Town Hall Meetings

President Obama’s Town Hall Meeting in Missouri, 4/29/09

Congressional Quarterly

CQ Transcriptswire

TOWN HALL MEETING, ARNOLD, MO.

SPEAKER: PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

[*] OBAMA: Thank you so much. What a wonderful introduction.

It’s good to be out of Washington. It’s good to be back in the Midwest. Love you back.

(APPLAUSE)

Let me, first of all, ask everybody to give a huge round of applause to Linda for the great introduction and everything that she’s been doing in the community. Thank you so much.

(APPLAUSE)

I’ve got a few other friends who are here. You may know them. I want to make sure that I acknowledge them.

One of, I think, the finest members of Congress that we have and somebody who’s just been a great friend of mine, she is somebody you want in the foxhole with you when you’ve got a -- when you’ve got a tough fight. Please give a huge round of applause to Claire McCaskill .

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We’ve got one of the finest new governors in the country, Jay Nixon .

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Where’d Jay go? There he is.

An outstanding secretary of state and somebody who I think may turn out to be pretty good in Washington, if she just so decides, Robin Carnahan.

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We’ve got Attorney General Chris Koster here.

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State Treasurer Clint Zweifel.

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A great friend, who was with me from the start, Susan Montee, your state auditor.

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We have our outstanding host today, Mayor Ron Counts (ph) of Arnold.

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We’ve got Congressman Russ Carnahan , who’s voting on the budget today, but I want everybody to give him a big round of applause anyway.

(APPLAUSE)

I want to thank everybody here at Fox High School for their hospitality.

(APPLAUSE)

I want to thank your lovely -- your lovely school superintendent, who’s just doing an outstanding job. Please stand up.

(APPLAUSE)

I want to thank the Warriors for the basketball jersey...

(APPLAUSE)

... which I will wear with pride, although -- yes, if I ever get to play basketball again. They’ve been -- they’ve been keeping me a little busy.

(LAUGHTER)

It is great to be back in the middle of America, where common sense often reigns.

(APPLAUSE)

And this reminds me of why I like to get out of Washington now and again. The last time I was in Missouri was just under six months ago at a high school a lot like this one. We were in Springfield. It was two days before the election, and I was making my final case to the American people. And it was just an unbelievable crowd, bigger than anything anybody had expected.

And so we’re here in Missouri to -- we were here in Missouri at the end of a long journey to the White House, and so now I want to come back and speak to you at the beginning of another long journey.

Today marks 100 days since I took the oath of office to be your president...

(APPLAUSE)

... 100 days. That’s a good thing.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Now, back -- back in November, some folks were surprised that we showed up in Springfield at the end of our campaign. But, then again, some folks were surprised that we even started our campaign in the first place.

(LAUGHTER)

They didn’t give us much of a chance; they didn’t think we could do things differently; they didn’t know if this country was ready to move in a new direction.

OBAMA: But here’s the thing: My campaign wasn’t born in Washington. My campaign was rooted in neighborhoods just like this one, in towns and cities all across America, rooted in folks who work hard and look after their families and seek a brighter children -- future for their children and for their communities and for their country.

It was driven by workers who were tired of seeing their jobs shipped overseas, their health care costs go up...

(APPLAUSE)

... their dreams slip out of reach. It was grounded in a sense of unity and common purpose with every single American, whether they voted for me on Election Day or voted for somebody else. It was energized by every citizen who believed that the size of our challenges had outgrown the smallness of our politics.

My campaign was possible because the American people wanted change. I ran for president because I wanted to carry those voices, your voices, with me to Washington.

(APPLAUSE)

So I just want everybody to understand you’re who I’m working for every single day in the White House. I’ve heard your stories. I know you sent me to Washington because you believed in the promise of a better day. And I don’t want to let you down.

You believed that after an era of selfishness and greed that we could reclaim a sense of responsibility on Wall Street and in Washington as well as on Main Street. You believed that instead of huge inequalities and an economy that’s built on a bubble we could restore a sense of fairness to our economy and build a new foundation for lasting growth and prosperity.

You believed that a time of war we could stand strong against our enemies and stand firmly for our ideals and show a new face of American leadership to the world. That’s the change you believed in. That’s the trust you placed in me. It’s something I will never forget, the fact that you made this possible.

So, today, on my 100th day in office, I’ve come back to report to you, the American people, that we have begun to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off, and we’ve begun the work of remaking America.

(APPLAUSE)

We’re working to remake America.

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Now, we’ve got a lot of work to do because on our first day in office, we found challenges of unprecedented size and scope. Our economy was in the midst of the most serious downturn since the Great Depression. Banks had stopped lending. The housing market was crippled. The deficit was at $1.3 trillion. And meanwhile, families continued to struggle with health care costs, too many of our kids couldn’t get the education they needed. The nation remains trapped by our dangerous dependence on foreign oil.

Now, these challenges could not be met with half measures. They couldn’t be met with the same, old formulas. They couldn’t be confronted in isolation. They demanded action that was bold and sustained. They demand action that is bold and sustained. They call on us to clear away the wreckage of a painful recession but also, at the same time, lay the building blocks for a new prosperity. And that’s the work that we’ve begun over these first 100 days.

To jumpstart job creation, get our economy moving again, we passed the most ambitious economic recovery plan in our nation’s history. And already, we’re beginning to see this change take hold.

In Jefferson City, over 2500 jobs will be created on Missouri’s largest wind farm so that American workers are harnessing clean, American energy.

(APPLAUSE)

Across the state, roughly 20,000 transportation jobs will be supported by the Recovery Act so that Missourians rebuilding your roads, your bridges, your rails. To restore fairness to our economy, we’ve taken several steps with Congress to strengthen the middle class. We cut taxes for 95 percent of American households through a tax cut that will put $120 billion directly into your pockets.

(APPLAUSE)

We finally assigned a law long overdue that will protect equal pay for equal work for American women.

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We extended health care to million of children across this country.

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OBAMA: We launched -- we launched a housing plan that’s already contributed to a spike in the number of homeowners who are refinancing their mortgages, which is the equivalent of another tax cut for them.

And if you haven’t refinanced, you might want to take a look and see if it’s possible, because that can save people a lot of money.

We’ve taken steps to unfreeze the market for auto loans, and student loans, and small-business loans. And we’re acting with the full force of the federal government to ensure that our banks have the capital and the confidence to lend money to the families and business owners who keep this economy running.

Now, even as we cleared away the wreckage, I’ve also said that we can’t go back to an economy that’s built on a pile of sand, on inflated home prices and maxed out -- maxed out credit cards, on overleveraged banks and outdated regulations that allow the recklessness of just a few people to threaten the prosperity of all of us.

That’s why I introduced a budget and other measures that build on the recovery act to lay a new foundation for growth, a foundation that’s built on five pillars that will strengthen our economy and help us compete in the 21st century.

Number one, new investments in education that will equip our workers with the right skills and training. Number two, new investments in renewable energy that will create millions of jobs and new industries.

Number three, new investments in health care that will cut costs for families and businesses. Number four, new savings that will bring down our deficit. And, number five, new rules for Wall Street that reward drive and innovation.

Now...

(APPLAUSE)

Now, I’ve got to say that -- that some of the people in Washington have been surprised. They said, “Boy, he’s so ambitious. He’s been trying to do so much.”

Now, maybe they’re not accustomed to this, but there’s no mystery to what we’ve done. The priorities that we’ve acted upon were the things that we said we’d do during the campaign.

(APPLAUSE)

I mean, it’s not -- it’s not like anybody should be surprised. The policies we proposed were plans we talking about for two years, in places like this all across the country with ordinary Americans. The changes that we’ve made are the changes we promised. That’s what you should expect from a president.

You may not always agree with me, but if you take a look at what I said I was going to do when I was running for office and you now look at what we are in the middle of doing, we’re doing what we said we’d do. So...

(APPLAUSE)

Now -- now, after 100 days, I’m pleased with the progress we’ve made, but I’m not satisfied. I’m confident in the future, but I’m not content with the present, not when there are workers who are still out of -- out of jobs, families who still can’t pay their bills, not when there are too many Americans who can’t afford their health care, so many of our children being left behind, our nation’s not leading the world in developing 21st-century energy.

I’m not satisfied, and I know you aren’t either.

The crisis that we’re confronting was many years in the making. It will take us time to overcome it. We’ve come a long way. We can see the light on the horizon, but we’ve got a much longer journey ahead.

And one of the encouraging things for me is the fact that the American people know this. You know that our progress has to be measured in the results that we achieve over many months and years, not the minute-by-minute talk in the media.

And you know that progress comes from hard choices and hard work, not miracles. I’m not a miracle worker. We’ve got a lot of tough choices, and hard decisions, and hard work ahead of us.

The 100th day might be a good time to reflect on where we are, but it’s more important to where we’re going that -- that we focus on the future, because we can’t rest until our economy is growing and we’ve built that new foundation for our prosperity.

We can’t rest until we reform those outdated rules and regulations that allowed this crisis to happen in the first place. And that’s why I’ve called for tough, new, common-sense rules of the road that punish abuse and reward drive and innovation in the financial sector.

OBAMA: I expect a bill to arrive on my desk for signature before this year is out. We are going to make sure this kind of crisis does not happen again.

(APPLAUSE)

We can’t rest until we have schools to prepare our children for the challenges of the 21st century, and we’ve already made historic investments in education and college affordability. I was talking to your superintendent about all the wonderful things that she’s going to be able to do with some of the money that came of the recovery package.

We’re going to continue to help our schools meet high standards and close achievement gaps. And we’re going to reward teachers for performance and give them new pathways for advancement. And we will seek the goal of...

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... once again -- we are going to seek the goal of, once again, having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. We’re going to do it by 2020.

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We can’t rest until we harness the renewable energy that can create millions of new jobs in new industries. You know, the recovery act will double the supply of renewable energy, but the only way to truly spark an energy transformation is through a gradual market-based cap on carbon pollution so that energy -- clean energy -- is the profitable kind of energy. And we can do that any way that creates jobs. That’s how we can grow our economy, enhance our security, and protect our planet at the same time.

I don’t think we can rest until we have a 21st century health care system that makes sense.

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One that cuts costs for families and businesses across America.

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That’s why we invested in preventive care. We invested in electronic records. That’s why my budget makes a down payment on reform that will finally make quality health care affordable for every American. And I look forward to working with both parties in Congress to make this reform a reality in the months to come.

And we can’t rest until we restore the fiscal discipline that will keep us from leaving our children with a mountain of debt. And working with people like Claire McCaskill , we have already put forward a budget that will cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term. We’ve launched a procurement reform effort that will greatly reduce no-bid contracts and will save $40 billion.

We’re going through the budget line by line, page by page. We’ve already identified more than 100 programs that reduce or eliminate because they don’t work. And I personal asked the leadership in Congress to pass into law rules that fall the simple principle: You pay for what you spend so that government acts the same way any responsible family does.

If you want a tax cut, you’ve got to pay for it.

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If you want to new program, you’ve got to pay for it.

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Tell the American people the truth. How are you going to pay for it?

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And finally, we can’t rest until America is secure and our leadership is restored. And that’s why I’ve begun to end the war in Iraq through a responsible transition to Iraqi control.

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It is their country. They need to take control.

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That’s why we have a new strategy to disrupt and dismantle and defeat Al Qaida in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That’s why we’ve renewed our diplomacy to reduce the spread of nuclear weapons, to speak directly to our adversaries, and strengthen relations in the hemisphere.

And that’s why we have rejected the false choice between our security and our ideals. That’s why I ordered the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo.

(APPLAUSE)

That’s why I’ve prohibited the use of torture.

(APPLAUSE) Because America is stronger than any enemy, and we always have been, precisely because we do what’s right not just when it’s easy but when it’s hard. That’s what sets us apart.

And we’re living through extraordinary times. We didn’t ask for all the challenges that we face, but we’re determined to answer the call to meet them. That’s the spirit I see everywhere I go. That’s the spirit we need to sustain because the answer to our problems will, ultimately, be found in the character of the American people.

We need soldiers and diplomats, scientists, teachers, workers, entrepreneurs. We need your service. We need your active citizen ship. And that’s why I recently assigned a bill that will create hundreds of thousands of opportunities for the American people to serve. That’s why I will continue to ask for your help and your ideas and your support to make the changes that we need.

OBAMA: I want to warn you there will be setbacks. It will take time. But I promise you I will always tell you the truth about the challenges that we face and the steps that we are taking to meet them. I will continue to measure my progress by the progress that you see in your own lives.

And I believe that, years from now, we are going to be able to look back at this time as the moment when the American people once again came together to reclaim their future. That’s what this is about.

(APPLAUSE)

So thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right, thank you very much. All right, this is the fun part. Everybody, sit back down.

I’m going to -- I’m going to take questions. There are no rules. Nobody’s been prescreened. And we’re not going to be able to get through all of the questions that people want to ask, so if you can raise your hand, I will -- will try to call on you. We’re going to go girl, boy, girl, boy, so nobody thinks I’m -- I’m biased.

(LAUGHTER)

I’ll try to just go around the gym, and we’ll -- we’ll get to as many as we can. If you can stand up, introduce yourself when the question’s been asked, and we should have some microphones in the audience, right? Where -- where are our microphone people? Raise up your mikes. OK, so we’ve got a few here. So wait for the microphone so everybody can hear your question.

