THE WASHINGTON REVIEW & COMMENTARY: Weekly News From The White House

STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY
 
On Friday, January 29, 2010, the President signed into law:
 
H.R. 1817, which designates the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 116 North West Street in Somerville, Tennessee, as the “John S. Wilder Post Office Building,”
 
H.R. 2877, which designates the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 76 Brookside Avenue in Chester, New York, as the “1st Lieutenant Louis Allen Post Office,”
 
H.R. 3072, which designates the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 9810 Halls Ferry Road in St. Louis, Missouri, as the “Coach Jodie Bailey Post Office Building,”
 
H.R. 3319, which designates the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 440 South Gulling Street in Portola, California, as the “Army Specialist Jeremiah Paul McCleery Post Office Building,”
 
H.R. 3539, which designates the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 427 Harrison Avenue in Harrison, New Jersey, as the “Patricia D. McGinty-Juhl Post Office Building,”
 
H.R. 3667, which designates the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 16555 Springs Street in White Springs, Florida, as the “Clyde L. Hillhouse Post Office Building,”
 
H.R. 3767, which designates the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 170 North Main Street in Smithfield, Utah, as the “W. Hazen Hillyard Post Office Building,”
 
H.R. 3788, which designates the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 3900 Darrow Road in Stow, Ohio, as the “Corporal Joseph A. Tomci Post Office Building;” and
 
H.R. 4508, which extends the authorizations of certain Small Business Administration programs until April 30, 2010.

President Obama Sets Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Target for Federal Operations

Target to Drive Energy Cost Reductions in Federal Operations, Creating Clean Energy Jobs

WASHINGTON, DC – President Barack Obama today announced that the Federal Government will reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution by 28 percent by 2020.  Reducing and reporting GHG pollution, as called for in Executive Order 13514 on Federal Sustainability, will ensure that the Federal Government leads by example in building the clean energy economy.  Actions taken under this Executive Order will spur clean energy investments that create new private-sector jobs, drive long-term savings, build local market capacity, and foster innovation and entrepreneurship in clean energy industries. 
As the single largest energy consumer in the U.S. economy, the Federal Government spent more than $24.5 billion on electricity and fuel in 2008 alone.  Achieving the Federal GHG pollution reduction target will reduce Federal energy use by the equivalent of 646 trillion BTUs, equal to 205 million barrels of oil, and taking 17 million cars off the road for one year.  This is also equivalent to a cumulative total of $8 to $11 billion in avoided energy costs through 2020.
“As the largest energy consumer in the United States, we have a responsibility to American citizens to reduce our energy use and become more efficient,” said President Obama.  “Our goal is to lower costs, reduce pollution, and shift Federal energy expenses away from oil and towards local, clean energy.”
Federal Departments and Agencies will achieve greenhouse gas pollution reductions by measuring their current energy and fuel use, becoming more energy efficient and shifting to clean energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal.  Examples of agency actions that are underway are available on the White House Council on Environmental Quality website and can be found at www.whitehouse.gov/ceq. 
On October 5, 2009, President Obama signed Executive Order 13514 on Federal Sustainability, setting measureable environmental performance goals for Federal Agencies.  Each Federal Agency was required to submit a 2020 GHG pollution reduction target from its estimated 2008 baseline to the White House Council on Environmental Quality and to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget by January 4, 2010.  The Federal target announced today is the aggregate of 35 Federal Agency self-reported targets.
Greenhouse gas emissions serve as a useful metric to measure the effectiveness of agency energy and fuel efficiency efforts as well as renewable energy investments. Agencies are already taking actions that will contribute towards achieving their targets, such as installing solar arrays at military installations, tapping landfills for renewable energy, putting energy management systems in Federal buildings, and replacing older vehicles with more fuel efficient hybrid models. 
As a next step, the Office of Management and Budget will validate and score each agency’s sustainability plan, assuring a long-term return on investment to the American taxpayer. To ensure accountability, annual progress will be measured and reported online to the public.

Statement by the President on the Confirmation of Ben Bernanke as Chairman of the Federal Reserve
 
“I am gratified by the Senate’s broad bipartisan vote to confirm Ben Bernanke for another term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. As the nation continues to face the consequences of  the worst recession in a generation, Ben Bernanke has provided wisdom and steady leadership in the midst of the financial and economic crisis. While the worst of the storm has passed, its devastation remains and we have a lot of work to do to rebuild our economy.  I congratulate him on his confirmation and look forward to working with him in the days ahead.”

Remarks of President Barack Obama – As Prepared for Delivery

The State of the Union

Wednesday, January 27, 2009

Washington, DC

Madame Speaker, Vice President Biden, Members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:

Our Constitution declares that from time to time, the President shall give to Congress information about the state of our union.  For two hundred and twenty years, our leaders have fulfilled this duty.  They have done so during periods of prosperity and tranquility.  And they have done so in the midst of war and depression; at moments of great strife and great struggle.

It’s tempting to look back on these moments and assume that our progress was inevitable – that America was always destined to succeed.  But when the Union was turned back at Bull Run and the Allies first landed at Omaha Beach, victory was very much in doubt.  When the market crashed on Black Tuesday and civil rights marchers were beaten on Bloody Sunday, the future was anything but certain.  These were times that tested the courage of our convictions, and the strength of our union.  And despite all our divisions and disagreements; our hesitations and our fears; America prevailed because we chose to move forward as one nation, and one people. 

Again, we are tested.  And again, we must answer history’s call.
 

One year ago, I took office amid two wars, an economy rocked by severe recession, a financial system on the verge of collapse, and a government deeply in debt.  Experts from across the political spectrum warned that if we did not act, we might face a second depression.  So we acted – immediately and aggressively.  And one year later, the worst of the storm has passed.

But the devastation remains.  One in ten Americans still cannot find work.  Many businesses have shuttered.  Home values have declined.  Small towns and rural communities have been hit especially hard.  For those who had already known poverty, life has become that much harder.

This recession has also compounded the burdens that America’s families have been dealing with for decades – the burden of working harder and longer for less; of being unable to save enough to retire or help kids with college. 

So I know the anxieties that are out there right now.  They’re not new.  These struggles are the reason I ran for President.  These struggles are what I’ve witnessed for years in places like Elkhart, Indiana and Galesburg, Illinois.  I hear about them in the letters that I read each night.  The toughest to read are those written by children – asking why they have to move from their home, or when their mom or dad will be able to go back to work.

For these Americans and so many others, change has not come fast enough.  Some are frustrated; some are angry.  They don’t understand why it seems like bad behavior on Wall Street is rewarded but hard work on Main Street isn’t; or why Washington has been unable or unwilling to solve any of our problems.  They are tired of the partisanship and the shouting and the pettiness.  They know we can’t afford it.  Not now.  

So we face big and difficult challenges.  And what the American people hope – what they deserve – is for all of us, Democrats and Republicans, to work through our differences; to overcome the numbing weight of our politics.  For while the people who sent us here have different backgrounds, different stories and different beliefs, the anxieties they face are the same. The aspirations they hold are shared.  A job that pays the bills.  A chance to get ahead.  Most of all, the ability to give their children a better life. 

You know what else they share?  They share a stubborn resilience in the face of adversity.  After one of the most difficult years in our history, they remain busy building cars and teaching kids; starting businesses and going back to school.  They’re coaching little league and helping their neighbors.  As one woman wrote me, “We are strained but hopeful, struggling but encouraged.” 

It is because of this spirit – this great decency and great strength – that I have never been more hopeful about America’s future than I am tonight.  Despite our hardships, our union is strong.  We do not give up.  We do not quit.  We do not allow fear or division to break our spirit.  In this new decade, it’s time the American people get a government that matches their decency; that embodies their strength.  

And tonight, I’d like to talk about how together, we can deliver on that promise.   

It begins with our economy. 

Our most urgent task upon taking office was to shore up the same banks that helped cause this crisis.  It was not easy to do.  And if there’s one thing that has unified Democrats and Republicans, it’s that we all hated the bank bailout.  I hated it.  You hated it.  It was about as popular as a root canal. 

But when I ran for President, I promised I wouldn’t just do what was popular – I would do what was necessary.  And if we had allowed the meltdown of the financial system, unemployment might be double what it is today.  More businesses would certainly have closed.  More homes would have surely been lost. 

So I supported the last administration’s efforts to create the financial rescue program.  And when we took the program over, we made it more transparent and accountable.  As a result, the markets are now stabilized, and we have recovered most of the money we spent on the banks. 

To recover the rest, I have proposed a fee on the biggest banks.  I know Wall Street isn’t keen on this idea, but if these firms can afford to hand out big bonuses again, they can afford a modest fee to pay back the taxpayers who rescued them in their time of need.

As we stabilized the financial system, we also took steps to get our economy growing again, save as many jobs as possible, and help Americans who had become unemployed. 

That’s why we extended or increased unemployment benefits for more than 18 million Americans; made health insurance 65% cheaper for families who get their coverage through COBRA; and passed 25 different tax cuts. 

Let me repeat:  we cut taxes.  We cut taxes for 95% of working families.  We cut taxes for small businesses.  We cut taxes for first-time homebuyers.  We cut taxes for parents trying to care for their children.  We cut taxes for 8 million Americans paying for college.  As a result, millions of Americans had more to spend on gas, and food, and other necessities, all of which helped businesses keep more workers.  And we haven’t raised income taxes by a single dime on a single person.  Not a single dime. 

Because of the steps we took, there are about two million Americans working right now who would otherwise be unemployed.  200,000 work in construction and clean energy.  300,000 are teachers and other education workers.  Tens of thousands are cops, firefighters, correctional officers, and first responders.  And we are on track to add another one and a half million jobs to this total by the end of the year.

The plan that has made all of this possible, from the tax cuts to the jobs, is the Recovery Act.  That’s right – the Recovery Act, also known as the Stimulus Bill.  Economists on the left and the right say that this bill has helped saved jobs and avert disaster.  But you don’t have to take their word for it.

Talk to the small business in Phoenix that will triple its workforce because of the Recovery Act.  

Talk to the window manufacturer in Philadelphia who said he used to be skeptical about the Recovery Act, until he had to add two more work shifts just because of the business it created. 

Talk to the single teacher raising two kids who was told by her principal in the last week of school that because of the Recovery Act, she wouldn’t be laid off after all. 

There are stories like this all across America.  And after two years of recession, the economy is growing again.  Retirement funds have started to gain back some of their value.  Businesses are beginning to invest again, and slowly some are starting to hire again.   

