CHICAGO–Rep. Mark Steven Kirk (R-Ill.) claimed the GOP Illinois Senate nomination on Tuesday, declaring victory at his north suburban campaign headquarters.
“We all know that over the past year a quiet despair has descended on the State of Illinois.
A governor arrested, a senator seat disgraced, corruption rampant, unemployment rising and families struggling. The people of Illinois now see the arrogance of a one-party state,” Kirk said.
Check out the eVoter widget on the right of this blog for voting locations and a list of candidates customized to your Illinois address.
No matter who wins today’s Democratic and Republican Illinois primaries for senator and governor, the general election contests will be played out on a national stage, for reasons of the calendar as much as the anticipated pitched partisan battles in President Obama’s adopted home state.
Illinois has the first 2010 primary in the nation and will, for months, be the only state with twin rip-roaring November battles with governor and senator nominees. Illinois moved its traditional March primary to February to help Obama in the 2008 “Super Tuesday” February primaries and never switched back.
As the first primary of 2010 and President Obama’s home state, Illinois will garner national interest when voters head to the polls today.
The contests in Illinois will play out against a backdrop of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s corruption trial this summer and the Obama White House push to keep Democratic defeats to a minimum in a non-presidential year. This comes as Democrats are licking their wounds in the wake of GOP New Jersey and Virginia governor pickups and the stunning win of Sen.-elect Scott Brown in Massachusetts for the seat held by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.
With ongoing Illinois ethics scandals and the state nearly insolvent, “the Republicans have the advantage in issues that in 2006 and 2008 hurt Republicans in Illinois,” said GOP pollster Linda DiVall, an Illinois native. With Obama, “In 2008, the Democrats had the energy or intensity advantage. Right now, we enjoy that advantage,” said DiVall, the pollster for GOP governor contender Kirk Dillard.
“I think the Republicans are putting a big bull’s-eye” on Illinois “to distract Democrats as much as possible,” said Democratic strategist Gina Glantz. But it would be “dumb to put their resources into embarrassing the president rather than investing in winning as many seats as possible.”
There were no primaries in January, and with the exception of the Texas primary on March 2 — where the marquee contest is a GOP governor primary between Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and no Senate seat in play — the next set of primary elections do not take place until May.
The big states that will have dual Senate and governor races have primaries months away: Ohio and Pennsylvania in May, California in June; Arizona and Florida in August and New York and Wisconsin in September.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_______________________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 1, 2010
DAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FOR
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2010
In the morning, the President will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing, the Economic Daily Briefing, and the Oval Office. These meetings are closed press.
The President will then travel to Nashua, New Hampshire. The departure from the South Lawn and the arrival at Manchester Airport in Manchester, New Hampshire are open press.
The President will tour a local business in Nashua. There will be travel pool coverage of the tour. The President will then hold a town hall meeting at Nashua High School North where he will discuss details of a new small business lending proposal. This event is open press.
The President will return to Washington, DC later in the evening. The departure from Manchester Airport and the arrival at the White House are open press.
Also tomorrow at 2:30PM EST at the White House, First Lady Michelle Obama will meet with Cabinet and Congressional members serving in leadership roles on childhood obesity policy one week before the announcement of an administration-wide and national campaign to address the epidemic of childhood obesity. They will discuss combined efforts to create national awareness of the dangers of childhood obesity and the simple steps families, schools, the business and non-profit communities and all levels of government can take together to solve it. There will be pool spray at the top of the meeting. Following the meeting at 3:30PM EST, Cabinet and Congressional members will be available at the White House stakeout location to discuss the meeting with the media. Media wishing to attend the stakeout who do not have a White House hard pass should RSVP to [email protected] with their full name, date of birth, social security number and country of citizenship.
At 9:30AM EST tomorrow, the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) will be sworn in and hold its first meeting in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. PACHA provides advice, information, and recommendations to the President through the Secretary of Health and Human Services on domestic and global HIV/AIDS policy issues. The opening remarks, swearing in, and public comment periods of the meeting is open press and will be streamed live on www.WhiteHouse.gov/live. Interested reporters should gather 9:20AM EST at the West Wing stakeout location to be escorted to the event.
In-Town Travel Pool
Wires: AP, Reuters, Bloomberg
Wire Photos: AP, Reuters, AFP
TV Corr & Crew: CNN
Print: Politics Daily/Sun Times
Radio: CBS
Travel Photo: New York Times
Out-of-Town Travel Pool
Wires: AP, Reuters, Bloomberg
Wire Photos: AP, Reuters, AFP
TV Corr & Crew: CNN
Print: Politico
Radio: FOX
Travel Photo: New York Times
EST
9:30AM In-Town Travel Pool Call Time
9:30AM THE PRESIDENT receives the Presidential Daily Briefing
Oval Office
Closed Press
10:00AM THE PRESIDENT receives the Economic Daily Briefing
Oval Office
Closed Press
10:30AM THE PRESIDENT meets with senior advisors
Oval Office
Closed Press
11:10AM THE PRESIDENT departs The White House en route Andrews Air Force Base
South Lawn
Open Press (Pre-set 10:40AM – Final Gather 10:55AM – North Doors of the Palm Room)
11:25AM THE PRESIDENT departs Andrews Air Force Base en route Manchester, New Hampshire
Out-of-Town Travel Pool (Call Time 10:10AM – Virginia Gate, Andrews Air Force Base)
12:45PM THE PRESIDENT arrives in Manchester, New Hampshire
Manchester Airport
Open Press
1:20PM THE PRESIDENT tours a local business
Nashua, New Hampshire
Travel Pool Coverage
2:15PM THE PRESIDENT holds a town hall meeting
Nashua High School North
Open Press
4:10PM THE PRESIDENT departs Manchester, New Hampshire en route Andrews Air Force Base
Manchester Airport
Open Press
5:25PM THE PRESIDENT arrives at Andrews Air Force Base
Out-of-Town Travel Pool Coverage
5:40PM THE PRESIDENT arrives at The White House
South Lawn
Open Press (Pre-set 5:10PM – Final Gather 5:25PM – North Doors of the Palm Room)
Briefing Schedule
Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton will gaggle aboard Air Force One
##
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release February 1, 2010
INTERVIEW OF THE PRESIDENT
BY YOUTUBE
WITH STATE OF THE UNION Q&A
Library
1:45 P.M. EST
MR. GROVE: Hello, everyone. We’re here at the White House today for a very unique event — an exclusive interview with President Obama in which the questions come from American people who have submitted them and chosen them online. My name is Steve Grove and I’m the news and politics at YouTube.
Mr. President, thank you for taking the time to answer these questions today.
THE PRESIDENT: It’s my pleasure. Thank you, Steve. Thanks for having me and thanks to YouTube for doing this. We had a chance to do this before I was elected and had a great time, so I’m glad we can do it again.
