"....Public schools are closing. Teachers are being laid off by the thousands. First class jails and second class schools. Today there is a plan, a plan for comprehensive immigration reform. A plan for Afghanistan, we commit resources, a hundred billion dollars for a hundred Al Qaeda. A plan, don't ask, don't tell, for gays. A plan for national reform. But no plan for the investment for urban policy to put America back to work. So, we bail out the predators, the bankers that drove us in this hole. The victims remain on the sideline desperately looking for a job...." - Reverend Jesse Jackson, NAACP National Convention, July 14, 2010.
"....Suddenly, Republican leaders want to change that. They say we shouldn't provide unemployment insurance because it costs money. So after years of championing policies that turned a record surplus into a massive deficit, including a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, they've finally decided to make their stand on the backs of the unemployed. They've got no problem spending money on tax breaks for folks at the top who don't need them and didn't even ask for them; but they object to helping folks laid off in this recession who really do need help. And every day this goes on, another 50,000 Americans lose that badly needed lifeline...."President Obama, weekly address, July 17, 2010.
Oh, the republicans have a plan for November 2010.
President Obama's weekly address for July 17, 2010:
We'll be covering President Obama's visit to Kansas City tomorrow, both at the Smith Electric Vehicle plant and at one of the fundraising events for Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan's U.S. Senate campaign. As a prelude to tomorrow's activities the White House offered a media conference call with administration officials this afternoon on the Recovery Act event:
The White House
Office of Media Affairs
For Immediate Release
July 7, 2010
CONFERENCE CALL: Administration Officials to Preview the President's Upcoming Visit to Kansas City, Missouri
WASHINGTON- Today, at 1:00 p.m. EDT Jared Bernstein, Chief Economist to Vice President Biden, and Matt Rogers, Senior Advisor to Energy Secretary Chu will hold a conference call to preview the President's upcoming visit to Kansas City, Missouri.
In Kansas City on July 8, President Obama will visit Smith Electric Vehicles where he will tour the facilities and deliver remarks on the economy to workers. Smith Electric Vehicles is an all-electric, zero emissions commercial truck manufacturer that received a $32 million Recovery Act grant to build all-electric trucks. The award, which is part of the $2.4 billion in Recovery Act advanced battery and electric vehicle grants the President announced last August, is helping Smith Electric establish operations at a re-purposed jet engine overhaul facility at the Kansas City International Airport, the first of as many as 20 regional assembly plants Smith Electric plans to open in the U.S....
The transcript:
Matt Lehrich, White House Communications: Hey everybody, it's Matt Lehrich, in White House Communications, thanks for joining us today. We are joined by Jared Bernstein who is chief economist for Vice President Biden and by Matt Rogers, Senior Advisor to Energy Secretary Chu. Gonna talk a little bit about, uh, what the President's gonna be talking about tomorrow as well as the Recovery Act more broadly, and some of the specific programs under Department of Energy. And with that I'll turn it over to Jared Bernstein....
....What he [Representative Mark Parkinson] wants to do, he wants to substitute that bill and create one that matches Arizona's new law. Of course that law gives police the ability to ask for documentation if they suspect somebody is here illegally....
....like I say, I think that, that Arizona took a political solution in which they tried to be the toughest in the world that I think crossed a line that's not a line we should cross in America. I think basic civil rights, basic individual freedom is extremely important and, and, and just because it's, it's after one group today doesn't mean that it's, it's not gonna be after another group tomorrow....
Jesse Lee of the the White House New Media Office hosted an on-line roundtable this afternoon:
July 01, 2010 1:00 PM EDT
Open for Questions Roundtable: Immigration
Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, Cecilia Muñoz takes your questions on comprehensive immigration reform.
There was an interesting discussion on Arizona's SB 1070:
....Jesse Lee: ...The President touched on the fact that the law in Arizona has kind of brought this issue back to the fore recently. Uh, Jay's first question, I think, was from Arizona. Uh, so just to take a couple on that....asks about the sentiment, uh, people who say, support the Arizona law because the feds can't and won't do their jobs. Another question we got earlier on Facebook, even before this started, was, um, the idea that, uh, they...had heard that, uh, basically all that law does is kind of repeat the federal laws on the book and folks then say we shouldn't enforce it, so what's wrong with that? So, maybe you can spell that out a little bit.
