we begin this evening with peter orszag, he is director of the office of management and budget, and we talk about the budget, about the deficit, and we look ahead to the summit in which president obama will talk about a health care in a live televised encounter. >> as you go out over the long term, there is nothing else we can do. i don't care what revenue proposals you have, what social security proposals you have, what proposals you have to reduce discretionary spending. none of that will matter over the next five or six decades unless we succeed in reducing the rate at which health care costs grow. that is the single most important thing we can do for our long term fiscal future, not only thing, but the single most important thing. >> rose: and we continue with author and journalist richard reeves. his new book is called "daring young men," it is about the berlin airlift. you'll learn a lot about your country and about the people who came forward at a historic moment. >> my students had never heard of this great american adventure. i mean, it brought out as lincoln said, the better

. >> elsewhere on capitol hill budget director peter orszag said for the tax to be effective congress will have to change the law regarding the use of t.a.r.p. money. larry, we are now onto the politics of the budget, basically the democrats in the obama white house trying to get republicans in a position where they are casting votes against the bank tax, using t.a.r.p. money to pay the credit for small business. that's what the president talked about today in new hampshire. however, treasury secretary geithner got a push from moderate democrats on certain areas of the budget. jay rockefeller concerned about incentives for clean coal. blank lincoln talked about taking away subsidies for oil and natural gas and farm subsidies and about $1.2 trillion over ten years in proposed tax hikes on businesses and wealthy individuals including $120 million targeting u.s. multi naturals. that's all in play. >> that's what i think. you make a great point bringing up the dissatisfied democrats. one liberal and one conservative. but i think the new scott brown congress will diss this high tax policy.

peter orszag will kick things off at 11:30 this morning. that will be live here as well.pentagon will talk about their share of the proposal with robert gates and the chair of the joint chiefs of staff. a briefing at 1:00 p.m. eastern. there will be followed by representatives from each of the military branches. the state department will briefed on budget numbers. you can see that on c-span-3. we spoke earlier with a reporter. host: just sort of briefly for us lay out what is ahead. guest: the budget will hit capitol hill. to start with, the president is trying to walk a fine wine. it is a tricky balancing act of creating jobs and addressing concerns about the deficit. it will include a lot of job creation measures including tax incentives to hire new employees. it is aimed at spurring job growth. host: what is the most surprising element in the budget for you? guest: what we have seen that the president laid out the elements last week in the state of the deegan. the biggest most controversial piece maybe the discretionary spending. it is in historical perspective not tha

with what you might call sort of modest tech no cat i can government, which is the larry summers peter orszag style which is hardened by experience but essentially using washington to change the energy policy, change health care, change education, a lot of stuff like that. if health care fai-- which i think it will-- that option, which was really his offering, that's gone. so what is the sentence he is remembered? and if it's not going to be that then what is his presidency about? and i don't think he's made that transition to a post-health care world. i really liken it to the end of the cold war. but to me the options are these: he has always had even from the start of his campaign, two sides to him. there was the policy side on the campaign which was pretty conventionally democrat. but there was also the promise, which was post-partisan change the way washington works. and if he's not going to become the second new deal or the second great society with his democratic policies, then he's got to go back to the other side of him. which is changing washington. >> rose: is this as simple as runn

he laid into peter orszag. you'll remember senator gregg almost became president obama's commerce secretary, though he withdrew his nomination at a relatively early point in that process. listen to this. >> the law is very clear. the monies recouped from the t.a.r.p. shall be paid into the general fun of the treasury for the readdition of the public debt. you said a political event when you make a speech in nashua, new hampshire. this is to reduce the debt of our children that we're passing on to our children. you ought to at least have the integrity to be forthright about it, and say that's what you're doing, you're adding to the debt our kids will have to be back when you're claiming at the same time that you're being fiscally responsible. let me ask another question, because clearly we won't agree and you're not going to follow the law. >> excuse me, we will be following the law. >> then you won't be able to do it unless congress gives you the authority to do it. >> yes, exactly. >> that's how laws are made,

guest: some of the most unjust and things will be when omb, budget director peter orszag will talk abouto work later today. you will also be saying -- he said yesterday the white house will be proposing to cut about 120 spendingçxd programs from çbudget, to eliminate programs they don'tçç work or can be streamlined. i think that ps where you will see some interesting news on okççwhat they think endicott d what programs will take a hit. host: thank you for joining us this morning. our question for you, again, will the spending freeze help or hurt the economy. a look here at "politico," "wars squeeze obama budget." looking at a "role call." writing that several liberal lawmakers said it will make the proposed freeze is premature. with the economy still on shaky ground and million still unemployed. a quick look at defense news, a publication that covers pentagon spending and pentagon news, few cuts in dod's draft 11 budget. ñrfinal bid to open "the washington times" this morning, their lead editorial, i should say, obama's fake freeze folly. the views of the editorial writers of ""was

