[Barack Obama, President Of The United States:] First of all, thanks for not breaking anything last night.
[Tony Harris, Cnn Anchor:] All right. President Obama, meeting with governors from across the country right now. They're discussing the Revitalization and Reinvestment Act. We just brought you comments from the president, and now the meeting begins. And we will be seeing the governors later this morning, after the meeting, making remarks from a stakeout position just outside the White House. And next hour we will hear from Vermont's Republican governor, Jim Douglas, a man the president singled out for his help just moments ago. That's Jim Douglas, next hour, in the CNN NEWSROOM. We want to get quickly now to our White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux. Suzanne, I noticed a different tone in the room today, as opposed to the tone that we heard and saw last week, when the president met with the mayors. A lot more applause from the mayors. This seemed like a pretty sober presentation. It reminds me that these men and women, they represent a group of people who might challenge the president one day down the road.
[Suzanne Malveaux, Cnn White House Correspondent:] There are a number of people who have challenged the president, and there's really a division within the Republican Party itself. We saw it kind of spill out into the open. The National Governors Association, on one side, you had the California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, praising President Obama for this economic stimulus package. And on the other hand, you had the governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, saying that he wasn't even going to accept some of these federal dollars out of principle, and also felt like he would be losing some control, some state control, if he did so. And so there really is a debate that's taking place. And we heard President Obama for the first time take on some of those Republican governors, who even some of them who are rejecting this money, saying that, look, you know, this is just a very small portion of this $787 billion package that you guys are arguing over. He talked about the cable chatter, perhaps a little bit of a dig at us in the media, but saying, like, for the most part, we're in agreement here. So he's obviously trying to appeal to moderate Republicans. He's, you know, tweaking a little bit those Republicans who do disagree with him, and trying to get everybody on board. And Tony, what's interesting, he also made a case here to the American public, saying, look, this is going to happen rather quickly. There's been a lot of questions about how this money is going to be used and how fast it's going to generate jobs and help folks out. He said April 1st, 95 percent of working families, those tax cuts will kick in. He also said starting this Wednesday, that is when about $15 billion will be distributed to Medicaid. And that is very significant, as well Tony.
[Harris:] And Suzanne, he also promised we heard this last week in comments to the mayors, as well he promised to call out the programs that he considers wasteful, and also to call out the governors who are responsible for those programs.
[Malveaux:] And that was very similar to what we heard, the warning that he gave to the mayors when they were here at the White House.
[Harris:] Yes.
[Malveaux:] Obviously, he is trying to make an impression to the American folks that people are going to be held accountable, whether it's on a local level, a state level. Recovery.gov is the Web site where you can kind of see this unfold in the days ahead.
[Harris:] Our White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux for us. Suzanne, great to see you. Thank you.
[Malveaux:] Thanks, Tony.
[Harris:] The president will give opening remarks at the Fiscal Responsibility Summit. That's at 1:00 Eastern this afternoon at the White House. And watch it live, right here on CNN. What do the nation's governors think about the massive stimulus plan? Most can't wait to get the cash, like Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California.
[John King, Cnn Chief National Correspondent:] The Obama administration says with this new national stimulus plan, you will get a lot of money in California. It believes this plan will create 400,000 jobs in the state of California. We try to ask everybody in a position of power to be accountable. Do you believe that number is 400,000 the right barometer to see if this plan is a success in California?
[Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger , California:] Well, you know, you never know exactly. I mean, you can only estimate. Like, for instance, with infrastructure, we know that every $1 billion that you spend on building roads or classrooms or any kind of infrastructure, it creates 18,000 to 25,000 new jobs. So I think that it could create this kind of amount of jobs. And we welcome this economic stimulus package. I think it's terrific, it will help us.
[Harris:] And other governors, not so confident. They don't like the strings attached and worry taking the money will eventually lead to higher taxes. Among them, Mississippi's Haley Barbour, also a Republican.
[King:] Haley Barbour, are you prepared to say no to the federal government, "I won't take your money," and then "Governor Granholm, I would be grateful if you would take it," and then just write her a check?
