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 I'm Being Completely Sincere - White House Press Briefing by Robert Gibbs 4/20/09 — Tuesday, April 21, 2009 —  Q Thank you. The $100 million target figure that the President talked about today with the Cabinet, can you explain why it's so small? I know he talked about -- you know, you add up a hundred million, a hundred million, a hundred million and eventually you get somewhere, but it would take an awfully long time to add up hundred millions to make a dent in the deficit. Why not target a bigger number?MR. GIBBS: Well, I think only in Washington, D.C. does $100 million -- Q The deficit is very large. It's not a joke. The deficit is giant; $100 million really is only a dent. MR. GIBBS: No joke -- Q You can make a joke about it, but it's not funny. MR. GIBBS: I'm not making a joke about it; I'm being completely sincere. But only in Washington, D.C. is $100 million not a lot of money. It is where I'm from. It is where I grew up. And I think it is for hundreds of millions of Americans. Q But the point is it's not a very big portion of the deficit. Q You were talking about an appropriations bill a few weeks ago -- that at $8 billion -- being minuscule; a billion in earmarks. We were talking about that and you said that that -- MR. GIBBS: Well, in terms of -- Q A hundred million is a lot, but $8 billion is small? MR. GIBBS: What I'm saying is I think it all adds up -- just as the President said, just as Jennifer was good enough to do in her question. If you think we're going to get rid of a $1.3 trillion deficit by eliminating one thing, I'd be and the administration would be innumerably happy for you to let us know what that is. Q Why not try to get a bigger number so you can get a -- at a bigger share -- MR. GIBBS: Let me explain sort of what has happened. Let's walk through this so that everybody understands this. The President has laid out cuts, large and small, in both the administrative costs and in the program costs of the federal budget. Some of the examples that we were -- we provided you all will add up. For instance, the Department of Veterans Affairs either cancels or delays 26 conferences that can be better, or more effectively and more cost-effectively done by video conferencing that saves almost $18 million. A lot of these administrative things will add up. This is a short-term goal to come back with, over the course of the next few weeks, to identify further administrative savings that secretaries haven't already both identified and eliminated. The President has also proposed savings on a much larger scale. The President has proposed ending the bank middle man for college loans, saving $94 billion over a 10-year period of time. The President has attacked, in his budget, the subsidies that we provide insurance companies to provide the same Medicare coverage -- private insurance companies the same type of Medicare coverage that's already being offered at a savings of over $200 billion. Jennifer, the reason that the President can stand up with the backing of the Congressional Budget Office and talk about cutting the deficit in half over the course of four years time is because there are cuts that are large -- student loans and Medicare Advantage -- as well as small. This is part of the President's promise and proposal to go line by line through the federal budget deficit. Will we enumerate programs that don't work that we're going to eliminate in the future? Yes. Some of those cuts will be large; some of those cuts will be small. But we are not going to put ourselves back on a path toward fiscal sustainability if we don't look at each and every item in this federal budget and make some of the cuts that are necessary to get us on that path. Federal Deficit | Obama Administration | Press Briefing | Robert Gibbs | White House Press Corps Labels: Federal Deficit, Obama Administration, Press Briefing, Robert Gibbs, White House Press Corps
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 3:47 PM
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