. >> host: we want to show a clip of judd gregg talking about peter orszag about the use of t.a.r.p. says. let me read it to you again. the law is very clear. the money is recooped from the t.a.r.p. shall be paid into the general fund of the treasury for the reduction of the public debt. it's not for piggy bank because you're concerned about lending to small businesses and you want to get a political event when you go out and make a speech in nashua, new hampshire. that's not what the money is for. it's to reduce the debt of our children that we're passing on to our children. you ought to have the integrity to be forthright and say that's what you are doing. you're adding to the debt that our kids are going to have to pay back. when you are claiming at the same time that you are being fiscally responsible. >> host: he's talking to peter orszag in the exchange in the senate budget committee. this is not the issue, it goes to the point of whether or not people want to take the money because the sigma attached. can you talk about the attitudes? glv >> guest: there is the concern that th

there the president was in new hampshire and here he was in washington, and he was going to grill peter orszag about it because he was mad. >> but it's not just republicans, either. democrats, like kent conrad who for a long time has been very aggressive about deficit reduction, also questioning the idea. there has to be more going on here. did the president jump the gun a little bit? >> you know, you'll be shocked to learn that the white house is trying to have it both ways, right? it's very politically popular right now to take from wall street, people are angry about the wall street bonuses, and so the president is saying we're going to take this money from wall street, which is repaid back to the american taxpayer, and we are going to use it to give to small businesses which have been hurting. so it's very popular unless you happen to be a deficit hawk like senator conrad who is and who is a democrat, and senator judd gregg, and they're saying, wait a minute, we want this money to go back into the federal till. we've got a 1 poir$1.3 trillion deficit to deal with. but the white house didn'

host: talking to peter orszag in that exchange.ot people want to take this money because there might be a stigma attached. can you talk more about attitude you found? guest: the is concerned -- the legislative fix, it requires legislative action and there are 39 republican senators who signed a letter to the administration asking any remaining tarp funds be given back to the treasury to reduce the national debt. there will be political problems to overcome to increase small- business lending. host: the small business association created an official response to the tarp announcement. you can read it on their website. let me move on to another key aspect, tax incentives for hiring new employees. how much would this affect your members? guest: it will affect them if they hire new employees but it is unclear whether it will be enough incentives to do that just for the tax incentives. $5,000 tax credit is nice but not enough of a break to make you hire a new employee if you were not already going to. host: because you have to sustain th

at a senate hearing today, the president's budget director, peter orszag, defended the cuts. >> there is a new course being charted for the future of human space flight that involves more advanced technologies, longer range r&d, investments in technologies that will help us leap-frog existing technologies and allow us to have human space flight to different parts of the solar system. >> ifill: but senator bill nelson of florida argued americans may not be able to get into space at all without help. >> if those commercial rockets don't work, then for the foreseeable future of the next decade or so, we're going to be reliant on the russians just to get to and from our space station. >> ifill: nelson said he will oppose the cuts. other senators whose states depend on the space industry can be expected to follow suit. for a closer look at what the president's budget might mean for nasa and the future of human space flight, we get two views: michael griffin was nasa administrator under president george w. bush. he is now director of the center for systems studies at the university of alaba

and after that peter orszag on the president's fiscal year 2011 budget proposal. tomorrow on washington journal, nick baker of bloomberg news discusses the impact of the stock market on the economy. mark skoda member of the tea party talks about the convention, the goals and the 2010 elections. kathleen christiansen on how the 21st century workforce. that's saturday at 7:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span. >> progressive talk radio host and author of 30 book, thom hartmann is our guest sunday night at 8:00. and now secretary of state hillary clinton on the agreement of the governments of the u.k. and northern ireland to transfer the police from british to local control beginning in the spring. during an answer and questions session, she also comments on haiti kidnapping. this is about 10 minutes. >> well, good morning, everyone. today is an important day on northern ireland. it's political leaders have agreed on a road map and time line for the devolution of policing and justice powers and they've taken other productive steps as well. the accord they announced today w

