White House: Oil Spill Isn't Our Katrina

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told Bob Schieffer Sunday that the United States government is doing "everything humanly and technologically possible" to stop the oil leak in the Gulf - despite criticism that it has left too much responsibility to oil company BP and needs to do more.

"The Coast Guard was on the scene moments after the rig exploded in April, Gibbs said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "It certainly has been weeks, and the government is doing everything humanly and technologically possible to plug the hole 5,000 feet below the ocean, and to do everything we can to contain its spread and to deal with its environmental and its economic impacts.

"The president has told the team to spare nothing in trying to cap this well," he said, later adding: "Every bit of government has been activated to try to plug this hole."

"I don't think anybody could credibly say … that the government has 'stood around, done nothing and hoped for the best,'" Gibbs said. "We were activated the moment that this oil rig exploded. This has been on the president's agenda ever since that happened."

Asked Schieffer: "Do you think this could be your administration's Katrina?"

"If you look back at what happened in Katrina, the government wasn't there to respond to what was happening," Gibbs replied. "That quite frankly was the problem. Even tracking the hurricane for days and knowing fairly precisely where it was going to hit.

"I think the difference in this case is we were there immediately. We have been there ever since."