All right, this gentleman right here. Right there. Yes, you. I guess we’re going boy, girl.

I -- you can go ahead and hand him the mike. Thanks.

QUESTION: Yes. My name is Ray Pasha (ph). I’m a retired auto worker from General Motors. And I was just curious, with all the -- what’s going on in the news and with the contracts and everything, where would -- where is this all eventually going to leave the retirees, the pensions, and our health care? I mean, we also are considered middle class... OBAMA: Keep the mike near your...

QUESTION: Oh, I’m sorry. We’re also considered middle class, and it seems like they keep constantly wanting to take it away from the auto worker and prosecuting us, instead of the corporate that brought us to this.

OBAMA: Good. Well, it’s a good question. Let me talk about -- well, let me talk about what’s happening with autos, because, obviously, this is a big concern for everybody.

I believe that the U.S. should have a strong auto industry. I -- I believe that.

(APPLAUSE)

My -- you know, one of the things -- one of the transitions I want to make -- I want us to get back to making things, not just shuffling paper around, and -- and -- and that -- and so -- and so the auto industry is a major part of that.

Now, what is also true is that the decisions that were made over decades put the U.S. auto industry in a bad spot. You know, we used to build the cars that consumers wanted and, at a certain point, those weren’t the cars that were being designed.

Now, in fairness to the auto industry, a lot of the cars that are coming out of Detroit now have gotten really good. They are on par with foreign imports.

But the problem is, is that, because of a lot of those bad decisions, catching up, even though there’s some very good products out there, overall, the companies were in really bad shape.

Now, the Bush administration had already given several billions of dollars worth of aid. And G.M. and Chrysler were told, “Come up with a plan.” When they presented the plan to us, my responsibility to taxpayers is to look at those plans in a realistic way and figure, are these plans going to work in order to put these auto companies on a firm, solid footing where they can operate without government subsidies and succeed and compete in the marketplace?

Because we’ve got the best workers. We just need the best plans, right?

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: And, unfortunately, the plan that they presented just weren’t realistic. I mean, we did a pretty thoroughgoing analysis of this thing, and you couldn’t -- what they were doing wasn’t painting a picture of how they could be viable over the long term, without being wards of the state. And, frankly, there’s no way that we were going to get taxpayers to just -- every few months, just give a few more billion dollars because there are a lot of other industries that would love to have those kinds of subsidies.

So we are now at the point where Chrysler is supposed to report back to us in the next day or two about their plans for a potential merger with Fiat. And the Fiat management has actually done a good job transforming their industry. We’re hoping that you can get a merger where the taxpayers will put in some money to sweeten the deal but, ultimately, the goal is we get out of the business of building cars, and Chrysler goes and starts creating the cars that consumers want.

And one of the potential advantages of a merger is new technologies where Chrysler starts making fuel-efficient, clean-energy cars that will meet the needs of the future market.

We don’t know yet whether the deal is going to get done. I will tell you that the workers at Chrysler have made enormous sacrifices, enormous sacrifices to try to keep the company going. One of the key questions now is: Are the bondholders, the lenders, the money people, are they willing to make sacrifices as well? We don’t know yet. So there’s still a series of negotiations that are taking place.

I can tell you that no matter what happens, we want to provide certain protections to retirees for their health care and their pensions. That will also be expensive for taxpayers. But my attitude is we got here not because our workers didn’t do a great job trying to build a great product. It was because management decisions betrayed workers.

There are going to be some long-term adjustments that have to be made, though, both for Chrysler and GM. GM, by the way, has 30 more days because their restructuring is more thorough going than what was required with Chrysler. But I can guarantee you I will -- I look at this from the perspective of how can I create a strong, viable, competitive auto industry that is giving workers an opportunity to build a great product, take pride in that product, and continue to support their families and build communities that are strong. That’s my entire orientation. And how do I do that in a way that doesn’t waste taxpayer money because, as I said, people in other industries would love help as well. And I’ve got to be fair to people who aren’t in the auto industry. If we’re going to do it, it’s got to be because we think that we’ve got a long-term plan that actually makes sense. I think we can get there, but we’ve still got a little more work to do.

All right.

(APPLAUSE)

The young lady up there in the pink? Right there. There we go.

QUESTION: Hi. My name is Brenda Huntsman (ph). I’m a school counselor in the Fox (ph) C-6 (ph) District.

President Obama, what do you feel is the biggest challenge facing our educational system today, and how do you plan on meeting those challenges?

OBAMA: OK. Excellent question.

I believe that we’ve got a multitude of challenges. So I -- rather than just isolate on one, let me talk about several.

Our children are coming out of high school, in some cases, they’re not even graduating high school. But even if they graduate from high school, ranked lower on math, science scores than many other advanced industrialized countries. Nations like China and India are starting to turn out more engineers, more scientists.

You know, if we aren’t able to compete technologically, we’re not going to be able to compete because this is a knowledge-based economy. I mean, we can -- we can have some people who are really willing to work hard, but if the technology is coming from overseas and all we’re competing for is just our labor, then over time, those countries will get richer, our countries will get poorer.

OBAMA: So we’ve got to upgrade across the board, not just in -- in -- in poor, underprivileged schools, but across the board we’ve got to upgrade the performance levels of our young people.

Now, in order to do that, the single biggest ingredient is the quality of our teachers, single most important -- single most important factor...

(APPLAUSE)

Single most important factor in the classroom is the quality of the person standing at the front of the classroom. And that’s why our recovery package put a lot of emphasis on teacher training, teacher recruitment, teacher retention, professional development.

And I’ve got a terrific young secretary of education, Arne Duncan , who is -- and he just -- he is so passionate, but he’s tough, and he -- he wants to -- to push school districts to really do what it takes to give teachers the support that they need.

Now, that involves a whole range of things. It means that how -- how we train and recruit teachers in the first place, how do we match them up with master teachers so that they learn best practices? How do we make sure that, if they’re coming in and they don’t have all the professional background they need in something -- a subject area like science -- that we give them the training they need? And, you know, how do we recruit people who might be great teachers but didn’t go through the conventional channels?

If there’s a chemist out there somewhere who wants to teach, we should be able to get them into the classroom in an expedited way because, you know, he or she is bringing skills that we need.

I -- I just gave an award to the teacher of the year, who was a police officer, a cop, had gone to the -- had become a captain in the New York City Police Department, and then decided that he wanted to pursue his lifelong love of learning, and went back to teach, and asked -- asked for the toughest-to-teach kids. Well, we want to encourage people like that who -- who have a passion for teaching.

Now, I also want to increase teacher pay so that a lot more people want to go into teaching.

(APPLAUSE)

The deal I’ve got to strike with teachers, though -- I might not get as much applause on this -- is, I would like to work with teachers and the teachers unions -- because I’m a -- I’m a -- I’m a union guy, but -- but I do believe...

(APPLAUSE)

But I do believe that it’s important for the unions to work flexibly with school districts in a consensual fashion to find ways so that, you know, if you’ve got a really excellent teacher, after 15, 20 years, they can get paid a little bit more, right, for if they’re doing a really good job.

And -- now the flip side -- I’m telling you, I’m getting to the point where I’m not going to get applause -- if you’ve got a bad teacher who can’t, after given all the support and the training that they need, is just not performing up to snuff, we’ve got to find that person a new job. So...

(APPLAUSE)

Just -- just a couple more comments on education generally. A lot of schools still aren’t using technology as well as they could in the classroom, and I -- one of the things we’re trying to do with the -- the recovery act is to help schools, you know, get broadband, get computers, but then also train people to use it properly. I think we can do more with technology.

Once kids get out of high school, making college affordable is absolutely critical.

(APPLAUSE)

We have to redesign the -- the -- the college experience so that not everybody is going to go to school for four years right in a row when they’re 18. Some people are going to work for two years, then go back to school for two years once they figure out something they’re interested in, go back to work. Maybe five years down the road, they need to retrain.

OBAMA: We’ve got to create a pathway for lifelong learning for young people and not-so-young people, so that all American workers are continually upgrading their skills.

(APPLAUSE)

So -- so we want to -- we want to put a lot more emphasis on community colleges and how they are working effectively together.

Let me make a last point, because I don’t want to -- I could talk about this stuff forever. One last point, which I always have to remind people of, I said that the biggest ingredient in -- in school performance is -- is the teacher. That’s the biggest ingredient within a school.

But the single biggest ingredient is the parent.

(APPLAUSE)

And so -- so this -- this is an example where, you know, people are always trying to say, “Oh, Obama, you know, is he -- is he liberal? Is he conservative?”

Well, I want government to do what it should do, but there are some things government can’t do. That’s where I’m conservative. Government can’t force parents to turn off the TV set and tell your kid to sit down and do their homework. I -- I can’t do that.

(APPLAUSE)

That’s not my job. That’s your job. Well, it is my job with Sasha and Malia.

(LAUGHTER)

Those two I’m responsible for. But -- but the other part of it is, it’s not just making sure your kids are doing your homework. It’s also instilling a thirst for knowledge and excellence.

You know, it’s been noted widely that there are a lot of immigrant students who come from very modest backgrounds economically that end up doing very well. And why is that? Well, the difference is, is that, in their families and in their communities, a lot of times they’ve got that attitude that used to be prevalent, but sometimes we’re losing, sometimes I worry we’re losing, and that is, boy, it is a privilege to learn. It’s a privilege to -- to -- to discover new things. It’s cool to be smart. We want -- we want to reward kids for doing well in school, you know?

(APPLAUSE)

So -- and the community can help the parents. You know, listen, I -- I love basketball. But, you know, the smartest kid in the school, the national science award winner, should be getting as much attention as the basketball star.

(APPLAUSE)

That’s a change that we’ve got to initiate in our community.

So, all right. Gentleman in the tie there. Since he wore a tie, that was really nice of him. We appreciate that. Thank you.

QUESTION: Hi. My name is Jay Garon (ph), and I’m the junior class vice president of Fox High School.

OBAMA: All right.

(APPLAUSE)

QUESTION: I was just curious to what policies you’re going to put into place in order to protect Social Security for the upcoming generations.

OBAMA: That’s a good question. Let me, first of all -- a lot of people know this, but I -- but I always want to try to explain how Social Security works so that you have a better sense of what we have to do going forward.

Social Security is not an individual account. You know, there -- when you pay your payroll tax, it doesn’t go into -- I’m sorry, what was your name?

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

OBAMA: Jay (ph)? It doesn’t go into Jay’s (ph), you know, account. Your Social Security tax goes to pay for current retirees. And hopefully, when you retire, young people who are working then, their money will go to pay for your retirement.

So it’s an intergenerational commitment that we make to each other. What we say is, look, all of us are going to grow old, so we’re going to make sure that there’s enough money in there for your retirement. And those of us who are currently working, we pay into the kitty to make sure that that happens, and then we expect that the next generation is going to do the same, all right?

OBAMA: Now, here’s -- here’s the problem that we confront, and this is a solvable problem. I’ve got -- there are some problems that are really hard to solve; this is actually one that we can solve.

And that is -- the problem is the baby-boomers -- there were a lot of them, and they’re getting older. Even though they deny it, they’re getting older. So what’s happening is you’re getting a big bulge of people who are retiring, and you’ve got fewer workers supporting more retirees.

That means you’ve got more money going out, less money coming in. And so you get a mismatch. And what’s been happening is, up until very recently, we’ve been running a surplus in the Social Security account. So there should be enough money. And if we were wise, then all that money would be there and then we -- we’re going to start running a deficit has the baby-boomers start retiring, but we would have accumulated all this money, and it would -- everything would be fine.

But a couple of things has happened. Number one is that the Social Security trust fund -- there wasn’t a fence around it, so people started borrowing out of it for other things. That’s not helpful. But the other part of it is is that we’re still -- there’s still going to be a gap if we don’t do anything even if -- even if we repay all the money into the trust fund, there’s still a gap because there are too many retirees.

So it’s not that Social Security would go away, Jane. The problem would be that, by the time the retire, you’d be getting $0.75 for every dollar that was promised to you. So you’d get cheated out of a little bit of your Social Security.

That’s why when people say Social Security is going bankrupt, that’s not true. The problem is not that it’s going bankrupt. The problem is just that your benefit -- it would be the equivalent of a benefit cut of about 25 percent if we don’t start making some changes.

Now, there are only a handful of ways to make these changes. Number one, you could just keep on trying to borrow a trillion dollars or a couple trillion or however much it takes from China, but that’s not such a good solution because you’d end up having to pay interest off them, and at some point, they’re just going to be tired of lending to us because they’ve got their own senior citizens that they want to take care of.

Second option is to gradually raise the retirement age. Now, I don’t think this is the best option just because we just talked to an auto worker over here. That’s hard work. And if people -- if the retirement age is already 67, and now you want to get it up to 68 or 69, if you’re working on an assembly line and you’ve been doing that for 50 years or 40 years, that’s some tough stuff.

If you’re a senator, you can work till, you know...

(LAUGHTER)

But, you know -- but if you’re doing real work...

(LAUGHTER)

... now, that’s...

(APPLAUSE)

... except for Claire. Claire does some real work. Claire is a hard worker.

