as a part of this process to speak with commanders both on the ground in Iraq an Afghanistan, as well as regionwide commanders, to get their perspective as he laid out a new mission for Iraq. I think everybody understands the developments of the past few months in Iraq with the status of forces agreement that puts an end date on our involvement there.
We're no longer involved in a debate about whether, but how and when. That's a process the president wants to take seriously. Wants to ensure the safety of our troops, as we remove our combat brigades. Wants to, as I've said repeatedly, provide the responsibility and the opportunity for the Iraqis to do more in governing their own country. And as I said, to do this in a way that seeks the consultation of all those leaders.
The process began on the 21st, as you guys know, in the Situation Room. Continues today in the Pentagon. I think there will be at least one more meeting that will involve General McKiernan to discuss specifically Afghanistan. I don't anticipate the process will take an inordinate amount of time.
I think one of the things the president expects to hear today and what we all heard yesterday in the testimony from Secretary Gates is how important improving our position in Afghanistan is, and secondly, how we are at a point now where many of our forces are stretched very, very thin. And the burden that we put on not just the soldiers every day, but on the many family members that stay here and pray for their loved ones and care for their children.
So, I think we've got a deliberate process that the president will be able to receive that information and make some key determinations as we change that mission in Iraq.
QUESTION: Can you be more specific about when we might hear from him?
GIBBS: I think it will be relatively soon. I don't want to set an exact date, though I think it will be relatively shortly. I think the president and - the president has received a lot of information. The Pentagon has been planning for quite some time, partly because of the new agreements. They understand - everyone understands that our force structure there will change. But that we have to do so in a way that protects the troops that we have there now.
QUESTION: Can you talk about the policy toward Afghanistan? Specifically "The New York Times" article today said that there was going to be a shift in the policy, more emphasis on fighting insurgents, less emphasis on development. Can you talk about that?
GIBBS: Yeah. Let me - I guess before I get into some of the back-and-forth, let me try to clarify some of, I think, what we believed was erroneous reporting overnight.
As I just said, the - there is a review of our policy in Afghanistan. That policy review continues in order to ensure our success in that region, but that that policy review is not yet completed.
Secondly, we support the democratically elected president of Afghanistan.
And lastly, the president has emphasized in the campaign and in the transition and emphasizes now the importance of long-term development, both in Afghanistan and in the region. I mean, I think one of the interesting things, when you - when we were involved in the meeting on Iraq was, you didn't just have sitting around that table, or on the video conference, you didn't just have members of the military and military planning, you had Ambassador Crocker, who was providing a very important political update on upcoming elections, and the political environment in Iraq, as well as at that meeting, the State Department was represented by former Ambassador Byrnes.
The president has long believed that whether it's in Iraq or in Afghanistan, that though it's the central front on the war in terror on Afghanistan, but whether it relates to Afghanistan or Iraq, that there's simply not a simple military solution to that problem. That only through long-term and sustainable development can we ever hope to turn around what's going on there. So, I would caution you - I know the importance of getting stories out into newspapers. They may not altogether be finished by the time they get printed.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) ... talked about the European (INAUDIBLE) more about focusing on the development, so the development wouldn't be forgotten about. That the Americans would focus on fighting...
GIBBS: Well, look, I think...
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: ... is that part of it realistic or is it...
GIBBS: I think - the - the president certainly has talked about this. You all heard him talk about it particularly on his trip overseas during the campaign in his speech in Berlin. And in his discussions recently with leaders in Europe, he's talked to them not only about increased troop commitments, but also on that development piece that's so crucial.
But again, before we read too much into what was in that report, I think it's important to understand that the review - the comprehensive review that this administration has taken about our policy in Afghanistan is not yet complete. So I caution you to say that a lot of decisions have thus been made based on an incomplete report.
QUESTION: Also, his relationship with Karzai. He met with Karzai last July. The article suggests he's no longer going to be doing the video conferences as President Bush did.
GIBBS: That's - well, that's, again, that's part of the policy review. And when that's completed, we'll have a better sense of what that is. Again, we support the democratically elected president of Afghanistan, and look forward to working with him, and with others to ensure peace and stability and safety in the region.
