110893883703923180

ARI FLEISCHER: By that logic, if jobs was the only issue at stake, then the government should just put everybody on the federal payroll because that’s a good policy to create jobs. There are reasons that people have jobs, is because their work leads to consumers who want their product. If consumers don’t want their product, the consumers have a right to speak for themselves.

Q. Have you done any kind of an analysis on how many jobs would be lost as a result of this registry?

MR. FLEISCHER: You may want to log on to Ask the White House tomorrow, and ask the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. That’s at 11:00 a.m., Ask the White House, www.whitehouse.gov. Anything else I can serve up, John? (Laughter.)

Q. Ari, if you could also tell us, has the President ever received an unwanted telemarketing phone call?

MR. FLEISCHER: Probably not since he got to the White House. (Laughter.) He gets other unwanted calls every now and then, however.

Full Transcript

110893878671813438

Q. But, Ari, it’s completely different than what the White House has said about the same issue. The President has always said it’s not surprising, you’ve said it’s not surprising that we haven’t found them, because they’ve engaged in a program of deception and denial for the past decade. He’s saying it’s perplexing. Which is it?

ARI FLEISCHER: No, I think it’s just as the President said, he understands that people will be skeptical until they’re found.

Q. But that’s not what — that’s not what he’s saying. He’s saying it’s perplexing. You’re saying it’s not surprising. So you’re at odds.

MR. FLEISCHER: Well, when he says — when General Abizaid says, as he said to the senators yesterday, “Before the war we picked up the movement at depots that we thought meant they were certainly moving things forward for use in military operations. It may very well have been that they received the order, quite to the contrary, to get rid of them.” That deals –

Q. So is he incorrect in saying it’s perplexing? Or should he be saying it’s not surprising, based on the pattern of deception and denial?

MR. FLEISCHER: Well, I’m kind of perplexed by what the difference is between perplexing and surprising.

Q. Well, if you’re perplexed, you don’t understand it. If you’re not surprised, you expected it.

MR. FLEISCHER: Given the fact that they have been hiding, just as he talked about — he stated in here, how they have been — “I’m confident we’ll show there was deception” — I think it fits the same remarks the President said when he said he’s — he understands people’s skepticism.

Full Transcript

110893874030798937

Q. Ari, back on the EU. Did anything that the President serve at lunch today contain genetically-modified — (laughter.)

ARI FLEISCHER: Well they’re eating now, and the President did jokingly say as he got up from the table, let’s go eat some genetically-modified food for lunch. (Laughter.) So he –

Q. So he’s fairly confident that there were –

MR. FLEISCHER: He said it with a big smile and everybody laughed. And I’m here with you, I’m not there eating the food.

Q. Can you check and see whether, in fact, there was anything in the menu?

MR. FLEISCHER: I think it was the usual White House fare.

Q. Which is very genetically modified? (Laughter.)

MR. FLEISCHER: Which in that building, especially, is delicious. In this building, it’s very good. (Laughter.)

Full Transcript

110893868848034856

ARI FLEISCHER: …So the President’s focus is on growth. The President believes that the best answer to these fiscal questions on how to achieve balance in the budget over the long-term is by focusing on policies and encourage growth.

Q. Doesn’t that sound like we don’t really have to make any hard choices –

MR. FLEISCHER: No.

Q. — the President isn’t really asking the American people –

MR. FLEISCHER: It was a hard choice to get the tax cut passed through the Congress that provided growth. There were many people who voted –

Q. — that seems a pretty easy hard choice.

MR. FLEISCHER: You know — there’s no truth to that. Then why did it pass with small margins? There are many people in Washington whose approach to government issues is very different from the President’s, and we saw it yesterday at the Ways and Means Committee. Their approach is to raise people’s taxes, to spend more money on bigger government programs.

The President has adopted what he believes are very careful reviews of individual federal programs that need to grow because they are proven successes, while working with the Congress to impose fiscal discipline on the rest of the budget. That’s his approach, coupled with tax policies that focus on growth.

Full Transcript

110893864413851442

Q. Ari, in New York, the Marist Poll reports that in a 2006 U.S. Senate race, Rudy Giuliani would defeat Hillary Clinton 56 to 39, while an ABC News Poll reports that 53 percent of Americans think Mrs. Clinton should never run for President. And my question, the President surely has the highest regards and confidence in his fellow Republicans Rudy Giuliani and Frank Keating, doesn’t he?

