The Debt, Libya, and Ivory Coast: Today’s Qs for O’s WH – 4/11/2011

TAPPER:  Speaker Boehner says there's not a chance — to quote him — not a chance the debt ceiling will be raised without significant spending cuts attached to it.  So your position that you want it to be  clean seems to be a nonstarter on Capitol Hill.

CARNEY:  Well, I will remind you of something that the Speaker said earlier this year; quote, "If we were to fail to increase the debt limit, we would send our economy into a tailspin."  He also said, quote, "financial disaster not only for our country but for the world-wide economy.  You can't create jobs if you default on the federal debt."  We could not have said it better.  That is a vivid description of why this is such an important vote and why you cannot hold it hostage to something else.

Again, the president's commitment to deficit reduction has been established — was established on Friday, was established in his 2012 budget proposal, was established in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression, in the way he — the way he drew up and worked with Congress to pass the Affordable Care Act, which — it's important to remember, when we're talking about the drivers of our long-term debt, we're talking in many ways, at least in sizeable measure, health care spending.  And that measure as scored by independent economists reduces the deficit — reduces the deficit by $200 billion in 10 years and more than 1 trillion (dollars) over 20, again, demonstrating the seriousness with which he takes the need to address the deficit and the long-term debt. So —

TAPPER:  The spending cuts that you're heralding as the biggest spending cuts since the Reagan years, that won't even pay for what we're borrowing this month.

CARNEY:  I agree that the reality of our one term – one year, or six-month, now, continuing resolution is that it is but a portion of the problem and a small slice.  That's an argument that we were making for a long time in urging Congress to get done with that work. 

What it does do is demonstrate a commitment to spending reduction, spending cuts, and a commitment to making tough choices that are not the kinds of choices in an ideal world the president would want to make or that Democrats would want to make.  But it shows his willingness to compromise and find common ground, that it can be done if we all work together, we're all reasonable and we're all willing to retain our principles, retain our priorities, but be willing to negotiate on the issues in a way that allows us to reach an agreement.

TAPPER:  But just for the government to continue functioning until the end of next year, the debt ceiling will need to be raised about $1.9 trillion. And you're heralding 38.5 billion (dollars), or let's make it 78.5 billion (dollars).  Either way, what you're talking about as representing a commitment by the president is a drop of water in an ocean.  It's nothing.  And so I don't understand how you can say this demonstrates the president’s “commitment” –

CARNEY:  Well, Jake, I would — first of all, your disinterest or dismissal of the size of the spending cuts is remarkable, given the intense interest in every half-billion dollars as recently as last week on the hour.   

So all of these things are difficult.  And what was established on Friday was that if the leaders stay focused on the need to do what's right for the American economy and what's right for the

American people, they can reach an agreement that is good for the American economy and good for the American people. And these things build on themselves, we hope.

We believe that the bipartisan tax cut that the president signed into law in December — which no one in this room, I daresay, would have predicted in the wake of the midterm elections as a possible outcome — has done — was — A, laid a predicate for that kind of bipartisan cooperation that we need in divided government and, B, did a — had a great deal, and has had a great deal of positive impact on the economy.  Economists independent from the White House, independent from Congress, will tell you that it has added significantly to our growth so far.

So that lays a predicate.  The agreement that we reached on Friday — that the president reached on Friday laid a predicate.  All of this stuff is hard.  All of these negotiations will be difficult.  But what I think the American people should take away from what they've seen happen in recent days is that there is reason to hope that we can work together and get the work done that the American people expect us to get done.

TAPPER:  One last thing.  Could you — does the White House have any comment on the latest from Libya, the negotiations with the African Union and Colonel Gadhafi; and then also, the latest from the Ivory Coast in terms of Gbagbo being imprisoned?  Your comments on either one of those.

CARNEY:  Well, on — we are glad to see that Mr. Gbagbo has been arrested because, as you know, we have made clear that he was no longer the legitimate president of the country, that the elections that displaced him were free and fair.  And we have supported the efforts of those who would bring him — you know, convince him to remove himself from power.  And we have been very involved in the effort at the international community level of help make that happen, so we welcome that development. And on Syria, I would say that –

TAPPER:  Libya.

CARNEY:  I'm sorry.  On Libya, I can also —

TAPPER: You can do Syria too, if you want.

CARNEY:  You can tell that this is — the unrest in the region is broad, right? 

But the — in Libya, the — our response to the quote/unquote "cease-fire" is that what matters here are actions and not words.  And Colonel Gadhafi and his forces, his regime, you know, know full well what they need to do.  They need to stop menacing the civilians, the citizens of Libya.  They need to pull back from the cities.  They need to garrison themselves, the forces, and then that would — that would be a good development. 

But we are in no way pausing.  We are in no way letting up the implementation, and every aspect of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 continues and will continue as long as — as long as necessary.  And we continue to pursue our diplomatic and economic measures to tighten the noose around Gadhafi and those members of his regime who continue to try to cling to power, in order to achieve the result of having him step down from power so that the Libyan people can decide their future and pick a government and leaders who will respond to their aspirations.

-Jake Tapper