guest: secretary geithner's and peter orszag's appearance before ways and means might be an opportunity for republicans to grill them over the budget, particularly the high deficit and the amount of debt, that was on display yesterday at the house and senate budget committee. that is generally the case when the budget director comes to the hill, the other party criticizes the approach. i think based on your last segment obviously, admiral mullen and secretary gates appearance before the armed services committee closely watched, not the budget point of view but but "don't ask, don't tell" policy. host: is the day secretary gates -- was the visit to the committee overshadowed by "don't ask, don't tell?" guest: the pentagon has a huge budget, highly focused on each year. two other big -- of the dish -- big issues is the president calling to cancel the c-17 program as well as alternative engine for the f-35 program. that receives generally mixed reaction in congress, especially from lawmakers who represent states or districts where the plans are made. you can probably expect to hear more fr

white house budget director peter orszag discusses the fiscal year 2011 budget proposal.n the nation's capital and across the country, listen to c- span radio. in washington at 90.1 fm and on the xm satellite radio channel 132. it is also available on app for your iphone. >> on friday, president obama met with gop leaders at a retreat in baltimore. we will show you that in a moment. his visit was a topic of conversation on several sunday shows. here's what was said. >> let's move on to domestic matters and that meeting on friday. the gop had to retreat and the bridge -- and the president came there. i wonder whether the decision to except that invitation was that it wanted to be more than a one- term president, he had to talk to them? >> it was not a last-minute decision on our part. it was on the calendar. the republican caucus was good enough to extend that invitation. it's interesting the way that you ask the question. he did it because he wants to be a more than 01-term president? we don't make calculations based on that. how do we move this country forward, how do we

guest: we will be hearing from peter orszag, -- i believe today, as a matter of fact.- des with a broad categories. but what categories we should be spending. and the appropriations committees do the rest. host: and then after this goes through the of whole process, budgets are crafted by both appropriations committees. guest: obviously the senate will vote on its budget and the house will vote on its budget. host: in your experience, what is the likelihood the budget that comes out of congress will look anything like the budget the presidentç proposes is tha? guest: based on history, it probably won't. there will be a lot of debate. i think what we should c punderstand. -- and i say this as an independent who disagrees with ez issues, what we've got to understand is when president obama was swornç in he inheritd the worst set of problems since the great depression since roosevelt came in 1932. ç it ain't easy stuff. we have a middle class in many ways that has disintegrated. we have a $12 trillion national debt, under bush the national debt doubled. we have two war

his comments are next, followed by a briefing with peter orszag.d later, more about pentagon spending with robert gates and the chairman of the joints chief of staffÑi -- joint chiefs of staff. on "washington journal" tomorrow morning, rick maze of a look code -- of "army times," danielle pletka from the american enterprise institute, and we will hear more about the proposed budget from vermont senator bernie sanders, and janet murguia will focus on issues affecting latinos. "washington journal" is live every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. a couple of light in advance to tell you about tomorrow morning on the budget request. defense secretary robert gates and joint chiefs chairman admiral mike mullen testify about the pentagon's spending before the senate armed services committee. that is at 9:00 a.m. eastern. at 10:00 a.m. eastern here on c- span, timothy geithner are testifies before the senate finance committee. now, president obama on his now, president obama on his budget request forÑ  fiscal year 2011. plan proposes a three-year freeze on non dis

today we take up president obama's budget for fiscal year 2011 and i witness is the author peter orszag, welcome to this hearing. i can borrow a line from your budgets narrative in order to understand where we're headed it helps to remember where we started. our economy began backsliding in a recession in december 2007. one full year before president obama was sworn in. within weeks of taking office the administration and congress watch a supplemental to get this economy moving again. the recovery act added to the short-term deficits than estimated 1.3 to $1.2 trillion the deficit was already swollen by the recession and by the bush administration's on the budgets and bailouts. according to the cbo the recovery act has made a difference in their recommend recovery ashtray is to gdp by 1.3 to three-point represented points in the second half of 2009 and increased employment by as many as 1.6 million jobs. as recently as january a year ago, their economies was not growing, it was drinking and contracting by 4.54% alone. 741,000 workers lost their jobs in january of 2009. by contrast in th

