President Bush Meets with Cabinet, Discusses Budget VIDEO PODCAST

President George W. Bush holds up a computer with the E-Budget for the cameras during a Cabinet meeting Monday, Feb. 4, 2008. Later, the President said, "I submitted the budget today to Congress -- it's on a laptop notebook, an e-budget. It saves paper, saves trees, saves money. I think it's the first budget submitted electronically. And it's a good budget. It's a budget that achieves some important objectives. One, it understands our top priority is to defend our country, so we fund our military, as well as fund the homeland security. Secondly, the budget keeps our economy growing." White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian

President Bush Meets with Cabinet, Discusses Budget Cabinet Room FULL STREAMING VIDEO. Fact Sheet: The President's FY09 Budget and Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2009. 10:57 A.M. EST. PODCAST OF THIS ARTICLE THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all for coming. I just met with my Cabinet, where we discussed a lot of issues. And one issue we discussed is the budget. I submitted the budget today to Congress -- it's on a laptop notebook, an e-budget. It saves paper, saves trees, saves money. I think it's the first budget submitted electronically. And it's a good budget. It's a budget that achieves some important objectives. One, it understands our top priority is to defend our country, so we fund our military, as well as fund the homeland security. Secondly, the budget keeps our economy growing. It's central that we make sure that we deal with the uncertainties -- the economic uncertainties we face.

And that's why we're working hard with the House and the Senate to get a growth package out quickly that will put money in the hands of consumers and provide incentives to small businesses and large businesses to invest.

Thirdly, we recognize that in order for this economy to grow, it's important to make the tax relief permanent. And that's what this budget reflects. It's a budget that boosts money for education and health and housing. It helps deal with the issue of making the tax code more fair for individuals who want to buy health insurance in the individual market.

This budget is one that keeps spending under control; discretionary spending is held to less than 1 percent. It eliminates 151 wasteful or bloated programs, saving the taxpayers $18 billion. It also takes a hard look at entitlement growth over the next five years, and provides specific recommendations to save $208 billion over those five years. At the same time, the budget achieves balance by 2012.

This is a good, solid budget. It's not only an innovative budget, in that it's coming to Congress over the Internet, it's a budget that's balanced -- gets to balance in 2012 and saves taxpayers money.

You know, in my State of the Union I said to the Congress that there's a lot of talk about entitlement spending. Once again, we've proposed specific reforms and specific measures. And Congress needs to come up with its own ideas. And Congress needs to respond to these looming deficits as a result of unfunded liabilities inherent in Social Security and Medicare. Our budget does that. Our budget protects America and it encourages economic growth. Congress needs to pass it.

Thank you very much.

END 11:01 A.M. EST. For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary February 4, 2008

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Why the web tells us what we already know

The Internet is not the font of all knowledge, despite the plethora of information available at your fingertips. Researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have found that while Internet searches do bring up a variety of useful materials, people pay more attention to information that matches their pre-existing beliefs.

“Even if people read the right material, they are stubborn to changing their views,” said one of the authors, UNSW Professor Enrico Coiera, the Director of the Centre for Health Informatics. “This means that providing people with the right information on its own may not be enough.”

The research considered how people use Internet search engines to answer health questions.

“We know that the web is increasingly being used by people to help them make healthcare decisions,” said Professor Coiera. “We know that there can be negative consequences if people find the wrong information, especially as people in some countries can now self-medicate by ordering drugs online. Australians can order complementary medicines online and these can interfere with other medications.

“Our research shows that, even if search engines do find the ‘right’ information, people may still draw the wrong conclusions – in other words, their conclusions are biased.”

What also matters is where the information appears in the search results and how much time a person spends looking at it, according to the research which has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

“The first or the last document the user sees has a much greater impact on their decisions,” said Professor Coiera.

Professor Coiera and Dr Annie Lau have designed an interface to help people make sense of the information which they are presented with and to break down these decision biases.

“The new search engine interface we have designed could be a part of any search engine and allows people to organise the information they find, and as a result organise their thoughts better,” said Professor Coiera.

While the research was conducted in the area of health, Professor Coiera said the results – and the technology – are applicable to other fields too.

Contact: Professor Enrico Coiera e.coiera@unsw.edu.au 61-437-044-180 University of New South Wales

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