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butterbean · Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 2271

Press Conference by the President
Indian Treaty Room -- 10 am EST -- December 20, 2006

Q Thank you, Mr. President. You said this week that your microphone has never been louder on some of the key domestic priorities you've talked about, particularly Social Security and immigration. Your use of the presidential microphone hasn't yielded the results that you wanted. So I'm wondering -- the Democratic Congress, at this point, Republicans no longer controlling things on Capitol Hill -- why you think your microphone is any louder, and how you plan to use it differently to get the results that you're looking for?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, microphone being loud means -- is that I'm able to help focus people's attentions on important issues. That's what I was referring to. In other words, the President is in a position to speak about priorities. Whether or not we can get those priorities done is going to take bipartisan cooperation, which I believe was one of the lessons of the campaigns.

I will tell you, I felt like we had a pretty successful couple of years when it comes to legislation. After all, we reformed Medicare; we put tax policy in place that encouraged economic growth and vitality; we passed trade initiatives; passed a comprehensive energy bill. I'm signing an important piece of legislation today that continues a comprehensive approach to energy exploration, plus extenders on R&D, for example, tax credits. It's been a pretty substantial legislative record if you carefully scrutinize it.

continued:
http://www.americanpatrol.com/BUSH/TRANSCRIPTS/061220-AmnestyDrivel.html