MR. GROVE: Great. Well, let’s tell people a little bit about how this works. Five days ago as you were delivering your State of the Union address, we opened up our moderator platform on YouTube, where thousands of people have been submitting and voting on both video and text questions. Some of them, as you’ll see, were hard-hitting; others were emotional; some were even funny — but all of the questions you’ll see here today were voted into the top tier of the thousands of questions we received. And none of them have been chosen by the White House or seen by the President. So this should be a lot of fun.
Mr. President, let’s let laymanmarcus from Silver Spring, Maryland, kick us off. He submitted this video to remind us of where things were a year ago.
(A video is shown.)
Mr. Marcus writes: “Mr. President, I know there have been political setbacks to getting health care reform done. The 40 million people who have no insurance can’t wait. Will they be able to get insurance this year?”
THE PRESIDENT: It is my greatest hope that we can get this done not just a year from now, but soon. We came extremely close. We now have a bill that’s come out from the House, come out from the Senate. That’s unprecedented. And if you look at the core components of that legislation, what you have is 30 million people who get coverage, insurance reform so that people who have health insurance are going to be able to be protected from not being able to get it because of preexisting conditions or suddenly losing their health care because the insurance company has some fine print that they didn’t read. It makes sure that we actually start bending the cost curve, controlling the rise in premiums, by instituting better practices in terms of how we reimburse doctors and how we ask hospitals to work together. We’ve already invested in electronic IT, electronic medical records, things that can help make the system more efficient.
So we had this enormous opportunity, but the way the rules work in the United States Senate, you’ve got to have 60 votes for everything. After the special election in Massachusetts, we now only have 59. We are calling on our Republican colleagues to get behind a serious health reform bill, one that actually provides not only the insurance reforms for people who do have health insurance but also the coverage for folks who don’t.
My hope is, is that they accept that invitation and that they work with us together over the next several weeks to get it done.
MR. GROVE: A lot of people that submitted questions were sort of frustrated with the process of all of health care, and the number one question we got in health care came from Mr. Anderson in Texas who asked: “Why are the health care meetings and procedures not on C-SPAN as promised?” And then one of the top questions in the government reform category was Warren Hunter in Brooklyn, who said: “How do you expect people in this country to trust you when you’ve repeatedly broken promises that were made on the campaign trail, most recently the promise to have a transparent health care debate?”
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I guess, first of all, I would say that we have been certified by independent groups as the most transparent White House in history. It’s important to understand. We are the first White House since the founding of the republic to list every visitor that comes into the White House online so that you can look it up. People know more about the inner workings of this White House, the meetings we have. We’ve excluded lobbyists from boards and commissions, but we also report on any lobbyist who meets with anybody who’s part of our — part of our administration.
So we’ve actually followed through on a lot of the commitments that we’d made. And so Warren is mistaken in terms of how he characterized it.
What is fair to say is that as the health care process went forward, not every single aspect of it was on C-SPAN. Now, keep in mind, most of the action was in Congress, so every committee hearing that was taking place, both in the House and the Senate, those were all widely televised. The only ones that were not were meetings that I had with some of the legislative leadership trying to get a sense from them in terms of what it was that they were trying to do.
I think it is a fair criticism. I’ve acknowledged that. And that’s why as we move forward making sure that in this last leg, these five yards before we get to the goal line, that everybody understands exactly what’s going on in the health care bill, that there are no surprised, no secrets. That’s going to be an imperative. It’s going to be one of my highest priorities.
MR. GROVE: Well, the central focus of your State of the Union was obviously jobs. And a lot of people wrote in asking for some clarity around some of your plans for small businesses. I’m going to play you two video questions in a row.
Q “Good evening, President Obama. One year ago today my wife and I were both let go from our jobs in corporate America within 48 hours of each other. We’ve since started a small business and we employ a couple people around us. What is being done to free up funding and encourage the growth of other small businesses that have such a tremendous impact on our economy? Thank you.”
Q “Colin Callahan, Costa Mesa, California. Mr. President, how exactly are you planning on helping small businesses grow and prosper, besides simply providing tax breaks?”
THE PRESIDENT: Well, let me start with some specific issues that confront every small business all across the country, and it’s absolutely true that if we can get small businesses back on their feet then that’s going to go a long way towards bringing the unemployment rate down because that’s the fastest generator of jobs across the country.
Number one, small businesses really are still struggling with financing. You hear stories everywhere you go that even profitable, successful businesses are having trouble getting financing because banks, frankly, just don’t want to take the risk. After having taken way too many risks before, now they’re taking no risk. And small businesses are punished for that.
So we’ve expanded the SBA loan — the Small Business Administration loan portfolio by about 70 percent. We’ve been waiving guarantees and fees, trying to streamline the process, just to get more capital into the hands of small businesses. That’s point number one.
Point number two then are the tax breaks that were alluded to. It is important to see if we can give more incentives to small business. So, for example, we’re just eliminating capital gains for small business — which is particularly important if you’ve got a start-up; 10 years from now you may end up being successful with your small business but suddenly you’ve got to pay taxes on it. If you can take that money and, instead of paying Uncle Sam, reinvest it in your business, you can grow it further. So we think that that’s the kind of strategy that makes a lot of sense.
We want to also make sure that we’re providing tax credits for hiring of small business — small businesses that are hiring new employees. And so we’ve got a whole range of proposals there.
Now, in addition to the tax credits, in addition to the financing, one of the other things that, frankly, small businesses need is just a economic environment that is growing. And one of the things we’re very proud of is the fact that we had a 6 percent contraction of the economy at the beginning of last year — this past quarter we had a 6 percent increase in the growth of the economy. That 12 percent swing offers greater opportunities for small businesses to prosper and thrive.
The last point I’d make: One of the biggest burdens on small businesses is health care costs. And probably nobody benefits more from our health care proposals than small businesses, because what we’re doing is we’re saying that not only will you get tax credits to buy health insurance, but we’re also going to let you pool — buy into a big exchange so that you have the same purchasing power as a big company like Ford or Google is able to negotiate with insurance companies and get a good deal, well, now small businesses, by pooling together in this exchange, are going to have that same leverage. That will help lower their costs.
And for a lot of small businesses, it’s not just a matter of giving health insurance to your employees; it’s also just being able to buy health insurance for yourself. That will cut down on small businesses’ costs and they’ll be able to, again, invest more in their business.
MR. GROVE: A lot of Americans saw what happened on Wall Street this past year, and they wrote in saying, when are we going to get our bailout? Here is Frederick from Florida, who submitted the number one video question in the financial reform category.
Q “Mr. President, my name is Frederick from South Florida. I have a question about your HAMP program and why the banks are reluctant to modify loans for homeowners who can afford to stay in their homes. Now, the taxpayers bailed them out. They refuse to help us out. And I would like to know what say you, Mr. President?”