But I realize that for every success story, there are other stories, of men and women who wake up with the anguish of not knowing where their next paycheck will come from; who send out resumes week after week and hear nothing in response.  That is why jobs must be our number one focus in 2010, and that is why I am calling for a new jobs bill tonight. 

Now, the true engine of job creation in this country will always be America’s businesses.  But government can create the conditions necessary for businesses to expand and hire more workers. 

We should start where most new jobs do – in small businesses, companies that begin when an entrepreneur takes a chance on a dream, or a worker decides its time she became her own boss. 

Through sheer grit and determination, these companies have weathered the recession and are ready to grow.  But when you talk to small business owners in places like Allentown, Pennsylvania or Elyria, Ohio, you find out that even though banks on Wall Street are lending again, they are mostly lending to bigger companies.  But financing remains difficult for small business owners across the country.

So tonight, I’m proposing that we take $30 billion of the money Wall Street banks have repaid and use it to help community banks give small businesses the credit they need to stay afloat.  I am also proposing a new small business tax credit – one that will go to over one million small businesses who hire new workers or raise wages.  While we’re at it, let’s also eliminate all capital gains taxes on small business investment; and provide a tax incentive for all businesses, large and small, to invest in new plants and equipment.

Next, we can put Americans to work today building the infrastructure of tomorrow.  From the first railroads to the interstate highway system, our nation has always been built to compete.  There’s no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains, or the new factories that manufacture clean energy products. 

Tomorrow, I’ll visit Tampa, Florida, where workers will soon break ground on a new high-speed railroad funded by the Recovery Act.  There are projects like that all across this country that will create jobs and help our nation move goods, services, and information.  We should put more Americans to work building clean energy facilities, and give rebates to Americans who make their homes more energy efficient, which supports clean energy jobs.  And to encourage these and other businesses to stay within our borders, it’s time to finally slash the tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas and give those tax breaks to companies that create jobs in the United States of America. 

The House has passed a jobs bill that includes some of these steps.  As the first order of business this year, I urge the Senate to do the same.  People are out of work.  They are hurting.  They need our help.  And I want a jobs bill on my desk without delay.   

But the truth is, these steps still won’t make up for the seven million jobs we’ve lost over the last two years.  The only way to move to full employment is to lay a new foundation for long-term economic growth, and finally address the problems that America’s families have confronted for years.  

We cannot afford another so-called economic “expansion” like the one from last decade – what some call the “lost decade” – where jobs grew more slowly than during any prior expansion; where the income of the average American household declined while the cost of health care and tuition reached record highs; where prosperity was built on a housing bubble and financial speculation. 

From the day I took office, I have been told that addressing our larger challenges is too ambitious – that such efforts would be too contentious, that our political system is too gridlocked, and that we should just put things on hold for awhile. 

For those who make these claims, I have one simple question:

How long should we wait?  How long should America put its future on hold?

You see, Washington has been telling us to wait for decades, even as the problems have grown worse.  Meanwhile, China’s not waiting to revamp its economy.  Germany’s not waiting.  India’s not waiting.  These nations aren’t standing still.  These nations aren’t playing for second place.  They’re putting more emphasis on math and science. They’re rebuilding their infrastructure.  They are making serious investments in clean energy because they want those jobs. 

Well I do not accept second-place for the United States of America.  As hard as it may be, as uncomfortable and contentious as the debates may be, it’s time to get serious about fixing the problems that are hampering our growth.

One place to start is serious financial reform.  Look, I am not interested in punishing banks, I’m interested in protecting our economy.  A strong, healthy financial market makes it possible for businesses to access credit and create new jobs.  It channels the savings of families into investments that raise incomes.  But that can only happen if we guard against the same recklessness that nearly brought down our entire economy. 

We need to make sure consumers and middle-class families have the information they need to make financial decisions.  We can’t allow financial institutions, including those that take your deposits, to take risks that threaten the whole economy.  

The House has already passed financial reform with many of these changes.  And the lobbyists are already trying to kill it.  Well, we cannot let them win this fight.  And if the bill that ends up on my desk does not meet the test of real reform, I will send it back.

Next, we need to encourage American innovation.  Last year, we made the largest investment in basic research funding in history – an investment that could lead to the world’s cheapest solar cells or treatment that kills cancer cells but leaves healthy ones untouched.  And no area is more ripe for such innovation than energy.  You can see the results of last year’s investment in clean energy – in the North Carolina company that will create 1200 jobs nationwide helping to make advanced batteries; or in the California business that will put 1,000 people to work making solar panels.

But to create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives.  That means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country.  It means making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development. It means continued investment in advanced biofuels and clean coal technologies.  And yes, it means passing a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America. 

I am grateful to the House for passing such a bill last year.  This year, I am eager to help advance the bipartisan effort in the Senate.  I know there have been questions about whether we can afford such changes in a tough economy; and I know that there are those who disagree with the overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change.  But even if you doubt the evidence, providing incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future – because the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy.  And America must be that nation.

Third, we need to export more of our goods.  Because the more products we make and sell to other countries, the more jobs we support right here in America.  So tonight, we set a new goal:  We will double our exports over the next five years, an increase that will support two million jobs in America.  To help meet this goal, we’re launching a National Export Initiative that will help farmers and small businesses increase their exports, and reform export controls consistent with national security. 

We have to seek new markets aggressively, just as our competitors are. If America sits on the sidelines while other nations sign trade deals, we will lose the chance to create jobs on our shores. But realizing those benefits also means enforcing those agreements so our trading partners play by the rules. And that’s why we will continue to shape a Doha trade agreement that opens global markets, and why we will strengthen our trade relations in Asia and with key partners like South Korea, Panama, and Colombia.

Fourth, we need to invest in the skills and education of our people. 

This year, we have broken through the stalemate between left and right by launching a national competition to improve our schools.  The idea here is simple:  instead of rewarding failure, we only reward success.  Instead of funding the status quo, we only invest in reform – reform that raises student achievement, inspires students to excel in math and science, and turns around failing schools that steal the future of too many young Americans, from rural communities to inner-cities.  In the 21^st century, one of the best anti-poverty programs is a world-class education.  In this country, the success of our children cannot depend more on where they live than their potential. 

When we renew the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, we will work with Congress to expand these reforms to all fifty states.   Still, in this economy, a high school diploma no longer guarantees a good job.  I urge the Senate to follow the House and pass a bill that will revitalize our community colleges, which are a career pathway to the children of so many working families.  To make college more affordable, this bill will finally end the unwarranted taxpayer-subsidies that go to banks for student loans.  Instead, let’s take that money and give families a $10,000 tax credit for four years of college and increase Pell Grants.  And let’s tell another one million students that when they graduate, they will be required to pay only ten percent of their income on student loans, and all of their debt will be forgiven after twenty years – and forgiven after ten years if they choose a career in public service.  Because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they chose to go to college.  And it’s time for colleges and universities to get serious about cutting their own costs – because they too have a responsibility to help solve this problem. 

Now, the price of college tuition is just one of the burdens facing the middle-class.  That’s why last year I asked Vice President Biden to chair a task force on Middle-Class Families.  That’s why we’re nearly doubling the child care tax credit, and making it easier to save for retirement by giving every worker access to a retirement account and expanding the tax credit for those who start a nest egg.  That’s why we’re working to lift the value of a family’s single largest investment – their home.  The steps we took last year to shore up the housing market have allowed millions of Americans to take out new loans and save an average of $1,500 on mortgage payments.  This year, we will step up re-financing so that homeowners can move into more affordable mortgages.  And it is precisely to relieve the burden on middle-class families that we still need health insurance reform.

Now let’s be clear – I did not choose to tackle this issue to get some legislative victory under my belt.  And by now it should be fairly obvious that I didn’t take on health care because it was good politics.

I took on health care because of the stories I’ve heard from Americans with pre-existing conditions whose lives depend on getting coverage; patients who’ve been denied coverage; and families – even those with insurance – who are just one illness away from financial ruin.

After nearly a century of trying, we are closer than ever to bringing more security to the lives of so many Americans.  The approach we’ve taken would protect every American from the worst practices of the insurance industry.  It would give small businesses and uninsured Americans a chance to choose an affordable health care plan in a competitive market.  It would require every insurance plan to cover preventive care.  And by the way, I want to acknowledge our First Lady, Michelle Obama, who this year is creating a national movement to tackle the epidemic of childhood obesity and make our kids healthier.

Our approach would preserve the right of Americans who have insurance to keep their doctor and their plan.  It would reduce costs and premiums for millions of families and businesses.  And according to the Congressional Budget Office – the independent organization that both parties have cited as the official scorekeeper for Congress – our approach would bring down the deficit by as much as $1 trillion over the next two decades. 

Still, this is a complex issue, and the longer it was debated, the more skeptical people became.  I take my share of the blame for not explaining it more clearly to the American people.  And I know that with all the lobbying and horse-trading, this process left most Americans wondering what’s in it for them. 

But I also know this problem is not going away.  By the time I’m finished speaking tonight, more Americans will have lost their health insurance. Millions will lose it this year.  Our deficit will grow.  Premiums will go up.  Patients will be denied the care they need.  Small business owners will continue to drop coverage altogether.  I will not walk away from these Americans, and neither should the people in this chamber. 

As temperatures cool, I want everyone to take another look at the plan we’ve proposed.  There’s a reason why many doctors, nurses, and health care experts who know our system best consider this approach a vast improvement over the status quo.  But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know.  Here’s what I ask of Congress, though:  Do not walk away from reform.  Not now.  Not when we are so close.  Let us find a way to come together and finish the job for the American people. 

Now, even as health care reform would reduce our deficit, it’s not enough to dig us out of a massive fiscal hole in which we find ourselves.  It’s a challenge that makes all others that much harder to solve, and one that’s been subject to a lot of political posturing. 

So let me start the discussion of government spending by setting the record straight. At the beginning of the last decade, America had a budget surplus of over $200 billion. By the time I took office, we had a one year deficit of over $1 trillion and projected deficits of $8 trillion over the next decade. Most of this was the result of not paying for two wars, two tax cuts, and an expensive prescription drug program. On top of that, the effects of the recession put a $3 trillion hole in our budget. That was before I walked in the door.

Now if we had taken office in ordinary times, I would have liked nothing more than to start bringing down the deficit.  But we took office amid a crisis, and our efforts to prevent a second Depression have added another $1 trillion to our national debt.

I am absolutely convinced that was the right thing to do.  But families across the country are tightening their belts and making tough decisions.  The federal government should do the same. So tonight, I’m proposing specific steps to pay for the $1 trillion that it took to rescue the economy last year.

