argument made clear to the president of the united states, to the secretary of the treasury, to christine romer? >> larry summers knew perfectly well about this. >> why did they reject it? >> they rejected it because they thought, i think, that they couldn't do everything and that this didn't have their priorities... >> rose: well they tried to do everything. >> well, they started on this business of stimulus. >> rose: and what was wrong with the stimulus? >> i don't know what was wrong with the stimulus. but after that everything stood behind those priorities. >> rose: okay. basically the president would say to you and to anyone else and his advisors was look, what we tried to do with the stimulus was stimulate the economy, that's what it was about, economic recovery act was what it was called and we wanted to make investment that would have a real benefit over the long term so therefore it was energy, education and health care. those were three things we thought were important. now, they didn't say a whole lot about building infrastructure at that time. >> that's right. >> rose: the argument

. >> can you get it down to the 8% the president promised, that christine romer promised, his economic adviser? down to the 8% he promised? >> chris, there is a way of doing it and what we have set out to do and this is part of the agenda that was started, we need to carry this on for the next two years. and that's an agenda of rebuilding the american manufacturing sector. make it in america. if america is going to make it we must make it in america. for example, two things. we have green technology tax credits for solar and wind. but those pieces of equipment are not made in america that's our tax money it should be spent on american-made equipment and similarly, buses and trains, all of that transportation money. >> yes! yes! yes! that's all i say. yes! >> make it america-made. that's the second agenda. >> have trains again, build things again like they did when growing up. why do we have to outsource building stuff? aren't americans up to building anything? >> no, chris, you have got right. >> let's have the other country, third world countries, we will be thoughtful, they will buil