THE PRESIDENT: Well, look, this is something that we’ve been dealing with since the beginning of this financial crisis. We set up a program for loan modification that so far about
4 million people have taken advantage of across the country. You’ve got about 800,000 people who’ve gotten loan modifications that are saving them an average of $550. And so these are not insignificant savings. We’ve been able to get that done.
The problem is, is the number of people whose mortgages are underwater where they actually have a home value that’s now less than their mortgage is a lot bigger than that. And you saw declining values all across the country.
So the amount of money that we’ve been able to get into this program has not met the entire need. We’re now pushing the banks as hard as we can to make sure that not only do they do the most with the resources that we’ve been giving them, but that they also do a much better job of customer service with people who are coming to them. I get letters all the time of people who’ve gone through all kinds of hoops, filled out forms; the bank doesn’t call them back, or after they’ve gone through a trial period, the bank says, well, we now think we shouldn’t give you a home modification.
What we’re trying to do is to increase transparency and force all the banks to tell us exactly what are you doing with your customers who want to stay in their homes, can’t afford to pay a mortgage, but need something a little bit more limited.
And I’m hopeful that we’re going to continue to see more and more people take advantage of it. But I want to be honest, given the magnitude of the housing problem out there, that there are still going to be pockets of areas where the housing values have dropped so much that it is still going to be tough for a lot of people, and we’re just going to have to work our way through this as the economy improves.
MR. GROVE: Mr. President, let’s lighten things up for a minute. We got a lot of people just submitting their ideas to you — ideas for how to make the country better. They wanted to hear what you thought about them.
Let’s play sort of a faster round of a thing we’ll call “Good idea, bad idea.” I’ll show you an idea. You say whether you think it’s good or bad, and maybe just a few sentences about what you think about it.
First one comes from Aloha Tony, your home state of Hawaii. He says, “Mr. President, our deficit is higher than ever at $12 trillion. Will you consider allowing the private sector to buy and take over the most troubled government-run agencies such as the U.S. Postal Service?”
THE PRESIDENT: Bad idea most of the time. There are examples where privatization makes sense, where people can do things much more efficiently. But oftentimes what you see is companies want to buy those parts of a government-run op that are profitable, and they don’t want to do anything else.
So, for example, the U.S. Postal Service, everybody would love to have that high-end part of the business that FedEx and UPS are already in, business to business you make a lot of money. But do they want to deliver that postcard to a remote area somewhere in rural America that is a money loser? Well, the U.S. Post Office provides universal service. Those companies would not want to provide universal service. So you’ve got to make sure that you look carefully at what privatization proposals are out there.
MR. GROVE: So bad idea most of the time?
THE PRESIDENT: Most of the time.
MR. GROVE: Most of the time. Next idea is a video.
Q “My car insurance company will allow me to take driver’s ed classes to reduce my monthly premiums. Could we do the same thing for health insurance — take class in cooking, nutrition, stress management, communication, parenting, stopping smoking, maybe even exercise classes — and get a reduction on our monthly premiums?”
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think the idea is a good one, and that is that if people are being healthy, that they should be able to get some incentives for that. And a lot of companies are starting to do that. We probably don’t want the insurance companies, though, making those decisions because insurance companies have every incentive to take the youngest, healthiest people and insure them, since they’re less likely to pay out, and then leave older, sicker individuals out of their insurance pools. So it’s important in any health care program to make sure that the young and the healthy and the older and the sicker are in a single pool.
But what we should encourage are individual companies who provide incentives for wellness programs, smoking cessation programs, they’re going to get a workout once in a while — those things are something we should encourage. And the First Lady, Michelle Obama, she’s really focusing right now on childhood wellness, healthy eating, getting exercise. That’s a campaign that she is going to be pushing all year long.
MR. GROVE: Let’s get one more idea in here. This next one comes from JLevers in Dover, Delaware, who writes: “Do you think it would be worth looking at placing solar panels in all federal, state, and school buildings as a way to cut energy costs and put that budget money to better use?”
THE PRESIDENT: Good idea. And we want to do everything we can to encourage clean energy. And I have instructed the Department of Energy to make sure that our federal operations are employing the best possible clean energy technology, alternative energy technology. And what we’re seeing is more and more companies realize this is a win-win for them. Not only is what they’re doing environmentally sound, but it also over the long term saves money for them.
MR. GROVE: Great. Well, let’s move back to the questions. And I got to tell you, the number one question that came in, in the jobs and economy category had to do with the Internet. And it came from James Earlywine in Indianapolis. He said: “An open Internet is a powerful engine for economic growth and new jobs. Letting large companies block and fill their online content services would stifle needed growth. What is your commitment to keeping Internet open and neutral in America?”
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I’m a big believer in net neutrality. I campaigned on this. I continue to be a strong supporter of it. My FCC Chairman, Julius Genachowski, has indicated that he shares the view that we’ve got to keep the Internet open; that we don’t want to create a bunch of gateways that prevent somebody who doesn’t have a lot of money but has a good idea from being able to start their next YouTube or their next Google on the Internet. So this is something we’re committed to.
We’re getting pushback, obviously, from some of the bigger carriers who would like to be able to charge more fees and extract more money from wealthier customers. But we think that runs counter to the whole spirit of openness that has made the Internet such a powerful engine for not only economic growth, but also for the generation of ideas and creativity.
MR. GROVE: Well, to get good jobs I think many Americans realize they need a higher education, but college tuition costs are so high. Here is a video question from Saginaw, Michigan:
Q “Dear President Obama, as a college student who has 14 credits and three part-time jobs, I’m just wondering what are your plans for — plans to lower college tuition costs? I know we’re in a struggling economy right now, but any little bit that you can help would be appreciated. Thank you. God bless. Bye.”
THE PRESIDENT: Well, John is right that college tuition costs are just crushing on a lot of folks. And this is something that I remember from my own experience, because Michelle and I, we had college loans we kept on paying off for a decade after we had graduated from law school.
We’ve already done a huge amount to increase Pell Grants, to help increase the accessibility of college loans and grants at the college level. But we want to do more. And so we’ve put forward an initiative that is being debated in Congress — and we hope to get passed this year — where if you have student loans, that you will not have to pay more than 10 percent of your income on those loans; that after 20 years they’ll be forgiven; and if you’ve gone into public service, they’ll be forgiven after 10 years. That would provide a huge amount of relief for people.
We still need to expand more the Pell Grant program and make it both accessible to more people and raise the amount of tuition.
In order to pay for this — the best part of this is we can actually figure out how to pay for it, because right now you’ve got a lot of banks and financial service companies who are still middlemen in the federally guaranteed loan programs. And if we can cut those middlemen out, then you’ve got several billion dollars that you can invest in the programs that I just described.
