From the Associated Press [with my translations added].
Confronting misgivings, even in his own party, President Barack Obama mounted a stout defense of his blueprint to overhaul the economy Thursday, declaring the national crisis is "not as bad as we think" and his plans will speed recovery.
Challenged to provide encouragement as the nation's "confidence builder in chief," Obama said Americans shouldn't be whipsawed by bursts of either bad or good news and he was "highly optimistic" about the long term.
[Translation: Obama & Co, define "the long run" as 2010 or 2012, whichever comes first.]
The president's proposals for major health care, energy and education changes in the midst of economic hard times faced skepticism from both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, as senators questioned his budget outlook and the deficits it envisions in the middle of the next decade.
But Obama, speaking to top executives of the Business Roundtable, expressed an optimistic vision and called for patience.
Richard Parsons, chairman of beleaguered Citigroup Inc., asked if Obama could offer some help in a national battle "between confidence and fear."
"A smidgen of good news and suddenly everything is doing great. A little bit of bad news and ooohh , we're down on the dumps," Obama said. "And I am obviously an object of this constantly varying assessment. I am the object in chief of this varying assessment."
[Translation: "I know there isn't even a 'smidgen' of good news but we like to pretend there is.]
"I don't think things are ever as good as they say, or ever as bad as they say," Obama added.
[Translation: "Don't ask me how good or bad things are until I take a poll on it."]
"Things two years ago were not as good as we thought because there were a lot of underlying weaknesses in the economy. They're not as bad as we think they are now."
[Translation: "Of course, two years ago I told you things were a lot worse than they really were and right now I'm telling you they are a lot better than they probably are."]
"And my long-term projections are highly optimistic, if we take care of some of these long-term structural problems."
[Translation: "But of course it all depends on how you define 'highly optimistic.'"]
No comments:
Post a Comment