ARI FLEISCHER: Yes.

Q. Thank you. (Laughter.)

Full Transcript

110893860155286971

Q. So you’re saying that there’s no chance that they do produce hydrogen for weather balloons used in artillery?

ARI FLEISCHER: I think that theory is full of hot air.

Q. Or hydrogen, one of the two.

Full Transcript

110893852688911681

Q. Ari, a quick two-part question. You said there will come a time when the President engages in political activities. How will we know when that happens? (Laughter.)

ARI FLEISCHER: You’re not trying to lead me somewhere with that type of question, are you?

Q. Never, Ari.

MR. FLEISCHER: Very judicious of you.

Q. Will you be landing somewhere? (Laughter.)

MR. FLEISCHER: I hope you enjoyed it. (Laughter.) Your network surely did.

You know, there will come a time when the President will, as events get closer to an election, to Election Day, the President will engage in more overt campaigning. That time is not here. I think the American people typically think campaigns go on too long, and the President tends to agree with that. Nevertheless, the President will prepare for the campaign — after all, next year does end in an even number.

Full Transcript

110893848868013347

Q. Across the country, people are wondering just what date in July you are going to leave us. And there is also concern about the absence of any progress report in the selection of a successor to match your mettle. (Laughter.) Surely, you can help us out in this area of concern, can’t you, Ari?

ARI FLEISCHER: Lester, that is problem one of the most meddlesome questions you’ve ever asked. (Laughter.)

Q. What date, Ari?

MR. FLEISCHER: I will be leaving just as I indicated earlier in the –

Q. Sometime in the July?

MR. FLEISCHER: — the middle of July.

Q. Middle, about the 15th?

MR. FLEISCHER: Somewhere right around there, in the middle of July.

Q. And what about the process of selecting a successor?

MR. FLEISCHER: As you know, I don’t speculate about personnel. But you’ll like the successor.

Q. I will?

Full Transcript

110893844833433216

Q. Newspapers in recent days have been filled with articles about lying, cheating criminality at high levels. You have Martha Stewart charged with insider trading, indicted for obstruction; Sammy Sosa using a corked bat. On the front page of the Post today –

ARI FLEISCHER: Russell, you’re not going to blame President Bush for Sammy Sosa, are you? (Laughter.)

Q. I’m just asking a question. On the front page of the Post today you’ve got WorldCom execs inflating revenues and Freddie Mac execs fired for doctoring the books, and so forth. I’m wondering, is the President concerned about sort of a culture of cheating and lying and criminality taking hold in the country? And if he is, what does he plan to do about it?

MR. FLEISCHER: Russell, I think that’s a rather pessimistic statement to make about the American people and the American character. And the President wouldn’t share that. I think to the President what it indicates is a need to have a society of laws where the laws are vigorously enforced, no matter who violates them; and to have ethics that are followed at home and in the workplace and corporate boards. That’s how the President approaches it. But, no, the President would have a different approach to what it means society-wide.

Full Transcript

110893836995143050

Q. Ari, two-part. Since both you and the President surely must believe in the importance to this nation of a media that is both free and honest, and since The New York Times has forced the resignations of editors Howell Raines and Gerald Boyd for allowing so many Jayson Blair lies into print, my question: you don’t blame The Times for doing this, even though The Washington Post failed to fire Ben Bradley for allowing as many Janet Cooke lies into print, do you, Ari?

ARI FLEISCHER: You know, Lester, when you asked this question a couple weeks about something that –

Q. (Inaudible.) (Laughter.)

MR. FLEISCHER: No, no, no, you asked a –

Q. — aired them yet.

MR. FLEISCHER: Lester, I was about to praise you. (Laughter.) First time I’ve heard something silence you. (Laughter.) You asked about this topic a couple weeks ago when you brought up the Jayson Blair stories. And I said at the time that this is, indeed, a serious matter and that The New York Times is taking it seriously.

I’m not going to make any comments about personnel matters at The New York Times, but I go back to what I said before: it’s a serious matter and I think The New York Times is taking it seriously.

Full Transcript

110893830231604999

Q. Two things on that. The tax bill cut, the President’s own personal income tax bill, $26,000. I’m wondering what does he plan to do with the extra cash? (Laughter.)

ARI FLEISCHER: I haven’t asked him.

Full Transcript