This is something that I’ve made a top priority. I want us to once again have the highest college graduation rates of any country in the world by 2020. We can get that done. But this is legislation that needs to pass.
And the last point I would make, colleges and universities also, though, have to figure out how can they cut their costs, because even if we’re putting more and more loans in, more and more money for loans, if the inflation in higher education keeps on skyrocketing, over time it’s still going to gobble up all that extra money and we’ll be right back where we started. So we’ve got to show more restraint at the college and university level in terms of ever-escalating costs.
MR. GROVE: Well, let’s back up a bit just from the specifics of education policy and ask a more fundamental question, which comes from Sean in Ohio.
Q “Mr. President, what do you want public education to help students become? Should they be good workers? Innovative thinkers? Something else? As a math teacher, I want to know what you think it means to be an educated person.”
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think obviously there’s a huge economic component to being well educated. We know that if you’ve got a college education, you are going to make multiples of what you would make as a high school graduate, much less a high school dropout over the course of a lifetime. But it’s absolutely true that a high-quality education is not just a matter of being a good worker; it’s also a matter of being a good citizen, it’s also a matter of being able to think critically, evaluate the world around you, make sure that you can process all the information that’s coming at us in a way that helps you make decisions about your own life but also helps you participate in the life of the country.
And I’m a big believer that the most important thing that a kid can learn in school is how to learn and how to think. If Malia and Sasha, my two daughters, are asking questions, know how to poke holes in an argument, know how to make an argument themselves, know how to evaluate a complicated bunch of data, then I figure that they’re going to be okay regardless of the career path that they’re in. And I think that that requires more than just rote learning — although it certainly requires good habits and discipline in school — it also requires that in the classroom they’re getting the kind of creative teaching that’s so important.
And that’s why our administration has initiated something called Race to the Top, where my Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, has helped to design a competition among states so that they can foster the kinds of excellence in learning everywhere. Not just in some schools, not just in some states, but in every school in every state. If states want money, we’re going to reward excellence, and we will show them what has been proven to work in terms of encouraging the kind of critical thinking that all of our children need.
MR. GROVE: Mr. President, the number two category after jobs and economy that people submitted to was national security and foreign policy. And the number one question came from concernedconservative in Georgia, who asked about your plans for the war on terror. And then Sean from Pennsylvania followed it up with: “Dear President Obama, if we remove our troops from the war on terror, how will you continue to combat the threat of terrorism?”
THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, I think it’s important to understand that we are at war against a very specific group — al Qaeda and its extremist allies that have metastasized around the globe, that would attack us, attack our allies, attack bases and embassies around the world, and most sadly, attack innocent people regardless of their backgrounds, regardless of their religions. Al Qaeda is probably the biggest killer of innocent Muslims of any entity out there.
And so that is our target and that is our focus. Now, they employ terrorist tactics, but we need to be clear about who our target is.
And we have to fight them on all fronts. We have to fight them in very concrete ways in Afghanistan and along the border regions of Pakistan where they are still holed up. They have spread to places like Yemen and Somalia, and we are working internationally with partners to try to limit their scope of operations and dismantle them in those regions.
But we also have to battle them with ideas. We have to help work with the overwhelming majority of Muslims who reject senseless violence of this sort, and to work to provide different pathways and different alternatives for people expressing whatever policy differences that they may have. And I think we haven’t done as good of a job on that front.
We have to project economically, working in country like a Yemen, that is extraordinarily poor, to make sure that young people there have opportunity. The same is true in a place like Pakistan.
So we want to use all of our national power to deal with the problem of these extremist organizations. But part of that does involve applications of military power. And that’s why, although it is the hardest decision that a Commander-in-Chief can make to send our troops into battle, I thought it was very important to make sure that we had an additional 30,000 troops in Afghanistan to help train Afghan forces so that they can start providing more effective security for their own country in dealing with the Taliban, and ultimately allow us to remove our troops but still have a secure partner there that’s not going to be able to use that region as a platform to attack the United States.
MR. GROVE: Well, another central issue in the war on terror now is Guantanamo, and a lot of users wrote in about this. Oh, actually, you know what, I think we’re going to — well, how about I come later — I think that question is actually about Sudan, which you didn’t actually address in your State of the Union, but it was actually the number one voted question, and it’s a video from the EnoughProject here in D.C.
Q “President Obama, more than 3 million Darfuris fear returning home because of instability. Many fear that Sudan may be on the brink of war. What will you do to galvanize the international community to ensure that widespread violence does not occur in Sudan this year?”
THE PRESIDENT: Well, the situation in Sudan has been heartbreaking but also extremely difficult, and something that we started working on the day that I came into office. Our first task was, at that time, making sure that people who were in refugee camps in Darfur had access to basic water, food, other necessities of life. And this was after the Sudanese government in Khartoum had kicked out a whole bunch of nongovernmental organizations that were providing assistance there. We were able to get that assistance back in to help at least initially stabilize the situation.
The next step in the challenge is to broker a lasting peace agreement between rebels who are still in the Darfur region and this government. And I’ve got a special envoy who has been very active in trying to bring together the international community to get that deal brokered.
Part of what makes it complicated is you also have a conflict historically between northern Sudan and southern Sudan. They finally reached a agreement after a lot of work. But the Sudanese now — the southern Sudanese now have an option where they may be seeking to secede from all of Sudan. That’s another potential conflict that could create additional millions of refugees.
And so what we are doing is try to work with not only the regional powers but the United Nations and other countries that have shown a great interest in this to see if we can broker a series of agreements that would stabilize the country, and then allow the refugees who are in Darfur to start moving back to their historic lands.
Sadly, because of the genocide that took place earlier, a lot of those villages are now destroyed. And so thinking about how to resettle these populations in places that are viable economically, that have the resources to support populations, is a long-term development challenge that the international community is going to have to support.
We continue to put pressure on the Sudanese government. If they are not cooperative in these efforts, then it is going to be appropriate for us to conclude that engagement doesn’t work, and we’re going to have to apply additional pressure on Sudan in order to achieve our objectives. But my hope is, is that we can broker agreements with all the parties involved to deal with what has been enormous human tragedy in that region.
MR. GROVE: The question we missed from the deck, but it was about Guantanamo, and essentially he was just saying why is it taking so long to close down Guantanamo?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, it’s pretty straightforward. Number one, you’ve got a whole bunch of individuals in Guantanamo, some of whom are very dangerous, some of whom were low-level fighters, some of whom the courts have determined should never have been put there in the first place. We’ve had to evaluate each of those cases, hundreds of cases, one by one, to determine what these various categories are, and do it in a way that stands up to our standards of due process and legal scrutiny.