president obama if and budget director peter orszag spoke at the beginning of this event.ose attending the forum presented their ideas following the meeting. it was about 45 minutes. >> to low . on the chief's performance officer and deputy director from the institute of office management and budget. i want to welcome everyone. we appreciate you coming to washington. until seven months ago i spent all of my 20-year career in the private sector, including as a ceo and chairman of both public and private companies. i know firsthand how the best ideas, the best practices combined with the right technologies can really transform business performance. now that i am in government, i strongly believe that the exchange of powerful ideas that make companies better can improve government productivity and service quality. the president and administration are committed to improving the efficiency and quality of government services. we really need your help. based on my thorough review of your homework, i am convinced you can really help us achieve better results for the american peopl

we have treasury secretary geithner in the ways and means committee in the morning and peter orszag in the afternoon. you have admiral mullen and secretary gates meeting with the house of armed services committee. and labor secretary on the hill as well as the transportation secretary. i think, well, obviously they are going to be talking about a lot about the president's budget proposals. there's probably going to be a lot of talk about his jobs plan and what congress can do to try to get the unemployment rate down and jump start the economy. >> host: are there any hearings that look to be noteworthy? >> well, the secretary geithner and lmb director orszag will likely be an opportunity for republicans to go over the budget and particular the amount of high deficit and debt on display yesterday at the house and senate budget committees. that's generally the case, when the budget director comes to the hill, the other parties sort of criticizes the approach. based on the last segment, admiral mullen and secretary gates for the a.m. armed services committee will be closely watched, not be

while that is going on, the budget director, peter orszag is trying to convince the banking committeeow the money should be sent. and geithner is testifying before the senate finance committee, pushing a tax credit for companies that hire more workers, as much as 5 grand per job. they could vote on that this week. >>> and when you thought it was over, stimulus, the sequel. he wants to keep some of the programs going, so he is slipping them in the budget, and congress would have to approve that. it includes more money for medicare, and renewing tax breaks for workers in small businesses. >>> so where the is president? in new hampshire pumping up a plan to help small businesses and the stimulus desk is all over it. josh levs is all over it. >> yeah, one of the questions that i keep getting, people have a lot of questions for us about the stimulus. one thing they want to know is about new forms of energy. today we are looking at new hampshire, and we stumbled on the interesting project. and there is from inside new hampshire. you can see the total costs we are talking about. $223,000, an

white house budget director, peter orszag, stepped into the line of fire at a senate hearing committeeh judd gregg in terms of the payments to help out small businesses. >> one of the linger problems in our financial markets is access to credit to small businesses. it's why in this budget -- >> no, no, no, you can't make that kind of statement with any legitimacy. >> okay. >> you cannot make this statement. >> they're not suffering -- >> let me tell you what the law says, let me read it to you again because you don't appear to understand the law. the law is very clear. the money's recouped from the t.a.r.p. shall be paid into the general fund of the treasury for the reduction of the public debt. it's not for a piggy bank because you're concerned about lending to small businesses. and you want to get a political event when you go out and make a speech in nashua, new hampshire, that's not what this money is for. this money is to reduce the debt of our children that we're passing on to our children and you ought to at least have the integrity to be forthright about it and say that's what

. >> peter orszag and dr.of what private economists predict, and yet you're basing about $10 billion a year of your projected savings on passage of a health reform bill that is at least in question right now. on what do you base your optimism? >> we're one vote away from getting health care reform. we think it's good policy. and, wendell, we -- i hazard to guess what your question would be if we didn't take into account any of that in what our budget was. the president has said we should be realistic about what our assumptions are, but also assume -- if we're going to propose something, i don't think it makes much sense to not assume that it should be in the budget. again, some of that got us into this mess, right? we had troops in iraq. we had troops in afghanistan. but we weren't paying for that on budget. i mean, that's certainly one way to look at how you do a budget -- is to have our brave men and women fighting half a world away, but pretend that we're not paying for it by not putting it in the budget. t

