NPR 2009-03-09

White House Budget Director Peter Orszag says the US economy is fundamentally weak, but he says the stimulus 1 plan enacted 2 by Congress should be given time to kick in fully 3 before any further stimulus measures are considered. "You are starting to see the money flow out to state governments, to unemployed 4 workers in tax relief. Let's give it some time to work. We, we face a very deep economic hole. It's gonna take some time to work our way out of it." Orszag was on CBS's Face the Nation. He acknowledged that the administration may need to revise its economic projections 5 by midyear.

Some key Congressional Republicans are balking 6 at giving General Motors any more federal loans, at least not without a guarantee that such assistance would be repaid. GM sales last month plunged 7 more than 50% compared to the previous February. More from NPR's David Welna at the Capitol.

Having gotten more than 13 billion dollars in federal loans to restructure, GM wants another 17 billion dollars. Asked about that on CBS's Face the Nation, House Minority Leader John Boehner demanded some tough conditions. "I don't think the government should put any more money there until General Motors shows that they can be a viable 8 company for the long term, and that there is a reasonable chance that any loans that the government would make would be paid back to the taxpayers 9. Anything short of that is just throwing good money after bad." On ABC's This Week, Alabama Republican Senator Richard Shelby said GM should file for bankruptcy 10. "I've suggested they go into Chapter 11. That's where they belong. And they could reorganize. We could get, you know, money and place for them. We could do it if they did it and did it right." Many Democrats 11 fear a GM bankruptcy would drag its sales down further. David Welna, NPR News, the Capitol.

Senator Shelby also called on the administration today to let some of the nation's biggest banks fail rather than pumping more federal money into them. Shelby did not say which banks to close, but he suggested the list might include Citigroup, which he said has always been a problem child. But Tom Donohue, head of the US Chamber 12 of Commerce, disagrees with Shelby. "It's not practical to talk about closing a bank that is integrated throughout the whole global economy. It is practical to talk about buying some of those assets away from those banks and holding them in an institution that would have both public and private money." Donohue was on ABC's This Week.

An Irish militant 13 splinter group that calls itself the Real IRA is claiming responsibility for an attack last night that killed two British soldiers and wounded four other people. The BBC's Chris Buckler has more.

The police in Northern Ireland knew that the dissident Republicans posed a threat and they were concerned. There have been several gun and bomb attacks in recent months. Their aim was to kill a member of the security forces. The Real IRA said they did kill two soldiers. Detectives believed the gunmen were experienced. After the first shot was fired, they then stood over their victims and shot them again. 

This is NPR.

A suicide bomber 14 rode a motorcycle into a crowd outside a police academy in Baghdad today. The blast he triggered killed 28 people and injured dozens of others.

The countdown begins in about an hour for this week's scheduled launch of the space shuttle Discovery. NASA managers cleared the shuttle for launch after resolving concerns about fuel valves inside the orbiter. Pat Duggins of member station WMFE reports from Orlando.

The astronauts will deliver the final set of solar electricity panels to the International Space Station. The 30,000-pound piece of hardware will snap onto the far end of the outpost's long outer framework. After that, the solar wings will unfurl to a length of 300 feet. The crew includes two former teachers, Joe Acaba and Richard Arnold. Acaba says the job of being an astronaut is about as tough as handling a classroom full of kids. "While the technical knowledge we had to learn has been substantial and it's been a lot of fun. I think we both came, came in with the kind of skills needed from learnt work and thinking on our feet in the classroom." Lift off is set for late Wednesday evening. One of Discovery's crew members, Koichi Wakata of Japan, will remain aboard the station for extended mission. For NPR News, I'm Pat Duggins in Orlando.

Gasoline prices have increased about 2 cents a gallon over the past two weeks. The average price nationally now for regular is $1.96 a gallon. Industry analyst 15 Trilby Lundberg says she expects the upward trend in prices at the pump to continue over the coming weeks. "Slightly higher crude oil prices and slightly higher gasoline demand over last year have bumped up the price a little bit. They are about to do it even more as we enter the spring driving season." Lundberg says even with the recent increases though, gas prices are $1.23 a gallon lower than they were at this time last year.