Starting in 2011, we are prepared to freeze government spending for three years.  Spending related to our national security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will not be affected. But all other discretionary government programs will.  Like any cash-strapped family, we will work within a budget to invest in what we need and sacrifice what we don’t.  And if I have to enforce this discipline by veto, I will. 

We will continue to go through the budget line by line to eliminate programs that we can’t afford and don’t work.  We’ve already identified $20 billion in savings for next year. To help working families, we will extend our middle-class tax cuts.  But at a time of record deficits, we will not continue tax cuts for oil companies, investment fund managers, and those making over $250,000 a year.  We just can’t afford it.

Now, even after paying for what we spent on my watch, we will still face the massive deficit we had when I took office.  More importantly, the cost of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will continue to skyrocket.  That’s why I’ve called for a bipartisan, Fiscal Commission, modeled on a proposal by Republican Judd Gregg and Democrat Kent Conrad.  This can’t be one of those Washington gimmicks that lets us pretend we solved a problem.  The Commission will have to provide a specific set of solutions by a certain deadline.  Yesterday, the Senate blocked a bill that would have created this commission.  So I will issue an executive order that will allow us to go forward, because I refuse to pass this problem on to another generation of Americans.  And when the vote comes tomorrow, the Senate should restore the pay-as-you-go law that was a big reason why we had record surpluses in the 1990s.

I know that some in my own party will argue that we cannot address the deficit or freeze government spending when so many are still hurting.  I agree, which is why this freeze will not take effect until next year, when the economy is stronger.  But understand – if we do not take meaningful steps to rein in our debt, it could damage our markets, increase the cost of borrowing, and jeopardize our recovery – all of which could have an even worse effect on our job growth and family incomes. 

From some on the right, I expect we’ll hear a different argument – that if we just make fewer investments in our people, extend tax cuts for wealthier Americans, eliminate more regulations, and maintain the status quo on health care, our deficits will go away.  The problem is, that’s what we did for eight years. That’s what helped lead us into this crisis.  It’s what helped lead to these deficits.  And we cannot do it again.

Rather than fight the same tired battles that have dominated Washington for decades, it’s time to try something new.  Let’s invest in our people without leaving them a mountain of debt. Let’s meet our responsibility to the citizens who sent us here.  Let’s try common sense.

To do that, we have to recognize that we face more than a deficit of dollars right now. We face a deficit of trust – deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works that have been growing for years. To close that credibility gap we must take action on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to end the outsized influence of lobbyists; to do our work openly; and to give our people the government they deserve.

That’s what I came to Washington to do. That’s why – for the first time in history – my Administration posts our White House visitors online. And that’s why we’ve excluded lobbyists from policy-making jobs or seats on federal boards and commissions.

But we can’t stop there. It’s time to require lobbyists to disclose each contact they make on behalf of a client with my Administration or Congress.  And it’s time to put strict limits on the contributions that lobbyists give to candidates for federal office. Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests – including foreign corporations – to spend without limit in our elections. Well I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities.  They should be decided by the American people, and that’s why I’m urging Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to right this wrong.

I’m also calling on Congress to continue down the path of earmark reform. You have trimmed some of this spending and embraced some meaningful change.  But restoring the public trust demands more. For example, some members of Congress post some earmark requests online. Tonight, I’m calling on Congress to publish all earmark requests on a single website before there’s a vote so that the American people can see how their money is being spent.

Of course, none of these reforms will even happen if we don’t also reform how we work with one another. 

Now, I am not naïve.  I never thought the mere fact of my election would usher in peace, harmony, and some post-partisan era.  I knew that both parties have fed divisions that are deeply entrenched.   And on some issues, there are simply philosophical differences that will always cause us to part ways.  These disagreements, about the role of government in our lives, about our national priorities and our national security, have been taking place for over two hundred years.  They are the very essence of our democracy.

But what frustrates the American people is a Washington where every day is Election Day.  We cannot wage a perpetual campaign where the only goal is to see who can get the most embarrassing headlines about their opponent – a belief that if you lose, I win.  Neither party should delay or obstruct every single bill just because they can.  The confirmation of well-qualified public servants should not be held hostage to the pet projects or grudges of a few individual Senators.  Washington may think that saying anything about the other side, no matter how false, is just part of the game.  But it is precisely such politics that has stopped either party from helping the American people.  Worse yet, it is sowing further division among our citizens and further distrust in our government.

So no, I will not give up on changing the tone of our politics.  I know it’s an election year.  And after last week, it is clear that campaign fever has come even earlier than usual.  But we still need to govern.  To Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills.  And if the Republican leadership is going to insist that sixty votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town, then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well.  Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it’s not leadership.  We were sent here to serve our citizens, not our ambitions. So let’s show the American people that we can do it together.  This week, I’ll be addressing a meeting of the House Republicans.  And I would like to begin monthly meetings with both the Democratic and Republican leadership.  I know you can’t wait. 

Throughout our history, no issue has united this country more than our security. Sadly, some of the unity we felt after 9/11 has dissipated.  We can argue all we want about who’s to blame for this, but I am not interested in re-litigating the past.  I know that all of us love this country. All of us are committed to its defense. So let’s put aside the schoolyard taunts about who is tough.  Let’s reject the false choice between protecting our people and upholding our values.  Let’s leave behind the fear and division, and do what it takes to defend our nation and forge a more hopeful future – for America and the world.

That is the work we began last year.  Since the day I took office, we have renewed our focus on the terrorists who threaten our nation.  We have made substantial investments in our homeland security and disrupted plots that threatened to take American lives. We are filling unacceptable gaps revealed by the failed Christmas attack, with better airline security, and swifter action on our intelligence. We have prohibited torture and strengthened partnerships from the Pacific to South Asia to the Arabian Peninsula.  And in the last year, hundreds of Al Qaeda’s fighters and affiliates, including many senior leaders, have been captured or killed – far more than in 2008.

In Afghanistan, we are increasing our troops and training Afghan Security Forces so they can begin to take the lead in July of 2011, and our troops can begin to come home. We will reward good governance, reduce corruption, and support the rights of all Afghans – men and women alike. We are joined by allies and partners who have increased their own commitment, and who will come together tomorrow in London to reaffirm our common purpose. There will be difficult days ahead. But I am confident we will succeed.

As we take the fight to al Qaeda, we are responsibly leaving Iraq to its people. As a candidate, I promised that I would end this war, and that is what I am doing as President.  We will have all of our combat troops out of Iraq by the end of this August. We will support the Iraqi government as they hold elections, and continue to partner with the Iraqi people to promote regional peace and prosperity. But make no mistake:  this war is ending, and all of our troops are coming home.  

Tonight, all of our men and women in uniform — in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world – must know that they have our respect, our gratitude, and our full support. And just as they must have the resources they need in war, we all have a responsibility to support them when they come home. That is why we made the largest increase in investments for veterans in decades. That is why we are building a 21^st century VA. And that is why Michelle has joined with Jill Biden to forge a national commitment to support military families.

Even as we prosecute two wars, we are also confronting perhaps the greatest danger to the American people – the threat of nuclear weapons.  I have embraced the vision of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan through a strategy that reverses the spread of these weapons, and seeks a world without them. To reduce our stockpiles and launchers, while ensuring our deterrent, the United States and Russia are completing negotiations on the farthest-reaching arms control treaty in nearly two decades. And at April’s Nuclear Security Summit, we will bring forty-four nations together behind a clear goal: securing all vulnerable nuclear materials around the world in four years, so that they never fall into the hands of terrorists.

These diplomatic efforts have also strengthened our hand in dealing with those nations that insist on violating international agreements in pursuit of these weapons.  That is why North Korea now faces increased isolation, and stronger sanctions – sanctions that are being vigorously enforced.  That is why the international community is more united, and the Islamic Republic of Iran is more isolated. And as Iran’s leaders continue to ignore their obligations, there should be no doubt: they, too, will face growing consequences.

That is the leadership that we are providing – engagement that advances the common security and prosperity of all people. We are working through the G-20 to sustain a lasting global recovery. We are working with Muslim communities around the world to promote science, education and innovation. We have gone from a bystander to a leader in the fight against climate change. We are helping developing countries to feed themselves, and continuing the fight against HIV/AIDS. And we are launching a new initiative that will give us the capacity to respond faster and more effectively to bio-terrorism or an infectious disease – a plan that will counter threats at home, and strengthen public health abroad.

As we have for over sixty years, America takes these actions because our destiny is connected to those beyond our shores. But we also do it because it is right. That is why, as we meet here tonight, over 10,000 Americans are working with many nations to help the people of Haiti recover and rebuild. That is why we stand with the girl who yearns to go to school in Afghanistan; we support the human rights of the women marching through the streets of Iran; and we advocate for the young man denied a job by corruption in Guinea. For America must always stand on the side of freedom and human dignity. 

Abroad, America’s greatest source of strength has always been our ideals.  The same is true at home.  We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution:  the notion that we are all created equal, that no matter who you are or what you look like, if you abide by the law you should be protected by it; that if you adhere to our common values you should be treated no different than anyone else.    

We must continually renew this promise.  My Administration has a Civil Rights Division that is once again prosecuting civil rights violations and employment discrimination.  We finally strengthened our laws to protect against crimes driven by hate.  This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are.  We are going to crack down on violations of equal pay laws – so that women get equal pay for an equal day’s work.  And we should continue the work of fixing our broken immigration system – to secure our borders, enforce our laws, and ensure that everyone who plays by the rules can contribute to our economy and enrich our nations. 

In the end, it is our ideals, our values, that built America – values that allowed us to forge a nation made up of immigrants from every corner of the globe; values that drive our citizens still.  Every day, Americans meet their responsibilities to their families and their employers.  Time and again, they lend a hand to their neighbors and give back to their country.  They take pride in their labor, and are generous in spirit.  These aren’t Republican values or Democratic values they’re living by; business values or labor values.  They are American values.  

Unfortunately, too many of our citizens have lost faith that our biggest institutions – our corporations, our media, and yes, our government – still reflect these same values.  Each of these institutions are full of honorable men and women doing important work that helps our country prosper.  But each time a CEO rewards himself for failure, or a banker puts the rest of us at risk for his own selfish gain, people’s doubts grow.  Each time lobbyists game the system or politicians tear each other down instead of lifting this country up, we lose faith.  The more that TV pundits reduce serious debates into silly arguments, and big issues into sound bites, our citizens turn away.  

No wonder there’s so much cynicism out there. 

