Hoyer blames Bush for economic woes

During a pen and pad session with reporters, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) brought attention to the stark differences between the economic situation at the end of the Clinton administration and that facing the Bush presidency in its final days.

The Majority Leader pointed to the drastic dip in employment, retail sales, confidence in the financial institutions and the rising deficit.

"There is not a criteria of comparison between 2000 and now...that doesn't show the failure of the Bush administration to produce what they said they were going to produce by their economic program," said Hoyer.

"In fact, just the opposite is true. We're experiencing our worst economic times since the 30's."

Hoyer charged Republicans as acting as if deficits do not matter and mentioned their reluctance to pay for the costly programs they supported.

The Democrats in Congress are apparently poised to improve the economic situation through a number of steps, including tax relief, improving health care, investing in education, and updating the national infrastructure. Hoyer also announced that the House Committees are planning hearings on the upcoming stimulus.

Hoyer went on to say that while he supports Obama, he will avoid what he describes as the 'complacent and complicit' nature that Congressional Republicans dealt with Bush, by providing additional oversight. He emphasized his point by holding up a copy of 'The Hill' newspaper with the headline 'I don't work for Obama'.

White House Briefing

For weeks, the administration has been lowering expectations about the economy, saying the third quarter report on gross domestic product would be rough.

It was. It fell 0.3% between July and September, the weakest figure in seven years. And the White House outlook? Things are probably going to get worse.

"There's no question the economy has weakened significantly," admitted Eddie Lazear, chairman of the president's council of economic advisors. "We've got a few tough months ahead of us,"

Lazear said parts of the U.S. are undoubtedly in a recession, but declined to say if the entire country is. By definition, a recession occurs when the economy shrinks for two quarters in a row.

But Lazear said the administration's recent actions, notably the massive $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP will help move the economy in the right direction.

Dividends

Meantime, White House press secretary Dana Perino was subjected to a barrage of questions about why banks dipping into the TARP trough for much needed capital continue to pay dividends to shareholders.

"You know, some people think only rich people get dividends. That's not true, she said." Perino pointed out that "mutual funds, schoolteachers" and others get dividends through investments they hold.

Where's Bush?

The silence is thunderous. President Bush is, perhaps not by choice, staying off the campaign trail and keeping quiet about the race to succeed him - a race now down to its final hundred hours. He'll spend the weekend at Camp David with the First Lady, but will return to the White House to watch returns on election night.

When will the president hold a news conference to comment on the election?

"I don't know," says Perino. "You'll probably hear from me first though, on Tuesday night."

The President did find a receptive audience today, though, attending graduation at the FBI academy, then visiting Marine Squadron One - home of Marine One, the presidential helicopter.

Mrs. Bush, for her part, visited New Orleans today, her 20th visit to the Gulf region since Hurricane Katrina. She visited an elementary school and announced a grant to help rebuild school libraries in the region. Perino said it would probably be Mrs. Bush's final visit to the region as first lady.

Security in a Cyber World

The Internet has evolved into a tool of war.

"The Georgia-Russian conflict, perhaps, that is the first instance of a military action containing a clear cyber component. Denial-of-service attacks were launched by Russia against Georgia," said Deputy Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security Paul A. Schneider during a forum on the nation's cyber security posture.

"There were large swaths of Georgians that could not access any information about what was happening in their country. Government websites were defaced and the delivery of government information was seriously curtailed".

To meet high-tech threats such as these the DHS has rolled out a series of safety measures called the Cyber Initiative, with the goal of strengthening the security of both federal and private sector networks, operating and defending in real time, and expanding counter intelligence capabilities against foreign governments.

"Intelligence is one of our best preventative tools. I don't have to go into any detail, you all know the examples...up through World War II with the use of radar. We need to have similar types of tools in order to make better use of intelligence in the cyber domain in order to stop our adversaries before they can launch attacks against us,' said Schneider.

Another important aspect of the initiative is to create a more centralized manner of dealing with cyber threats. The National Security Cyber Center has been recently created to coordinate protection across the federal networks, including the .mil and .gov domains.

Schneider addressed concerns that the initiative could violate the privacy of citizens.

"If someone is seeking to access our systems and possibly inject some sort of malware it is perfectly within our right to take a closer look and see whether that code poses a threat, just as you would ask a few questions from a stranger who would want to enter your house."

Kerry: Remember Bush’s military focus

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) says to let George W. Bush be remembered for an overly militarized focusing on fighting terrorism and to let the next president defeat terrorism by emphasizing America’s moral authority. (0:30)

DHS review will be hard but not impossible

The Subcommittee on Management, Investigations and Oversight held a hearing on “The Quadrennial Homeland Security Review,” where they discussed the challenges facing the Department of Homeland Security in doing this review. While the challenges are many and the time short, witnesses assured Congress that the task will be hard but not impossible.

A subsection of the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commissions Act of 2007, requires the secretary of the DHS to review the national security of the country every four years. The DHS’ review is due at the end of the year in 2009. The report will set the agenda and define priorities for DHS through 2012, said Christine Wormuth, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The report will not only look at organizational issues, but also issues of strategy, policy, process, program and budget.

The main challenges the DHS faces are the timing of the review right between Administrations, its scope, resources for the review and the need to coordinate with a wide array of stakeholders, Wormuth said. The report will need to be worked on while there are still very few political appointees in place in DHS to run the process. It will be difficult to conduct a truly strategic review with a relatively small number of senior leaders facing a compressed review timetable, she said.