(APPLAUSE)

Claire is a hard worker.

(APPLAUSE)

You could cut benefits. You could raise the tax on everybody so everybody’s payroll tax goes up a little bit. Or you can do what I think is probably the best solution, which is you can raise the cap on the payroll tax. Now, let me explain one last point about this.

Whether you are Bill Gates or you are Jay, Jr. at Fox High School, you pay the same rate of your payroll tax, but what happens is that it gets capped out at $102,000. Now, the majority of people here need -- for almost everybody here, what that means is that you pay payroll tax on every dime that you earn, but if you’re Bill Gates, that means you’re only pay payroll tax on one-tenth of 1 percent of what you earn because you earn so much more.

$100,000, that’s just the first fraction of what you earn. And then you stop paying it. So what I’ve said is, look, for wealthier people, why don’t we raise the cap?

(APPLAUSE)

Make them pay a little more payroll tax.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: Not everybody is wild about this idea, not surprisingly. And so what -- what I would like to do, I had a fiscal responsibility summit where I brought together Republicans, Democrats, experts on all these issues. How do we start dealing with our long-term deficits, our long-term debt?

I actually think that we could get all those folks together and we could come up with a solution that would ensure stability of the Social Security system for a -- a long, long time to come.

Let me -- let me just make this last point, though. The big problem we have with entitlements is not Social Security. It’s Medicare. Medicare and Medicaid, the two health care programs that the federal government helps support, those are the things that are really breaking the bank.

I know you’ve been hearing all these arguments about, “Oh, Obama’s just spending crazy. Look at these huge trillion-dollar deficits,” blah, blah, blah. Well, let me make a point.

Number one, we inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit. That wasn’t from -- that wasn’t me. That wasn’t me.

Number two, there is almost uniform consensus among economists that, in the middle of the biggest crisis -- financial crisis since the Great Depression, we had to take extraordinary steps.

So you’ve got a lot of Republican economists who agree that we had to do a stimulus package and we had to do something about the banks. Those are one-time charges, and they’re big and that’ll make our deficits go up over the next two years, but those aren’t the problem that we face long term.

What we face long term, the biggest problem we have, is that Medicare and Medicaid, health care costs are skyrocketing, and at the same time as the population is getting older, which means we’re using more health care.

You combine those two things and, if we aren’t careful, health care will consume so much of our budget that ultimately we won’t be able to do anything else.

We won’t be able to provide financial assistance to students. We won’t be able to help build green energy. We won’t be able to help industries that get into trouble. We won’t have a national park system. We won’t be able to do what we’re supposed to do on our veterans.

Everything else will be pushed aside because of Medicare and Medicaid. That’s the problem that we really confront.

That’s why I’ve said we’ve got to have health reform this year to drive down costs and make health care affordable for American families, businesses, and for our government.

(APPLAUSE)

So -- so, you know, when you -- when you see, you know -- you know, those of you who are watching certain news channels, that -- on which I’m not very popular, and you see folks waving tea bags around...

(LAUGHTER)

... let me just remind them that I am happy to have a serious conversation about how we are going to cut our health care costs down over the long term, how we’re going to stabilize Social Security. Claire and I are working diligently to do basically a thorough audit of federal spending.

But let’s not play games and pretend that the reason is that because of the recovery act, because that’s just a fraction of the overall problem that we’ve got.

We are going to have to tighten our belts, but we’re going to have to do it in an intelligent way. And we’ve got to make sure that the people who are helped are working American families, and we’re not suddenly saying that the way to do this is to eliminate programs that help ordinary people and give more tax cuts to the wealthy.

We tried that formula for eight years. It did not work. And I don’t intend to go back to it.

(APPLAUSE)

All right. It’s a young lady’s turn.

It’s your turn? No, I’m going to call on her. I might call on you later, though.

All right. Go ahead.

QUESTION: My name’s Mary Wallace (ph). I’m a licensed acupuncturist and licensed massage therapist in Florissant. And so...

OBAMA: I could use one right now. My back’s stiff. I’ve been working hard.

QUESTION: I’ll be happy to help you.

(LAUGHTER)

And -- and this kind of fits into what you were just talking about as far as health care. I’m wondering, as a practitioner of oriental medicine, knowing that the National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization has discovered, through their studies, that alternative medicine often is more cost effective and very effective, how will alternative medicine fit in your new health care program?

OBAMA: Well, look, my attitude is that we should -- we should do what works. So I think it is pretty well documented through scientific studies that acupuncture, for example, can be very helpful in relieving certain things like migraines and other ailments or at least as effective as more intrusive interventions.

I will let the science guide me. You know, we just swore in an outstanding new secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius ...

(APPLAUSE)

... the former governor of Kansas. It’s good to see that a Jayhawk (ph) got applause on this side of the -- on this side of the border here.

But she’s going to do an outstanding job. And my charge to her is, as we’re going through health care reform, let’s find out what works. I think one basic principle that we know is that the more we do on the prevention side, the more we can obtain serious savings down the road.

So giving children early checkups, making sure that they get immunized, making sure that they are diagnosed if they’ve got eyesight problems, making sure that they’re taught proper nutrition to avoid a life of obesity, those are all issues that we have some control over. And if we’re -- if we’re making those investments, we will save huge amounts of money in the long term.

Unfortunately, the hardest thing to do in politics and, certainly, in health care reform has been to get policy makers to make investments early that will have long-term payoffs because people, their attitude is, well, I’ll be out of office by the time that kid grows up. And the fact that they’re healthy, that doesn’t help me. And in the private sector insurance system, oftentimes, insurers make the same calculations. Their attitude is, well, people change jobs enough for us to pay for the preventive medicine now when the problem may not crop up for another 20 years, and they’ll be long out of our system, so we don’t want to reimburse it because it’ll make -- it’ll make things more costly.

That’s the logic of our health care system that we’re going to have to change. The recovery package put a huge amount in prevention. We are, in our budget, calling for significant increases in prevention. And my hope is that working in a bipartisan fashion we are going to be able to get a health care reform bill on my desk before the end of the year that we’ll start seeing in the kinds of investments that will make everybody healthier.

All right? OK. It’s a man’s turn.

(APPLAUSE)

Let me -- it’s a guy’s turn. It’s a guy’s turn. This gentleman right here. He raised his hand. Go ahead. Yes, sir. Hold on. Wait for your -- now, are you an elected official, by the way?

QUESTION: No, sir.

OBAMA: OK. Good. Because elected officials, you guys can’t -- you can’t hog the mike right now.

QUESTION: No, sir. I’m a pastor.

OBAMA: Oh, God bless you.

QUESTION: Mount Zion Baptist Church in the city of St. Louis.

My question has to do with foreign policy.

OBAMA: Yes, sir?

QUESTION: While we spend so much money with Afghanistan and in other parts of the world fighting and what have you and the continent of Africa, Sudan, Darfur, and other places, the poverty level is so high, so many people are dying, is there the chance in your administration that we would (inaudible) that area?

OBAMA: Well, it’s a good question.

(APPLAUSE)

Let me first of all say that whatever arguments we had about Iraq, I think, we’ve been able to build a consensus that it is time for us to bring our troops home and give the responsibility over to the Iraqis.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: We are doing it in a careful way because we don’t want the country to collapse. That would not be in our strategic interests. There’s been recent flare-ups of violence in Iraq that are highly sensationalized. And that indicates the degree to which this is a -- a ramp-down that is conducted over the course of 18 months. I think that’s the right thing to do.

In Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, we do have real problems with the Taliban and Al Qaida. They are the single most direct threat to our national security interests.

And I had some grumblings and complaints from, you know, certain factions in the Democratic Party when I made a decision to send 17,000 additional troops there. I understand people’s concerns. But, as commander-in-chief, it is my responsibility to make sure that bin Laden and his cronies are not able to create a safe haven within which they can kill another 3,000 Americans or more. That’s an obligation that I have.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, having said that, both on Iraq and Afghanistan, I think we’re doing the right thing. I think it’s difficult. It’s going to require a new strategy that mixes not just military action, but also includes diplomacy and development. We can’t neglect these other parts of the world.

So I’ve appointed a special envoy, a Major General Scott Gration, very close friend of mine, was one of the top fighter pilots in -- in our military, in our armed forces, and somebody who’s also an expert on development issues. He just returned from Sudan. We are trying to find a way to create peace and stability that will allow the kind of humanitarian assistance that’s needed to take effect in that country.

But -- but you’re making a broader point, which is, there are a lot of countries, not just in Africa, but in Asia and Eastern Europe, et cetera, that need our help.

And sometimes people ask me, “Why should we help other countries when we’ve got so much to do here at home?” I mean, foreign aid is very unpopular. I’m telling you, it’s probably the single most unpopular thing. If you just ask the average American, they’ll say, “Why should we be giving money to other countries?” And people usually grossly overestimate how much our foreign aid budget is. You ask people, they’ll say, “Well, we give 10 percent of our federal budget away in foreign aid.” Actually, it’s 1 percent. We give less in foreign aid than any other wealthy country, as a percentage of our GDP.

Here is the reason why it’s important. The reason why it’s important is that a lot of times we can advance our national interests more effectively by showing that we are interested in the well-being of the people of other countries.

That makes those countries more predisposed to work with us on a whole range of issues that are very important to us. It’s an important tool for us to be able to meet our national security interests.

So, for example, let me just give you one very specific example. If, in Latin America, where I just returned, people see that we are sending doctors, and teachers, and Peace Corps workers into these communities, that that’s the face of America, when it come time -- when it comes time for them to help us on drug interdiction, it’s a lot easier for the president of a Colombia or a Mexico to ally themselves with us, because we’re known to the Mexican people or the Colombian people as good friends, as people who care about them.

And that may actually then ultimately save us money in the long term because we don’t end up having to send troops in and do some things ourselves because we’ve got allies to work with us.

So not only is it the right thing to do from an ethical and moral perspective, but it is also good strategy.

And -- and -- and so I’ve said to the Congress, even in these difficult times, we need to do some additional work, in terms of foreign assistance, because it will save money for us and lives, blood and treasure for us in the long term.

OBAMA: I mean, you know, right now, everybody is concerned about the swine flu, and properly so. This is a potentially serious issue, and we’ve got to monitor it very carefully.

But think about it: If Mexico has a good, strong public health system that is catching these things early, ultimately that’s going to save us money, because flu gets contained.

And a lot of the threats that we’re going to be facing, whether it’s international terrorism, cyberterrorism, nuclear proliferation, pandemic, climate change, a lot of these issues, they cross borders. So it’s not like we can just draw a moat around America and say, “I’m sorry, you know, don’t bother us. Keep your problems outside.”

It just doesn’t work that way. People get on planes from Africa and will bring a disease right here to our doorstep because we weren’t concerned about whether or not they had a public health system that could catch these diseases early.

So this is all part of our -- our interests and not just -- not just other people’s, all right? OK.

I was told that I have time for one more question. Now, I want to -- I’m sorry, guys, but I’m going to go with a student, because young people, this is their school, but I want a young lady, because it’s a young lady’s turn.

This young lady right here. This is the one, the one with the lei on. All right, here you go. She looks ready with a good question.

QUESTION: It’s an honor to meet you, President Obama. My name...

OBAMA: Thank you so much. What is your name?

QUESTION: My name is Laurel Bonebreak (ph), and I’m a fourth- grader. I was curious, how is your administration planning to be more environmentally friendly?

OBAMA: Well, that is just a great question.

(APPLAUSE)

You’re a very poised and articulate fourth-grader.

(APPLAUSE)

Yes. Isn’t -- isn’t she impressive? Yes, absolutely. We might have to run you for president some day.

Well, there are some short-term things we can do and there are some long-term things we can do. On the short-term list, we already, for example, passed a historic public lands bill that creates many more acres of public space that is environmentally protected from -- you know, from logging and from other -- from mining and -- and from other uses. And that, I think, is going to be very important.

Now, in some cases, what we do is we balance the need for economic growth, but we do it in a sustainable way. You know, there doesn’t have to be a contradiction between jobs and the environment. We just have to be thinking a little smarter.

And so, for example, when it comes to forestry, there’s nothing wrong with us cutting down some -- some -- some trees for -- for timber as long as you make sure that it’s done in a sequence and is spaced properly so that the forest itself is sustained.

You know, sometimes these debates become this all-or-nothing thing. Either commercial interests can do anything they want -- dump stuff in the oceans, and tear down all the forests, and that’s the only way we can get economic growth -- or, alternatively, you know, everybody is hugging trees and you can’t cut a tree and you -- you know, there’s -- there’s a balance that can be struck. And the key principle is sustainability.

OBAMA: Are what we are doing going -- will it ensure that you have this incredible treasure we call America when you grow up for your kids, so you can take them into a park, so sportsmen or fishermen can enjoy it? That’s the key.

Now, there is a long-term problem that we’ve got to deal with, and this is a tough one. And that is this issue of climate change. I want to tell you the truth here because this is going to be a debate that we’re going to have having over the course of the next year.

You know, the average person probably things, yeah, climate change, that’s kind of a drag, but it’s not one of my top priorities because you don’t really see it or feel it. It doesn’t hit your pocketbook. It doesn’t have to do with your job directly.

