Q I have one more, sorry. What's the communications strategy for the President on this crisis? I mean, we've heard from him almost every single day since the bailout was announced, yet the Dow -- every time he talks the Dow goes down. I mean, is it --

MS. PERINO: That's not true, Deb, and I think you should go back and look at every time the President talks. But, granted, the Dow has gone down every day for several days in a row. He's the President of the United States and the purpose of his remarks this morning and what he will continue to do is to tell Americans that the full backing of the federal government is behind solving this problem, and that Americans should be assured that we have the broad authorities and the tools that we need in order to be robust in solving it.

We know that people are very anxious about what has been happening, as they see the stock market fall day after day. It has to be very anxiety-producing. The President shares it. But what he does know is that just one week ago today -- even though for some of us it might feel about a month or a year ago -- the Congress finally passed the rescue package. The Treasury Department is moving with all deliberate speed to implement those regulations. And they have moved forward to find the right people to be able to handle it.

They have been given the authority to work with 700 billion taxpayer dollars, so they need to move prudently and as quickly as possible, and I can assure you that's what they're doing. It's going to take a little bit of time for them to do it so that they do it right. And Secretary Paulson has been looking at the array of tools that were given to him in that legislation to find out what is the right tool to use at this time on this particular problem.

The problems that we're seeing are changing by -- sometimes by the day. Just last quarter, many of these companies that are now facing a lot of trouble reported good profits, and they -- so they -- our companies are of good value. And the federal government is going to do what it takes, and we're going to work with our allies around the world, and our partners, to make sure that because we are so interconnected that the actions that we're taking are ones that can have the full effect that we intend it to. And you heard from the President today, is we have a big enough package and a package that is intended to work, and that it will work.

seen at 09:00, 10 October in Whitehouse Press Briefings. Email this to a friend.
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