Today’s Qs for O’s WH – 1/21/2010
EmailTAPPER: The Dow dropped 200 points after the announcement, led by bank stocks. And I'm wondering how you walk the line between getting tough on Wall Street and yet not wanting to alienate those who created jobs.
GIBBS: Well, I would say this. As we've discussed in here, based on different proposals, I'm not going to comment on the individual daily fluctuations of the stock market or the fluctuations daily of stocks and the factors that might or might now drive them.
In what I said to Chip (Reid of CBS), this is a proposal to add some stability to our financial system, to help shareholders, to help taxpayers, to help all of those involved provide that long-term financial stability.
So what the market does in reaction one day or the next is — is not for me to comment on. What the president is focused on as part of financial reform is a set and a series of rules of the road going forward that provide the stability in our financial system that we lacked only a few years ago.
TAPPER: I think the questions about timing and the fact that this wasn't included in the president's proposal six months ago…
GIBBS: Right.
TAPPER: … the underlying hypothesis is that Scott Brown was elected to the Senate on Tuesday. There are a lot of angry voters out there. Democrats in the White House are upset and worried about it. You said yesterday — when I asked you about how the administration would appeal to angry voters, you mentioned regulatory reform as one of the three things that you would talk about. And…
GIBBS: Sure. But I…
TAPPER: … was this hastily…
GIBBS: No.
TAPPER: I mean, Volcker obviously has been talking about this for months, if not years. But was this hastily added to the schedule?
GIBBS: No, no, no. This was — this is an issue that I know Austan has been in meetings; I've been in meetings about this, dating back several months.
I think one of the — the president had a fairly conclusive conversation moving forward on this before he left for Christmas.
It's obviously a complex proposal, and we wanted to get — we wanted to get that part of it right.
But this is not something that was done as a result of anything that's happened this week. This proposal is as a result of what has happened over the course of many years in allowing, as Austan said, the rules of the road in many ways to be gamed for — in favor of the type of firms whose actions we seek to limit today.
TAPPER: Tomorrow will be the one-year anniversary of President Obama saying that Guantanamo will be shut down. Obviously, you're not going to make a deadline. Do you have any idea when the process will be done?
GIBBS: I don't know when the process will be done. I know they've made great progress on — look, establishing, first and foremost, case files and recognitions of who indeed was still there and why. The — there has been progress on that. There's been progress on issues of siting a new detention facility. The president won't meet the deadline he laid out a year ago, but the president, his national security team, our generals in Iraq and Afghanistan understand the support for Al Qaida that Guantanamo provides them, in recruiting, in attracting those that seek to do us harm. To keep the American people safe, the president pledged to close Guantanamo Bay, and he'll do that.
TAPPER: And can I just ask one more question about today's announcement? I understand that this was cast within the whole context of the financial meltdown. Correct if I'm wrong, but there's nothing that the president's proposing today that will create any jobs. I mean, it's not — this isn't going to do anything to Wall Street other than try to prevent future disasters. But it wouldn't do anything on the job creation front.
GIBBS: No, this is — this is — that's not what the proposal was intended to do. This was — this is about rules of the road for banks that engage, as you heard Austan describe, in activities that before so long ago weren't traditionally the purview of banks.
TAPPER: Do you think you need to be doing more to talk about creating jobs and not just…
(CROSSTALK)
GIBBS: I think the president will talk about that later today in front of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
-jpt
Santorum: Money Will Not Defeat Obama, Ideas Will 
Rick Santorum's Full Speech at CPAC 2012
GIBBS: Well, I would say this. As we’ve discussed in here, based on different proposals, I’m not going to comment on the individual daily fluctuations of the stock market or the fluctuations daily of stocks and the factors that might or might now drive them.
Translation:We have been here a year and you still have not figured out that I don’t know what to say since we still don’t know what we are doing. And it is all Bush’s fault.
Posted by: DJ | January 21, 2010, 3:59 pm 3:59 pm
Jake – It has become a daily habit of mine to log into your blog and see what questions from you Gibbs didn’t answer that day. Keep up the good work. Maybe one day I will be pleasantly surprised and he will HONESTLY answer a question without spin or sarcasm. I am not holding my breath.
Posted by: Jim Tayberry | January 21, 2010, 4:01 pm 4:01 pm
Why would any banks hire after today’s announcement? As if harsh rhetoric and action against the pharmaceutical, energy, automotive, financial, and insurance industries wasn’t enough to chill hiring, the President – today – has become an official job killer.
The man is saddling America with 11%+ unemployment for years to come because he’s listening to the wrong populist frequency.
Posted by: acquainted | January 21, 2010, 4:06 pm 4:06 pm
Gibbs: Well its like this, those stupid people of Mass and the rest of the country going against us are going to see their retirements dry up… this is just the beginning… LMAO
Posted by: another crisis, another photo-op | January 21, 2010, 4:10 pm 4:10 pm
Surprise the nation’s financial sector with a quick lurch, yes, that is very good for achieving stability.
My, Obama has had such a busy day already:
* Federal takeover of another industry, the student loan business. (How many more SEIU members will that give cadillac benefits to? How many private sector jobs will be lost?)
