White House Gaggle
Briefer: Dana Perino
President Bush had his normal briefings at 8 am, and will meet with the President of Burkina Faso at 10.40 am. This afternoon, the President and Mrs. Bush will attend a White House Tee Ball Game on the South Lawn of the White House.
This evening, at 7.35 pm, the President and Mrs. Bush will also be hosting a social dinner followed by entertainment in the Rose Garden in honor or Major League Baseball.
White House Press Secretary Dana will brief the press at 12.30 pm today.
Announcements: Dana Perino talked about Qadisiyah, which was the 10th Iraqi province (out of 18) to be turned over to Iraqi security control this morning.
Economy-Inflation
Dana Perino was asked how seriously the White House takes the threat of rising inflation, and she said that the President is very concerned about the impact high prices are having on Americans, especially the ones with lower incomes.
“The health of the overall economy is dependent of inflation remaining low”, Perino said and continued: “…”we have confidence in Chairman Bernanke’s commitment to both the economic growth and keeping the inflation in check.”
Iran
Perino gave some background: Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns will attend, along with our international, partners EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana’s meeting with the Iranians this Saturday in Switzerland.
“This will be a one time US participation, to demonstrate that the P5 plus one, (this is permanent council plus Germany) is united in its longstanding principle that Iran, in order to take advantage of an incentives package that is quite generous, has to halt its nuclear enrichment, “ Perino said. She also said that the White House has stated that Secretary Rice will meet her counterpart at anytime anywhere if they would agree to that condition.
Perino continued; “This meeting will also further clarify the consequences which are more sanctions if Iran does not accept this incentives package. “
“We will be there to listen, we are not there to negotiate,” Perino said.
Secretary Rice signed the accompanying letter that went with the incentives package, and the President Bush completely supports Secretary Rice. Perino also said that this signifies that we mean what we say, when we are trying to solves this diplomatically.
Israel-Hezbollah
When asked for a White House comment on the exchange between Israel and Hezbollah, Perino replied that “this is Israel’s decision… but we didn’t have anything to do with it.”
Freddy Mac and Fannie Mac
Perino was asked if they have any comments on rumors from the Hill that the Democrats wanted more time, and she replied that she seen mixed messages about it, but said that the White House still believes that Congress is going to get it done by next week.
