President Bush describes some of the ways transportation in the U.S. is “safer, cleaner, and more effective.” (1:15)

 

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President Bush said that the Department of Transportation (DOT) has had an “impressive record” on providing safety to air travelers during his presidency. He called the last seven years of air travel the “safest ever.”

In a speech at the DOT today, Bush singled out Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, saying she has done a “fabulous job” and calling her “a strong leader.” He praised her response to the bridge collapse on Aug. 1, 2007 of Highway I-35 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. According to Bush, Peters led “a swift and effective federal response” to the bridge collapse, and stated that the bridge was reopened “months ahead of schedule.”

The President also declared that this December the government will open military air space to civilian air craft in areas of the East Coast, Midwest, Southwest, and the West Coast. He also said that this holiday season, the government, in an attempt to protect consumers, will increase regulations on airlines. He claimed there would be higher compensation assured to consumers who lost bags on flights, and tougher penalties for airlines that do not reveal hidden fees.

According to Bush, the administration has “taken steps to address the source of most flight delays and cancellations across the country, and that would be the heavy air traffic around New York City.” He said they have accomplished this because they have “improved our traffic control.”

Bush said that it is important to be innovative in improving air travel over the coming years. He said the energy bill he signed last year “will save fuel and cut greenhouse gas emissions by specifying a national fuel economy standard of 35 miles per gallon by 2020.”

Bush advocated that the private sector be the leader in providing advancement. He felt that the government should “provide incentives” to “develop new technologies, invest in our infrastructure, and help make our transportation system worthy of the 21st century.”

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright discussed her new book “Memo to the President: How We Can Restore America’s Reputation and Leadership” at Georgetown University. She said that unlike previous presidents, President-Elect Obama is going to “inherit the entire emergency room and patient #1 is the economy.” Dr. Albright advised that Obama find a set of balances for all sorts of policies that the Bush administration has allowed to fall to extremes. She advised balance of credit lending in America, and of the government’s involvement in other financial institutions. Albright also talked about a multilateral foreign policy that would make North Korea abandon their nuclear program, stop Iran from expanding theirs, begin to withdraw troops from Iraq, and end genocide in Darfur and the civil war in the Congo. She warned that America must “be patient,” however, and that Obama has a lot more on his plate than many realize.

For weeks, the administration has been lowering expectations about the economy, saying the third quarter report on gross domestic product would be rough.

It was. It fell 0.3% between July and September, the weakest figure in seven years. And the White House outlook? Things are probably going to get worse.

“There’s no question the economy has weakened significantly,” admitted Eddie Lazear, chairman of the president’s council of economic advisors. “We’ve got a few tough months ahead of us,”

Lazear said parts of the U.S. are undoubtedly in a recession, but declined to say if the entire country is. By definition, a recession occurs when the economy shrinks for two quarters in a row.

But Lazear said the administration’s recent actions, notably the massive $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP will help move the economy in the right direction.

Dividends

Meantime, White House press secretary Dana Perino was subjected to a barrage of questions about why banks dipping into the TARP trough for much needed capital continue to pay dividends to shareholders.

“You know, some people think only rich people get dividends. That’s not true, she said.” Perino pointed out that “mutual funds, schoolteachers” and others get dividends through investments they hold.

Where’s Bush?

The silence is thunderous. President Bush is, perhaps not by choice, staying off the campaign trail and keeping quiet about the race to succeed him - a race now down to its final hundred hours. He’ll spend the weekend at Camp David with the First Lady, but will return to the White House to watch returns on election night.

When will the president hold a news conference to comment on the election?

“I don’t know,” says Perino. “You’ll probably hear from me first though, on Tuesday night.”

The President did find a receptive audience today, though, attending graduation at the FBI academy, then visiting Marine Squadron One - home of Marine One, the presidential helicopter.

Mrs. Bush, for her part, visited New Orleans today, her 20th visit to the Gulf region since Hurricane Katrina. She visited an elementary school and announced a grant to help rebuild school libraries in the region. Perino said it would probably be Mrs. Bush’s final visit to the region as first lady.

With election day two weeks away, why hasn’t the president been campaigning for John McCain? White House spokesperson Dana Perino says Sen. McCain — who now goes to great lengths to distance himself from Mr. Bush, by saying “I’m not George Bush” - is running his campaign as he sees fit. Besides, Perino says, the president has had a lot on his plate the last few months: notably Russia’s invasion of Georgia and the economic crisis. Does this suggest he’s too busy to help Sen. McCain? “Not at all,” says Perino.