Then we’ve got to figure out, if we’re closing Guantanamo, where are we going to put them? And we have proposed that there are a number of options on the continental United States where you could hold these people as trials either in military commissions or in Article 3 courts are pending. But unfortunately, there has been a lot of political resistance, and, frankly, some of it just politically motivated — some of it people being legitimately scared about, well, if we’ve got somebody who we’ve been told is a terrorist in our backyard, will that make us a target?
One of the things that we’ve had to try to communicate to the country at large is that, historically, we’ve tried a lot of terrorists in our courts; we have them in our federal prisons; they’ve never escaped. And these folks are no different. But it’s been one of those things that’s been subject to a lot of, in some cases, pretty rank politics.
And we’ve got to work through that process because Congress ultimately controls the purse strings in creating new facilities. If Congress makes a decision that they are going to try to block the opening of a new facility, it potentially constrains what our administration can do. And so this is something that we’ve got to work through both in Congress but also with public opinion so that people understand that ultimately this is the right thing to do. By closing Guantanamo, we can regain the moral high ground in the battle against these terrorist organizations.
There’s been no bigger propaganda weapon for many of these extremists than pointing to Guantanamo and saying that we don’t live up to our own ideals. And that’s something that I strongly believe we have to resist, even if it has some costs to it, and even if it’s not always the most politically popular thing to do.
MR. GROVE: Mr. President, we don’t have much time left, but I want to make sure we get to the issue of energy, the environment. One of the rare moments where you were able to get applause from your friends on the Republican side of the aisle in Congress the other night was when you mentioned nuclear energy. And just today your budget announced tripling the loan guarantees for nuclear reactors. A lot of people had questions about just how this would work and why you did that.
Q “President Obama, record numbers of young people elected you in support of a clean energy future. If money is tight, why do you propose wasting billions in expensive nuclear, dirty coal, and offshore drilling? We need to ramp up efficiency, wind and solar, that are all economically sustainable and create clean and safe jobs for our generation.”
THE PRESIDENT: Well, you’re not going to get any argument from me about the need to create clean energy jobs. I think this is going to be the driver of our economy over the long term. And that’s why we put in record amounts of money for solar and wind and biodiesel and all the other alternative clean energy sources that are out there.
In the meantime, though, unfortunately, no matter how fast we ramp up those energy sources, we’re still going to have enormous energy needs that will be unmet by alternative energy.
And the question then is, where will that come from?
Nuclear energy has the advantage of not emitting greenhouse gases. For those who are concerned about climate change, we have to recognize that countries like Japan and France and others have been much more aggressive in their nuclear industry and much more successful in having that a larger part of their portfolio, without incident, without accidents. We’re mindful of the concerns about storage, of spent fuel, and concerns about security, but we still think it’s the right thing to do if we’re serious about dealing with climate change.
With respect to clean coal technology, it is not possible at this point to completely eliminate coal from the menu of our energy options. And if we are ever going to deal with climate change in a serious way, where we know China and India are going to be greatly reliant on coal, we’ve got to start developing clean coal technologies that can sequester the harmful emissions, because otherwise — countries like China and India are not going to stop using coal — we’ll still have those same problems but we won’t have the technology to make sure that it doesn’t harm the environment over the long term.
So I know that there’s some skepticism about whether there is such a thing as clean coal technology. What is true is right now that we don’t have all the technology to prevent greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants, but the technology is close and it makes sense for us to make that investment now, not only because it will be good for America but it will also ultimately be good internationally. We can license and export that technology in ways that help other countries use a better form of energy that’s going to be helpful to the climate change issue.
MR. GROVE: Mr. President, I think we’re out of time, but I know a lot of people really enjoyed the opportunity to ask questions of you in this way, and we’d love to do this again with you some time.
THE PRESIDENT: You know, this was terrific. And I just want to thank everybody who submitted questions, whether via e-mail or over the Internet. And I hope we get a chance to do this on a more regular basis, because it gives me great access to all the people out there with wonderful ideas. And even if you didn’t make your question, even if it wasn’t on this show, we appreciate your submission, and hopefully we’ll catch you next time.
MR. GROVE: Great. Thanks, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: All right, thank you, appreciate it.
END 2:24 P.M. EST
President Obama and First Lady Michelle voted in the Tuesday Illinois primary by absentee ballot, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday.
“They I believe both voted by absentee ballot,” Gibbs said.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said at Monday’s briefing President Obama and First Lady Michelle “will be traveling to Indonesia and Australia in the second half of March.” Obama spent part of his youth in Indonesia with his mother and step-father.
“This trip is an important part of the President’s continued effort to broaden and strengthen the partnerships that are necessary to advance our security and prosperity. Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country, the third largest democracy; is home to the largest Muslim population in the world; and an important partner in the G20,” Gibbs said.
Here are the Chicago Sun-Times links to our packages for the Feb. 2 primary elections.
Main election page is here.
Chicago Sun-Times endorsements are here.
Candidates filled out questionnaires for the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board. Read them here.
See video clips from the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board interviews, debates and other events here.
Read Chicago Sun-Times profiles of major candidates for Cook County Board president, U.S. Senate and governor here.
Check out the ratings on judicial candidates here.
Read Chicago Sun-Times news stories about the 2010 primary candidates and issues here.
Check out photo galleries of candidates and debates here.
REMARKS AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY BY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL THOMAS E. PEREZ AT THE OPENING OF THE INTERNATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS CENTER AND MUSEUM
GREENSBORO, N.C.
Thank you, Senator Hagan, for your introduction.
Margaret Mead’s famous insight perfectly describes what happened here in Greensboro 50 years ago. She said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has”
50 years ago four young students set out to change the world – And I am truly honored to be here today on behalf of President Obama, who personifies the change those students sparked.
It is appropriate that we mark this historic anniversary with the landmark grand opening of the International Civil Rights Center and Museum. Our most important historic moments would lose meaning if we didn’t work hard to remember them, and to continue to learn from them.
Those four young men, tired of injustice, hatched a plan to challenge it. They knew it would take courage to sit down at that lunch counter and stand up for their rights. They understood what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., meant when he wrote four years later, in a narrow cell in Birmingham, that “I am not afraid of the word tension…Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension on society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.”
Those four young men created tension. They forced this city to face up to its shortcomings, to acknowledge that there was injustice here. The nonviolent tension they created led to real change, and today we celebrate that change.
Our nation’s laws no longer allow segregated lunch counters. Thanks to the courage and persistence of those four students, and so many other civil rights heroes, our society no longer condones discrimination on buses, in schools, in places of business. Our laws now protect equal rights and forbid acts of hate.
But that doesn’t mean the work is complete. The long journey toward equal justice is not over. To be sure, we have reached some remarkable milestones along the way toward our most worthy goal. But discrimination and bigotry persist. They persist in blatant forms – burned crosses, burned churches, hate-fueled assaults. And they persist in more subtle, yet equally devastating ways in so many of our communities and institutions.