And so the tendency is just to kind of push it off. People think, well, this is just has to do with polar bears and I feel bad about polar bears, but, you know, I’ve got other things to worry about. I don’t think people fully appreciate the potential damage, economic damage, as well as environmental damage that could be done in we are not serious in dealing with this problem.

If the temperature goes up a couple of degrees, well, it will change weather patterns pretty significantly. It could create droughts in places where we haven’t had drought. It could bring insect-borne diseases up into places like Missouri that we haven’t seen before.

But we can probably manage. If the temperature of the planet goes up five degrees, you’re now looking at coastlines under water. You’re now looking at huge, cataclysmic hurricanes, complete changes in weather patterns. Some places will get hotter; some places will get colder.

Our economy would be disrupted by tens of trillions of dollars. So this is no joke. And the science shows that the planet is getting warmer faster than people expected. Even the most dire warnings -- it’s moved forward faster than anybody expected.

There’s -- they’re talking about, just in a few years, during the summer, there will no -- there won’t be any ice in the Arctic. Something we have -- we have never seen before. So we have to do something about it.

Now, the question, again, is how do you do it in an intelligent way. There are some people who would say this is such a big problem that you’ve just got to shut everything down. Well, I’m sorry. That’s not going to happen.

People have got to go to work. We’ve got to drive. We’ve got to fly places. You know, our economy has to grow. But there are ways that we can do it that are intelligent and smart. And I think one of the best ways to do it is to say in a gradual way, let’s set a cap, a ceiling on the carbon pollution that comes out of all sorts of places -- our utilities, our cars, our industries. Let’s take a look at all the carbon that’s being sent in the atmosphere that’s causing climate change, and let’s say that each year we’re going to reduce the allowable amount in total that is released.

And what we’ll do to each industry is we’ll say we’re going to make a deal with you. Come up with ways to improve your processes and bring pollution down, and you can make money by sending out less pollution.

On the other hand, if you have more pollution that are you were allowed, then you’re going to have to pay money. You start creating a market for the clean energy and you start making it more -- less economical to produce harmful energy.

OBAMA: Now, if we do that in a smart, gradual way and in a way that protects consumers from the initial attempts of utilities, for example, to pass on those costs to consumers, which is what they’ll try to do, so we’ve got to rebate money to make sure that people are held harmless, then I actually think that we can get control of this problem. We can save the polar bears, but more importantly, we can make sure that we are preserving our economy.

And here is the great opportunity: Everybody knows we’re going to have to do this. The country that gets there fastest, the country that’s the first one to figure out really good battery technology for a plug-in hybrid car, the first country that perfects wind power and solar power and knows how to get it from one place to another in an efficient way, that country will dominate the economy of the 21st century the same way that America dominated the 20th century.

I want that to be America. That’s what we’re fighting for.

All right, everybody, I had a good time. Thank you.

END

PRESIDENT OBAMA AT STRASBOURG TOWN HALL MEETING, 4/3/2009

Also posted here.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
___________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                   April 3, 2009

Rhenus Sports Arena
Strasbourg, France
2:18 P.M. (Local)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you so much. (Applause.) Good afternoon. Bon après-midi. (Applause.) And guten tag. It is a great honor for me to be here in Europe, to be here in Strasbourg. I want to make just a few acknowledgements. I want to thank the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, for being such a terrific friend. I want to thank his wife, Madam Sarkozy. They just hosted us at the palace and could not have been more gracious.

I want to thank the Charge d'Affaires, Mark Pekala, and his wife, Maria, who were helping to organize us; Vincent Carver, who's the Counsel General in Strasbourg. And I want to thank the Mayor of Strasbourg, Roland Ries, for his hospitality. (Applause.)

It is wonderful to be here with all of you and to have an opportunity not only to speak to you but also to take some questions. You know, oftentimes during these foreign trips you see everything from behind a window, and what we thought was important was for me to have an opportunity to not only speak with you but also to hear from you, because that's ultimately how we can learn about each other. But before I take some questions, I hope you don't mind me making a few remarks about my country and yours; the relationship between the United States and the relationship between Europe.

Strasbourg has been known throughout history as a city at the crossroads. Over thousands of years, you straddled many kingdoms and many cultures. Two rivers are joined here. Two religions have flourished in your churches. Three languages comprise an ancient oath that bears the city's name. You served as a center of industry and commerce, a seat of government and education, where Goethe studied and Pasteur taught and Gutenberg imagined his printing press.

So it's fitting because we find ourselves at a crossroads as well -- all of us -- for we've arrived at a moment where each nation and every citizen must choose at last how we respond to a world that has grown smaller and more connected than at any time in its existence.

We've known for a long time that the revolutions in communications and technology that took place in the 20th century would hold out enormous promise for the 21st century -- the promise of broader prosperity and mobility; of new breakthroughs and discoveries that could help us lead richer and fuller lives. But the same forces that have brought us closer together have also given rise to new dangers that threaten to tear our world apart -- dangers that cannot be contained by the nearest border or the furthest ocean.

Even with the Cold War now over, the spread of nuclear weapons or the theft of nuclear material could lead to the extermination of any city on the planet. And this weekend in Prague, I will lay out an agenda to seek the goal of a world without nuclear weapons. (Applause.)

We also know that the pollution from cars in Boston or from factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, and that that will disrupt weather patterns everywhere. The terrorists who struck in London, in New York, plotted in distant caves and simple apartments much closer to your home. And the reckless speculation of bankers that has new fueled a global economic downturn that's inflicting pain on workers and families is happening everywhere all across the globe.

The economic crisis has proven the fact of our interdependence in the most visible way yet. Not more than a generation ago, it would have been difficult to imagine that the inability of somebody to pay for a house in Florida could contribute to the failure of the banking system in Iceland. Today what's difficult to imagine is that we did not act sooner to shape our future.

Now, there's plenty of blame to go around for what has happened, and the United States certainly shares its -- shares blame for what has happened. But every nation bears responsibility for what lies ahead, especially now, for whether it's the recession or climate change, or terrorism, or drug trafficking, poverty, or the proliferation of nuclear weapons, we have learned that without a doubt there's no quarter of the globe that can wall itself off from the threats of the 21st century.

The one way forward -- the only way forward -- is through a common and persistent effort to combat fear and want wherever they exist. That is the challenge of our time -- and we can not fail to meet it, together.

Now, we take for granted the peace of a Europe that's united, but for centuries Strasbourg has been attacked and occupied and claimed by the warring nations of this continent. Now, today in this city, the presence of the European Parliament and the Council of Europe stand as symbols of a Europe that is united peaceful and free. (Applause.)

Now, we take this peace and prosperity for granted, but this destination was not easily reached, nor was it predestined. The buildings that are now living monuments to European unity were not drawn from simple blueprints. They were born out of the blood of the first half of the 20th century and the resolve of the second. Men and women had to have the imagination to see a better future, and the courage to reach for it. Europeans and Americans had to have the sense of common purpose to join one another, and the patience and the persistence to see a long twilight struggle through.

It was 61 years ago this April that a Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe helped to deliver hope to a continent that had been decimated by war. Amid the ashes and the rubble that surrounded so many cities like this one, America joined with you in an unprecedented effort that secured a lasting prosperity not just in Europe, but around the world -- on both sides of the Atlantic.

One year later, exactly 60 years ago tomorrow, we ensured our shared security when 12 of our nations signed a treaty in Washington that spelled out a simple agreement: An attack on one would be viewed as an attack on all. Without firing a single shot, this Alliance would prevent the Iron Curtain from descending on the free nations of Western Europe. It would lead eventually to the crumbling of a wall in Berlin and the end of the Communist threat. Two decades later, with 28 member nations that stretched from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, NATO remains the strongest alliance that the world has ever known.

At the crossroads where we stand today, this shared history gives us hope -- but it must not give us rest. This generation cannot stand still. We cannot be content merely to celebrate the achievements of the 20th century, or enjoy the comforts of the 21st century; we must learn from the past to build on its success. We must renew our institutions, our alliances. We must seek the solutions to the challenges of this young century.

This is our generation. This is our time. And I am confident that we can meet any challenge as long as we are together. (Applause.)

Such an effort is never easy. It's always harder to forge true partnerships and sturdy alliances than to act alone, or to wait for the action of somebody else. It's more difficult to break down walls of division than to simply allow our differences to build and our resentments to fester. So we must be honest with ourselves. In recent years we've allowed our Alliance to drift. I know that there have been honest disagreements over policy, but we also know that there's something more that has crept into our relationship. In America, there's a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.

But in Europe, there is an anti-Americanism that is at once casual but can also be insidious. Instead of recognizing the good that America so often does in the world, there have been times where Europeans choose to blame America for much of what's bad.

On both sides of the Atlantic, these attitudes have become all too common. They are not wise. They do not represent the truth. They threaten to widen the divide across the Atlantic and leave us both more isolated. They fail to acknowledge the fundamental truth that America cannot confront the challenges of this century alone, but that Europe cannot confront them without America.

So I've come to Europe this week to renew our partnership, one in which America listens and learns from our friends and allies, but where our friends and allies bear their share of the burden. Together, we must forge common solutions to our common problems.

So let me say this as clearly as I can: America is changing, but it cannot be America alone that changes. We are confronting the greatest economic crisis since World War II. The only way to confront this unprecedented crisis is through unprecedented coordination.

Over the last few days, I believe that we have begun that effort. The G20 summit in London was a success of nations coming together, working out their differences, and moving boldly forward. All of us are moving aggressively to restore growth and lending. All of us have agreed to the most substantial overhaul of our international financial system in a generation. No one is exempt. No more will the world's financial players be able to make risky bets at the expense of ordinary people. Those days are over. We are ushering a new era of responsibility, and that is something we should all be proud of. (Applause.)

As we take these steps, we also affirm that we must not erect new barriers to commerce; that trade wars have no victors. We can't give up on open markets, even as we work to ensure that trade is both free and fair. We cannot forget how many millions that trade has lifted out of poverty and into the middle class. We can't forget that part of the freedom that our nations stood for throughout the Cold War was the opportunity that comes from free enterprise and individual liberty.

I know it can be tempting to turn inward, and I understand how many people and nations have been left behind by the global economy. And that's why the United States is leading an effort to reach out to people around the world who are suffering, to provide them immediate assistance and to extend support for food security that will help them lift themselves out of poverty.

All of us must join together in this effort, not just because it is right, but because by providing assistance to those countries most in need, we will provide new markets, we will drive the growth of the future that lifts all of us up. So it's not just charity; it's a matter of understanding that our fates are tied together -- not just the fate of Europe and America, but the fate of the entire world.

And as we restore our common prosperity, we must stand up for our common security. As we meet here today, NATO has still embarked on its first mission overseas in Afghanistan, and my administration has just completed a review of our policy in that region.

Now, I understand that this war has been long. Our allies have already contributed greatly to this endeavor. You've sent your sons and daughters to fight alongside ours, and we honor and respect their service and sacrifice.

And I also know that there's some who have asked questions about why are we still in Afghanistan? What does this mean? What's its purpose? Understand we would not deploy our own troops if this mission was not indispensable to our common security. As President, I can tell you there's no decision more difficult, there's no duty more painful, than signing a letter to the family of somebody who has died in war.

So I understand that there is doubt about this war in Europe. There's doubt at times even in the United States. But know this: The United States of America did not choose to fight a war in Afghanistan. We were attacked by an al Qaeda network that killed thousands on American soil, including French and Germans. Along the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan, those terrorists are still plotting today. And they're -- if there is another al Qaeda attack, it is just as likely, if not more, that it will be here in Europe in a European city.

So I've made a commitment to Afghanistan, and I've asked our NATO partners for more civilian and military support and assistance. We do this with a clear purpose: to root out the terrorists who threaten all of us, to train the Afghan people to sustain their own security and to help them advance their own opportunity, and to quicken the day when our troops come home.

We have no interest in occupying Afghanistan. We have more than enough to do in rebuilding America. (Applause.) But this is a mission that tests whether nations can come together in common purpose on behalf of our common security. That's what we did together in the 20th century. And now we need an alliance that is even stronger than when it brought down a mighty wall in Berlin.

That's why we applaud France's decision to expand and deepen its participation in NATO, just as we support a strong European defense. That's why we welcome Croatia and Albania into the fold. And that is why we must ensure that NATO is equipped and capable of facing down the threats and challenges of this new age. This is one of our central tasks.

And we also know that in the 21st century, security is more complex than military power. This is the generation that must also stop the spread of the pollution that is slowly killing our planet, from shrinking coastlines and devastating storms to widespread misery and famine and drought. The effects of climate change are now in plain sight.

Europe has acted with a seriousness of purpose that this challenge demands. And in the last few months I'm proud to say that America has begun to take unprecedented steps to transform the way that we use energy. We appointed a special envoy to help us lead a global effort to reduce the carbon that we send in the atmosphere.

But we all know that time is running out. And that means that America must do more. Europe must do more. China and India must do more. Rolling back the tide of a warming planet is a responsibility that we have to ourselves, to our children, and all of those who will inherit God's creation long after we are gone. So let us meet that responsibility together. I am confident that we can meet it. But we have to begin today. (Applause.)

And let us resolve that when future generations look back on ours, they will be able to say that we did our part to make this world more peaceful.