you can see that peter orszag is testifying. he's the director of the office of management and budget. there he is right there. also testifying right now, treasury secretary timothy geithner. the $3.8 trillion budget was unveiled on monday. >>> president obama carrying on a tradition this morning. he addressed the 58th annual national prayer breakfast in washington. mr. obama criticized partisan politics. >> become numb to the day-to-day crises, the slow-moving tragedies of children without food and men without shelter and families without health care. we've become absorbed with our abstract arguments, our idea logical disputes, our contests for power. and in this tower of babble, we lose the sound of god's voice. >> president obama also slammed efforts to pass anti-gay legislation in uganda. it would punish same-sex acts with long prison terms or even death. an ethics group accuses the sponsor of the breakfast of supporting that bill. >>> james arthur ray is headed to court today. the self-help expert is being held on a $5 mill

peter orszag says the proposal takes the medicare program and for those 55 and below turns it into avoucher program. and that it introduces individual accounts privatizing social security. madam speaker, we have some challenges before us, but i would like to think that we can all agree that balancing the budget by letting medicare wither on the vine and privatizing social security and destroying two of the most important social programs in the history of the country is not the way to go. and so that's the choice. we either -- i yield myself an additional 0 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mcgovern: we either do what's fiscally responsible and enact this statutory pay-go and pay as you go. if you want to increase education programs or programs for health care, you have to find an offset, you have have to cut another program or find additional revenue, if you want to give tax cuts to rich people, you have to pay for it but i think that's the responsible way to go. going their way, going after medicare and social security is the wrong way, we've seen th

peter orszag said that the past that we are on is not sustainable.al reserve chairman, ben bernanke, said that we cannot allow ourselves to be in a situation where the debts continue to rise and are unsustainable. the former treasury secretary said that it is clearly unsustainable in. the former head of the gao said it we are on an imprudent and unsustainable long-term fiscal path. as the former chairman of the federal reserve, alan greenspan said the the budget is on an unsustainable path. notice any similarities? unsustainable, unsustainable, unsustainable. look, i know that there is a sense of denial amongst our colleagues. about the seriousness of the threat. i see it every day. i just came from a meeting where i saw it. this is tough, but it has got to be dealt with. if we let this get away from us, we will rue the day, rue the day. regretting forever the consequences for the country. whether it is through a proposal from the president or some other method, we have got to deal with the consequences of a failure to act. so, we have to back. the s

that the president is facing and peter orszag of the office of budget management are facing to try toeficit outlook over the next decade. as i noted, high levels of government borrowing can make it more politically difficult to enact public initiatives which they cite for resources as public service to pay off interest on the debt. i think it leaves the country unable to go further into debt at a time of crisis and all to the lord your incomes. they were spurred inflation and make the economy more susceptible to a crisis going forward. i think we are seeing today with the future can hold if we do not get on top of this. we have seen this play out in southern europe, as we see what is happening in countries that are not as strong as the united states. that could be our future if we do not take action now. the near term deficits -- but me step back. i think the problem that we face today comes from two problems that are distinct but interrelated. one is what has happened over the last eight years, the last period of time? i served in the clinton administration, and at a time when we act

institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> white house budget director peter orszagbriefed reporters on the 2011 budget request. he spoke for about 45 minutes. >> i will give a brief overview and turn it over to my colleague. that focuses on three things -- fiscal sustainability it. before turning to the details, let me give some context and background. at the end of 2008, gdp was declining by more than 5% on an annual basis. at the end of 2009, it was increasing by more than 5% on an annual basis. although g.d.p. and the economy is now expanding, the employment market remains too weak. unemployment rate is 10%, and there are 7 million fewer jobs than in december, 2007. that is why this includes key drivers of long-term economic growth like moving towards a clean energy future. let's also do a bit of background and contacts on the budget. in january, 2009, the situation involves two key features that are also the case. one was a significant increase in spending from 2008 through 2009, and the second was a significant deficit. both were already apparent before the adm

peter orszag, first guy will tell you that. >> that's why they proposed a by partisan commission so we sit down together because frankly, mr. ryan -- >> sounds like you're going to -- >> you never been able to get the vast majority of republicans in your own caucus to support your very bold and honest proposals to reduce the deficit. >> -- that's what i'm doing. >> maybe we do this on bipartisan basis. i salute you for offering very tough choices and alternative vision. it is honest proposal and have debate and relative to the president's budget. thank you. . . now either. >> that is not to deny that we need to get the deficit down over time. >> in terms of dealing credibly with jobs one of the challenges is we have is we create jobs on the federal level. the recovery act provided $140 billion for states, and yet they still cut their budgets an the recovery act provided total of 400, almost $450 billion. that just went to offset what the states were doing. is it accurate that -- is that accurate? we have essentially offset the damage of what the states returning to the economy? >> we h