We see it in our education system, where many children still go to schools that are all too frequently substandard. We see it in the foreclosure crisis, where communities of color were all too frequently preyed upon by lenders who used the corrosive power of fine print, and bait and switch tactics – discrimination with a smile – to transform the American dream into a nightmare. We see it in our workplaces, where glass ceilings often shatter opportunities for qualified women and minorities. We see it in the voting booth, where poll tests and taxes have been replaced by more subtle tactics that dilute voting strength.
In short, we need this Civil Rights Museum so that we remember our history, however painful it may be. We need a robust Civil Rights Division so that we can continue to break down barriers to equal opportunity, and continue our quest to fulfill our nation’s promise of equal justice for all. President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have made clear that the Civil Rights Division is open for business, and I can think of no better way to pay tribute to Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, Jibreel Khazan and David Richmond than to ensure the vigorous enforcement of our nation’s civil rights laws.
###
President Obama on Monday will propose a $3.8-trillion fiscal 2011 federal budget that includes $237 million for the purchase and upgrading of a prison in Illinois to house detainees now at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba.
Obama sends his spending blueprint to Congress, with the money to buy the nearly vacant Thomson Correctional Center in northwest Illinois, 150 miles west of Chicago, in the Department of Justice funding request. The State of Illinois and the federal government are currently negotiating over the purchase price of Thomson.
During a briefing with reporters on Sunday afternoon previewing the budget–the contents were embargoed until 6 a.m. eastern time on Monday– White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag said the acquisition of Thomson by the federal government would be “warranted” even in the absence of Guantanamo detainees because more space was needed to house federal maximum security prisoners.
On the call, the briefers used two numbers to discuss the Thomson purchase and security upgrading needed–$250 million and $270 milllion. Asked to clarify, the Chicago Sun-Times was told the Justice Department fiscal 2011 request will include “$237 million to purchase, modify, and operate Thomson for a full year.
“This should not be viewed as the purchase price alone – it includes the cost of modifying and operating the facility for a year. The negotiation process with the State of Illinois regarding the purchase price is ongoing, and this number builds in flexibility depending on the final appraisals and final negotiated price with the state.”
The Obama White House is proposing acquiring Thomson for a dual use: To house an estimated 100 Guantanamo detainees who are being held indefinitely in a facility run by the Department of Defense and to use the rest of the complex to house federal prisoners in a facility to be run by the Bureau of Prisons.
The Defense Department would “own” Thomson and lease space to the Defense Department. The Bureau of Prisons would occupy 75 percent of the facility and the Defense Department would use 25 percent of the space for the detainees. The plan calls for two entirely separate facilities side by side.
President Obama missed his Jan. 22, 2010 self-imposed deadline to close Guantanamo, a promise he made the day he was sworn into office. The Obama White House argues that the prison is a recruiting tool for Al Queda and an international black eye for the U.S.
Since December, moving the detainees to Illinois has been championed by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illl.) and Gov. Quinn as a jobs boom for a part of the state with a high jobless rate. Most Thomson-are local officials have not objected to taking the Guantanamo detainees.
However, Republicans in Congress and GOP members in the Illinois delegation have said that moving the detainees to Illinois only creates a terrorist target. They may try to squash the plan to close Guantanamo by resisting budgeting money to replace it. As of Monday, there were 192 detainees in Guantanamo.
Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), who is running for the Senate and most likely will win the GOP nomination in Tuesday’s Illinois primary election said last month on Fox News, “Under this proposal, we are not closing Gitmo, we’re just moving it to America’s heartland. And I think that poses unnecessary risk.” Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) said “the administration is not closing Guantanamo, they are simply moving Guantanamo to Illinois.”
On Monday morning, Roskam’s spokesman Dan Conston sent out a memo continuing the opposition to moving the detainees to Illinois. “The Obama Administration admitted they are finally considering moving the Khalid Sheikh Mohammad trial from New York. When will they listen to reason in Illinois and drop their controversial plan to create Guantanamo Illinois?”
UPDATED 5:50 p.m. eastern time
below, release….
Ros-Lehtinen Says $237 Million to House Guantanamo Inmates in Illinois Puts Americans at Risk, Wastes Taxpayer Money
(WASHINGTON) – U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said today that the President’s request for approximately $237 million to house Guantanamo Bay detainees in Thomson, Illinois, wastes taxpayer money, jeopardizes security interests, and ignores the will of the American people. Statement by Ros-Lehtinen:
“Considering our economic situation, I can think of about 237 million better ways to spend $237 million dollars.
“Americans are outraged at the administration’s plan to house Guantanamo detainees in the heartland of America. The President has decided to charge full-steam-ahead anyway. He is not listening to the American people.
“Even though Americans are facing tremendous economic challenges, the administration has chosen to spend $237 million dollars in taxpayer money to provide free travel, room and board in Thomson, Illinois for some of the most dangerous Guantanamo detainees.
“It is time for the President to focus on the security and economic needs of the American people, rather than on the needs of those dangerous extremists who seek to do us harm.”
#####
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_______________________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 31, 2010
DAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FOR
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2010
In the morning, the President will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing in the Oval Office. This meeting is closed press.
The President will then deliver remarks on the budget in the Grand Foyer. This event is pooled for TV and open to correspondents.
Later, the President will meet with senior advisors in the Oval Office. This meeting is closed press.
In the afternoon, the President will participate in a YouTube interview in the Library, where the President will answer video and text questions submitted by YouTube users during and after the State of the Union. Users voted the best questions to the top on CitizenTube, YouTube’s political platform, and Steve Grove, YouTube’s news and political director, will ask a selection of the top-voted questions to the President in a live-streamed interview on YouTube and Whitehouse.gov. There will be print pool coverage of the interview.
Later, the President and the Vice President will meet with Secretary of Defense Gates in the Oval Office. This meeting is closed press.
In-Town Travel Pool
Wires: AP, Reuters, Bloomberg
Wire Photos: AP, Reuters, AFP
TV Corr & Crew: CBS
Print: Politico
Radio: AURN
Travel Photo: TIME
EST
9:30AM Pool Call Time
10:00AM THE PRESIDENT receives the Presidential Daily Briefing
Oval Office
Closed Press
10:45AM THE PRESIDENT delivers remarks on the budget
Grand Foyer
Pooled TV, Open to Correspondents (Pre-set 9:45AM – Final Gather 10:15AM – North Doors of the Palm Room)
11:45AM THE PRESIDENT meets with senior advisors
Oval Office
Closed Press
1:45PM THE PRESIDENT participates in a YouTube interview
Library
Print Pool Coverage (Gather Time 1:30PM – Briefing Room)
4:30PM THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT meet with Secretary of Defense Gates
Oval Office
Closed Press
Briefing Schedule
12:45PM Briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs
##
The hardhitting primary battles for Illinois senator and governor nominations will wind up with Tuesday’s balloting. How did Democrats come to a point where they will start the November general election campaign on the defensive? Blame former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. What happened to the Illinois euphoria in 2008, when new primary voters participated for the first time, triggered by Obama excitement? For my overview on the primary contests, click here.