It's perhaps the most difficult work of all to resolve age-old conflicts, to heal ancient hatreds, to dissolve the lines of suspicion between religions and cultures, and people who may not look like us, or have the same faith that we do, or come from the same place. But just because it's difficult does not make the work any less important. It does not absolve us from trying.

And to that end, America will sustain our effort to forge and secure a lasting peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. I've sent a clear message to the leaders and peoples of Iran that while we have real differences, we also have mutual interests, and we seek new engagement based on mutual respect. And it is in that spirit that America and Europe must reach out to the vast majority of Muslims in our nations and in all nations. We seek only hope of peace and partnership, and the opportunity of a better life.

We cannot simply solve these conflicts militarily. We have to open our minds and we have to open our hearts to the differences among us and the commonalities between us. With every threat that we face, a new day is possible. We can't get there alone. As it was in the darkest days after World War II, when a continent lay in ruins and an atomic cloud had settled over the world, we must make the journey together.

We know that transformational change is possible. We know this because of three reasons: First, because, for all our differences, there are certain values that bind us together and reveal our common humanity: the universal longing to live a life free from fear, and free from want; a life marked by dignity and respect and simple justice.

Our two republics were founded in service of these ideals. In America, it is written into our founding documents as "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." In France: "Liberté" -- (applause) -- absolutely -- "egalité, fraternité." (Applause.) Our moral authority is derived from the fact that generations of our citizens have fought and bled to uphold these values in our nations and others.

And that's why we can never sacrifice them for expedience's sake. That's why I've ordered the closing of the detention center in Guantanamo Bay. (Applause.) That's why I can stand here today and say without equivocation or exception that the United States of America does not and will not torture. (Applause.)

The second way that we can turn challenge into opportunity is through our persistence in the face of difficulty. In an age of instant gratification, it's tempting to believe that every problem can and should be solved in the span of a week. When these problems aren't solved, we conclude that our efforts to solve them must have been in vain. But that's not how progress is made. Progress is slow. It comes in fits and starts, because we try and we fail and then we try something else. And when there are setbacks and disappointments we keep going. We hold firm to our core values, and we hold firm to our faith in one another.

The third reason we know that we can change this world is because of men and women like the young people who are here today. Each time we find ourselves at a crossroads, paralyzed by worn debates and stale thinking, the old ways of doing things, a new generation rises up and shows the way forward. As Robert Kennedy once told a crowd of students in South Africa, "It is a revolutionary world that we live in, and thus, it is young people who must take the lead." (Applause.) Because young people are unburdened by the biases or prejudices of the past. That is a great privilege of youth. But it's also a tremendous responsibility because it is you who must ultimately decide what we do with this incredible moment in history.

We just emerged from an era marked by irresponsibility, and it would be easy to choose the path of selfishness or apathy, of blame or division. But that is a danger that we cannot afford. The challenges are too great. It is a revolutionary world that we live in, and history shows us that we can do improbable, sometimes impossible things. We stand here in a city that used to stand at the center of European conflict; only now it is the center of European union. We did that together. Now we must not give up on one another. We must renew this relationship for a new generation, in a new century. We must hold firm to our common values, hold firm to our faith in one another. Together, I'm confident that we can achieve the promise of a new day.

Thank you very much. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you very much. (Applause.) Please, everybody have a seat. So the way this works -- do we have microphones in the audience? Yes? So just raise your hand if you want a question, and I will call on you. I think we have some translators. If you want to speak French and German, my French and German are terrible. But we have people who speak very good French and very good German who will translate your question, and translate my answer. And I will try to get as many questions as I can get in, in the remaining 20 minutes or so that we have.

And I will start with this young lady right here. Yes, you, right there. (Laughter.) Please introduce yourself. Hold on, I can't hear you yet. Can we increase the sound on the mic? Let's try again. Oh, I called -- now, I just want to say I did not call on the American on purpose. (Laughter.)

Q (Inaudible.)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, after only two months, that's kind of a big question. (Laughter.) But here's what I would like to see. And, look, you aim high knowing that you'll make mistakes and sometimes you'll fall short.

Number one, my first task is to restore the economy of the United States, but, in concert with other nations, to restore global economic growth. That's my number one task, because we are going through the worst crisis since the 1930s.

That means that not only do we have to fix the banking system, put common-sense regulations in place to prevent a crisis like this from ever happening again, making sure that we are keeping trade relationships between countries open -- but it also means helping developing countries and poor countries who, through no fault of their own, have been devastated by this crisis, and if we allow them to collapse will ultimately be a drag on our ability to prosper.

Emerging markets have actually been the drivers of economic growth over the last several years. If we can get millions of Chinese to prosper, that is ultimately good for us. If we can get all the Indians in poverty to suddenly be able to buy a refrigerator or send their children to college, that will raise everybody's living standards, because those will be enormous new markets for all of us.

So what I want to be able to do is not only fix the immediate crisis, but, working in partnership with other countries, create a path for sustainable, responsible growth. And I think we can do that. There are a lot of people who benefit from globalization, but there are also people who have been harmed by globalization. Globalization in and of itself can be good, but can also be destructive.

If we create the right framework so that what happened in the banking system can't happen again, then globalization can be good for everybody and lift everybody's living standards up. And by the way, history has shown us that we are most vulnerable to war and conflict when people are desperate economically. And nobody knows that history more than Europe.

So that would be number one. Number two is I would like to be able to say that as a consequence of my work, that we drastically lessened the threat of not only terrorism but also nuclear terrorism. And we can't reduce the threat of a nuclear weapon going off unless those who possess the most nuclear weapons -- the United States and Russia -- take serious steps to actually reduce our stockpiles.

So we are going to -- (applause) -- so we want to pursue that vigorously in the years ahead. And I had a excellent meeting with President Medvedev of Russia to get started that process of reducing our nuclear stockpiles, which will then give us greater moral authority to say to Iran, don't develop a nuclear weapon; to say to North Korea, don't proliferate nuclear weapons.

In my own country, what I think is very important is that we finally get a health care system that is reliable and cost-effective. That's something that -- (applause) -- you know, that's a social safety net that exits in almost all of Europe that doesn't exist in the United States. You have millions of people who work hard every single day, but if they get sick they could potentially lose everything. And in a country as wealthy as ours, that's not acceptable to me.

So we are going to work hard to make sure that we have a health care system that won't be identical to what you have in Europe -- each country has its own traditions and approaches -- but that provides people quality, affordable, accessible health care.

And then, I would like to see us in the United States take the lead on a new approach to energy -- because none of the developed countries are going to be able to sustain their growth if we don't start using energy differently, and the world cannot survive all countries using energy in the same ways that we use it.

I was meeting with the Indian Prime Minister yesterday after the summit -- a very good and wise man, Prime Minister Singh -- and he was talking about how Indian growth rates have gone up 9 percent every year. They need to grow at that pace in order to bring hundreds of millions of people in their country out of abject poverty, desperate poverty. They have to grow at a rapid pace.

Now, he actually is committed to working towards dealing with the climate change issue, but he made a very simple point, which is a point that I understood before the meeting and all of us should not forget -- and that is that you cannot expect poor countries, or relatively poor countries, to be partners with us on climate change if we are not taking the lead, given that our carbon footprint is many times more than theirs per capita. I mean, each one of us in the developed world, I don't care how environmentally conscious you are, how green you are -- I'm sure there are some green folks here --

Q Yes!

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yes! I don't care how green you are, you are -- you have a much bigger carbon footprint than the average Indian, or the average person from China. And so we in developed countries then -- it's critical for us to lead by example by becoming more energy efficient, and we also have to harness technology and shared scientific breakthroughs in order to find more sustainable energy patterns.

Now, I've got other things that I want to do, but that's a pretty long list. Let me go on to a few more questions. (Applause.)

All right, now, I know there's some other Americans in the crowd. (Applause.) But do me a favor, Americans, wait till we get back home and I'll do a town hall there -- (laughter and applause) -- because I want to hear from my French and German and European friends. All right. And -- wait, wait, wait -- this gentleman right here in the glasses.

Q Thank you, Mr. President. I'm a student from Heidelberg, Germany, and -- (applause) -- my mother tongue is German, but my French is not good enough, so I ask my question in English.

You mentioned in your speech that we are a lucky generation. We live in peace, we live in democracies and free states, and we really -- we are very pleased to have this situation in Europe. But this is not the case all over the world, even not in Europe. Look to Belarus, for example; there's an autocratic regime.

And so my question concerns the many children all over the world that live in poverty, under human rights violation. They have hunger, they have no education, and other problems. So what is your strategy, Mr. President, to solve this problem?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, it's an excellent question, and the -- first of all, I think one of the things that we should be very proud of from the G20 summit yesterday was that we made a significant commitment to additional resources through the IMF and other mechanisms to provide assistance to emerging markets and poor countries that, as I said, are bearing the burden of a collapse in the financial system that they had nothing to do with.

The problem is so many of these countries had export-oriented markets, and when the economies contracted in our developing nations, it made them extremely vulnerable. You know, you have a country like Botswana, which is actually a well-managed country that has made enormous progress, but their main revenue generator is diamond sales, and they have literally seen the diamond market collapse -- in part because they couldn't get trade financing, in part because the demand in developed countries has dropped off. So we started to make progress there. Our most important task right now is helping them get through this crisis.

Over the long term, though, we've got to have a strategy that recognizes that the interest of the developed world in feeding the hungry, in educating children, that that's not just charity; it's in our interest. There's not a direct correlation between poverty and violence and conflict and terrorism. But I can tell you that if children have no education whatsoever, if young men are standing idle each and every day, and feel completely detached and completely removed from the modern world, they are more likely, they are more susceptible to ideologies that appeal to violence and destruction.

If you have no health facilities whatsoever in countries in Africa, these days a pandemic can get on a plane and be in Strasbourg or New York City or Chicago overnight. So we better think about making sure that there are basic public health facilities and public health infrastructure in those countries, because we can't shield ourselves from these problems. So that means developed countries have to increase aid, but it also means that the countries who are receiving aid have to use it wisely.

My father was from Kenya. And when I traveled to Kenya -- I had just been elected to the United States Senate -- everybody was very excited and they greeted me as if I was already a head of state, and there were people waving and lining the streets. I went to speak at a university and I had to be honest, which was, America has an obligation to provide Kenya help on a whole range of issues, but if Kenya doesn't solve its own corruption problem, then Kenya will never grow. It will never be able to provide for its own.

And so there's nothing wrong with the developed nations insisting that we will increase our commitments, that we will design our aid programs more effectively, that we will open up our markets to trade from poor countries, but that we will also insist that there is good governance and rule of law, and other critical factors in order to make these countries work.

We spend so much time talking about democracy -- and obviously we should be promoting democracy everywhere we can. But democracy, a well-functioning society that promotes liberty and equality and fraternity, a well-functioning society does not just depend on going to the ballot box. It also means that you're not going to be shaken down by police because the police aren't getting properly paid. It also means that if you want to start a business, you don't have to pay a bribe. I mean, there are a whole host of other factors that people need to -- need to recognize in building a civil society that allows a country to be successful. And hopefully that will -- that approach will be reflected not just in my administration's policies but in the policies that are pursued by international agencies around the world. Okay, good. (Applause.)

All right, right up -- I've got two of you, so you have to choose one. Which one should I call on? (Laughter.) I don't want to -- you're standing right next to each other. Oops. Well, I'm sorry, you know what, he actually called on the -- no, no, no, I was actually pointing down here. I didn't see those two ladies back there. Here you go, this one right here. Go ahead.

Q Well, hello, Mr. President. I'm sorry, I'm from Chicago, excuse me. (Applause.)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Are you?

Q I'm also a student in the high school -- the international high school --

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, no, I'm sorry, if you're American I can't -- (laughter.)

Q I'm also French. (Applause.)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on. She said she's also French. What does that mean?

Q Double nationality.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Dual nationality. What do you think, should we let her ask the question? (Applause.) Okay, go ahead.

Q Thank you. Do you think that the economic crisis is an opportunity to restructure our industries in an ecological and sustainable way? And I also was wondering whether the dog was already in the White House or not. (Laughter.)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: The -- we are getting a dog. This is a very important question in the United States -- (laughter) -- what kind of dog we're getting and when we're getting it. It should be there soon.

I do think that in crisis there's always opportunity if it's used properly. So, for example, in the United States we decided to pass a large stimulus package to help growth at a time when the private sector was having a very difficult time.

Now, we could have just spent the money on the same old ways of doing things, but part of what we've decided was, if we're going to be spending a lot of government money anyway, why not spend it to double the amount of renewable energy? Why not spend it on retrofitting existing government buildings so that we drastically reduce their energy consumption? Why not start building high-speed rail?

One thing that, as an American who is proud as anybody of my country, I am always jealous about European trains. And I said to myself, why can't we have -- (applause) -- why can't we have high-speech rail? And so we're investing in that as well.

So on the transportation front, on -- with respect to building construction, on a whole range of issues, we are investing in new technologies that will make us more energy efficient. And that is one of the building blocks that's needed in order for us to reduce our carbon footprint and to work with other countries to achieve the climate change goals that I think are going to be so important.

I'm getting the signal that I've only got time for two more questions. Oh! I'm going to ask that young man in the suit -- because he got dressed up today. I know he doesn't usually wear a suit -- yes. Go ahead, go ahead.

