'Meet The Press' Transcript (11-1-09): Timothy Geithner

Read the complete transcript. Excerpt below:

GREGORY: So good economic news, the economy grew a little bit in the third quarter; has a lot of people thinking things are getting better. And yet the market on Friday dropped pretty sharply. Does Wall Street think the recession is over?

GEITHNER: I think it is a good number. It was -- the growth was broad based. It was investment, exports, consumption, housing for the first time. And it shows that, you know, just five months after the president came into office we got growths restarted. But it’s just the beginning and we’ve got a ways to go. Unemployment’s high and still rising.

This is a very tough economy, still, for huge numbers of American’s businesses, so we’ve got a ways to go, David.

GREGORY: Do you think the recession is over?

GEITHNER: That’s the judgment the economists will make, and they won’t know until years from now. But the real test of recovery will be when we have unemployment coming down, people back to work, businesses confident to invest again.

GREGORY: What do people have to be braced for, despite this news?

GEITHNER: Well, again, I think it’s -- it’s good news and it shows that, when you act with force, you can stabilize a crisis like this and, you know, start to repair the damage and bring things back.

But this is going to be a different recovery than the past, because Americans are going to have to save more. A lot of damage was caused by this crisis. It’s going to take some time for us to grow out of this. It could be a little choppy; it could be uneven; and it’s going to take a while. But I think, again, this is encouraging signs.

GREGORY: Difficult days still ahead?

GEITHNER: Well, again, I think for large numbers of Americans and businesses, small businesses in particular, it’s a tough economy.

GREGORY: So more difficulty before it gets better.

GEITHNER: Well, it’s getting better. It’s going to be better gradually, and we’re going to make sure we keep at it until we have an economy that’s growing again led by the private sector, of course, ultimately.

GREGORY: Right.

GEITHNER: You know, what the government did was to step in and make sure we’re providing the tax cuts and investments necessary to arrest the crisis, get credit markets starting to open up again. And we did that, that plan worked. But we’ve got a ways to go before...

GREGORY: But that’s a big question, whether or not -- yes, you have growth for the first time in four quarters. But is any of this growth sustainable without government intervention?

GEITHNER: It will be, it will be. But what the government has to do in a crisis is to provide a bridge until the economy can repair itself and businesses are confident enough to start to invest again. And again, you’re starting to see it again.

Businesses now, I think they’ll say -- you talk to people across the country, they’ll say that they feel that things are more stable now and for the first time they see orders starting to pick up. And what will happen is they’ll start to invest again, they’ll start to bring people back onto their payroll and this will get more momentum.

Transcript: 'Face The Nation' (11-1-09): David Axelrod

Obama's adviser David Axelrod appeared on Face The Nation (11-1-09). Complete transcript. Excerpt below:

Mr. Axelrod, the president insisted that the Afghan people have a run-off election. He convinced the Afghan president, Karzai to do that after charges that the general election was a fraud. He agreed but he refused to replace the officials who were in charge of the last one, and now the other candidate, Abdullah Abdullah, has quit.

I guess I would ask you first, is this going to have any impact on the timing of the president’s decision on when to send those troops to Afghanistan?

AXELROD: Well, let me correct one thing that you said, Bob. What the president said was he wanted there to be an election that proceeded in the constitutional way. It did. In fact, many ballots were thrown out, a run-off was called.

Now Mr. Abdullah has exercised his rights as a candidate to withdraw. He has made a political decision to withdraw from this contest. And that doesn’t markedly change the situation.

SCHIEFFER: Well, why doesn’t it? I mean, the thing was a fraud. The man who was opposing him said, you know, he has got to replace these officials who allowed this to happen. They didn’t allow it to happen. The United States I guess went along with that. Why doesn’t it change the situation?

AXELROD: Well, I think, first of all, as I said, he made a political judgment. And I thought that his remarks today were rather moderate. He left open as to whether his supporters should participate in the process. And he is establishing himself as a leader of the opposition.