No wonder there’s so much disappointment. 

I campaigned on the promise of change – change we can believe in, the slogan went.  And right now, I know there are many Americans who aren’t sure if they still believe we can change – or at least, that I can deliver it. 

But remember this – I never suggested that change would be easy, or that I can do it alone.  Democracy in a nation of three hundred million people can be noisy and messy and complicated.  And when you try to do big things and make big changes, it stirs passions and controversy.  That’s just how it is.

Those of us in public office can respond to this reality by playing it safe and avoid telling hard truths.  We can do what’s necessary to keep our poll numbers high, and get through the next election instead of doing what’s best for the next generation. 

But I also know this:  if people had made that decision fifty years ago or one hundred years ago or two hundred years ago, we wouldn’t be here tonight.  The only reason we are is because generations of Americans were unafraid to do what was hard; to do what was needed even when success was uncertain; to do what it took to keep the dream of this nation alive for their children and grandchildren.

Our administration has had some political setbacks this year, and some of them were deserved.  But I wake up every day knowing that they are nothing compared to the setbacks that families all across this country have faced this year.  And what keeps me going – what keeps me fighting – is that despite all these setbacks, that spirit of determination and optimism – that fundamental decency that has always been at the core of the American people – lives on.   

It lives on in the struggling small business owner who wrote to me of his company, “None of us,” he said, “…are willing to consider, even slightly, that we might fail.”

It lives on in the woman who said that even though she and her neighbors have felt the pain of recession, “We are strong.  We are resilient.  We are American.”

It lives on in the 8-year old boy in Louisiana, who just sent me his allowance and asked if I would give it to the people of Haiti.  And it lives on in all the Americans who’ve dropped everything to go some place they’ve never been and pull people they’ve never known from rubble, prompting chants of “U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A!” when another life was saved. 

The spirit that has sustained this nation for more than two centuries lives on in you, its people. 

We have finished a difficult year.  We have come through a difficult decade.  But a new year has come.  A new decade stretches before us.  We don’t quit.  I don’t quit.  Let’s seize this moment – to start anew, to carry the dream forward, and to strengthen our union once more. 

Thank you.  God Bless You.  And God Bless the United States of America.

President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address before Congress and the nation TONIGHT @ 9PM. In light of the Democratic loss last week in Massachusetts and the election of Scott Brown, Republican, to the Senate, President Obama may have to close the door to health care reform once and for all. Democratic leaders have all but out and out admitted that the push for a systematic national health care reformation is dead in the water.

Meanwhile, the GOP with the help of the Tea Party, have gained momentum on the Scott Brown win. Set against any and every policy that the Democratic majority can draft, the GOP is poised and ready to do battle with the White House.

President Obama needs to address several main points in his speech tonight in order to re-energize his party:

***Economy Growth

***Job Creation

***Tax Cuts/Breaks

***Education

EXCERPTS OF THE PRESIDENT’S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

We face big and difficult challenges.  And what the American people hope – what they deserve – is for all of us, Democrats and Republicans, to work through our differences; to overcome the numbing weight of our politics.  For while the people who sent us here have different backgrounds and different stories and different beliefs, the anxieties they face are the same.  The aspirations they hold are shared.  A job that pays the bill.  A chance to get ahead.  Most of all, the ability to give their children a better life. 

You know what else they share?  They share a stubborn resilience in the face of adversity.  After one of the most difficult years in our history, they remain busy building cars and teaching kids; starting businesses and going back to school.  They are coaching little league and helping their neighbors.  As one woman wrote to me, “We are strained but hopeful, struggling but encouraged.” 

It is because of this spirit – this great decency and great strength – that I have never been more hopeful about America’s future than I am tonight.  Despite our hardships, our union is strong.  We do not give up.  We do not quit.  We don’t allow fear or division to break our spirit.  In this new decade, it’s time the American people get a government that matches their decency; that embodies their strength.   And tonight, I’d like to talk about how together, we can deliver on that promise.    

…

By the time I’m finished speaking tonight, more Americans will have lost their health insurance.  Millions will lose it this year.  Our deficit will grow.  Premiums will go up.  Co-pays will go up.  Patients will be denied the care they need.  Small business owners will continue to drop coverage altogether.  I will not walk away from these Americans.  And neither should the people in this chamber.

…

Rather than fight the same tired battles that have dominated Washington for decades, it’s time for something new.  Let’s try common sense.  Let’s invest in our people without leaving them a mountain of debt. Let’s meet our responsibility to the people who sent us here.

To do that, we have to recognize that we face more than a deficit of dollars right now. We face a deficit of trust – deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works that have been growing for years. To close that credibility gap we must take action on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to end the outsized influence of lobbyists; to do our work openly; and to give our people the government they deserve.

That’s what I came to Washington to do. That’s why – for the first time in history – my Administration posts our White House visitors online. And that’s why we’ve excluded lobbyists from policy-making jobs or seats on federal boards and commissions.

But we cannot stop there. It’s time to require lobbyists to disclose each contact they make on behalf of a client with my Administration or Congress.  And it’s time to put strict limits on the contributions that lobbyists give to candidates for federal office. Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests – including foreign companies – to spend without limit in our elections. Well I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, and worse, by foreign entities.  They should be decided by the American people, and that’s why I’m urging Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to right this wrong.

I’m also calling on Congress to continue down the path of earmark reform. You have trimmed some of this spending and embraced some meaningful change.  But restoring the public trust demands more. For example, some members of Congress post some earmark requests online. Tonight, I’m calling on Congress to publish all earmark requests on a single website before there’s a vote so that the American people can see how their money is being spent.

Wreath laying ceremony to honor UN employees killed in Haiti earthquake

On Wednesday, January 27, 2010, the President signed into law:

S. 2949, the “Emergency Aid to American Survivors of the Haiti Earthquake Act of 2010,” which increases, from $1 million to $25 million, the cap for fiscal year 2010 on the amount that the Department of Health and Human Services may spend for the provision of assistance to repatriated U.S. citizens; increases, by $65 million, the 2010 funding for the Medicaid Qualified Individual program; and reduces the Medicaid Improvement Fund by $90 million.

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
DURING TOWN HALL MEETING
 
Lorain County Community College
Elyria, Ohio
 
 
1:45 P.M. EST
 
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everybody!  (Applause.)  Hello, Ohio! (Applause.)  Thank you very much, everybody.  Thank you.  Everybody, please relax.  (Laughter.)  We’re going to be here for a little bit.  Everybody take a seat — if you have a seat.  (Laughter.)  It is great to see you — can everybody please give Jody a big round of applause for the introduction?  (Applause.) 
 
Everybody is a special guest, but we’ve got a few that I just want to mention.  First of all, obviously you’ve got one of the finest governors in the country in Ted Strickland.  Please give him a round of applause.  (Applause.)  My former colleague when he was in the Senate — nobody fights harder for working people than Sherrod Brown.  Give him a big round of applause.  (Applause.)  
 
We’ve got a dynamo pair of members of the House of Representatives, who are so committed to their districts and committed to this state — Betty Sutton and Marcy Kaptur.  (Applause.) 
 
I have been having just a wonderful time here in town, and your mayor has just been a really nice person.  (Applause.)  He and I shared a burger over at Smitty’s — (applause) — give Bill Grace a big round of applause.  (Applause.)
 
And somebody who I’m hugely impressed with because I’m just so impressed with this institution, and his leadership obviously has been critical to it — Dr. Ray Church, your school president here at Lorain County Community College.  (Applause.)
 
Well, listen, it is great to be here in Elyria.  Thank you so much for the great hospitality, the wonderful reception.  Look, it’s just nice being out of Washington, let me say. (Laughter.)  I mean, there are some nice people in Washington, but it can drive you crazy.  (Laughter.)  Am I wrong, Sherrod? (Laughter.)  
 
For two years, I had the privilege of traveling across this country, and I had a chance to talk to people like you, and go to diners and sit in barbershops, and hear directly about the challenges that all of you are facing in your lives, and the opportunities that you’re taking advantage of, and all the things that we face together as a nation.  And the single hardest thing — people ask me this all the time — the single hardest thing about being President is that it’s harder for me to do that nowadays.  It’s harder to get out of the bubble. 
 
I mean, don’t get me wrong, the White House is a wonderful place to work.  You live above the store — (laughter) — which means I’ve got a very short commute.  I’m having — I see my daughters before they go to school and I see them at night for dinner, even if I have to go back down to the office.  And that makes everything so much better.  But the truth is, this job is a little confining, and that is frustrating.  I can’t just go to the barbershop or sit in a diner.  I can’t always visit people directly.
 
This is part of the reason why I’ve taken to the practice of reading 10 letters, out of the 40,000 that I get, every night just so that I can stay in touch and hear from you.  But nothing beats a day where I can make an escape, I break out.  And so I appreciate the chance to come here and spend a day. 
 
Before I came here I visited the EMC Precision Machining plant.  I saw the great clean energy job training program here at Lorain County Community College.  And I’m obviously thrilled to be able to spend some time with you.
 
AUDIENCE MEMBERS:  We love you!
 
THE PRESIDENT:  I love you back.  (Applause.)  Thank you. 
 
Now, look, let’s be honest.  These are difficult and unsettling times.  They’re difficult times here in Elyria; they’re tough in Ohio; they’re tough all across the country.  I walked into office a year ago in the middle of a raging economic storm that was wreaking devastation on your town and communities everywhere.  We had to take some very difficult steps to deal with that mess, to stave off an even greater economic catastrophe.  We had to stabilize the financial system, which, given the role of the big banks in creating this mess, was a pretty tough pill to swallow.
 
I knew it would be unpopular — and rightly so.  But I also knew that we had to do it because if they went down, your local banks would have gone down.  And if the financial system went down, it would have taken the entire economy and millions more families and businesses with it.  We would have looked — we would have been looking at a second Great Depression.
 
So in my first months in office, we also had to save two of the big three automakers from a liquidation bankruptcy, complete collapse.  Some people weren’t happy about that, either.  I understand that.  They felt like if you’re in a business, you make a bad decision, you ought to reap the consequences, just like any business would.  The problem was, if we let GM and Chrysler simply go under, hundreds of thousands of Americans would have been hurt, not just at those companies themselves, but at auto suppliers and other companies and dealers here in Michigan, up in — here in Ohio, up in Michigan, all across this country.
 
So we said, if you’re willing to take some tough and painful steps to make yourself more competitive, we’re willing to invest in your future.  And earlier this week, we heard that the auto industry planned to make almost 3 million cars and trucks here in North America in the next three months, which is up 69 percent from the first three months of last year.  (Applause.)
 