Q I just want to know what do you expect from the French and the European countries regarding the war on terror?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good. That's a good question. Look, I think that over the last seven, eight years, as I said in my speech, a lot of tensions have developed between the United States and Europe. And one of the legacies, I hope, from my administration is, is that we start bringing our historic alliance back together in a much more effective way.

Now, that doesn't mean that we're not going to have honest disagreements. All countries have disagreements between themselves. But I think that we can work much more effectively and cooperatively, and maintain that core trust that we have towards each other.

Nowhere have we seen more suspicion than around questions of war and peace and how we respond to terrorism. When 9/11 happened, Europe responded as a true friend would respond to the United States, saying, "We are all Americans." All of us have a stake in ensuring that innocent people who were just going about their business, going to work, suddenly find themselves slaughtered -- all of us have an interest in preventing that kind of vicious, evil act.

But after the initial NATO engagement in Afghanistan, we got sidetracked by Iraq, and we have not fully recovered that initial insight that we have a mutual interest in ensuring that organizations like al Qaeda cannot operate. And I think that it is important for Europe to understand that even though I'm now President and George Bush is no longer President, al Qaeda is still a threat, and that we cannot pretend somehow that because Barack Hussein Obama got elected as President, suddenly everything is going to be okay.

It is going to be a very difficult challenge. Al Qaeda is still bent on carrying out terrorist activity. It is -- don't fool yourselves -- because some people say, well, you know, if we changed our policies with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or if we were more respectful towards the Muslim world, suddenly these organizations would stop threatening us. That's just not the case.

It is true that we have to change our behavior in showing the Muslim world greater respect, and changing our language and changing our tone. It is true that we have to work very hard for Israeli-Palestinian peace. But what is also true is that these organizations are willing to kill innocent people because of a twisted, distorted ideology. And we, as democracies and as people who value human life, can't allow those organizations to operate.

So here's the bottom line. The United States has reviewed and redesigned its approach to Afghanistan. We believe that we cannot just win militarily. We have to win through development aid. We have to win through increasing the capacity of the Afghan government to provide basic services to its people and to uphold rule of law. We have to work with the Pakistani government so that they are more trusted by their population and have more control so that they can then go -- help us go after these terrorists. We have to encourage diplomacy in the region.

So it can't just be a military strategy and we will be in partnership with Europe on the development side and on the diplomatic side. But there will be a military component to it, and Europe should not simply expect the United States to shoulder that burden alone. We should not because this is a joint problem and it requires joint effort. (Applause.)

One last point I will make. In dealing with terrorism, we can't lose sight of our values and who we are. That's why I closed Guantanamo. That's why I made very clear that we will not engage in certain interrogation practices. I don't believe that there is a contradiction between our security and our values. And when you start sacrificing your values, when you lose yourself, then over the long term that will make you less secure. When we saw what happened in Abu Ghraib, that wasn't good for our security -- that was a recruitment tool for terrorism. Humiliating people is never a good strategy to battle terrorism.

So we are going to conduct our operations in a way that reflect our best selves and make sure that we are proud. And that, in turn, will allow the Europeans, I think, to feel good about our joint efforts, and also not to have excuses not to participate in those joint efforts. All right? (Applause.)

Okay, last question. All right, let me see here. All right, that young lady in the red right there, right there. She had all her friends helping her out.

Q Thank you. Hi, I'm Enis Otto (phonetic) from Heidelberg. (Applause.) And I'm totally European. (Laughter.) And first of all, I wanted to tell you that your name in Hungarian means "peach."

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Peach?

Q Yes.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Oh, okay. Well, how about that. I did not know that.

Q Yes, now you know it. And we wanted to know if you -- did you ever regret to have run for presidency till now? I mean, well, did you ever ask yourself, am I sure to manage -- yes.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yes, it's a good question. (Applause.) Michelle definitely asked that question. (Laughter.) You know, there are -- there have been times, certainly, during the campaign, and there have been times over the last several months where you feel a lot of weight on your shoulders. There's no doubt about it.

During the campaign, the biggest sacrifice -- the thing that was most difficult was that I was away from my family all the time. In addition to missing -- in addition to being jealous about high-speed rail and the nice trains here, I'm also jealous of the fact that campaigns here only last a few months, whereas in the United States we were running for two years. So I was away from home all the time, and that was very difficult because not only do I have a wonderful wife, but I have two perfect daughters. And so, you know, I missed them a lot. (Applause.)

But the nice thing is now that I'm President, it turns out I have this really nice office in my house called the Oval Office, and so it only takes me a few seconds to get upstairs, and I'm home for dinner every night.

You also lose privacy and autonomy -- or anonymity. You know, it's very frustrating now -- it used to be when I came to Europe, that I could just wander down to a café and sit and have some wine and watch people go by, and go into a little shop, and watch the sun go down. Now I'm in hotel rooms all the time and I have security around me all the time. And so just -- you know, losing that ability to just take a walk, that is something that is frustrating.

But having said all that, I truly believe that there's nothing more noble than public service. Now, that doesn't mean that you have to run for President. (Applause.) You know, you might work for Doctors Without Borders, or you might volunteer for an -- or you might be somebody working for the United Nations, or you might be the mayor of Strasbourg. Right? (Applause.) I mean, they're all -- you might volunteer in your own community.

But the point is that what I found at a very young age was that if you only think about yourself -- how much money can I make, what can I buy, how nice is my house, what kind of fancy car do I have -- that over the long term I think you get bored. (Applause.) I think your life becomes -- I think if you're only thinking about yourself, your life becomes diminished; and that the way to live a full life is to think about, what can I do for others? How can I be a part of this larger project of making a better world?

Now, that could be something as simple as making -- as the joy of taking care of your family and watching your children grow and succeed. But I think especially for the young people here, I hope you also consider other ways that you can serve, because the world has so many challenges right now, there's so many opportunities to make a difference, and it would be a tragedy if all of you who are so talented and energetic, if you let that go to waste; if you just stood back and watched the world pass you by.

Better to jump in, get involved. And it does mean that sometimes you'll get criticized and sometimes you'll fail and sometimes you'll be disappointed, but you'll have a great adventure, and at the end of your life hopefully you'll be able to look back and say, I made a difference.

All right. Thank you, everybody. (Applause.)

END
3:18 P.M. (Local)

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT "OPEN FOR QUESTIONS" TOWN HALL, 3/26/09

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
__________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                              March 26, 2009

East Room

11:39 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you so much.  Well, it is great to see all of you.  And I am thrilled that all of you here in the White House and everybody who is viewing this online is participating in this experiment that we're trying out.  When I was running for President, I promised to open up the White House to the American people.  And this event, which is being streamed live over the Internet, marks an important step towards achieving that goal.  And I'm looking forward to taking your questions and hearing your thoughts and concerns -- because what matters to you and your families, and what people here in Washington are focused on, aren't always one and the same thing.

Here in Washington, politics all too often is treated like a game.  There's a lot of point scoring, a lot of talk about who's up and who's down, a lot of time and energy spent on whether the President is winning or losing on this particular day or this particular hour.  But this isn't about me.  It's about you.  It's about the folks whose letters I read every single day.  And for the American people, what's going on is not a game.  What matters to you is how you're going to find a new job when nobody seems to be hiring or how to pay medical bills after you get out of the hospital or how to put your children through college when the money you'd put away for their tuition is no longer there.

That's what matters to you.  That's what you expect your leaders to be focused on.  And that's why I've been working to deliver the changes you sent me here to make; to ensure that we're not only making it through this crisis, but come out on the other side stronger and more prosperous as a nation over the long term.  That's the future that I believe is within our reach. 

But that future will not come about on its own.  It will come because we all, every single one of us, from Main Street to the halls of Congress, do what generations of Americans have done in times of trial; because we remember that at heart we are one nation, and one people, and united by a bond that no division of party or ideology can break; because we come together as Americans to choose that better day.

And that's what we've already begun to do.  We, as a nation, have already begun the critical work that will lead to our economic recovery.  It's a recovery that will be measured by whether jobs are being created and families have more money to pay their bills at the end of each month.  That's why we're preventing teachers and police officers from being laid off, and putting Americans to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges and dams, creating or saving 3.5 million jobs in the coming years.

And that's why we're putting a tax cut into the pockets of 95 percent of working families who will see it -- see that tax cut in their paycheck by April 1st.

It's a recovery that will be measured by whether families can achieve that most American of dreams, and own a home without fear of losing it.  That's why we've launched a plan to stabilize the housing market and help responsible homeowners stay in their homes.  This plan is one of the reasons that mortgage interest rates are now at near-historic lows.  And we've already seen a jump in refinancings of mortgages, and homeowners taking advantage of lower rates.  And every American, by the way, should know that up to 40 percent of all mortgages right now are eligible for refinancing.

It's a recovery that will be measured by whether families and entrepreneurs can get the loans they need.  That's why we're freeing up credit that's frozen with a program that supports the market for more car loans, and student loans, and small business loans; and with a plan that will partner government resources with private investment to break the logjam that is currently preventing our banks from lending money to even the most creditworthy customers.

And in the end, it's a recovery that will be measured by whether it lasts, whether it endures; by whether we build our economy on a solid foundation instead of a overheated housing market or maxed-out credit cards or the sleight of hand on Wall Street; whether we build an economy in which prosperity is broadly shared.  That's what the budget I expect to sign is intended to do.  It's a budget that cuts the things we don't need to make room for the investments we do; a budget that cuts the massive deficits we've inherited in half by the end of my first term and offers a blueprint for America's success in the 21st century.

That success will require preparing every child, everywhere in this country, to out-compete any worker anywhere in the world because we know that those students who are getting the best education are going to be able to compete.  And that's why we're making a historic investment in early childhood education.  That's why we're going to make a historic investment in improving K-12 education, making sure that our children get a complete and competitive education from the cradle up through a career.  It's an investment that will expand and improve not just early learning programs, but reward good teachers while replacing bad ones, and put college or technical training within reach for anyone who wants it.

Our success will also require freeing ourselves from the dangerous dependence on foreign oil by building a clean-energy economy, because we know that with this will not only come greater security and a safer environment, but new high-paying jobs of the future to replace those that we've lost. 

And our success will also require controlling spiraling health care costs that are bankrupting families, and crushing businesses, and driving up skyrocketing deficits.  At the current course and speed, these health care costs are unsustainable.  And that's why my budget takes a first big step towards comprehensive health care reform that will reduce costs, improve care and ensure that everyone who works has coverage they can afford.

This is what Americans' success demands and this is what our budget will do.  And I'm under no illusions that a better day will come about quickly or easily.  It's going to be hard.  But as I said the other night at my press conference, I'm a big believer in the idea of persistence -- the idea that when the American people put their mind to something and keep at it, without giving up, without turning back, no obstacle can stand in our way, and no dream is beyond our reach.  That's why we're here today -- because it will take all of us talking with one another, all of us sharing ideas, all of us working together to see our country through this difficult time and bring about that better day. 

So I want to thank all of you for this opportunity to talk with you.  And now I'd like to bring Jared back up to the stage, and he's going to open it up for questions.  So, Jared, let's see how this thing works.

DR. BERNSTEIN:  Thank you, Mr. President.  Our first question comes from Boston, Massachusetts, on the topic of education:  "The Founding Fathers believe that there is no difference between a free society and an educated society.  Our educational system, however, is woefully inadequate.  How do you plan to restore education as a right and core cultural value in America?"

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, it's a great question, and -- let me see if this mic works so that I'm not stuck at this podium.  I'm here only because of the education I received.  I wasn't born into wealth, I wasn't born into fame, but I had parents who cared about education and grandparents who cared about education, and I was lucky enough, through scholarships and sacrifice on the part of my family, to get the best education that America has to offer.

Too many of our children aren't getting that kind of education.  It's not because their parents don't believe in the value of education; it's not because these young people are less talented.  It's because of two reasons:  One, in many cases, our schools are under-resourced.  There aren't enough teachers; the teachers aren't getting enough of the training they need for the classroom; there's a shortage of supplies.  Some of the schools that I visited during the course of traveling around the country just shock the conscience.  There are schools that I've seen that were built in the 1850s that are still being used but haven't been upgraded the way they need to.

Now, there's a second problem, though, and it's one that money alone cannot solve, and that is that we have a school system that was designed for the agricultural era -- there's a reason why we've got three months off during the summer.  That's supposed to be when everybody is working on -- out on the farm and bringing in harvest.  And it's not just the amount of time our kids are spending, it's how our classrooms are designed, how curriculums are structured, how things like teacher promotion and training happen. 

So a lot of times in Washington we get an argument about money versus reform.  And the key thing to understand about our education system is we need more resources and we need reform.  If we just put more money into a system that's designed for the 19th century and we're in the 21st, we're not going to get the educational outcomes we need.  On the other hand, if we talk a lot about reform but we're not willing to put more resources in, that's not going to work. 

So let me give you just a couple examples of what we need to do.  Early childhood education we know works.  Let's invest in that.  That's what my budget calls for -- substantial investment; every dollar we invest in early childhood education, we get potentially $10 back in improved reading scores, reduced dropout rates, reduced delinquency rates and so forth.