But every poll that had been taken there suggested that he was likely to be defeated anyway. So we are going to deal with the government that is there. And obviously there are issues we need to discuss, such as reducing the high level of corruption. These are issues we’ll take up with President Karzai. SCHIEFFER: Is there any word, Mr. Axelrod, on when we can expect the president to make this decision on whether or not he’s going to put more troops in there?

AXELROD: Well, Bob, I expect the president will make a decision within weeks. As you know, he has gone through a very rigorous process because the goal here is not just to make an arithmetic judgment about the number of troops, but to make sure that we have the right strategy to reach our goal.

And our goal is to protect the American people from al Qaeda. That’s why we’re in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda launched on us from Afghanistan. They’ve been driven to the mountains of Pakistan. We don’t want them to return to Afghanistan and make Afghanistan a base again. And that’s what this is about.

And the question is, what is the most effective strategy moving forward in the context of Pakistan, our troop strength around the world? These are the decisions the commander-in-chief has to make. And he is going through a methodical process, met with the Joint Chiefs on Friday had a good discussion with them.

SCHIEFFER: OK. But on timing, you’re saying in a matter of weeks. Let me ask you...

AXELROD: Yes, I...

(CROSSTALK)

SCHIEFFER: ... Mr. Axelrod, last week when casualties in Afghanistan hit a new high, President Obama went to Dover Air Force Base to take part in a ceremony honoring the return of some of those who had been killed there. Well, this morning on FOX News, Rush Limbaugh had this to say about that.

RUSH LIMBAUGH, HOST, “THE RUSH LIMBAUGH SHOW”: It was a photo op. It was a photo op precisely because he’s having big-time trouble on this whole Afghanistan dithering situation. He found one family that would allow photos to be taken. None of the others did.

And of course when you have a sycophantic media following you around, able to promote and amplify whatever you want, then he can create the impression that he has all of this great concern.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHIEFFER: So what’s your reaction to that?

AXELROD: My reaction is that I think that the president of the United States went to Dover to represent the American people and pay his respects to the families who had made so much of a sacrifice, to those brave service people who made the ultimate sacrifice.

It was the appropriate thing to do. And I think most Americans appreciate that.

Video: Rush Limbaugh on FOX News Sunday (11-1-09)

Rush limbaugh appeared on FOX News Sunday (11-1-09). He repeats Obama is a man-child argument. See the video on FOX site. Transcript here:
FOX's description of the interview:

President Obama is pursuing a "radical" agenda that is putting the economy and national security in peril, talk show host Rush Limbaugh told "Fox News Sunday," giving the young president failing grades across the board and standing by his sustained criticism of the administration.

The conservative radio host assailed the administration for its economic stimulus package, health care reform plan and alleged uncertainty over the way forward in Afghanistan. In a wide-ranging interview, he called Obama a "child" driven by his "out-of-this-world ego."

And he predicted that Obama, who built a broad-based majority over Republican candidate John McCain a year ago, would not win a second term.

"I'm really, really worried. We've never seen this kind of radical leadership at such a high level of power in the country," Limbaugh said. "I don't think we're better off in any way it can be measured."

Limbaugh is one of the administration's fiercest critics and has often found himself in the White House crosshairs as a result. Top White House aides blasted Limbaugh earlier in the year for saying he wanted Obama to fail as president.

Months later, Limbaugh has only doubled down on his criticism.

"He's immature, he's inexperienced -- in over his head," Limbaugh said of the president. He repeated former Vice President Dick Cheney's charge that Obama is "dithering" on deciding a strategy for the war in Afghanistan.

And Limbaugh scoffed at the administration's claim that hundreds of thousands of jobs have been saved or created by February's economic stimulus package, saying the government has become the job engine -- not the private sector.

"I believe that the economy is under siege," he said.