We also passed a Recovery Act to pull our economy back from the brink.  Now, there’s been a lot of misunderstanding about this Recovery Act.  Sherrod and Marcy and Betty and I were talking about this on the way over here.  If you ask the average person, what was the Recovery Act, the stimulus package, they’d say, “the bank bailout.”  So let me just be clear here:  The Recovery Act was cutting taxes for 95 percent of working families — 15 different tax cuts for working families, seven different tax cuts for small businesses so they can start up and grow and hire.  The Recovery Act was extending and increasing unemployment insurance and making COBRA available at a cheaper rate for people who had lost their jobs so they could keep their health care.  (Applause.)
 
We gave aid directly to states to help them through tough times.  Ted can testify the help that it provided to the Ohio budget so we wouldn’t have to lay off teachers and firefighters and police officers all across this state.  And we made the largest investment in infrastructure since the creation of the Interstate Highway System, putting Americans to work rebuilding our roads, bridges, waterways — doing the work that America needs to be done.
 
Now, today, because we took those actions, the worst of this economic storm has passed.  But families like yours and communities like this one are still reeling from the devastation it left in its wake.  At one of the companies, at EMC, where I went today — wonderful company, passed on through generations — they have hung on with their precision manufacturing, high value added.  They can do things that can’t be shipped off to China because they’re so attuned to their customers’ needs.  But they had 77 employees; now they’ve got 44.  They want to start hiring back, but it’s going to take a little time.  The good news is they’re starting to see orders pick up just a little bit.
 
But it’s tough.  Folks have seen jobs you thought would last forever disappear.  You’ve seen plants close and businesses shut down.  I’ve heard about how the city government here is starting to cut into bone, not just fat.  You can’t get to work or go buy groceries like you used to because of cuts in the county transit system.
 
And this all comes after one of the toughest decades our middle class has faced in generations.  I mean, think about what’s happened over the last 10 years, even before the crisis hit.  This is a decade where some folks made tons of money, but so many others were just pedaling faster and faster, but they were stuck in the same place, sometimes slipping behind.  The average wage, the average income over the last decade actually flat-lined; in some cases went down.  That was before the crisis.
 
So, for many of you, even as you found your paychecks shrinking, even as after the crisis you found the value of your biggest asset, your home, falling, the cost of everything else has gone up:  the cost of groceries, the cost of sending your kids to college, costs of retirement.  And you’ve also faced the breakneck, unrelenting climb of costs for your health care needs.
 
Now, here’s the message I want you to take away — and we’re going to have a lot of time for questions, but I want to make this absolutely clear.  I did not run for President to turn away from these challenges.  I didn’t run to kick these challenges down the road.  I ran for President to confront them –- once and for all.  (Applause.)
 
I ran for this office to rebuild our economy so it works not just for the fortunate few, but for everybody who’s willing to work hard in this country — (applause) — to create good jobs that can support a family; to get wages growing and incomes rising; to improve the quality of America’s schools and lift up great community colleges like this one so that people are constantly learning, constantly retraining for the jobs of the 21st century; to make higher education affordable for the children of working families — and, yes, to deal with the problem of runaway health insurance costs that are breaking family budgets and breaking business budgets and breaking our national budgets.  (Applause.)
 
Now, since this has been in the news a little bit this week — (laughter) — let me say a little something about health care. I had no illusions when I took this on that this was going to be hard.  Seven Presidents had tried it, seven Congresses had tried it — and all of them had failed. 
 
And I had a whole bunch of political advisors telling me this may not be the smartest thing to do.  “You’ve got a lot on your plate:  the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression; two wars.  You may not get a lot of cooperation. you’re going to have a lot of pushback from the insurance companies and the drug companies.  It’s complicated.  Don’t do it.”
 
     Now, let me tell you why I did it.  I knew that insurance premiums had more than doubled in the past decade.  I knew that out-of-pocket expenses had skyrocketed.  I knew that millions more people had lost their insurance, and I knew that because of that economic crisis that was only going to get worse.  When you lose 7 million jobs, like we lost over the last two years, what do you think happens to those folks’ health insurance?  What happens when their COBRA runs out? 
 
I took this up because I wanted to ease the burdens on all the families and small businesses that can’t afford to pay outrageous rates.  And I wanted to protect mothers and fathers and children by being targeted by some of the worst practices of the insurance industry that I had heard time and time again as I traveled through this country.  (Applause.)
 
Now, let me dispel this notion that somehow we were focused on that, and so, as a consequence, not focused on the economy.  First of all, all I think about is how we’re going to create jobs in this area.  All I think about is how do we get banks lending again.  I’ve been doing that the entire year.  So have folks like Sherrod and Marcy and Betty.  But what I also know is, is that health care is part of the drag on our economy.  It’s part of the eroding security that middle-class families feel. 
 
So here’s the good news:  We’ve gotten pretty far down the road.  But I’ve got to admit, we had a little bit of a buzz saw this week.  (Laughter.) 
 
Now, I also know that part of the reason is, is that this process was so long and so drawn out — this is just what happens in Congress.  I mean, it’s just an ugly process.  You’re running headlong into special interests, and armies of lobbyists, and partisan politics that’s aimed at exploiting fears instead of getting things done.  And then you’ve got ads that are scaring the bejesus out of everybody.  (Laughter.)  And the longer it take, the uglier it looks. 
 
So I understand why people would say, boy, this is — I’m not so sure about this — even though they know that what they got isn’t working.  And I understand why, after the Massachusetts election, people in Washington were all in a tizzy, trying to figure out what this means for health reform, Republicans and Democrats; what does it mean for Obama?  Is he weakened?  Is he  — oh, how’s he going to survive this?  (Laughter.)  That’s what they do.  (Laughter.)
 
But I want you — I want you to understand, this is not about me.  (Applause.)  This is not about me.  This is about you. This is not about me; this is about you.  I didn’t take this up to boost my poll numbers.  You know the way to boost your poll numbers is not do anything.  (Laughter.)  That’s how you do it.  You don’t offend anybody.  I’d have real high poll numbers.  All of Washington would be saying, “What a genius!”  (Laughter.) 
 
I didn’t take this on to score political points.  I know there are some folks who think if Obama loses, we win.  But you know what?  I think that I win when you win.  (Applause.)  That’s how I think about it. 
 
So if I was trying to take the path of least resistance, I would have done something a lot easier.  But I’m trying to solve the problems that folks here in Ohio and across this country face every day.  And I’m not going to walk away just because it’s hard.  We are going to keep on working to get this done — with Democrats, I hope with Republicans — anybody who’s willing to step up.  Because I’m not going to watch more people get crushed by costs or denied care they need by insurance company bureaucrats.  I’m not going to have insurance companies click their heels and watch their stocks skyrocket because once again there’s no control on what they do.
 
So long as I have some breath in me, so long as I have the privilege of serving as your President, I will not stop fighting for you.  I will take my lumps, but I won’t stop fighting to bring back jobs here.  (Applause.)  I won’t stop fighting for an economy where hard work is rewarded.  I won’t stop fighting to make sure there’s accountability in our financial system.  (Applause.)  I’m not going to stop fighting until we have jobs for everybody.
 
That’s why I’m calling on Congress to pass a jobs bill to put more Americans to work — (applause) — building off our Recovery Act; put more Americans back to work rebuilding roads and railways; provide tax breaks to small businesses for hiring people; offer families incentives to make their homes more energy-efficient, saving them money while creating jobs.
 
That’s why we enacted initiatives that are beginning to give rise to a clean energy economy.  That’s part of what’s going on in this community college.  If we hadn’t done anything with the Recovery Act, talk to the people who are building wind turbines and solar panels.  They would have told you their industry was about to collapse because credit had completely frozen.  And now you’re seeing all across Ohio some of the — this state has received more funds than just about anybody in order to build on that clean energy economy — new cutting-edge wind turbines and batteries that are going to be going into energy-efficient cars.
 
Almost $25 million of our investment went to a plant right here in Elyria that’s helping produce the car batteries of the future. (Applause.)  That’s what we’re going to keep on doing for the rest of 2010 and 2011 and 2012, until we’ve got this country working again.  (Applause.)
 
So long as I’m President, I’ll never stop fighting for policies that will help restore home values, to redeem the investment that folks have made.  We’ve seen some of those values return in some places, in some pockets, but it’s still tough out there.  We’re going to have to do more this year to make sure that banks are responsive to folks who are working hard, have been paying their mortgage, but have found themselves in a tough situation.
 
I’m not going to stop fighting to give our kids the best education possible — (applause) — to take the tens of billions of dollars we pay banks to act as middlemen on student loans and invest that money in students who actually need it.  We don’t need the middlemen — cut them out.  (Applause.)
 
     I won’t stop fighting to give every American a fair shake.  That’s why the very first bill I signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Act to uphold the principle of equal pay for equal work for men and women alike — (applause) — especially when families need two paychecks to survive.  (Applause.)
 
So long as I’m President, I won’t stop fighting to protect you from the kinds of deceptive practices we’ve seen from some in the financial sector.  That’s why I signed a Credit Card Bill of Rights into law, to protect you from surprise charges and retroactive rate hikes and other unfair rules.  That’s why I’m fighting for a tough consumer financial protection agency to protect you against those hidden overdraft fees that can make a single ATM withdrawal cost 30 bucks.  (Applause.)  That happened to you, didn’t it?  (Applause.)
 
     I won’t stop fighting to open up government.  Now, this is hard to do because we don’t control every branch.  But I can tell you we have put in place the toughest ethics laws and toughest transparency rules of any administration in history.  In history.
 
     By the way, this is the first administration since the founding of the country where all of you can find out who visits the White House.  First time in history.  And that’s just one example of how we’re trying to constantly open the process. 
 
And so long as I’m President, I won’t stop fighting to cut waste and abuse in Washington — to eliminate what we don’t need, to pay for what we do; to rein in exploding deficits that we’ve been accumulating not just last year but for the last 10.  (Applause.)
 
And I’m going to keep on fighting for real, meaningful health insurance reform.  (Applause.)  We expanded the Children’s Health Insurance Program to include four million kids — we already did that.  But we are also going to fight to hold the insurance industry accountable, to bring more stability and security to folks who are in our health care system.  And, yes, I want to make sure that people who don’t have health care right now can get some.  (Applause.)  It’s shameful that we don’t do that.
 