Where have we heard this before….
BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Political Reporter
Attorney Jacob Meister will pull out of the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Sunday and throw his support to State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, Meister said tonight.
“Alexi is well ahead in the polls,” Meister said. “He’s going be our party’s nominee and I think we need to come together around him.”
At recent debates Meister frequently tore into challenger David Hoffman but had few cross words for Giannoulias.
But Meister called “preposterous” the suggestion that he was a Giannoulias pinch-hitter from the start.
“The suggestion that I was in any way recruited or in cahoots with Alexi or anyone in his camp is ridiculous,” Meister said.
The only openly gay candidate in the race, Meister said he is satisfied that Giannoulias is committed to the causes Meister supports. The fact that Hoffman clerked for former conservative U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist concerns Meister, even though Hoffman espouses all the same positions in favor of gay marriage, for example, that Giannoulias does.
Hoffman is the former city of Chicago Inspector general. Urban League President Cheryle Jackson and Dr. Robert Marshall remain in the race.
Charles Hurt, the New York Post Washington Bureau Chief, was the White House pool reporter on Saturday, filing on President Obama taking in a college basketball game– Georgetown University vs. Duke University– with Chicago pals White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod. Vice President Biden and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs also attended.
Pool Report #2
POTUS attends a basketball game at the Verizon Center between Georgetown University and Duke University.
Seated in a cushioned folding chair mere feet from the basketball court, POTUS studiously remained dispassionate and impartial even as fans of the Georgetown University team all around him went absolutely berserk. Just to his left was a line of shirtless students smeared with gray and blue body paint, some wearing frenzied blue wigs and screaming like they were possessed.
In response to a call that was apparently unfavorable to the Georgetown University team, one of the shirtless fans tried starting a cheer unfit for a family newspaper. But just as it started to get off the ground, a second shirtless student — no doubt a nerd — scolded, “Dude, the President of the United States is right there!” Which effectively killed that cheer.
Anyway, POTUS did not appear to have noticed the offending cheer. He remain hunched forward, elbows on his knees, watching intently but carefully avoiding any hint about which team he might wish to see prevail.
POTUS perked up for the first time a few minutes into the contest during some kind of break in play when the Georgetown University Women’s Rowing Team was introduced, standing on the big blue “G” painted in the middle of the court. At least they got a polite applause from POTUS.
During another break in play as both basketball teams huddled about something, a referee sauntered beneath the basket nearest POTUS. Holding the ball in one hand, he shouted toward POTUS, “Sir. Sir!” When POTUS looked up, the referee nodded his head toward the ball in his hand and then the basket, gesturing POTUS might want to take a shot.
POTUS smiled broadly and then both men laughed heartily.
Apparently, it was also bring-your-son-to-the-office-outing day.
Both Robert Gibbs and Rahm Emanuel showed up with their sons.
Shortly after kick-off, VPOTUS appeared from behind the stands. He strode right up to the court and sat beside POTUS. He wore the collar of his sports coat up, giving him a decidedly European look. His son, Hunter, was also in tow.
Also seated with POTUS was David Axelrod. Reggie Love was in attendance but not sitting with POTUS.
At halftime, POTUS got up from his seat and shook hands with some of the fans seated around him and VPOTUS posed for pictures.
Charles Hurt D.C. Bureau Chief New York Post
Pool Report #3
During second half of the basketball game, POTUS moved halfway down the court to sit with the announcers for a little commentary on the game.
He was welcomed and asked about his love of the game. POTUS lamented that with all his other duties, he “can’t watch a full game, unfortunately.” During the playoffs, however, he watches all the games.
Asked his opinion of the contest between Georgetown University and Duke University, POTUS remained studiously impartial.
“Obviously, two great teams,” he said.
The guards from Georgetown were particularly noteworthy, he said, especially during the first half. In the second half, he said, the guards were getting a bit “sloppy” and the Duke team was “picking up its ‘D’.”
Then they started talking about some other basketball teams when POTUS seemed to take a shot at East Coast liberal elitism. “If the Buckeyes are bragging about beating an Ivy League team, then that tells you something,” he said.
Asked if he wanted to call a play, POTUS looked up in time to see a player running down the court, jumping up right as he approached the basket and throwing the ball up.
“This was a turnaround and he didn’t get any spinback,” POTUS said.
This analysis was admired by the professional announcers, who said POTUS could have a career in announcing if, you know, things didn’t work out. Realizing they had really stepped in it, they backed up and said that, of course, POTUS has a job and will for as long as he wishes.
Exhibiting his trademark modesty, POTUS acknowledged he could easily do their jobs and joked that he would be coming after them as soon as he wrapped up his current gig.
“You have either three more years or seven,” clearly suggesting he might CHOOSE not to pursue a second term.
On a roll, one of the announcers decided to talk a little more politics.
“You are obviously a left hander,” he said to POTUS. “Any problem going to the right?”
Unclear what exactly that meant. But POTUS replied that just yesterday he went to Baltimore to speak to Republicans at their annual retreat. And then he said indeed he is stronger on the left.
Before signing off, POTUS said people’s thoughts should be with the troops in the field and with those helping victims of the earthquake in Haiti.
Pool report 3
Thanks to a major assist for a pooler in over his head on sports lingo, the correct quote from POTUS while calling basketball game was: “This was a terrific spin move and he didn’t get any help coming back.” Thankfully, we have a lid.
The late Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.)–who represented a west suburban Chicago district–the father of the Hyde amendment–and the chairman of the House panel that impeached President Clinton–was the subject of a four-year FBI criminal probe in the 1970s, according to FBI files obtained by Gawker under the Freedom of Information Act. The investigation centered stemmed from Hyde’s days in the Illinois legislature.
Excerpt from Gawker: “The probe, which was authorized at the highest levels of the Justice Department and has not been previously disclosed, involved the use of wiretaps and physical surveillance to nail Hyde for taking kickbacks from mob-affiliated state contractors when he was an Illinois state senator. Though the charges were brought before a grand jury, the Assistant U.S. Attorney overseeing the case abandoned it for lack of evidence in 1976, two years after Hyde was elected to Congress.”
Below, from the White House…
WASHINGTON – In his weekly address, President Barack Obama promised to rein the deficit, citing three specific steps to this end. He praised the Senate for restoring the pay-as-you-go law, which in the 1990’s contributed to the $236 billion surplus at the end of the decade. It is no coincidence that after ending PAYGO, that surplus became a $1.3 trillion deficit. He has also proposed a freeze in discretionary spending, which will increase investments in jobs creation and middle class tax cuts while cutting spending for redundant or ineffective programs. And finally, the President called for a bi-partisan Fiscal Commission to hammer out concrete deficit reduction proposals.