Cecilia Muñoz, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs: Yeah, the Arizona law doesn't just repeat federal law. What it does is it is empowers local officials to be, um, to, in the course of doing their duties if they suspect someone to be unlawfully present in the United States it requires them to, to ask those folks for their papers and then to take action. What we've heard from law enforcement officials, and there were a number of them in the audience today, uh, uh, with the President, is that they believe that that, uh, undermines their ability to effectively enforce the law in their communities. Uh, we've heard from police chiefs who say that every time, if you're required to do that, and you do a, say a traffic stop, and you ask somebody [inaudible] for their immigration papers, I'm not sure if anybody around this table actually carries papers in their wallet that prove that they're U.S. citizens. Um, and so processing somebody like that can take hours and those are hours that that police officer is not gonna spend going after a burglar or, or somebody worse than that. And so we have law enforcement officials across the country saying to us, don't undermine our ability to establish our own priorities on where we ought to be using our enforcement resources. We want to go after the biggest dangers to the community. If you require us to spend all our time chasing down immigrants, we're not gonna be able to do our jobs effectively or well. So in the end, having a policy in Arizona and another one in a town in Nebraska and another one in towns in other parts of the country isn't going to solve our immigration problem. It's gonna create these other kinds of problems, especially for law enforcement. And it takes Congress off the hook....
[emphasis added]
Yes, that would be a really good question to ask anyone spouting off in support of Arizona's SB 1070: "Your papers, please." If they were asked that question by local law enforcement do you think they'd be screaming about it as loudly as they did about health care reform? Just asking.
Representative Joe Barton (r) had a thing or two to say about British Petroleum's $20 billion:
...Barton apologized to Hayward earlier in the hearing for the $20 billion escrow fund BP was pressured to create. The congressman's remarks have been lighting up the blogosphere ever since....
"What is shameful is that Joe Barton seems to have more concern for big corporations that caused this disaster than the fishermen, small business owners and communities whose lives have been devastated by the destruction. Congressman Barton may think that a fund to compensate these Americans is a 'tragedy', but most Americans know that the real tragedy is what the men and women of the Gulf Coast are going through right now. Members from both parties should repudiate his comments."
###
Oooh, that's gonna leave an oil slick.
Update:
Apparently the House republican leadership smacked down Joe Barton (r) and sort of made him backtrack. Sort of.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs via Twitter:
Who would the GOP put in charge of overseeing the energy industry & Big Oil if they won control of Congress? Yup, u guessed it - JOE BARTON about 1 hour ago via web
"...BP, as you know, has said that they had to cover all the costs. We have told them, we have been in meetings with them, uh, that we take that to mean all..."
This morning I participated in a media conference call sponsored by the White House in which Melody Barnes, Assistant to the President and Director, White House Domestic Policy Council; Carol Browner, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change; and Jeff Liebman, Acting Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget spoke on legislation going to Congress that is targeted at strengthening the response to the BP oil spill and recovery efforts underway in the Gulf.
From the announcement of the conference call: "...The President has been clear that BP and any other responsible party will pay for all costs of stopping the spill in the Gulf and cleaning it up. To deal more generally with the harms created by oil spills, the White House is sending legislation to Congress to toughen and update the law surrounding caps on damages. The legislation also would provide important support for the fisheries industry and for workers who lose their jobs as a result of the spill. Additionally, the proposal would give federal agencies additional authorities to respond to disasters like Deepwater...."
The transcript [The White House later provided a transcript which was the basis for the following literal transcript taken from my audio recording of the conference call]:
....Nick Shapiro, White House Press Office: Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for getting on. Today we're gonna have a conference call with some senior administration officials. The call is on the record. It will detail the legislation that's going to Congress that's targeted at strengthening the response to the BP oil spill and the recovery efforts already underway in the Gulf. On the call you're going to hear from Melody Barnes, Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, Carol Browner, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, and Jeff Liebman, Acting Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
I will start with Carol, who is going to give an overview of the effort, why this legislation is important for accountability, and the tools that it provides. Melody will then go into what we're trying to accomplish for families. And then, uh, Jeff will be available to talk about any additional authorities, uh, we're seeking for agencies and why. Uh, so without, uh, further ado, uh, Ms. Browner.