peter orszag says the proposal takes the medicare program and for those 55 and below turns it into aoucher program. and that it introduces individual accounts privatizing social security. madam speaker, we have some challenges before us, but i would like to think that we can all agree that balancing the budget by letting medicare wither on the vine and privatizing social security and destroying two of the most important social programs in the history of the country is not the way to go. and so that's the choice. we either -- i yield myself an additional 0 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mcgovern: we either do what's fiscally responsible and enact this statutory pay-go and pay as you go. if you want to increase education programs or programs for health care, you have to find an offset, you have have to cut another program or find additional revenue, if you want to give tax cuts to rich people, you have to pay for it but i think that's the responsible way to go. going their way, going after medicare and social security is the wrong way, we've seen thi

that the president is facing and peter orszag of the office of budget management are facing to try to put this together. to both apply an appropriate level of stimulus today because if they don't do that, i think the prospect of job growth will -- the prospect of potentially a double different recession will increase. and that will, in fact, make it harder over the long run to address the deficit outlook over the next decade. but as i noted large state budget deficits and high levels of government borrowing can make it politically more difficult to enact public initiatives. they siphons resources to pay off the debt. i think they leave the country enable to go further into debt at the time of crisis. and they'll ultimately lower future incomes. they'll raise interest rate. they'll spur inflation and make the economy more susceptible to financial crisis going forward. i think we're seeing today what the future could hold if we don't get on top of this and we're seeing play out in southern europe as we look at what's happening in countries that are obviously not as strong as the united

the things i do want to mention though -- i think i mentioned at the budget press conference and peter orszag -- that's an economist for i told you so. we did take a lot of heat for our g.d.p. forecast and our unemployment forecast. the unemployment forecast, we did not forecast how high the unemployment rate would go. we actually were remarkably accurate on the g.d.p. forecast. so actually when we have the numbers in we now that over 2009 real g.d.p. grew by .1%, .1%. our prediction would have been for .3s%. we were quitexd accurate on the g.d.p. forecast. one of the things we talk about in the economic report is how this recession has been unusually hard on the labor force and the degree to which the usual relationship between g.d.p. growth and the unemployment rate has broken down somewhat and that the unemployment rate has risen much more than one would have predicted based on the behavior of unemployment. >> we had occasion to talk about this on many outings here. nobody predicted what we saw at the beginning of the first quarter of 2009. nobody saw 763,000 jobs lost. in fact, we didn't

institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] mdñ house budget director peter orszagesident obama's proposal he talked about that when he presented the proposal this morning at the white house. sk m%çóñ >> good morning, everybody. this morning i sent a budget to congress for the coming year. !w31/3ud?]i÷b the serious challenges facing the country. but we are at war. our economy has lost 7 million jobs in the past two years and our government is deeply in debt after what can only be described of. 10 years ago we had a budget vñ+c-/zi1 +ñr 2 1/3 billion dollars with projected surpluses stretching out toward the horizon. -- of more than $200 billion with projected surpluses are edging up toward the horizon. congress has crated and expensive new drug program, passed massive tax cuts for thes without paying for any of it. as a result, when i first walked through the door, the deficit stood at $1.3 trillion with projected deficits of $8 trillion in the next decade. if we had taken office during immediately. but one year ago, our country was in crisis. we were looting --

i am delighted to introduce peter or is that -- peter orszag. >> the middle class task force was formedight of the most severe economic recession we have experienced since the great depression. the real gdp was falling at the fastest rate in a quarter- century. we were losing an average of 700,000 jobs each month, equivalent to the entire population of the state of vermont. the capital and credit markets were virtually frozen. economists feared that our economy would sink into a depression. that did not happen. in no small part because the administration acted quickly and strongly to get landing flowing again, stabilize the housing market, and jump-start economic activity by passing the recovery act. the recovery act is working. it is a key reason we have moved from the economy falling by almost 6% at the end of 2008 to increasing by almost 6% at the end of 2009. it is funding critical to projects all across the nation. it is doing so in a way that is transparent and has thus far had a remarkable lack of fraud and abuse. that is attributed in no small part to efforts from our vice presi