He also blasted the Democrats' health care bills as a front that would steal money from American businesses and effect the partial takeover of the private sector.

"This is not about insuring the uninsured -- this is not about health care," Limbaugh said. "This is about stealing one-sixth of the U.S. private sector and putting it under the control of the federal government."

Limbaugh warned that the legislation currently being worked out in Congress would amount to massive encroachments on personal and private behavior, much of which would fall under the purview of the legislation.

"And when they get this health care bill -- if they do -- that's the easiest, fastest way for them to be able to regulate every aspect of human behavior, because it will all have some related cost to health care -- what you drive, what you eat, where you live, what you do -- and there will be penalties for violating regulation."

Limbaugh said these changes would have a drastic effect on the U.S.: "It's going to be the biggest snatch of freedom and liberty that has yet occurred in this country."

Limbaugh Repeats Liz Cheney's Bogus Talking Point About Bush Honoring Fallen Troops

Here is a transcript of Rush Limbaugh repeating Liz Cheney's lie that President Bush honored fallen troops at Dover Air Base.

in reference to:

"Rush forwards Liz Cheney falsehood about Bush honoring fallen troops

After the commercial break, Rush said that we're living in an "age of insanity" because a Washington Post reporter was able to stop an ABC viral marketing campaign over concerns of pollution.
Then Rush took a caller who asked about Obama's visit to Dover Air Base to honor the troops who had been killed in Afghanistan.
Rush said the event gives us an insight into the "sick mind," "Marxist mind,
perhaps fascist mind?" of Obama. Rush continued:

LIMBAUGH: Lookit, Obama -- the White House is busy, they're playing defense. They're responding
to things, and the criticism of his dithering in Afghanistan
by Vice President Cheney and a number of others made him very sensitive. He doesn't care
about it -- you're exactly right. He --
obviously, he now has a problem with his own strategy that he implemented in
March. And he doesn't know what to do about it because really
he doesn't care about winning over there, but he does have a -- he can't afford -- he's commander in chief.

If he's gonna pull off the rest of his agenda, he's got to make as many people believe that he is as
traditional a president as anybody else. So, as a Democrat, he already has got the image of weak on defense. He already is
on record as having sought defeat in Iraq, but now he's the president.

Then Rush
went over the comments
that Liz Cheney had on this subject the other day. After airing the sound bite,
Rush said:

LIMBAUGH: Amen. That's Liz Cheney yesterday on the
syndicated Fox News Radio John Gibson Show. President Bush used to do
it, did you know that? We didn't know it -- she just told us something we
didn't know. Bush used to do it, but there were no cameras. He did it privately
with the family. Look, folks, you gotta understand leftists are propagandists,
they live by photo op and so forth.

But Bush never went to a homecoming for the fallen troops -- with or without the press. As TPM's David Kurtz quipped: "Liz Cheney says George W. Bush showed more class
than Barack Obama when he honored fallen troops -- because Bush didn't bring
cameras along with him when he never went
to Dover AFB."

The next
caller on the show asked Rush what he thought about the first-time homebuyers
tax credit. Rush said that it amounted to putting people in homes they can't
afford, buying votes, and growing government. Rush added that programs like
this seem nice in a recession, but the flawed aspect of it is that your
neighbors are essentially paying for your $8,000 tax credit.

After
another break, Rush read about Edmunds' "big news"
this week about cash for clunkers. Rush said part of the phony GDP growth was
attributed to cash for clunkers and the first-time homebuyer tax credits. He
noted the White House was pushing back on Edmunds' report, and proceeded to
rant:

LIMBAUGH: So now the White House is going to war with a website. And they're saying -- you know, some people here even on the left are, "What in the world are they doing?" Well, because when the propagandists are called on their lies, when politicians are called on their lies, whoever's doing the calling is going to pay for it when you have tyrannical-type control freaks running the show."
- The Limbaugh Wire for 10/30/2009 (view on Google Sidewiki)