Carol Browner: Thank you. Uh, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster, which can seriously damage the economy and environment of our Gulf states jep, and jeopardize the livelihoods of thousands of Americans who live throughout the Gulf region. Since the initial explosion on the drilling rig occurred the federal government has launched a coordinated and all hands on deck relentless response to this crisis. No one in the administration will rest or be satisfied until the leak is stopped at the source, the oil in the Gulf is contained and cleaned up, and the people of this region are able to get back to their lives and livelihoods. BP will be paying for all costs of stopping the spill and cleaning it up. And in fact, let me just quote Lamar McKay in his testimony, uh, just as recently as yesterday. He said, "Let me be really clear. Liability, blame, fault, put it over here," he said. "Our obligation is to deal with the spill, clean it up and make sure the impact of that spill are compensated, and we are going to do that."
The spill has also made it very clear that updates are needed to current laws governing the liability that companies have for any damages, for any damage they cause while drilling and transporting oil. The Oil Pollution Act, for instance, was passed twenty years ago when offshore exploration and production in deepwater represented a small portion of our energy supply. To deal more generally with the harm created by oil spills as well as to toughen and update these laws the President is sending up to Congress a legislative package that will lift the caps on damage, increase the ceil, increase the ceiling on the amount of money that can be expended on recovery per incident from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, and provide other authorities and funding to help the federal government respond swiftly to this crisis.
The legislation includes unemployment assistance, food and nutrition assistance, and help for those affected by the spill to find work, aid to fisheries and fishermen who have been severely impacted by the spill, funding to increase inspection of fish and seafood to protect the safety of the food we eat, and the establishment of one stop shops for those in need of aid. The bill also provides funding for additional inspections and enforcement of safety regulations on other offshore platforms and comprehensive evaluations of new policies, procedures and actions needed in light of this incident.
By passing this legislation we will clear statutory roadblocks and speed assistance to those impacted by the oil spill, as well as quickly mobilize assistance should the spill become worse and BP is not settling cam, claims quickly.
While we are asking for additional funds in some cases the federal government will not relent in pursuing full compensation for the expenses it has occurred and damage caused by this spill. And the legislation contains provisions to help us recoup those costs. Let me now turn it over to Melody Barnes....
At Thursday's White House press briefing Robert Gibbs took a question about Senator Kit Bond's (r) continuing temper tantrum over briefings concerning the underwear bomber. The White House is not curling up in the corner and saying, "Please. Don't. Hurt. Me." on this one:
....Q Senator Bond accused the White House of using JohnmBrennan for political purposes, saying that he was being -- doing the role, your role. This economic report --
MR. GIBBS: Let me just address that. Let's understand this: John Brennan has been working in counterterrorism for more than 25 years -- right? First as a CIA agent hired by President George W. Bush to work at the CIA, and then to stand up the National Counterterrorism Center. Okay? We asked him to stay on. I don't have the slightest idea what political party John Brennan is a member of. I've never had a political conversation with John. I know this: John is there each and every day working in his office to try to do everything he can to keep the American people safe.
And I would suggest, whether it's to Senator Bond or others on Capitol Hill, that these are decisions best left to people that have an understanding of counterterrorism, experience in counterterrorism and law enforcement, rather than to politicians on Capitol Hill.
Q But his specific accusation was that he was being used in a way that a press secretary is supposed to -- I mean, that he was enunciating Obama's policy.
MR. GIBBS: I think Kit Bond didn't -- I don't think Kit Bond liked to hear what he already knew, which was he'd been told that Abdulmutallab was in FBI custody after what happened on Christmas Day.
Now, I'll let you, Jonathan, ask Kit Bond whether he understands the protocols of how the FBI deals with suspects enough to understand that at that point it would have been obvious he would have been read his Miranda rights. I don't know whether Kit Bond was confused or whether he just doesn't want to admit the facts....