The possibility of a second round of economic stimulus checks is on the White House radar, but with Congress away for the next few weeks, the White House is not expecting anything to happen anytime soon. Does the White House support the idea? “We’re open to any and all ideas,” Perino says. But she points out the massive $700 billion rescue package approved by Congress and signed by the president is still in the pipeline: “It’ll take a while for that to have an impact.”

Perino knocked down the The New York Times article claiming President Bush has decided not to close the U.S. Navy prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where some 272 detainees are being held. “The president remains committed to closing Guantanamo,” she said, “But it is complicated.” Perino cited several reasons, including ongoing habeus corpus litigation, military tribunals and the unresolved issue of where to move any detainees that might be released. “Guantanamo would be easy to close,” she says, “If you don’t care about those issues.”

President Bush speaks in the Rose Garden about the state of the American economy. (8:15)

 

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“The turmoil will not end quickly and significant challenges remain ahead,” Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson said during a press conference to update Americans on the efforts to end the financial crisis. Paulson stated that he was working with President Bush, Congressional leaders, and both Senators Obama and McCain to find an interim chief financial officer that would “maintain continuity” with Congress and the next administration. The housing correction has been repeatedly pointed to as the root cause for the current financial crisis, and Paulson ensured Americans that “Congress was correct to take swift and bold action.” Strong international partnerships must be created and maintained in order for the crisis to end, Paulson said, as he also believes that central banks around the globe are prepared to stabilize the markets.

Following the president’s statement in the Rose Garden, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino and Director of the National Economic Council briefed the press on the government’s increasing role in attempting to restore investor confidence to the struggling financial markets.

Hennessey outlined the steps that have been taken and those that the government would like to happen, “So we’ve got the conservatorship for Fannie and Freddie. Treasury and Fed worked over the last weekend, they were up in New York working with firms in the industry,” he said. “We had the Fed taking steps just a couple days ago to prevent what they would call the disorderly liquidation of AIG, the insurance company. And then the Fed has been increasing significant amounts of liquidity into the financial system to keep things moving.”

Hennessey reiterated statements made by President Bush about urging the Congress to pass legislation that would allow the federal government to buy illiquid assets from struggling financial institutions to further increase liquidity.

“The most obvious example of an illiquid asset is a mortgage asset, a mortgage-backed security that’s probably lost value as the values of the homes that are underlying those mortgages have declined,” he said. “And what’s happening is, as those assets have lost value, people don’t want to buy them, they become illiquid, it’s hard for people to buy and sell them, and so they’re stuck on the balance sheets of financial institutions.”

Hennessey said that the White House would be in negotiation with congressional leaders over the weekend. Congress and the administration will need to hammer out the details of this authorizing legislation. Hennessey said that they would have to make “significant, substantive progress on the details” over the weekend.

“This is a very bold set of actions, we are calling on Congress to do something that is very big and that we believe needs to be done quickly,” he said.

Speaking to reporters in the Rose Garden President George W. Bush, joined by the Chairmen of the Federal Reserve Board and the Securities and Exchange Commission Ben Bernanke and Chris Cox and the Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson, speaks about government action in financial markets. Bush explains the current economic crisis and steps that the U.S. government is taking or plans to take to restore balance, liquidity, and investor confidence to the market. (9:04)

 

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“We’re focused on the financial system as a whole,” said President Bush in a statement today at the Rose Garden. His statement was in response to a bad weekend on Wall Street which included investment bank Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy on Monday and financial firm Merrill Lynch getting bought by Bank of America to save itself from bankruptcy.

He added that the short term adjustments might be painful, but “in the long run, I’m confident our capital markets are flexible and resilient.”

Bush said he appreciated the job of the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, and the Securities and Exchange Commission. He added that financial institutions in the United States and abroad would allow for “stability in the financial systems.”

President Bush said that Americans can be assured that his administration is working hard to solve current “adjustments” in the job markets. He also said that this administration would try to improve “the broader economy.”

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said that the root of the problem lies in the current housing prices. That, he says, is the reason the administration is adamant about bailing out mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Paulson added that the American people can be “very confident in the federal banking system.” He echoed the president’s claim that despite some “rough spots along the road,” the US economy is favorable compared to that of any developed country in the world.

Paulson would not speculate as to whether this country’s economic problems were the fault of the Bush administration, but Paulson said he was “playing the hand that was dealt me.”