Number two, let's focus on the most important ingredient in the school, and that's the teacher.  Let's pay our teachers more money.  Let's give them more support.  Let's give them more training.  Let's make sure that schools of education that are training our teachers are up to date with the best methods to teach our kids.  And let's work with teachers so that we are providing them measures of whether they're effective or not, and let's hold them accountable for being effective.

Now that doesn't mean just a single high-stakes standardized test.  It also means that we're working with teachers to determine, what's the best way to discipline -- maintain discipline in a classroom?  What's the best way to get kids excited about science?  Giving them the time and the resources to improve, but also having high standards of expectation in terms of their performance.

If we do early childhood education, if we focus on teacher training, if we invest in math and science education, which is vital -- and we're falling behind other countries on that front -- then I actually feel pretty confident that we can out-compete any country in the world.  But it's going to take more money and it's going to take more reform and it's going to take, by the way, openness to innovation on things like charter schools or performance pay.  There are a whole range of things that may work, in some cases may not work, but we've got to try some new things because right now too many of our kids are stuck, and we can't afford to lose them.

DR. BERNSTEIN:  The next question is on homeownership, from Heather from Ohio:  "President Obama, what benefits from the stimulus plan are there to those of us who are paying our mortgages but living paycheck to paycheck?"

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I mentioned this in the opening remarks.  This is something that I really want everybody to understand.  Our housing plan -- and we're devoting $50 billion to it -- has a number of different components.  One component is setting up a mechanism where people who just can't afford their mortgage right now are able to renegotiate with banks, and the banks lower their interest, and the homeowner assures that they're going to make a commitment to pay a certain amount every month, and the government helps to step in to bridge the gap.  But the point is, it's going to be cheaper, not only for that family but also potentially for the entire community, if they stay in their home.

And so that's -- that part of the housing plan is targeted for folks who are really in distress.  They're getting close to the point where they might be losing their home.

But there are a whole bunch of folks out there who are not about to walk away from their home, but are getting killed right now because their home values have dropped drastically; they're still making payments, but they're in trouble.  And for that huge set of responsible homeowners out there, I want people to understand what we've done is created mechanisms in the credit markets that have lowered mortgage rates down to historic levels, and what we've done is we've opened it up so that FHA loans that used to be only for people with a certain mortgage level, that we are using FHA and other mechanisms to open up refinancings to a whole bunch of homeowners who previously weren't qualified.

So now what you've got is a situation where 40 percent of the people sitting here, 40 percent of the people who are participating in this virtual town hall, could potentially refinance their mortgage.  And they've got to take advantage of that.  We are providing additional support from the government in order to facilitate those refinancings.  We're starting to see refinancings go up significantly. 

So you have the potential to cut your monthly payments, but you've got to take advantage of it.  And if you need more information, you can go on our web site, whitehouse.gov, or you can contact your local bank and find out whether you qualify to participate in this refinancing.

DR. BERNSTEIN:  Next we have a video question from Harriet in Georgia about bringing jobs back to America:  "Hello, President Obama.  Here is my question for your online town meeting.  When can we expect that jobs that have been outsourced to other countries to come back and be made available to the unemployed workers here in the United States?  Thank you so much for all your hard work.  God bless you.  Bye-bye."

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I appreciate that.  Let me talk more, first of all, broadly about what's happening in the job market.  We have had just a massive loss of jobs over the last several months, the kind of job loss we haven't seen at least since the early '80s and maybe since the 1930s, in terms of how quickly we've seen the economy shed jobs.

A lot of that is prompted by the financial crisis and the locking up of the credit markets.  And that's why when we are -- when we talk about dealing with this credit crisis and the banks, I just want everybody to understand it's not because we're overly concerned about Wall Street or a bunch of CEOs; it's because if we don't fix credit, if we don't get liquidity back to small businesses and large businesses alike who can have that -- use that line of credit to buy inventory and to make products and sell services, then those businesses shrivel up and they start laying people off.

Ultimately, our measure of whether we're doing a good job or not is, are we going to be able to create and save jobs?  And part of that involves fixing the financial system.

There is a long-term issue, though, that we have to deal with -- and this was true even before the current crisis -- and that is that so much of our economic activity was in the financial services sector.  It was related to an overheated housing market.  It was dependent on huge amounts of consumer saving.  And we were seeing those steady declines in manufacturing.  We were seeing steady declines in a lot of other productive sectors of the economy.  And one of the things that my budget is designed to do is, by fixing our education system, by reducing costs of health care, by going after the clean-energy jobs of the future, trying to put our economy on a more solid footing.

Now, a lot of the outsourcing that was referred to in the question really has to do with the fact that our economy -- if it's dependent on low-wage, low-skill labor, it's very hard to hang on to those jobs because there's always a country out there that pays lower wages than the U.S.  And so we've got to go after the high-skill, high-wage jobs of the future.  That's why it's so important to train our folks more effectively and that's why it's so important for us to find new industries -- building solar panels or wind turbines or the new biofuel -- that involve these higher-value, higher-skill, higher-paying jobs.

So I guess the answer to the question is, not all of these jobs are going to come back.  And it probably wouldn't be good for our economy for a bunch of these jobs to come back because, frankly, there's no way that people could be getting paid a living wage on some of these jobs -- at least in order to be competitive in an international setting.

So what we've got to do is create new jobs that can't be outsourced.  And that's why energy is so promising.  We've been talking about what's called a smart grid, and some of you may have heard of this.  The basic idea is, is that we're still using an electricity grid that dates back 100, 150 years ago.  Well, think about all the gizmos you guys are carrying -- (laughter) --all the phones and the BlackBerrys and the this and the that.  You're plugging in all kinds of stuff in your house.  We've got an entirely new set of technologies, huge demands in terms of energy, but we've got a grid that's completely outdated.

Now, one of the things that we wanted to do in the stimulus package was to go ahead and start laying a new grid.  And to do that, it's like building the Transcontinental Railroad.  You've got a -- it's a huge project involving all 50 states.

The benefits of the grid are that we could reduce our energy costs by billions of dollars.  We could set up systems so that everybody in each house have their own smart meters that will tell you when to turn off the lights, when the peak hours are, can help you sell back energy that you've generated in your home through a solar panel or through other mechanisms.  If we get plug-in hybrid cars, you can plug it in at night and sell back electricity to the utility, and then charge up your car again in the morning before you leave. 

All this can be done, but it also creates jobs right now.  Our biggest problem, we don't have enough electricians to lay all these lines out there.  And these are jobs -- these are union jobs that potentially pay $80,000-$90,000 a year, with benefits. But it's a matter of making the investment in infrastructure and also then training the workers to be able to get those jobs.  And that's where we're going to be focused on.  That's where the job growth is going to occur.

One last point I want to make -- and I know I'm not supposed to talk this long, but we're going to have to be patient and persistent about job creation because I don't think that we've lost all the jobs we're going to lose in this recession.  We're still going to be in a difficult time for much of this year.  Employment is typically what's called a lagging indicator.  Now, this is -- Dr. Bernstein, he's a Ph.D. economist, so he'll correct me if I'm wrong here, but --

DR. BERNSTEIN:  I'm sure I can make this really confusing.  (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT:  But historically, if you look at every recession, what happens is that when the economy starts getting in trouble, it takes a while before businesses decide, you know what, this economy is in trouble, it's not bouncing back -- we better start laying off workers.  So what we're seeing now is a lot of businesses have decided that our sales are way down, we've got to start shedding workers.  And that's going to continue for a while.

Now, the reverse is true, as well.  When the economy starts recovering, when these businesses start being a little more confident that, you know what, we think we've bottomed out; the recovery package President Obama passed gives us some optimism about making investments in certain areas -- it takes a while before they start hiring even if they've started to make these investments.

So the reason I point that out is, I don't want people to think that in one or two months suddenly we're going to see net job increases.  It's going to take some time for the steps that we've taken to filter in.  The fact that the housing market is starting to stabilize a little bit -- there's still a lot of inventory out there before people then actually start building new homes.  At some point people are going to start buying new cars again, but it's going to take a little bit of time for the automakers to get back on their feet.

So employment is something that we're going to have a difficult time for the next several months, maybe through the end of this year, but I'm confident that we're taking the steps that are required to create these new jobs of the future.

DR. BERNSTEIN:  After the last recession ended in 2001, the unemployment rate went up for another 19 months before it started coming back down. 

This next question -- an area close to your heart -- health care reform.  From Richard in California:  "Why can we not have a universal health care system, like many European countries, where people are treated based on needs rather than financial resources?"

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, first of all, I was in this room last month in what we called a health care forum.  And we brought all the members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats who were interested in this issue; we brought together various constituency groups, insurance companies, drug companies, you name it.  And my message to them was:  Now is the time to reform the health care system -- not four years from now, not eight years from now, not 20 years from now.  Now. 

And the reason -- (laughter) -- the reason that I think it is so important is that the high costs of health care are a huge drag on our economy.  It's a drag on our families.  I can't tell you how many personal stories that I hear about people who are working, maybe have two parents working and yet still don't have health care.  And the decisions that they have to make -- excruciating decisions about whether or not somebody goes to a doctor -- it makes them less productive, it makes them less mobile in terms of being able to take new jobs or start a new business because they're worried about hanging on to their health care.  So it's a drag on families.

But it's a drag on businesses, as well.  There's not a small business or large business out here who hasn't seen their health care costs skyrocket, and it cuts into their profits. 

And it's a drag on the federal budget and the state budgets.  That's the thing that is going to potentially break the bank here in the United States.  Medicare and Medicaid, if we don't get control of that, that is the biggest driver of our long-term deficits. 

So when people -- when you hear this budget debate that's taking place right now, and folks say, oh, you know, President Obama's budget, he's increasing money for veterans and he's increasing money for education, and he's doing all these things that -- that's going to bust the budget, what they don't understand is, is that if you add up the recovery package that we've already passed and you add up the various proposals I have to grow the economy through clean energy and all that stuff that we're doing, that amounts to a fraction of the long-term deficit and debt that we're facing.  The lion's share of it has to do with Medicare and Medicaid and the huge, rising cost of health care.  So our attitude is, better to pay now and make an investment in improving the health care system rather than waiting and finding ourselves in a situation where we can't fix it.

Now, the question is, if you're going to fix it, why not do a universal health care system like the European countries?  I actually want a universal health care system; that is our goal.  I think we should be able to provide health insurance to every American that they can afford and that provides them high quality. 

So I think we can accomplish it.  Now, whether we do it exactly the way European countries do or Canada does is a different question, because there are a variety of ways to get to universal health care coverage.

A lot of people think that in order to get universal health care, it means that you have to have what's called a single-payer system of some sort.  And so Canada is the classic example:  Basically, everybody pays a lot of taxes into the health care system, but if you're a Canadian, you're automatically covered.  And so you go in -- England has a similar -- a variation on this same type of system.  You go in and you just say, "I'm sick," and somebody treats you, and that's it.

The problem is, is that we have what's called a legacy, a set of institutions that aren't that easily transformed.  Let me just see a show of hands:  How many people here have health insurance through your employer?  Okay, so the majority of Americans, sort of -- partly for historical accident.  I won't go into -- FDR had imposed wage controls during war time in World War II.  People were -- companies were trying to figure out how to attract workers.  And they said, well, maybe we'll provide health care as a benefit. 

And so what evolved in America was an employer-based system.  It may not be the best system if we were designing it from scratch.  But that's what everybody is accustomed to.  That's what everybody is used to.  It works for a lot of Americans.  And so I don't think the best way to fix our health care system is to suddenly completely scrap what everybody is accustomed to and the vast majority of people already have.  Rather, what I think we should do is to build on the system that we have and fill some of these gaps. 

And I'm looking to Congress to work with me to find that optimal system.  I made some proposals during the campaign about how we can lower costs through information technologies; how we can lower costs through reforms in how we reimburse doctors so that they're not getting paid just for the number of operations they're doing, but for whether they're quality outcomes; investing in prevention so that kids with asthma aren't going to the emergency room, but they're getting regular checkups.

So there are a whole host of things that we can do to cut costs, use that money that we're saving then to provide more coverage to more people.  And my expectation is, is that I will have a health care bill to sign this year.  That's what we're going to be fighting for.  That's what we're going to be striving for.

Can I just interrupt, Jared, before you ask the next question, just to say that we -- we took votes about which questions were going to be asked and I think 3 million people voted or --

DR. BERNSTEIN:  Three point five million.

THE PRESIDENT:  Three point five million people voted.  I have to say that there was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy -- (laughter) -- and job creation.  And I don't know what this says about the online audience -- (laughter) -- but I just want -- I don't want people to think that -- this was a fairly popular question; we want to make sure that it was answered.  The answer is, no, I don't think that is a good strategy -- (laughter) -- to grow our economy.  (Applause.)

So -- all right.

DR. BERNSTEIN:  Thank you for clearing that up.  (Laughter.)  This next question comes from Columbia, South Carolina:  "The unemployment rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is higher than the national unemployment rate.  Our veterans are a national treasure.  How can you, the VA, and I ensure our veterans are successfully transitioning into civilian life?"

THE PRESIDENT:  That's a great question.  You know, I had just an extraordinary honor -- yesterday was Medal of Honor Day.  And I went to Arlington National Cemetery, and we had a ceremony in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with a collection of Medal of Honor winners from all our various wars. 