* Do the daily whiplash to the evil bankers, check.
* Still to-do: Must check off the “Jobs” box — script ready? OK, cue the Mayors, stage left, stat!
Posted by: Carol | January 21, 2010, 4:16 pm 4:16 pm
“The Dow dropped 200 points after the announcement,”
The market dropped more after Brown won MA (although health insurance stocks did OK) – I missed the questions about that.
Posted by: jhw539 | January 21, 2010, 4:37 pm 4:37 pm
Jake, now that you have monmentum by going up agaist the inepept Gibbs. Let’s see if you take it to Sunday and improve from last Sunday.
Posted by: Dino | January 21, 2010, 4:37 pm 4:37 pm
The man is saddling America with 11%+ unemployment for years to come because he’s listening to the wrong populist frequency.
___________________________________
Unemployment has not reached the levels it reached under Reagan (it took Reagan over 2.5 years to start to control unemployment and it hit 10.8%) – and the economy was not nearly as badly damaged under Reagan as the American economic collapse under the Bush administration.
Posted by: tierra | January 21, 2010, 5:16 pm 5:16 pm
“The man is saddling America with 11%+ unemployment for years to come because he’s listening to the wrong populist frequency.”
I was thinking similar as I read Jake’s post. Democrat Reps. and Senators up for election in November are going to feel the pain of the longest stretch of double-digit unemployment since the Great Depression on the campaign trail and there will more shockers (Boxer? Bayh? Murray?).
Barack Obama is destroying the Democratic party. Pass the popcorn.
Posted by: tjp612 | January 21, 2010, 5:37 pm 5:37 pm
Posted by: tierra | Jan 21, 2010 5:16:47 PM
“Unemployment has not reached the levels it reached under Reagan (it took Reagan over 2.5 years to start to control unemployment and it hit 10.8%) – and the economy was not nearly as badly damaged under Reagan as the American economic collapse under the Bush administration.”
========================================
Under Bush:
- Set record for consecutive quarters of GDP growth
- Unemployment under 4.5%
- Low inflation
- Low interest rates
- Lower tax rates across the board
- Deficits shrinking
- Tax revenues growing
Then comes Pelosi and Reid:
One year later – Economic collapse.
Posted by: review | January 21, 2010, 5:46 pm 5:46 pm
“Unemployment has not reached the levels it reached under Reagan (it took Reagan over 2.5 years to start to control unemployment and it hit 10.8%) – and the economy was not nearly as badly damaged under Reagan as the American economic collapse under the Bush administration.”
Reagan didn’t spend 800 BILLION dollars to artificially and temporarily inflate employment stats. (And the $800 B doesn’t seem to even be doing that very well.)
Fun Fact: Did you know that all of that $800 billion was borrowed? Did you know that it all has to be paid back – with interest?
Posted by: JasonNY | January 21, 2010, 5:54 pm 5:54 pm
Fun Fact: Did you know that all of that $800 billion was borrowed? Did you know that it all has to be paid back – with interest?
Posted by: JasonNY | Jan 21, 2010 5:54:38 PM
Yes, I knew that. Do you think Congress knew it? Did they care?
Posted by: For The Record | January 21, 2010, 6:35 pm 6:35 pm
The Labor Department said Thursday that initial claims for unemployment insurance rose by 36,000 to a seasonally adjusted 482,000.
Posted by: factcheck | January 21, 2010, 6:48 pm 6:48 pm
tierra wrote: “Unemployment has not reached the levels it reached under Reagan (it took Reagan over 2.5 years to start to control unemployment and it hit 10.8%) – and the economy was not nearly as badly damaged under Reagan as the American economic collapse under the Bush administration.”….
.
Why is it that everytime the economy goes into the crapper there is a Democrat congress in control. Coincidence?
Posted by: gk | January 21, 2010, 8:38 pm 8:38 pm
Posted by: review | Jan 21, 2010 5:46:22 PM
The Bush administration increased the national debt by as much as almost ALL of the previous administrations in history combined!
Bush undertaxed and overspent the country into SEVERE debt – and then presided over the almost complete collapse of the American economy. The economy was so weak, it collapsed in free-fall.
The Bush administration presided over the outsourcing of hundreds of thousands of jobs to other countries. His administration said outsourcing of jobs to other countries would be good for the American economy.
Iran developed a secret nuclear facility on Bush’s watch. North Korean tested its first nuclear weapon on Bush’s watch. Bin Laden and al Qaeda escaped in Afghanistan on Bush’s watch.
That administration plays a KEY role in the mess we’re currently in.
Posted by: tierra | January 21, 2010, 8:47 pm 8:47 pm
Has Mr Gibbs ever heard of the housing bubble? Hmm I wonder how that was started. Nothing to do with government intervention to force lending to unqualified individuals I suppose… The elections of 2006 were devestating for this country. People must not forget that congress controls the power of the purse; something you learn in poli sci 101. It is important in 2010 to restore the congress to a party with some understanding of economics.
Posted by: Matt | January 22, 2010, 11:47 pm 11:47 pm