QUESTION: Robert, building on the eloquent comments of Secretary Salazar about ethics and accountability in government, is the President bothered at all that Secretary Geithner has picked as chief of staff a former lobbyist for Goldman Sachs, who has obviously - that company has benefited from bailouts. Doesn't that punch a hole in preventing lobbyists like that from serving in his administration?
GIBBS: No, no. The President - well, again, let's step back and talk about the broader issue of ethics and transparency in this administration. As I said from this podium and you read in the papers all throughout the country, that the ethics and transparency, executive orders that the president signed the first day, institute a policy that covers this administration unlike any policy we've seen in any previous administration in the history of our country. The president spoke about this during his campaign, but he also spoke about the notion that no policy was going to be perfect. The president in his election campaign didn't take money from lobbyists, or from packs. Again, not a perfect policy, but a step in the right direction of changing the way Washington works. We've talked about the fact that there are people that are good public servants who wish to serve their government again, who are, through some stringent ethics requirements and recusals, that will be able to participate in helping this government. But that we have, again, the strongest ethics and transparency policy that govern the executive branch and the workings of this White House that we've seen in the history of this country.
QUESTION: But if it's a strong policy - even if it's a strong policy, does it mean anything if people are getting waivers to go around it?
GIBBS: Well, again, let's caution ourselves as to the number of people that are going to work both in this building and in the executive branch. And how many waivers we have.
Again, I think if the people that follow this issue most closely, whether it's a political analyst or think tanks throughout this city who have seen the way this city works, have seen the revolving door and watched how administrations conduct their business, have rendered the conclusion that the policy that we have is the strongest that any administration in the history of our country has had, I think that speaks for itself. Those very same people that labeled that policy the strongest of any administration in history also said they thought it made sense for a limited number of waivers to ensure that people could continue to serve the public.
QUESTION: Senator Mitchell in fact right now is in the Mid East. And Bloomberg has reported that the firm he chaired, they have all kinds of lobbying clients in the Mid East, for example. So , how can he go to the Mid East when his - the firm...
GIBBS: Let's not take a lot of things and misconstrue, right? You know? Let's not take - is Senator Mitchell a lobbyist?
QUESTION: He's not a registered lobbyist, but he is a chair of the firm that has those kind of lobbyists and lobbying business, so isn't that a clever way to get around it?
GIBBS: Let's not - let's not - let's not - right. So let's not - well, I assume that maybe media organizations are owned by different businesses that conduct different things that might not altogether represent the interests of the media interest in general. But let's not take a group, an example and try to squish it into something that it's not.
QUESTION: But he's been head of a firm that all kinds of lobbyists with business in the Mid East and all around the world.
GIBBS: Well, you asked me about - no, no...
QUESTION: Their website says they have all these contacts in the Mid East, and so even if he's technically not lobbying, this firm is making money off of his contacts.
GIBBS: I hate to be ticky tacky about it, but technically he's not lobbying.
QUESTION: Well, he's not registered to lobby, but he - you know how...
GIBBS: But Ed, to register - to lobby the federal government, you have to be registered. I mean I hate to - I mean, I understand the semantic hurdles that you're setting forward for the policy. Let's understand he wasn't a lobbyist, he wasn't registered to lobby and if you're not registered to lobby, you can't be a lobbyist. That's why they've rendered the policy to be the strongest that it's been for any administration.
QUESTION: But Robert, the broader point is what's the point of having the strongest policy if you're going to have waivers, especially at key posts that are some of the most high-profile and most important...
GIBBS: Again, we will distribute to you the quotes from the people that rendered the decision that we have the strongest lobbying and transparency proposals, that also spoke out for a limited number of waivers to ensure that highly qualified people can serve in the public interest. But again, we have a policy that governs this White House and this administration unlike anything that has been covered from this room, or has been seen in this city. That's the bottom line. And that's irrefutable.
QUESTION: Robert, on the stimulus package, the president yesterday told a closed-door meeting of House Republicans that there was spending in the bill that he didn't like. And obviously he took action calling Congressman Waxman to remove the part having to do with the birth control. Now, there is a $335 million provision about education for sexually transmitted diseases. They're still lacing the bill $50 million funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.