...And then we have Sally Quinn, the self-appointed arbiter of Washington's social scene. Since the White House scandal story broke in mid-January, Quinn has gabbed on the networks and cable channels, passing judgment on the president and hissing at first lady Hillary Rodman Clinton.
"If you consider the life of Bill Clinton," she said on "60 Minutes," "whenever he leaves the White House, he's going to get on a plane, and where is he going to go?"
"What do you mean?" a baffled Mike Wallace asked.
"Well, he -- he doesn't even have a home," she sniffed. "I mean, when you think about it, he's homeless. I mean, they've lived in sort of government properties all their lives..."
"...and when we die we'll be buried in a Pullman grave and go to a Pullman hell."
"...Washington has its own version of a celebrity-driven culture, but these people are unattractive and lack charisma so what makes them celebrities is their substance," says Eli Attie, a former White House speech writer in the Clinton administration and now a writer and producer for "House," the Fox television show. "If you drain that from the interaction, it doesn't have a point any more. You just have a photo of you and the vice president, and anyone willing to give $500 to the Democratic party and wait three hours on a tarmac in Kansas City can have that..."
Hey, it was the President, I didn't give $500 to the Democratic Party, I was taking the pictures, and it was in St. Louis. And yes, it was fun, so I'll take it.
As for the inside the beltway cocktail weenie circuit, feh, I'd rather have a brew and barbecue at Gates with friends.
After President Obama's address to the joint session of Congress last night the White House hosted a blogger conference call with Dan Pfeiffer, the Deputy Communications Director. He made a short opening statement then took questions for about twenty minutes. Blue Girl and I were in on the call (I'm not certain if any of the rest of the clan around here dialed in). Bloggers from Kos, MyDD, Firedoglake, and other places in blogtopia (yes, skippy coined the phrase!) also participated.
Dan Pfeiffer, White House Deputy Communications Director: ...I assume you all just got a chance to watch the President's speech, or at least had a chance to read it. Just a little top line stuff here. We feel very good about the speech and think it accomplished many of our goals tonight. Primarily to communicate to the American people what health reform is and what it isn't, and to make a compelling case for why we need to act now. Getting into this debate we knew, we were comforted by the fact that according to some polls three in four Americans still believe, three in four Americans believe that we need to reform the health and [garbled] we need to do it now. There was clearly a lot of confusion about what health reform meant. That confusion was a product of a [garbled] process that, that did not have one specific proposal, of a lot of lies and distortions that gained traction over the course of the summer. And so the President sought to clear up a lot of that confusion. We believe he was successful in that and have sort of regained the momentum here to proceed forward. And with that I will take any and all questions folks may have....
This afternoon the White House held a blogger conference call with John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, and Dr. Richard Besser, Director of Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response at the CDC, in concert with the H1N1 Flu Preparedness Summit. "...Secretaries Kathleen Sebelius (HHS), Janet Napolitano (DHS), and Arne Duncan (ED), along with Homeland Security Advisor John Brennan, hosted [the all day event] ...with states to further prepare the nation for the possibility of a more severe outbreak of H1N1 flu in the fall..."
There is a comprehensive web site chock full of information at flu.gov. The conference call was to inform new media and promote information resources available to the public.
The transcript:
.... John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security:...This summit today is a critically important opportunity for us to let the American people know that H1N1 is something that we're going to be dealing with over the coming months. We went through the, the spring experience. We learned a lot from that, but there's still a lot to be done. And so this preparedness summit is the, the opportunity for the government to work with state and local officials, public health officials, and the American public through flu, www.flu.gov to make sure that people understand what the status of this influenza is and what the government is doing to address it. As we talked in the summit today, this is a dynamic situation. There's a lot that is unknown about the, the future of, progression, of the, the disease. And what we're going to have to do is make sure that we're able to adapt quickly to the evolving situation in the coming months. Which is a combination of making sure that we're able to conduct the surveillance activities, as far as watching its progression in the southern hemisphere, carrying out those mitigation measures to minimize the impact, as well as to move forward with a vaccination program which is being pursued at this point and will be launched if a safe and effective vaccine can be found. And then, also, to make sure that we have regular communication with the, the American people. It's one of the things that President Obama has said directly to me on many occasions - that the safety and health of the American people is foremost on his mind. And he wants to make sure that we're doing everything possible to prepare for that. And so given that we have to do a lot within the coming months today's summit brought together notable specialists throughout the fields that are related to following the influenza strain. And so what we're trying to do is make sure that this is going to be a team effort as we go forward in the coming months. And with that I turn it over to Dr. Besser.
