with that, i will take your questions and i will start with ben feller of the associated press. >> thank you very much, mr. president. i'd like to ask you two economic matters. federal reserve chairman bernanke warned congress this week that the economic recovery is close to faltering. do you agree? and, secondly, on your jobs bill, the american people are sick of games. you mentioned games in your comments. they want results. wouldn't it be more productive to work with republicans on a plan that you know could pass congress as opposed to going around the country, talking about your bill and singling out, calling out republicans by name? >> well, first of all, with respect to the state of the economy, there is no doubt that growth has slowed. i think people were much more optimistic at the beginning of this year. but the combination of a japanese tsunami, the arab spring which drove up gas prices and most prominently europe, i think has gotten businesses and consumers very nervous. and we did not help here in washington with the debt ceiling debacle that took place. a bit of game playing

with that, i will take your questions and i will start with ben feller of the associated press. >> thank ask you about two economic matters. chairman reserve president ben bernanke said that they're faltering, do you agree? and secondly, on your jobs bill. the american people are sick of games. you mentioned games in your comments. they want results. wouldn't it be more productive to work with republicans on a plan that you know could pass congress as opposed to going around the country talking about your bill and singling out, calling out republicans by name? >> well, first of all, with respect to the state of the economy, there is no doubt that growth has slowed. i think people were much more optimistic at the beginning of this year, but the combination of a japanese tsunami, the arab spring which drove up gas prices and most prominently europe, i think, has gotten businesses and consumers very nervous and we did not help here in washington with the debt ceiling debacle that took place. a bit of game playing that was completely unnecessary. completely unprecedented in terms of how we d

with that, i will take your questions and i will start with ben feller of "associated press." >> thank you very much, mr. president. i'd like to ask you about two matters. the federal reserve chairman ben bernanke warned congress this week that the economic recovery is close to faltering. do you agree? and secondly, on your jobs bill, the american people are sick of games and you mentioned games in your comments. they want results. wouldn't it be more productive to work with republicans on a plan that you know could pass congress as opposed to going around the country talking about your bill and singling out, calling out republicans by name? >> well, first of all, with respect to the state of the economy, there is no doubt that growth has slowed. i think people were much more optimistic at the beginning of this year. but the combination of a japanese tsunami, the arab spring which drove up gas prices and most prominently europe, i think, has gotten businesses and consumers very nervous. and we didn't help here in washington with the debt ceiling debacle that took place, a bit of game p

with that, ben feller. >> thanks, jay. two topics. on the failed plot murder of the saudi ambassador, would you consider that an act of war? >> we consider it what it was, an attempted terrorist act to assassinate the saudi ambassador here to the united states. it's important to call things what they are, and the fact of the matter is that the united states disrupted a conspiracy to assassinate the saudi ambassador in a plot that was directed by elements of the iranian government, and the disruption of this plot represents a significant achievement by our intelligence and law enforcement agencies. it's a dangerous escalation of the iranian government's long standing use of violence, and we consider an effort to assassinate a dip mat in the united states to be a flagrant violation of law. as you know, we're committed to holding the iranians accountable. we have charged two individuals because of their involvement in this serious plot and sanctioned several others. we imposed additional sakss on mamoud air that provides services to the