Now, these are some of the fights we’ve already had, and I can promise you there will be more fights ahead.  I’m not going to win every round.  We’re having a fight right now because I want to charge Wall Street a modest fee to repay taxpayers in full for saving their skins in a time of need.  (Applause.)  We want our money back.  (Applause.)  We want our money back.  And we’re going to get your money back, every dime — each and every dime. 
 
But it’s going to be a fight.  You watch.  I guarantee you when we start on financial regulatory reform, trying to change the rules to prevent what has caused so much heartache all across the country, there are people who are goIng to say, “Why is he meddling in government — why is meddling in the financial industry?  It’s another example of Obama being big government.”
 
No, I just want to have some rules in place so that when these guys make dumb decisions, you don’t end up having to foot the bill.  (Applause.)  That’s pretty straightforward.  I don’t mind having that fight.  (Applause.)
 
You know, I said at the beginning how much it means to me to be able to travel this country, and how much it means for me to be here.  And that is true now more than ever, because there’s no doubt that it’s easy to get a pretty warped view of things in Washington.  But then you start talking to the guys working on those machines, creating products all across the country, you go into the diner and you meet folks who are raising their kids and working hard and trying to keep things together, and I’m reminded of the strength and the resilience and the perseverance of the American people.  I’m reminded of the fundamental character of the Americans that I’m so privileged to serve. 
 
It’s that character that has borne our nation through the roughest of seas, a lot rougher than the ones we’re going through right now.  That’s the character that will carry us through this storm to better days ahead.  I am confident of that, because of you.  And I’m very grateful for all of you taking the time to be here today.  Thank you.  Thank you, everybody.  Thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)
 
All right.  Let’s take some questions.  You guys — everybody, sit down, sit back down.  All right.  So I’m just going to call on people.  We’re going to do girl-boy-girl-boy — (laughter) — so that there’s no accusations of bias.  But we’ll try to get as many questions in as we can.
 
     All right, this young lady right back here.  Yes, you.  There should be a microphone — wait till the mic comes so everybody can hear you.  Oh, I’m sorry — that’s okay, I’ll call on you next.  Well — (laughter) — one of you ask your question. (Laughter.)
 
     Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  It’s an honor to be here with you today.  I work here in LCCC’s financial services office. I am proud to be part of finding pathways for students who attend college.  I feel that a college education is a lifeline to the future of our citizens.  We greatly appreciate the increase in the Pell Grant, which allowed our neediest students to access a college education.  (Applause.)  It increased buying power as  college costs continue to rise.  My question to you is, will your administration support continued increases to the Pell Grant so that our neediest students have access to higher education?
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  The answer is yes.  I want everybody to understand, we made — and this was the help — with the help of the members of Congress who are here — made an enormous investment in higher education, making sure that young people could afford to go to great institutions like this.  So we significantly increased the level of each Pell Grant, and we also put more money so that we could have more Pell Grants.
 
     Now, we want to continue to do this.  I mentioned during my formal remarks the fact that a lot of banks and financial institutions are still serving as middlemen in the financial aid process, and they take out several billions dollars’ worth of profits from that.  It turns out that actually it can be administered in such a way where these loans go directly to the students.  And if you do that, then you’re saving several billion dollars that can then be put back into the system.  We want to get that finalized; we want to get that done.  That will be an enormous boost.
 
     Now, one thing I have to say, though.  Even as we put more money into the Student Loan Program, we are also trying to reach out to university presidents and administrators to figure out how can we reduce the inflation in higher education — because the fact is, is that the only thing that has gone up faster in cost than health care is — guess what.  Higher education.  And the problem is, if we’re not thinking about ways to curve the inflation, then even if we put more money in, what that money is buying becomes less and less.  And so trying to find creative ways for universities to do more with less is going to be important.
    
     Now, in fairness to universities and colleges, part of the reason they’ve been having to jack up their costs is they used to get more support from the state.  State budgets got into a hole, and then it became harder, and so they had to make it up on the tuition side.  Nevertheless, what is also true, though, is just their general costs of operating have gone up in ways that I think we can improve.  So we’re going to be working on that as well.
 
     All right?  Okay, I’ve got to call a gentleman, then I got to go back to you because you thought that I called you and I feel bad.  (Laughter.)
 
     All right.  This gentleman right here in the tie.  Yes, you look sharp.  (Laughter.)
 
     Q    Mr. President, thank you.  It’s an honor to stand before you.  Thank you.  Earlier in your message, you mentioned our transit system.  Obviously we do need help and we’re in dire need to have some assistance there.  But what I didn’t hear in anything is your interest in our steel mill.  That’s a big part of our community and we desperately need help there as well.  (Applause.)  We just wondered where Washington’s stance is on our steel mill.  Thank you.
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I was talking to your mayor about this.  Obviously he’s a big advocate for manufacturing in the region.  I do not have all the details in terms of what’s happening at the steel mill at this moment.  But what we’ve done is we’ve set up an office in the White House just focused on manufacturing — because it’s my view that America’s got to make things.  (Applause.) 
 
Now, we’re not going to make — I want to be honest.  Not all the manufacturing jobs that have gone are going to come back.  And if people tell you they are, that’s just not true — because a lot of that has moved to places where the wages are just much lower.  And I know that some people say, well, then we should just set up tariffs so that folks can’t ship them in.  But these days the economy, the global economy is so interconnected that that’s just not a practical solution. 
 
The solution is to find — and I don’t Know the details of the steel mill here — but I know that the ones that have been successful, they do what EMC is doing as well, which is you find what’s the high-end market.  What’s the market that involves a lot of technology, specialization, highly trained workers, quick turnarounds to spec so that the customers really feel like they’re getting something special and different — that’s how you compete, because that’s something that a steel mill in China or in Brazil can’t do.  They can’t compete with you being on the spot working closely with customers. 
 
So finding ways to develop specialty steels and so forth, that’s going to be the key.  Our manufacturing office will be working with folks here in town to see what we can do.
 
All right?  Thank you.  (Applause.)  All right, back to this young lady here.
 
Q    First I want to start by saying that I am very grateful to be here to meet you in person.  I absolutely support you and back you.  I feel like Rome wasn’t built in a day, and I know that everybody is really impatient, but I know that with time things can be turned around.  And I believe that your intentions are really honorable in that.
 
THE PRESIDENT:  I appreciate it.
 
Q    I am a single mother of three, and I have two quick issues that are very important to me — one being that I have a three-year-old, who has just turned three, who got lead poisoning last year and almost died.  And I called everyone, including the EPA of Ohio, and I cannot seem to get any response to this.
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Well, guess what.  I guarantee you that somebody from the EPA is going to call you in about — (applause) — in about five minutes.  Before you sit down, there’s going to be a phone call from the EPA.  (Laughter.) 
 
All joking aside — and I know you have a second question, but I just want to focus on this — lead poisoning, a lot of it from lead paint, from older homes all across the country and all across the Midwest is something that we have to be more aggressive on.  This is something that I worked on when I was a U.S. senator, when I was a state senator.  I’m working on it as President, and I will find out directly from them how they can help not only with your particular situation but what we’re doing in this area in terms of lead abatement.
 
     Q    Okay.
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Okay?
 
     Q    The second thing that I wanted to address to you is the unfair labor laws that they seem to have in some of these industries as far as discrimination and different issues of that nature that don’t seem to get addressed from the bigger companies.  I have actually worked for Ford — I’m a full-time student now here at LC, gratefully — and even when I was working there and I have — my whole family has actually come up through Ford — and there’s a lot of very unjust situations that come about, but no attorneys will deal with it, no one will talk about it, and it’s always pushed under the rug.  And I — I do owe my  — what I have now to Ford because it was what was bread and butter for my family.  But at the same time, it’s not fair that even at this point my mother still can’t retire, she has to continue to suffer.
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Well, look, let me just say generally, one of the things that my administration has been able to do over the last year that does not cost money is just enforcing laws that are on the books a little more aggressively, making sure — I mentioned earlier equal pay for equal work. 
 
We are so past the point where it should be debatable that women get paid the same as men for doing the same job.  (Applause.)  And it is something that — especially because there was a — it was just released I think last week showing that increasingly the wives are making more than the husbands in some circumstances.  And whoever is making more, you’ve got to have two paychecks.  So this is not just a “feminist issue” — you know, sometimes guys say, well, why do I — why should I care about it?  Well, let me tell you something.  If your wife is getting paid fairly, that means your family is getting paid fairly.  (Applause.)  And I want my daughters to be treated the same way as your sons.  That’s something we shouldn’t be arguing about anymore.  (Applause.)
 
     All right, gentleman right back here.  Yes, it’s a guy’s turn.  Yes, sir.
 
     Q    I’m an inventor, and I hold U.S. patent number 7,397,731.
 
  THE PRESIDENT:  Okay.
 
Q    And before I ask my question I’d like to make a sales pitch.  (Laughter.)  If you can use my patent in your next election, I think you can raise a ton of money worldwide.  You should take a look at it.
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  All right, we’ll take a look.  All right.
 
     Q    If you can’t use it, the government could use it, and I could build a multibillion-dollar business here in Ohio.  (Laughter.)
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  All right, we’ll take a look at your patent.  Go ahead, what’s your question?
 
     Q    Yes, okay, it has to do with international patent rights.  With all this free trade and trade barriers falling, it’s really hard for an individual like me with a global-scope patent to file all over the world and get patent protection everywhere, and having to go overseas to fight infringement.  So if you’re going to drop trade barriers, maybe you can extend my patent rights to the foreign countries.
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Well, this is a great question, and this is a huge problem.  (Applause.)  Look, our competitive advantage in the world is going to be people like this who are using their minds to create new products, new services.  But that only helps us and helps you build a multibillion-dollar company if somebody can’t just steal that idea and suddenly start making it in Indonesia or Malaysia or Bangladesh with very cheap workers. 
 
     And one of the problems that we have had is insufficient protection for intellectual property rights.  That’s true in China; it’s true for everything from bootleg DVDs to very sophisticated software.  And there’s nothing wrong with other people using our technologies.  We just want to make sure that it’s licensed and you’re getting paid.
 
     So I’ve given instructions to my trade offices — and we actually highlight this at the highest levels of foreign policy  — that these are issues that have to be addressed because that’s part of the reciprocity of making our markets open.  And so when I met with President Hu of China, this is a topic that, at dinner, I directly brought up with him.  And — but as you point out, it’s got to be sustained, because a lot of times they’ll say, yes, yes, yes, but then there’s no enforcement on their end.
 
