Today’s Q’s for O’s WH – 3/20/2009

(Meant to post this yesterday; apologies.)
TAPPER: Doesn’t the fact that the CBO projects an additional $2.3 trillion long-term deficit negate the fact that the president is talking about being able to cut $2 trillion? I mean, it’s basically there it went, and now here’s another $300 billion.
GIBBS: I — I have — I have not seen the final report, and I know Director Orszag will have a call not long after this, and he’ll have a better sense of some of the numbers, in terms of the savings.
But I think, again, the — the numbers that you’re talking about in many ways accumulate, again, farther down the road, based on a change in their assumption about long-term economic growth.
But the president remains confident that he has put forward a budget that meets the critical investments that he — he thinks America must be making in order to move past the bubble-and-bust economic era into some sustained economic growth, while cutting that deficit in half in four years. The president remains confident that he can do so.
TAPPER: What would your message to the American people be when they hear about the CBO projecting this much larger deficit, $400 billion additional this year, $400 billion next year? Do you think their numbers are — I know you said there are other numbers that are — that are more optimistic, in terms of growth. Do you think — do you reject the CBO numbers?
GIBBS: No, no. I think, again, I think there are a series of numbers, opinions that range, as I said, economically — in terms of economic growth, from the Fed to Blue Chip indicators, growth forecasts, to the — to the federal government and to the Congressional Budget Office.
Look, I think what the American people should understand is that, for quite some time, we have — we’ve had budget deficits and an accumulation of budget debt that the president believes is unsustainable, that his budget takes actions to cut the deficit in half in just four years, and believes that the steps that his administration is taking as it relates to recovery and financial stability will put us — as well as the investments in the budget — will put us on a more robust and sustained path towards that economic growth that will help the deficit in many of those out-years. Obviously, it is exceedingly hard to project 7 or 10 years into the future. The president remains confident that the forecast, though, demonstrates that he can cut the budget deficit in half by the end of his first term.
- jpt