Remarks of President Barack Obama
As Prepared for Delivery
Weekly Address
January 30, 2010
At this time last year, amidst headlines about banks on the verge of collapse and job losses of 700,000 a month, we received another troubling piece of news about our economy. Our economy was shrinking at an alarming rate – the largest six-month decline in 50 years. Our factories and farms were producing less; our businesses were selling less; and more job losses were on the horizon.
One year later, according to numbers released this past week, this trend has reversed itself. For the past six months, our economy has been growing again. And last quarter, it grew more quickly than at any time in the past six years.
This is a sign of progress. And it’s an affirmation of the difficult decisions we made last year to pull our financial system back from the brink and get our economy moving again.
But when so many people are still struggling – when one in ten Americans still can’t find work, and millions more are working harder and longer for less – our mission isn’t just to grow the economy. It’s to grow jobs for folks who want them, and ensure wages are rising for those who have them. It’s not just about improvements we see in quarterly statistics, but ones people feel in their daily lives – a bigger paycheck; more security; the ability to give your kids a decent shot in life and still have enough to retire one day yourself.
That’s why job creation will be our number one focus in 2010. We’ll put more Americans back to work rebuilding our infrastructure all across the country. And since the true engines of job creation are America’s businesses, I’ve proposed tax credits to help them hire new workers, raise wages, and invest in new plants and equipment. I also want to eliminate all capital gains taxes on small business investment, and help small businesses get the loans they need to open their doors and expand their operations.
But as we work to create jobs, it is critical that we rein in the budget deficits we’ve been accumulating for far too long – deficits that won’t just burden our children and grandchildren, but could damage our markets, drive up our interest rates, and jeopardize our recovery right now.
There are certain core principles our families and businesses follow when they sit down to do their own budgets. They accept that they can’t get everything they want and focus on what they really need. They make tough decisions and sacrifice for their kids. They don’t spend what they don’t have, and they make do with what they’ve got.
It’s time their government did the same. That’s why I’m pleased that the Senate has just restored the pay-as-you-go law that was in place back in the 1990s. It’s no coincidence that we ended that decade with a $236 billion surplus. But then we did away with PAYGO – and we ended the next decade with a $1.3 trillion deficit. Reinstating this law will help get us back on track, ensuring that every time we spend, we find somewhere else to cut.
I’ve also proposed a spending freeze, so that as we increase investments in things we need, like job creation and middle class tax cuts – we cut spending on those we don’t, like tax cuts for oil companies and investment fund managers, and programs that are redundant, obsolete, or simply ineffective. Spending related to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will not be affected – and neither will national security – but all other discretionary government programs will.
Finally, I’ve called for a bi-partisan Fiscal Commission – a panel of Democrats and Republicans who would sit down and hammer out concrete deficit-reduction proposals by a certain deadline. Because we’ve heard plenty of talk and a lot of yelling on TV about deficits, and it’s now time to come together and make the painful choices we need to eliminate those deficits.
This past week, 53 Democrats and Republicans voted for this commission in the Senate. But it failed when seven Republicans who had co-sponsored this idea in the first place suddenly decided to vote against it.
Now, it’s one thing to have an honest difference of opinion about something. I will always respect those who take a principled stand for what they believe, even if I disagree with them.
But what I won’t accept is changing positions because it’s good politics. What I won’t accept is opposition for opposition’s sake. We cannot have a serious discussion and take meaningful action to create jobs and control our deficits if politicians just do what’s necessary to win the next election instead of what’s best for the next generation.
I’m ready and eager to work with anyone who’s serious about solving the real problems facing our people and our country. I welcome anyone who comes to the table in good faith to help get our economy moving again and fulfill this country’s promise. That’s why we were elected in the first place. That’s what the American people expect and deserve. And that’s what we must deliver.
Thank you.
Schedule for Week of February 1, 2010
On Monday, the President will discuss the budget that is delivered to Congress that day. In the afternoon, the President will participate in a YouTube interview, where the President will answer video and text questions submitted by YouTube users during and after the State of the Union. Users voted the best questions to the top on CitizenTube, YouTube’s political platform, and Steve Grove, YouTube’s news and political director, will ask a selection of the top-voted questions to the President in a live-streamed interview on YouTube and Whitehouse.gov. Later, the President will lead a Cabinet-level exercise to discuss preparedness, crisis response and incident-management procedures for the upcoming 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
On Tuesday, the President will hold a town hall meeting in Nashua, New Hampshire to discuss jobs and the economy.
On Wednesday, the President will meet with a bipartisan group of Governors from across the country at the White House to discuss energy policy.
On Thursday, the President will deliver remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton.
On Friday, the President will attend meetings at the White House.
##
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_______________________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 29, 2010
WEEKEND GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FOR
SATURDAY, JANUARY 30 AND SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2010
On Saturday morning, the President will meet with former President George H.W. Bush in the Oval Office. This meeting is closed press.
The President has no scheduled public events on Sunday.
Saturday’s In-Town Travel Pool
Wires: AP, Reuters, Bloomberg
Wire Photos: AP, Reuters, AFP
TV Corr & Crew: NBC
Print: New York Post
Radio: ABC
Travel Photo: TIME
Sunday’s In-Town Travel Pool
Wires: AP, Reuters, Bloomberg
Wire Photos: AP, Reuters, AFP
TV Corr & Crew: FOX
Print: New York Times
Radio: AP
Travel Photo: New York Times
Saturday, January 30, 2010
EST
9:30AM Pool Call Time
9:30AM THE PRESIDENT meets with former President George H.W. Bush
Oval Office
Closed Press
Sunday, January 31, 2010
EST
9:30AM Pool Call Time
Schedule for Week of February 1, 2010
On Monday, the President will discuss the budget that is delivered to Congress that day. In the afternoon, the President will participate in a YouTube interview, where the President will answer video and text questions submitted by YouTube users during and after the State of the Union. Users voted the best questions to the top on CitizenTube, YouTube’s political platform, and Steve Grove, YouTube’s news and political director, will ask a selection of the top-voted questions to the President in a live-streamed interview on YouTube and Whitehouse.gov. Later, the President will lead a Cabinet-level exercise to discuss preparedness, crisis response and incident-management procedures for the upcoming 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
On Tuesday, the President will hold a town hall meeting in Nashua, New Hampshire to discuss jobs and the economy.
On Wednesday, the President will meet with a bipartisan group of Governors from across the country at the White House to discuss energy policy.
On Thursday, the President will deliver remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton.
On Friday, the President will attend meetings at the White House.
##