     And one of the things that we’re also doing is using our export arm of the U.S. government to help work with medium-sized businesses and small businesses, not just the big multinationals to protect their rights in some of these areas, because we need to boost exports. 
 
     Can I just say, we just went through a decade where we were told that it didn’t matter, we’ll just — you just keep on importing, buying stuff from other countries, you just take out a home equity loan and max out your credit card, and everything is going to be okay.  And it looked, for a lot of people, like, well, the economy seems to be growing — but it was all built on a house of cards.  That’s what we now know.  And that’s why if we’re going to have a successful manufacturing sector, we’ve got to have successful exports. 
 
     When I went and took this trip to China, and took this trip to Asia, a lot of people said, “Well, why is he going to Asia?  He’s traveling overseas too much.  He needs to be coming back home and talking about jobs.”  I’m there because that’s where we’re going to find those jobs, is by increasing our exports to those countries, the same way they’ve been doing in our country. If we increased our exports — our share of exports by just 1 percent, that would mean hundreds of thousands of jobs here in the United States.  Five percent — maybe a million jobs, well-paying jobs.  So we’re going to have to pry those markets open.  Intellectual property is part of that process.
 
     All right, great question. 
 
It’s a woman’s turn now.  You guys just put down your hands. (Laughter.)  Oh, okay, well, this young lady right in front.  We’ve got a microphone over here.  You know, I would give it to you if I could reach, but — go ahead.  (Laughter.)
 
     Q    I introduce myself.  I’m 83 years old.  I know I don’t look it.  (Laughter.)  
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  You don’t.  You don’t.  You look great.
 
     Q    Thank you.  I’m very concerned about Social Security.  I think there’s a few here who are probably living on that or supplementing that.  I understand that Congress has given themselves a raise but has denied us COLA for possibly the next three years.  At the time of the H1N1 thing, people over 65 were not given the right to have the shot.  For some reason or other this health care crisis was left on our senior backs.  What can we do about this?
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Well, let me address all three of your issues, because you’re raising actually three separate issues. 
 
     First is how do we make sure that Social Security is sustainable over the long term.  Social Security is one of our entitlement programs that for now is stable, but will not be if we don’t make some changes.  Now, here’s the good news.  Compared to Medicare, Social Security is actually in reasonably good shape, and with some relatively small adjustments, you can have that solvent for a long time.  So Social Security is going to be there.  I know a lot of people are concerned about it.  Social Security we can fix.
 
     Now, in terms of the COLA, the formula — COLA stands for Cost of Living Allowance, so it’s put in place to make sure that Social Security is keeping up with inflation.  Here’s the problem.  This past year, because of the severity of the recession, we didn’t have inflation; we actually had deflation.  So prices actually fell last year.  As a consequence, technically, seniors were not eligible for a Cost of Living Adjustment, to have it go up because prices did not go up in the aggregate.  That doesn’t mean that individual folks weren’t being pinched by higher heating prices or what have you, but on average prices went down.
 
     Here’s what we did.  Working with these key members of Congress here, we did vote to provide a $250 one-time payment to seniors, which, when you factored it in, amounted to about 1.8 percent.  So it was almost the equivalent of the COLA, even though it wasn’t actually the COLA.
 
     So we didn’t forget seniors.  We never forget seniors because they vote at very high rates.  (Laughter.)  Not to mention you changed our diapers and things.  And so we appreciate that.
 
     The third point that you made had to do with the H1N1 virus. The reason that seniors were not prioritized was because, unlike the seasonal flu shot, H1N1 was deadliest in young people and particularly children.  And because the virus came up fairly late in the time frame for preparing flu shots, we had a limited number of vaccines, and we had to decide who gets the vaccines first. 
 
Now, by the way, let me just do a little PSA here.  Anybody who has not gotten a H1N1 shot, along with their seasonal flu, I would still advise you to get it, because historically there are two waves of this.  Particularly make sure your kids have gotten it, because there have been a significantly higher number of children killed under H1 — who get H1N1 than those who just get the seasonal flu.  It’s still a small fraction, I don’t want to make everybody afraid.  But it’s just — it’s a little more serious than the normal seasonal flu.
 
     So it’s not that seniors were neglected here.  What happened was, according to the science, according to the CDC, it was determined that we had to go to the most vulnerable groups the quickest, and that was children, particularly those who had underlying neurological disorders or immunity disorders. 
 
All right?  We haven’t forgotten about you.  And you don’t look 83.  (Laughter.)
 
     Okay.  This young man — he’s been standing up quite a long time.  There you go.
 
     Q    Mr. President, my name is Jordan Brown.  Can you hear me?
    
     THE PRESIDENT:  Yes.
 
     Q    Okay.
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Go ahead and give him the mic.  I don’t want to have him fall over there.  (Laughter.)
 
     Q    Okay.  I don’t have a question but I do want to know if I would like — if I can shake your hand.  (Laughter.)
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Well, yes, yes, you’ll be able to come up here.  If somebody lets you through, I’ll definitely give you a handshake.  (Applause.)
 
     All right, who — I want to make sure — you know, there’s another young man here so I’ll call on him.
 
     Q    I’m 29 years old, and I’ve never had a job in my life. I went to jail when I was younger.  It’s like hard to get a job as a felon.  Is this — any programs that hire people with felonies like something that — because it’s sad, it’s like — 29 years old, I’m 29.  (Applause.)
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  All right.  Jerome –
 
     Q    And also I wanted to — I’m a poet and I wrote a poem for you and I’ve been dying to put this poem in your hand.
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Okay.  Give me the poem.  (Applause.)  First of all, it’s never too late.  It’s never too late.  (Applause.)  One of these gentlemen here will hand this poem to me.  There you go.  I won’t read it from the stage but — because it’s –
 
     Q    I’d appreciate it, later when you get back to the White House.
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  But I will definitely think about it. 
 
Look, I’m proud of the fact that you’re bringing this up because there are people who’ve made mistakes, particularly when they’re young, and it is in all of our interests to help them redeem themselves and then get on a straight path.  Now, I don’t blame employers obviously for being nervous about hiring somebody who has a record.  It’s natural if they’ve got a lot of applicants for every single job that that’s a question that they’d have in their minds.  On the other hand, I think one of the great things about America is we give people second chances. (Applause.)
 
     And so what we’ve tried to do — and I want to say, this has been a bipartisan effort — when I was in the Senate, working with Sam Brownback; my Vice President, Joe Biden — passing a Second Chance Act that helps to fund programs that help the reintegration of ex-felons.
 
     It’s smart for us to do.  You know, sometimes people say, well, that’s just coddling people.  No; you reduce the recidivism rate, they pay taxes, it ends up being smart for taxpayers to do.
 
I don’t know, Jerome, what particular programs may exist in this county, but I promise you I’ll find out.  And we’ll see if we can get you hooked up with one of them.  All right?  (Applause.)
 
     Okay, right here.  Yes.  No, no, no.  Right here.  Yes.  Go ahead.
 
     Q    Mr. President, I started a Great Lakes Truck Driving School in 2008 in Lorain County.
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  I’m sorry, what kind of school?
 
     Q    Great Lakes Truck Driving School.
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Cross driving school?  Oh, truck driving school, I’m sorry.
 
     Q    Great Lakes Truck Driving School.  Started in 2008.  Our first year we trained 287 people and we placed over 70 percent of those people into jobs.  At that time there was enough money, through the Workforce Investment Board, to train those people.  In the past few months we’ve had a number of people on a daily basis coming into our school that’s unemployed, but there are no training funds for truck driver training.  And I want to know why that has changed.
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Well, the Recovery Act put a huge amount of money into retraining.  We are now preparing for next year’s budget, and I know that we have actually allocated additional money for retraining.
 
     I don’t know specifically what’s happening that would cause those dollars to dry up with respect to a truck driving school.  Let me see if I can find out.  I’ll have one of my staff get your card, and maybe we can provide you some information.
 
     Q    Thank you very much.
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Here’s the broader point, though.  The story of retraining has become so important.  When I went to EMC, the precision tool-making place, there were a group of guys — and one guy who said I should call him “Jerry the Mechanic.”  (Laughter.)  He shakes my hand, and he and his buddy are talking to me.  I said, “How long have you been working here?”  They said, “Twenty years.”  And I’d noticed that a lot of the equipment now is all digital and fancy, compared to the old machines on the other side of the building.  I said, “Well, did you guys have to get additional training for this?”  And they said, “Well, you know what happened was, we used to work in this old plant, and we got laid off.  We came here to Lorain Community College and took a six-month, 12-hour-a-day course that completely retrained us, and that’s what got us these new jobs, and we’ve been working for over a decade now at these new jobs.” (Applause.)
 
     Now, here’s the thing.  These guys were — these guys — first of all, they weren’t plants, as far as I know — unless the mayor is a lot slicker than I think.  (Laughter.)  But these guys did point out that it was JTPA funds — job training funds that the federal government and the state and local all work together to make sure that people have access to funds.  They also said, though, during that time they were still working eight hours a day because they had found sort of lower-paying jobs just to pay the rent while they were getting retrained.  I said, “Okay, so you’ve been working eight hours and going to class 12 hours?”  “Yes.”  I said, “Well, when do you sleep?”  “Well, in between class and taking the shift.” 
 
     They did this for six months.  I tell this story, one, to emphasize how important the college system is in making our workforce prepared for the 21st century.  I make the point because, number two, it only works if the government is providing some help for people to finance their educations, their retraining.
 
     But point number three is, even if you’ve got a great community college, you’ve got the financing, you’ve also got to want it.  You’ve also got to want it.  Think about these guys — you work eight hours, you go to class 12 hours, you’re working — you’re sleeping in between, doing that for six months.  But because they were hungry and they had confidence about their ability to translate their old skills into new skills, they’ve had steady jobs ever since that allow them to support their families.
 
     Now, that’s the partnership between the government, the free market, businesses, individuals — that’s what we’re trying to forge.  And that’s why I get so frustrated when we have these ideological debates in Washington where people start saying how, “oh, Obama is just trying to perpetrate big government.”  What big government exactly have we been trying to perpetrate here?  We’re trying to fund those guys who want to go to truck driving school.  We want to make sure that they’ve got some money to get trained for a job in the private sector. 
 
     When we passed the Recovery Act, these aren’t all a bunch of government jobs.  These are jobs that private contractors contract with the state or the city or the county to build roads and highways, the same way that we built the Interstate Highway System and the Intercontinental Railroad System. 
 
I mean, I understand how people have become mistrustful of government.  We don’t need big government; we need smart government — that works and interacts with the private sector to create opportunity for ordinary people.  But it can’t be this constant ideological argument.  People need help.  We need to provide them a helping hand.  That’s what we stand for.  (Applause.)
 