Dr. Richard Besser, Director of Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response at the CDC: Thanks very much. As we've been saying all spring, there's, there's a lot of uncertainty when there's a new infectious disease. And we saw with H1N1 rapid spread after introduction in, in the United States. And what we were saying at that time is that we needed to track this virus as it spread through the southern hemisphere and plan for the fall because of uncertainty, because of our inability to predict what will take place in this country when, when, when the fall comes. This meeting today has been a tremendous opportunity to pull, pull together people from a variety of sectors. So we have public health here, we have governmental, we have folks from the Department of Education , Homeland Security - many different groups that have to work together to plan for what could take place in, in the fall. What we know now is that the virus is causing significant disease in the southern hemisphere. And that we need to be prepared for a variety of scenarios in, in this country - from a worst case to, to a, a milder case. And this effort today is really an attempt to encourage, inspire people across the country to step up and do that kind of intensive planning that will pay dividends in, in the fall. We know that every year seasonal flu will come. That's a, a certainty. And so in addition to, to dealing with, with the, the arrival of H1N1 we need to be planning for seasonal flu on top of that. And as we've said repeatedly seasonal flu causes on average thirty-six thousand deaths per year. There's shared responsibility, there's things that we need to do in government, there are things that need to be in, in schools and across communities, and there are things that individuals need to do. We're working hard on a vaccine, but at this point we don't know yet that there will be a, a vaccine that will be ready to go. But we have to do the planning that would be required should a vaccine, a safe, effective, and recommended vaccine be available. We're, we know there's uncertainty but we are very confident that with collaboration and coordination and, and communication we can really reduce the impact of, of this virus on our communities. And with that I think we're ready to open it for questions...
Congress and the President are working to enact health care reform legislation that protects what works about health care and fixes what is broken. Missourians know that inaction is not an option. Sky-rocketing health care costs are hurting families, forcing businesses to cut or drop health benefits, and straining state budgets. Millions are paying more for less. Families and businesses in Missouri deserve better.
MISSOURIANS CAN'T AFFORD THE STATUS QUO
* Roughly 3.5 million people in Missouri get health insurance on the job [1], where family premiums average $12,925, about the annual earning of a full-time minimum wage job.[2]
* Since 2000 alone, average family premiums have increased by 92 percent in Missouri.[3]
* Household budgets are strained by high costs: 20 percent of middle-income Missouri families spend more than 10 percent of their income on health care.[4]
* High costs block access to care: 15 percent of people in Missouri report not visiting a doctor due to high costs.[5]
* Missouri businesses and families shoulder a hidden health tax of roughly $400 per year on premiums as a direct result of subsidizing the costs of the uninsured.[6]
AFFORDABLE HEALTH COVERAGE IS INCREASINGLY OUT OF REACH IN MISSOURI
* 13 percent of people in Missouri are uninsured, and 72 percent of them are in families with at least one full-time worker.[7]
* The percent of Missourians with employer coverage is declining: from 69 to 61 percent between 2000 and 2007.[8]
* Much of the decline is among workers in small businesses. While small businesses make up 76 percent of Missouri businesses,[9] only 42 percent of them offered health coverage benefits in 2006 -- down 4 percent since 2000.[10]
* Choice of health insurance is limited in Missouri. WellPoint Inc. (BCBS) alone constitutes 68 percent of the health insurance market share in Missouri, with the top two insurance providers accounting for 79 percent.[11]
* Choice is even more limited for people with pre-existing conditions. In Missouri, premiums can vary based on demographic factors and health status, and coverage can exclude pre-existing conditions or even be denied completely.
