President Obama Holds Talks About Recovery In Prime Time Press Conference

Tuesday night President Obama held the second press conference of his young presidency on the same day Timothy Geithner spoke to Congress on Capitol Hill. Both men spoke about the newly unveiled economic recovery plan to relieve banks of troubled assets and the importance of future regulatory improvements to keep economic collapses such as the one at AIG from happening again.

During the press conference the President was asked by a reporter from CNN about the timing of his speaking out about the bonuses for AIG executives. The terseness of his reply gave some pundits cause to posit that perhaps the President is not as unflappable as some have portrayed him as being. Overall the briefing and Q&A that followed was mostly uneventful and covered the expected talking points that had been laid out in the pre-release to the press of the President’s intended topics.

When asked if he would sign a budget that did not include a middle class tax cut the President said that he would have to see the provisions of the budget before deciding one way or another. On the subject of the budget the President defended the cost of his budget saying “We've got to make some tough budgetary choices... What we can't do, though, is sacrifice long-term growth, investments that are critical to the future, and that's why my budget focuses on health care, energy, education, the kinds of things that can build a foundation for long-term economic growth, as opposed to the fleeting prosperity that we've seen over the last several years.”

The prepared remarks focused primarily on the economy and the budget but the President also discussed the worsening situation along the Mexican border with the increased violent activities of the drug cartels that have been spilling over the border into the U.S. The President noted that he has authorized increased manpower and equipment to address the situation at the border and is working with the Mexican President to address the problem of the drug cartels. He added that if the measures already taken were not enough he was committed to increasing the level of support for the efforts to quell the violence and secure our borders against the threat of the drug cartels.

The press conference lasted a little under an hour and got moderately high marks from most observers. Critics were quick to jump on the terse exchange with CNN reporter Ed Henry as a sign of chinks in the Obama armor. In a move that was somewhat unusual the President took questions from reporters for Univision, Politico, Ebony and Stars & Stripes. The President is also scheduled to hold an online Town Hall meeting on the White House Website Thursday morning with visitors encouraged to send in questions and vote on the most popular questions which the President will address.

Troy Wilson-Ripsom - Staff Writer | Give your feedback on this article. | Click icon to Digg this article

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