that's why dr. romer, dr. summers, and others followed up both of those questions by discussing what the administration was doing directly in order to address the job situation. i think it's safe to say that if we believed all was good in america, we wouldn't be talking about an environment for the private sector to begin hiring more. >> the senate has now said that it would like to expand access to medicare of those aged 55 and above. that is an alternative approach that the house is taking. which does the president think is better? >> i'm sorry, say it one more time. >> the senate bill on health care wants to provide access to those on medicare down to age 55. that is a different -- different approach to expanding coverage under the rubric of public option than the house has taken. which of these two approaches does the president believe is better? >> i'm -- >> does he have an opinion? if not, why not? >> what the president wants to do is see the process through the senate, continue to make progress, and tha

dr. romer's mind, in dr.ummers' mind, as all that needs to happen happened to bask in the glow of economic recovery? obviously not. that is why they followed up the question with what the administration was doing correctly to address the job situation. it is safe to say that if we plead always good in america, we would not talking about increased -- if we believed all was good in america, we would not be talking about increased ways to get the private sector to be hiring more. >> [unintelligible] an alternative approach that the house has taken. >> i'm sorry, said that all the time? >> the senate bill wants to provide access to medicare down to age 55. a different option than what the house is sticking to it which of these two approaches -- what the house has taken. which of these two approaches does the president think is better? it is a rather large systemic change to medicare. many budget analysts were not opposed to health care reform in principle said this is -- gu>> i don't want to get ahead of the cbo,

when dr. romer said we inherited this problem, my immediate reaction was the president has been in office for a year, what's he done about it? answer: it's gotten worse. we've added well over $1 trillion to the national debt and unemployment is up 10% from 7.6% under president bush. well, some fixing of the problem. i would suggest that president obama and his white house officials and staff stop trying to blame president bush for everything. if the president has been in office long enough to get the nobel peace prize, presumably he's been in office long enough to do something about the public debt or unemployment. he's done something about it all right. unemployment up from 7.6% to 10%, and the national debt from $10.6 trillion to $12 trillion. in view of these facts, it doesn't make sense to me to pass a nearly $500 billion omnibus appropriations bill with departments of this government receiving 26% and 30% and 33% increases in their budget when the c.p.i. has only gone up .2% this year and when