MISSOURIANS NEED HIGHER QUALITY, GREATER VALUE, AND MORE PREVENTATIVE CARE
* The overall quality of care in Missouri is rated as "Average."[12]
* Preventative measures that could keep Missourians healthier and out of the hospital are deficient, leading to problems across the age spectrum:
o 14 percent of children in Missouri are obese.[13]
o 23 percent of women over the age of 50 in Missouri have not received a mammogram in the past two years.
o 39 percent of men over the age of 50 in Missouri have never had a colorectal cancer screening.
o 69 percent of adults over the age of 65 in Missouri have received a flu vaccine in the past year.[14]
The need for reform in Missouri and across the country is clear. Missouri families simply can't afford the status quo and deserve better. President Obama is committed to working with Congress to pass health reform this year that reduces costs for families, businesses and government; protects people's choice of doctors, hospitals and health plans; and assures affordable, quality health care for all Americans...
[emphasis in original][footnotes follow]
Very interesting. The contrast in content with Roy Blunt's plan is jarring.
...CHENEY: It's nice to know that you're still loved and are invited out in public sometimes.
The reason I've been speaking, and in effect what I've been doing is responding to press queries such as yours, is because I think the issues that are at stake here are so important. And, in effect, what we've seen happen with respect to the Obama administration as they came to power is they have moved to take down a lot of those policies we put in place that kept the nation safe for nearly eight years from a followon terrorist attack like 9/11. Dealing with prisoner interrogation, for example, or the terrorist surveillance program.
They campaigned against these policies across the country, and then they came in now, and they have tried, very hard, to undertake actions that I just fundamentally disagree with.
SCHIEFFER: Well, do you -- I mean, should we take that literally? You say that the administration has made this country more vulnerable to attacks here in the homeland.
CHENEY: That's my belief, based upon the fact, Bob, that we put in place those policies after 9/11. On the morning of 9/12, if you will, there was a great deal we didn't know about Al Qaida. There was the need to embark upon a new strategy with respect to treating this as a strategic threat to the United States. There was the possibility of Al Qaida terrorists in the midst of one of our own cities with a nuclear weapon or a biological agent.
It was a time of great concern, and we put in place some very good policies, and they worked, for eight years. Now we have an administration that's come to power that has been critical of the programs, but not only that, there's been talk about prosecuting the lawyers in the Justice Department who gave us the opinions that we operated in accordance with, or referring them to the Bar Association for disbarment or sanctions of some kind, or possibly cooperating with foreign governments that are interested in trying to prosecute American officials, those same officials who were responsible for defending this nation for the last eight years...
...Q Thanks, Robert. Yesterday former Vice President Cheney was again defending some of these harsh interrogation tactics including waterboarding, and something specific he said I wanted to see whether you agree with. He said that these tactics had "saved thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of lives." Do you think that's true or false?
MR. GIBBS: I don't have -- I don't know what he bases that off of, so I don't have any genuine reaction to it.
Q One thing presumably he bases it off would be the CIA memos he's been asking for. He says there are CIA memos that would show in fact that hundreds of thousands of lives have been saved and terror attacks have been prevented. I think it was April 26th you said it would take about three weeks to go through and decide. We're getting close to that --
MR. GIBBS: Let me check --
Q -- where do we stand?
MR. GIBBS: I'll check on where that is. I've been struck, Ed, in watching the former President and the former Vice President take markedly different views to their lives post their administration. I think many have. And I think the answer that he gave to the future of the Republican Party picking Rush Limbaugh over Colin Powell was an illuminating answer about what you're going to see going forward.
Q How so?
MR. GIBBS: Well, I think that -- I think you've got a series of ideas and a series of thoughts that in many ways the last election was about and the last election rejected. I think going forward -- they're essentially going forward by looking backward. And if the Vice President believes that's a way of growing and expanding the Republican Party, then we're happy to leave him to those devices...
Senator Claire McCaskill (D) made a number of Twitter posts today from the "Fiscal Accountability Summit" at the White House:
Will tweet from White House this afternoon.Fiscal Accountability Summit. On panel re:procurement with McCain. Serious $ to be saved there. about 6 hours ago from web
Isn't "republican economic adviser" an oxymoron? Just asking.
Nothing sounds better than a President of my party talking seriously about deficit reduction.Good bye accounting gimicks that hide the prob about 3 hours ago from TinyTwitter
