White House file photo/Pete Souza
President Barack Obama took to the air waves last night for the second prime-time news conference of his 64-day-old administration. President Obama’s main goal was to rally the country around his proposed new $3.6 trillion budget, which is causing debate in Congress mainly because of its huge dollar commitment.
In his news conference, the president described how his budget: “… will build our economic recovery on a stronger foundation so that we don’t face another crisis like this 10 or 20 years from now. We invest in the renewable sources of energy that will lead to new jobs, new businesses and less dependence on foreign oil. We invest in our schools and our teachers, so that our children have the skills they need to compete with any workers in the world. We invest in reform that will bring down the cost of health care for families, businesses and our government. And in this budget, we have to make the tough choices necessary to cut our deficit in half by the end of my first term…”
The president expressed confidence that: “We’ll recover from this recession, but it will take time…” After his opening statement, Obama took questions from reporters on a variety of subjects including stem cell research, the Mexican drug/border violence problem, and the Israeli & Palestinian conflict. However, most the reporter questions focused on shoring up the weak economy and financial system; providing the president with more chances to push the benefits of his recovery plan.
The president readily admitted our economic crisis is serious, but insisted our country is still stable: “I would just point out that the dollar is extraordinarily strong right now. And the reason the dollar is strong right now is because investors consider the United States the strongest economy in the world with the most stable political system in the world.”
