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 Farm Bill & Veto - Air Force One Press Gaggle by Dana Perino 5/22/08 — Thursday, May 22, 2008 —  Q Farm bill -- where are we with the farm bill?MS. PERINO: You tell me -- or the Democrats tell me. Q What did he veto? MS. PERINO: He vetoed -- the President vetoed the bill that the Democrats sent us. And, look, I understand there's a technical error and we'll have to see what the Congress decides to do, but maybe it gives them one more chance to take a look and think about how much they're asking the taxpayers to spend at a time of record farm income. The Congress had an opportunity to put forward -- I'm sorry -- to implement reforms, much needed reforms, and they decided not to. And I think with this move it shows that they can even up screw up spending the taxpayers' money unwisely. Q What was that -- MS. PERINO: Said they can -- they've proved that they can even screw up spending the taxpayers' money unwisely. (Laughter.) Laughter by reporters. (Laughter.) Air Force One | Congress | Dana Perino | Legislation | Pork | Press Gaggle | Vetoes | White House Press Corps Labels: Air Force One, Congress, Dana Perino, Legislation, Pork, Press Gaggle, Vetoes, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 10:14:00 PM  White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 2/25/08 (FISA Bill and Telecom Retroactive Immunity) — Monday, February 25, 2008 — MS. PERINO: That has been his position for a long time, and the reason is because you can't have -- without the cooperation of the companies, we won't have a program. You know, if we had a nationalized telecommunication system, then we -- the government could do it on its own, but in our system of government and the way that we are set up as a capitalist-style country, we have to have the cooperation of the private sector. They have the technology, they have the means, and they want to cooperate, but they have been burdened with over 40 lawsuits, class-action lawsuits that would -- that, one, already are costing them lots of money to deal with. And if the suits were to go forward, it could cost them possibly billions. And that cost is going to be borne by the consumers of those businesses, the customers of those businesses. But more importantly, the companies at this point are saying that they are growing increasingly reluctant to continue to work with us because, even though they want to, they are concerned about the trial lawyer lawsuits that are pending. Q Dana, critics would say that -- MS. PERINO: Reluctantly so. And it took a lot of work on behalf of the Justice Department and the office of Director of National Intelligence to work with the companies to work with companies to -- work with them to tell them what we need, and to tell them that we are going to continue to push for prospective and, more importantly, retroactive liability protection. Q Who gave them the right to break the law? MS. PERINO: Nobody broke the law, Helen. That might be your opinion, but nobody broke the law. Q When these companies -- when no warrant is given, and they didn't break the law? MS. PERINO: Helen, you're entitled to your opinion, but you're not entitled to your own set of facts. Q Oh, come on, let's -- MS. PERINO: And the facts are that companies were asked to help, and they were helped -- Q Why can't they get -- MS. PERINO: -- and they allowed -- they helped with a legal program that has helped save lives. Q Who told them they could break the law? MS. PERINO: That is just -- that's not true, Helen. Q Is it not the case, as the writers of the op-ed in today's Post claim, that the law protects all of this until August? MS. PERINO: There are -- it's a little bit more complex than that, but there are certainly directives that were approved last August when the Protect America Act was passed. Q For how long? MS. PERINO: For one year. But it's not for -- it's not necessarily -- that does not necessarily apply to all the new targets. And it doesn't apply necessarily to maybe new companies or new providers that we would need to work with in the future, that might not already be under a directive that we're -- Q But one of your complaints of prospective. They don't affect anything that's going on right now. MS. PERINO: That's not necessarily the case. As you heard in the letter -- you didn't hear from him, but in the letter that Attorney General Mukasey and Director of National Intelligence McConnell sent on Friday -- that there were several days last week where we lost information. Late Friday night there was a company that agreed reluctantly to continue to cooperate with us. But one of the things you have to understand is in the world -- Q They lost information because companies wouldn't cooperate. MS. PERINO: Correct. There was -- they are reluctant to cooperate. And during that time frame when they were trying to work with them to get them to cooperate, and to give them the comfort that they needed to be willing partners, it just took a little while. And then once that was given on Saturday morning, that the Justice Department and the Office of Director -- the DNI, put out a statement saying that they had gotten this cooperation. But this is not the kind -- this is not the way we should be running an intelligence program where you are trying to track terrorists who are calling into or out of America. We don't want to have to be having our lawyers and other professionals in the intelligence community having to coax companies to cooperate. These companies want to cooperate. I mean, all they're saying is that they want the retroactive liability protection which passed the Senate 68-29. Dana Perino | FISA | Helen | President Bush | Press Briefing | Vetoes | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, FISA, Helen, President Bush, Press Briefing, Vetoes, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 5:14:00 PM White House Press Briefing by Tony Fratto 10/22/07 (S-CHIP Veto) — Monday, October 22, 2007 — MR. FRATTO: Well, I could see that point if that was what the President said, but that's exactly not what the President said. What the President said was is that they have the policy wrong on SCHIP, not that it's too expensive or is -- Q They were asking for too much, though, right? MR. FRATTO: No, they were asking for a policy that was bad. Let me tell you something about the -- what the SCHIP bill that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are proposing, okay. If you look at the eligible communities in this bill, it would result in 57 percent of children in this country and about 53 percent of families with children on public assistance, or at least eligible for public assistance. Now what the President has said is that poor children should come first. Now there are a lot of things you can say about half the families in America. Half of them aren't poor. And so the President has said that the policy is wrong. He didn't say that it's too expensive -- although it is too expensive to spend money on the wrong policy. So what he has said is the policy is wrong. Now, with regard to the supplemental request, children -- the right children, poor children getting their health care, and the needs of our troops can both be accomplished. They're both priorities and we can handle both of those requests. Iraq | President Bush | Press Briefing | S-CHIP | Tony Fratto | Vetoes | White House Press Corps Labels: Iraq, President Bush, Press Briefing, S-CHIP, Tony Fratto, Vetoes, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 8:41:00 PM Press Conference by the President 9/20/07 (S-CHIP Veto) — Thursday, September 20, 2007 — Q Quick follow, if I may, Mr. President? THE PRESIDENT: No, you may not. Q Mr. President, back to your grade point average on holding the line on taxes -- THE PRESIDENT: Whew, I thought you were going to talk about the actual grade point average. (Laughter.) I remind people that, like when I'm with Condi I say, she's the Ph.D. and I'm the C-student, and just look at who's the President and who's the advisor. (Laughter.) But go ahead. Q If there is a tax increase on cigarettes to fund the S-CHIP program, is that a tax increase you oppose? THE PRESIDENT: It does. We don't need to raise taxes. What I want is the Congress to be focused on making sure poor children get the health insurance they were promised. Instead, Congress has made a decision to expand the eligibility up to $80,000. That's not the intent of the program. The program was find poor children and help them with health insurance. Their vision is, expand the eligibility so that people making up to $80,000 will be eligible for this program. I believe this is a step toward federalization of health care. I know that their proposal is beyond the scope of the program, and that's why I'm going to veto the bill. Labels: President Bush, Presidential Press Conference, S-CHIP, Vetoes, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 8:34:00 PM
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