[Unidentified Male:] Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. We're over here too. We'll take it too.
[Gov. Haley Barbour , Mississippi:] Well, the truth is, I don't know of any governor who has talked about not taking any of the money.
[King:] But you won't take some?
[Barbour:] There is some we will not take in Mississippi. If we were to take the unemployment insurance reform package that they have, it would cause us to raise taxes on employment when the money runs out. And the money will run out in a couple of years, and then we'll have to raise the unemployment insurance tax, which is literally a tax on employment. I mean, we want more jobs. You don't get more jobs by putting an extra tax on creating jobs.
[Harris:] Pennsylvania Democrat Ed Rendell, the governor of Pennsylvania, says although the plan is not perfect, it will be a tremendous help. Taxpayers could soon own a bigger chunk of Citigroup, perhaps as much as 40 percent of the financial giant. Business correspondent Stephanie Elam is in New York for us. Stephanie, I look at that headline and I wonder, do we want Citi? And what is it going to cost us?
[Stephanie Elam, Cnn Business Correspondent:] Yes, do you want to be an owner...
[Harris:] Yes.
[Elam:] Let me break it down for you, Tony. First of all, you hear that number and you're thinking, wait, we're going to put more money into Citigroup?
[Harris:] Yes.
[Elam:] And really, what's happening here is, you already did it. The taxpayers already gave that $45 billion bailout that we saw Citigroup get last fall. So this amount of investment would come from that. So what happened is, the government has preferred shares, basically being, hey, if Citigroup rebounds, we'll be able to benefit from that rise back. They're saying they can take those preferred shares and translate those into common shares. That's what we own in our 401 [k] s. Some people may invest directly into Citigroup.
[Harris:] That's right.
[Elam:] That's why we care about that stock. So that's how they're saying that this would happen. So if you are a shareholder in Citigroup right now, you would just see your shares diluted a bit. And that's why some shareholders are worried about that whole conversation about nationalization of a bank, and concerned what that would mean overall. Now, taking a look at Citigroup in particular here, the CEO on Friday telling his employees that, you know what? Our capital level is very strong, we are fine. The Obama administration reiterating yesterday and today or Friday and today that basically they want to keep these banks in the private sector, not to change that. But just saying if they need some help, they'll be there to provide a cushion. And that's part of that stress test we've been hearing about Tony.
[Harris:] Yes, what does it really mean? Explain it to us, this idea of stress test.
[Elam:] Basically looking to see if these banks are viable. Can they continue?
[Harris:] Yes.
[Elam:] Are they going to be OK? You don't want to keep pumping money into a bank that's not going to be able to survive. So the idea being, can you get funding, can you stay around, are you viable? Taking a look to see what their capital needs are, and then the banks will be able to go out first to the private sector, see if they can get funding there. And if not, then just as a cushion, it would not be ongoing, it would not be prolonged, providing this financial cushion from the government.
[Harris:] I see.
[Elam:] But making sure that people know that it's not going to stay that way. That's just in case of.
[Harris:] So great, so this might be our first look, take the lid off of these banks, take a look at the books, and find out whether or not these banks are really solvent or not.
[Elam:] And this is you know, the government coming out five different organizations within the government coming out together today saying that this will start on Wednesday, where they'll start looking at the banks. And overall, you know, you saw Citigroup's stock on Friday drop by more than 20 percent, down below $2 a share. This is a stock that traded over $50 in 2007. That's not that long ago. So this is a big deal here.
[Harris:] Yes.
[Elam:] Today, Citigroup is trading higher, close to 9 percent, on the fact here that the government seems to not being on the side of just letting the bank go by the wayside, if that's what's going to happen, not letting it collapse, showing their support behind this behemoth of a bank.
[Harris:] Yes. Appreciate it. Thank you, Stephanie.
[Elam:] Sure, Tony.
[Harris:] The economists who say they predicted this recession now say they have a prediction for how long it will last.