     All right.  I’ve got time for only, unfortunately, one more question.  I’ve been having a great time.  But it is a man’s turn here.  All right.  Is that you, Joe?  Well, this is a ringer.  I’m going to talk — I’ll talk to you separately.  This is a friend of mine.  People will say, ah, he called on a friend of his.  I’ll talk to you over to the side here.
 
     Go ahead, this gentleman right here.
 
     Q    Thank you for taking my question.  Thank you for coming here.  I’m a 52-year-old businessman from Akron, Ohio.  I want to create 1,200 jobs.  I spend $60,000 of my own money to do a due diligence, travel to China with a German-designed turbine, and they’re producing it now in China.  I have rights to North America, primarily the Great Lakes.
 
     Two things that I’m challenged by — I’m having a very difficult time raising money.  I’m not asking for a handout.  All I’m asking is loan me the money; I’ll account for it, every dollar, I’ll pay it back.
 
     Secondly — and I’m willing to risk millions — 99 percent of my net worth.  The second thing is that GE has a patent — and I believe in patents.  I listened to this gentleman back here, and I can truly appreciate what he’s going through.  But in this instance, GE inherited this patent from Enron, and it’s created a wall so that they won’t let people come in and build turbines in the United States.  Now, the patent is going to expire very soon. But now they’re calling it a royalty but it’s really a gate to keep people out. 
 
     Is there any programs — I’ve talked to Governor Strickland, I’ve talked to Sherrod Brown, I’ve talked to Lee Fisher.  This company was identified by the city of Akron and Donald Plusquellic’s visionary leadership down in Akron.  But I want to bring this to the United States.  I want to bring these jobs — and this not about money for me.  This is about creating jobs.
 
     I can feel for that gentleman that wants to work.  He should have a right to work.  God bless him.  (Applause.)
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Let me respond — first of all –
 
     Q    Is there any — is there any federal programs that can help me — I just want to borrow the money to create this factory and create these jobs.
 
     THE PRESIDENT:  Well, obviously I don’t know about the particular situation so I’ll just speak generally to it.  And if you want to get one of my team your card, then maybe they can follow up with you. 
 
     But one of the things that we’ve done — or one of the things that we’ve seen coming out of the financial crisis is that banks are still not lending to small businesses enough.  The mayor and I talked about this.  The business owners that I talked to will confirm this.  And if you ask why — if you ask the banks why, they’ll say, well, it’s a combination of, in some cases, demand really is down; businesses don’t have as many customers as they used to so revenues are down and — so they don’t want to lend.  That’s some cases.  But in some cases what you’ve got is very profitable businesses that are ready to go, ready to invest, got a proven track record — the banks feel as if regulators are looking over their shoulder and discouraging them from lending.
 
     So what I’ve said to Treasury Secretary Geithner and others is we can’t meddle with independent regulators — their job is to stay apart from politics and make sure the banking system is sound — but there should be a discussion about whether or not we have seen the pendulum swing too far, where it used to be they’d just lend anybody anything; then they lost all this money and now they won’t lend people with good credit anything.  That is not good for the economy. 
 
So what we’ve tried to do is to fill some of these gaps in the meantime.  For example, our small business lending through the SBA has actually gone up 70 percent.  And we’ve been waiving fees, increasing guarantees, and what we’re trying to do is streamline the process for SBA loans because right now there’s just too much paperwork.  It’s typical government not having caught up with the 21st century.  And you can’t have a 50-pound application form.  People just — after a while, it’s not worth it, in some cases.  So we’re trying to do all those things.
 
     Now, with respect to patents, again, I don’t know the particular situation.  I will say this.  It’s important that we protect internationally intellectual property.  It is also important though that we have a patent system that encourages innovation but doesn’t just lock in big monopolies that prevent new people from bringing new products into the system.
 
     The worst offender of this problem is actually the drug companies, because they will try to lock in their patents for as long as they can to prevent generics from coming onto the market, and that costs customers billions of dollars.  And sometimes the drug company will redesign it so it’s a caplet instead of a pill, and then try to get a new patent, to get another seven or nine or 10 years of coverage.  That is something that we’ve got to change.  I don’t know whether that applies to your particular situation, but we have to have a patent system that doesn’t prevent competition.  We want a patent system that encourages innovation.
 
     Now, I’m out of time, but I want to say one last thing.  First of all, because there’s been so much attention focused on this health care issue this week, I just want to emphasize not the myths but the reality of what is trying to — that both the House and the Senate bill were trying to accomplish, because it’s actually very simple.  There are a bunch of provisions in it, but it’s pretty simple.
 
     Number one, for those of you who have health insurance, we are trying to get in place reforms that make sure you are getting your money’s worth for the insurance that you pay for.  That means, for example, that they can’t impose a lifetime cap where if you really get sick and suddenly there’s some fine print in there that says you’re not completely covered.  We’re trying to make sure that there is a cap on out-of-pocket expenses so that you don’t find out, when you read the fine print, that you’ve got to pay a huge amount that you thought you were covered for.  We’re trying to make sure that if you’ve got a preexisting condition, you can actually still get health insurance, because a lot of people have been banned from getting health insurance because of a preexisting condition.  (Applause.)
 
     One of the provisions — one of the reforms we want is to make sure that your 26- or 27-year-old could, up until that age, could stay on your insurance, so that once they get out of high school and college, they can stay on their parents’ insurance for a few years until they’ve got a more stable job. 
 
So you’ve got all these insurance reforms that we’re trying to get passed.  Now, some people ask, well, why don’t you just pass that and forget everything else?  Here’s the problem.  Let’s just take the example of preexisting conditions.  We can’t prohibit insurance companies from preventing people with preexisting conditions getting insurance unless everybody essentially has insurance.  And the reason for that is otherwise what would happen is people would just — just wouldn’t get insurance until they were sick and then they’d go and buy insurance and they couldn’t be prohibited.  And that would drive everybody else’s premiums up.
 
     So a lot of these insurance reforms are connected to some other things we have to do to make sure that everybody has some access to coverage.  All right? 
 
So the second thing we’ve been trying to do is to make sure that we’re setting up an exchange, which is just a big pool so that people who are individuals, who are self employed, who are small business owners, they can essentially join a big pool of millions of people all across the country, which means that when you go to negotiate with your insurance company you’ve got the purchasing power of a Ford or a GM or Wal-Mart or a Xerox or the federal employees.  That’s why federal employees have good insurance, and county employees and state employees have good insurance, in part is because they’re part of this big pool.
 
     And our attitude is, can we make sure that everybody is part of a big pool to drive down costs.  That’s the second thing we’re trying to do.
 
     Third thing we’re trying to do is to try to reduce costs overall because the system — how many of you, you go into the doctor’s office, you fill out a form, you get a checkup, you go fill out another form, somebody else asks you for the form you just filled out.  Then the doctor fills out a form, you got to take it to the pharmacist.  The pharmacist can’t read the doctor’s — this is the only industry in the country that still does that, that still operates on paper systems, that still orders all kinds of unnecessary tests. 
 
Because a lot of times, I walk in the doctor, I just do what I’m told — I don’t know what he’s doing.  I don’t know whether this test was necessary or whether we could have had the test that I took six months ago e-mailed to the doctor so I wouldn’t have to take another test and pay for another test.  Right?  (Applause.)  So there are all these methods of trying to reduce costs.  And that’s what we’ve been trying to institute.
 
     Now, I just want to say, as I said in my opening remarks, the process has been less than pretty.  When you deal with 535 members of Congress, it’s going to be a somewhat ugly process — not necessarily because any individual member of Congress is trying to do something wrong, it’s just they may have different ideas, they have different interests, they’ve got a particular issue of a hospital in their district that they want to see if they can kind of get dealt with and this may be the best vehicle for doing it.  They’re looking out for their constituents a lot of times.
 
     But when you put it all together, it starts looking like just this monstrosity.  And it makes people fearful.  And it makes people afraid.  And they start thinking, you know what, this looks like something that is going to cost me tax dollars and I already have insurance so why should I support this.
 
     So I just want to be clear that there are things that have to get done.  This is our best chance to do it.  We can’t keep on putting this off.  Even if you’ve got health insurance right now, look at what’s happening with your premiums and look at the trend.  It is going to gobble up more and more of your paycheck. Ask a chunk of you folks in here who have seen your employers say you’ve got to pick up more of your payments in terms of higher deductibles or higher copayments.  (Applause.)  Some of you, your employers just said, we can’t afford health insurance at all.  That’s going to happen to more and more people.
 
     You asked about Social Security.  Let me talk about Medicare.  Medicare will be broke in eight years if we do nothing.  Right now we give — we give about $17 billion in subsidies to insurance companies through the Medicare system — your tax dollars.  But when we tried to eliminate them, suddenly there were ads on TV — “Oh, Obama is trying to cut Medicare.”  I get all these seniors writing letters:  “Why are you trying to cut my Medicare benefits?”  I’m not trying to cut your Medicare benefits.  I’m trying to stop paying these insurance companies all this money so I can give you a more stable program.
 
     The point is this:  None of the big issues that we face in this country are simple.  Everybody wants to act like they’re simple.  Everybody wants to say that they can be done easily.  But they’re complicated.  They’re tough.  The health care system is a big, complicated system, and doing it right is hard. 
 
Energy.  If we want to be energy independent — I’m for more oil production.  I am for — I am for new forms of energy.  I’m for a safe nuclear industry.  I’m not ideological about this.  But we also have to acknowledge that if we’re going to actually have a energy-independent economy, that we’ve got to make some changes.  We can’t just keep on doing business the same way.  And that’s going to be a big, complicated discussion. 
 
We can’t shy away from it, though.  We can’t sort of start suddenly saying to ourselves, America or Congress can’t do big things; that we should only do the things that are noncontroversial; we should only do the stuff that’s safe.  Because if that’s what happens, then we’re not going to meet the challenges of the 21st century.  And that’s not who we are.  That’s not how we used to operate, and that’s not how I intend us to operate going forward. 
 
We are going to take these big things on, and I’m going to do it, and you’re going to do it, because you know that we want to leave a better America for our children and our grandchildren. And that doesn’t mean standing still; that means marching forward.  (Applause.)
 
I want to march forward with you.  I want to work with you. I want to fight for you.  I hope you’re willing to stand by me, even during these tough times, because I believe in a brighter future for America.
 
Thank you, everybody.  God bless you.  (Applause.)