And a special place of honor was a guy named John Finn, who had been present the day Pearl Harbor was bombed.  He was on one of the ships, was shot by -- was strafed by the fire from the planes coming in, and yet still had the presence of mind to shoot down a plane, and won the Medal of Honor -- or was awarded the Medal of Honor for that.

And it just reminds you that we wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for the sacrifices of earlier veterans.  We would not -- (applause) -- we would not enjoy the same safety and security and liberty that we do. 

So when our veterans come home from Iraq and Afghanistan -- and they have performed brilliantly, they have done everything that's been asked of them, regardless of what your views are on these wars -- they have earned these benefits that all too often we fail to give them. 

And that's why in my budget we are increasing veterans funding by more than any time in the last 30 years.  We're going to make sure that we deal with the -- (applause) -- we're going to make sure that deal with the backlog that too many veterans experience in terms of getting benefits.  We're going to make sure that homeless veterans are receiving housing and services. 

The homeless rate for veterans is multiple times higher than it is for non-veterans.  That's inexcusable.  It means that we're going to provide services for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, that we're going to provide services for Traumatic Brain Injury that are the signature injuries of these recent wars.  So we are going to significantly increase veterans spending. 

Now, just as is true generally, government alone can't do it.  So all of us individually are going to have roles.  If you're a business owner, hiring a veteran, not discriminating against somebody who's a veteran is going to be absolutely critical.  In your communities, in your churches, in your neighborhoods, making sure that there's outreach and celebration of veterans when they come home, that's going to be critical. 

I think we've done a much better job during these wars than we did during Vietnam, where in many cases our treatment of veterans was inexcusable.  But we can always do more.  Government is going to do its role, and then we've got to make sure that our communities do their role, as well.

DR. BERNSTEIN:  Mr. President, the next video will be our last Internet question before we turn to the audience for Q&A for follow-up.  Let me also note that this question from Alex in Ohio happens to be about the same topic that the Middle Class Task Force is focusing on this month.  Let's turn to this:

"Hi, Mr. President.  My name is Alex.  My name is Kristin (ph).  And I'm Mallory (ph).  We are all sophomores at Kent State University in Ohio.  We really like the emphasis you've put on education so far in your administration, but we're concerned about higher education.  Our question is:  What proposals do you have to make college more affordable and to make student loans easier to get?  And when will your national service program be available so we can take advantage of the scholarship?  Thank you, Mr. President!"

THE PRESIDENT:  That was pretty well done.  (Laughter and applause.)  Well, I am very excited about the possibility that we may be able to get national service done in the next few weeks.  National service was a priority for me during the campaign, partly because of my own biography.  I found my calling when I became a community organizer working in low-income neighborhoods when I was 22, 23 years old.  And it gave me a sense of direction, a sense of service, it helped me grow, it helped me give back.  And I think there are young people all across America who are eager for that opportunity. 

And so what we've said during the campaign was, let's set up a situation where every young person who is so inspired can take advantage of service, and in exchange they will help be able to finance their educations. 

And I'm confident that we're about to get legislation passed.  And once that legislation is passed, I think that before the end of the year potentially we can get something implemented on that front.

In addition, what we are also doing is to try to make the student loan and student grant programs that are already in place work better.  So just to give you one example, right now a lot of the student loan programs run through banks, but a lot of them go directly to students from the government -- so-called direct loans.  The banks make several billion dollars' worth of profits off managing these student loans, which would be okay except for the fact that these loans are guaranteed by the federal government.

So, the reason banks are able to make money lending you is because -- that there's some risk that you might not pay it back, plus you're giving up the use of your money for -- they're giving up the use of their money for a while.  If, on the other hand, this is the government's money and they're just a pass-through, it doesn't seem very sensible that banks should be making money that way.

So what we've said is let's make all these direct loans, as opposed to having bank intermediaries or -- and not just banks -- financial services organizations.  They can make profits on other things, but let's not have them make profits on this.  Let's take those billions of dollars, and that then allows us to either lower student loan rates or expand grants. 

And one of the things that we want to do is on the Pell grant program, for example.  We want to increase the amount of the Pell grant so that it catches up with inflation and we want to -- we want more young people to be eligible for the Pell grant program.  And that's particularly important because anybody who's financed their educations understands that grants are a lot better than loans.  And when I was going to college, about -- and this was typical for I think college students -- the average student who needed financial assistance, about 70 percent of it came in grants and about 30 percent of it came in loans.  Today, it's reversed:  30 percent come in grants; 70 percent come in loans.  And so students are loaded up with $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 worth of debt -- and this is just for their undergraduate education; that doesn't even start counting their higher ed.

And if you come out of college with $50,000 worth of debt, it's hard for you to then start making a decision about wanting to be a teacher, or wanting to go into social work, or wanting to be a scientist and research to find the next innovation.  You may decide, well, the only thing I can do is to work on Wall Street or work in a big corporation that's not doing cutting-edge research. 

And we want people -- all that's fine, I mean, those are good career choices -- but we want our young people to have more flexibility, not to mention we want them to be able to -- if they choose to get married, to be able to buy a home and start a family without already having essentially a mortgage that they're carrying with them out of college, before they even buy a house.

So we're going to spend -- this is another area where we devote a considerable amount of money in our budget.  And I just want to remind you of this, because we're having this budget debate in Washington right now.  And again, everybody says -- a lot of the critics out there are saying, how is it that you're going to be spending all this money?  We've got to worry about the deficit, et cetera. 

I just want to remind you that the money that we are spending on education, on health care, and on energy -- if you added up all that increased money that we're spending, it still is not what's driving our long-term deficits.  What's driving it is Medicare, Medicaid, a structural gap that we have because of the Bush tax cuts over the last several years that left us spending a lot more than we were saving.

And it's going to take us a while to dig our way out of that problem.  But the way to dig our way out of that problem is not to shortchange investments in our people.  A lot of -- I'll bet there are a bunch of families here who are making some tough choices right now, and who are scrimping a little bit and saving.

Now, somebody could make the same argument to you that folks are making to us with respect to the budget, which is, you can't afford to be sending your kids to college right now.  That's fiscally irresponsible.  You're taking out debt for your kids to get an education.  It's better for you to just put them to work right now at a fast-food place, and they'll be bringing in a little bit of income.  And maybe later they can go to college.

Well, most of us don't make that decision, because we understand that making the investment now will lead to greater opportunity, greater economic advancement later.  Well, the same thing is true in our economy.  We can't shortchange the investments that will allow us to grow in the future. 

We're going to have to impose discipline and eliminate programs that don't work, and we're doing that.  We're cutting this budget by $2 trillion.  And we're cutting the deficit in half by the end of my first term.

But what we can't shortchange are those things that are going to allow us to grow long term.  I don't want us to constrict and reduce our ambitions, and set our sights lower for our kids and the next generation, because we weren't willing to make those investments now.  That's not how America works.  (Applause.)

All right.  So now -- the folks here have been very patient, so all of you who are watching this live-streaming online, we're actually going to have some live stuff instead of some virtual stuff.  We're going to ask -- get some questions or comments from the audience.  And I'm going to go boy, girl, boy, girl -- (laughter) -- to avoid anybody being mad at me.  We'll start right there, yes.  And we've got some microphones so everybody can hear you.

Q    Mr. President, my name is Ellie (ph).  I'm from Maryland, but I'm originally from Michigan.  I have family members who work for GM and Ford.  I know the top executives have made -- of the auto companies -- have made a lot of bad moves over the years, but I can't imagine the suffering that we would see in the Midwest if these companies went under.  So my question to you is, what specific steps do you see your administration taking about the health of the auto industry?

THE PRESIDENT:  Okay.  It is a very topical question because I'm going to be making some announcements over the next several days about the auto industry.  I don't want to make all the news here today, so I'm not going to be as specific as you'd like, but I guarantee in the next few days you will have a very extensive answer on what we need to do.

Let me give you my general philosophical approach, and that is that we need to preserve a U.S. auto industry.  I think that's important.  I think it's important not just symbolically; it's important because the auto industry is a huge employer -- not just the people who work for GM or Ford or Chrysler, but all the suppliers, all the ripple effects that are created as a consequence of our auto industry. 

But my job is also to protect taxpayers.  And you're right -- there's been a lot of mismanagement of the auto industry over the last several years.

Now, right now we are in such a bad crisis that even Toyota is losing a whole lot of money.  So typically you're looking at $14 million -- or 14 million new cars are sold every year.  Is that right, Jared, in an average year for our population?  It's gone down to 9 [million].  Everybody has pulled back -- partly because the credit-crunch people couldn't get auto loans; people were worried about, am I going to keep my job, so they decided let's put off buying the new car.  The point is, is that you've seen this huge drop-off.  So every automaker is getting killed right now.

I think it is appropriate for us to say, are there ways that we can provide help for the U.S. auto industry to get through this very difficult time -- but the price is that you've got to finally restructure to deal with these long-standing problems.  And that means that everybody is going to have to give a little bit -- shareholders, workers, creditors, suppliers, dealers -- everybody is going to have to recognize that the current model, economic model, of the U.S. auto industry is unsustainable.  Even if sales go back to 14 million, which eventually they will, it's still a model that doesn't work.  Just trying to build more and more SUVs and counting on gas prices being low and that's your only profit margin, that's just not a model that's going to work.

So what we're expecting is that the automakers are going to be working with us to restructure.  We will provide them some help.  I know that it is not popular to provide help to autoworkers -- or to auto companies.  But my job is to measure the costs of allowing these auto companies just to collapse versus us figuring out, can they come up with a viable plan?  If they're not willing to make the changes and the restructurings that are necessary, then I'm not willing to have taxpayer money chase after bad money.

And so a lot of it's going to depend on their willingness to make some pretty drastic changes.  And some of those are still going to be painful because I think you're not going to see a situation where the U.S. automakers are gaining the kind of share that they had back in the 1950s.  I mean, we just didn't have any competition when -- back then, Japan was in rubble, Europe was in rubble -- we were the only players around.  And that's not going to be true.  This is going to be a competitive global market.  We have to make those adjustments.

All right.  Okay.  It's a gentleman's turn.  All right, this gentleman right here.  We got a microphone behind you.

Q    Good afternoon, Mr. President.  My name is Carlos Del Toro.  I served in the Navy for 26 years, retired four years ago, and started a small business.  So I first want to thank you for all the efforts that you and your administration has done on behalf of veterans and also on behalf of small businesses.

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, we appreciate your service.  Thank you.

Q    Thank you, sir.  My question is, one of the things that I have experienced over the last four years as a small business trying to do business in the federal procurement business, essentially, as a small engineering company, is the challenge of the bundling of contracts, which has made it increasingly difficult for service-disabled businesses -- all small businesses across the nation -- to compete basically within the federal procurement system.  I know that you believe in fair and open competition on a broad basis.  I would suggest to you, and my question to you is, will your administration look at this issue and try to unbundle these contracts that make it more competitive for small businesses to work in the federal marketplace?

THE PRESIDENT:  It's a great question.  It's an issue that I'm familiar with.  Just by way of background for people who aren't as familiar with federal purchasing, the federal government is such a big customer that sometimes for administrative convenience, what they do is they just say, here, Halliburton, here's a contract for $20 billion to do all these various things, and then you sort of figure out how you're going to divvy it up.  Well, it may be that -- I'm sorry, what was your name?

Q    Carlos.

THE PRESIDENT:  It may be that Carlos has a better product to sell -- (laughter) -- you know, for a segment of that contract, but he can't bid on the entire thing, all right?  And so what ends up happening is the taxpayer loses the benefit of a better product at a better price because everything is bundled into this huge contract with a giant general contractor who then divvies up the business.

So one of the things that we're trying to figure out is, are there are ways that we can unbundle and unpackage some of these goods and services that the government purchases.  It'll save taxpayers' money.  It'll promote more competition.  Carlos is still going to have to bid.  He's still going to have to prove that his price is better and his product is better, but at least he's got a chance.

Now, we're not going to be able to do that on everything, because there are some things that, frankly, you need some economies of scale, right?  But what we want to do is make sure that we're looking for every opportunity to unbundle to give everybody a chance to compete so that we don't just have one or two or three major contractors who are getting every contract, because at a certain point what ends up happening is those contractors get so much clout in Washington, they're getting such huge contracts, then they start spending a million dollars on lobbyists to make sure that the contracts keep going the same way.  You start seeing the system distorted in ways that aren't healthy.  And the more players there are, the more Carloses there are who are out there scratching and striving to get some business, ultimately the better deal we'll get as taxpayers.

So, great.  Okay.  Here you go.

Q    My name is Linda Bock and I'm a registered nurse just in Prince George's County, Maryland -- been there 34 years at a free senior health center.  And I'm here with my fellow nurses from SEIU.  First of all, thank you for listening to us, because as nurses we do listen to our patients all the time.  We're their advocate.  And so we appreciate this opportunity for you to hear from us. 

One of the things we want to make sure is that nurses are represented in the health care forum committees -- reform committees because we want to be there on behalf of our fellow nurses and on behalf of the patients that we sometimes have to speak up for.  So I really hope that we can be there so we can push the things like prevention and education that are so very important so that we don't use our emergency rooms for their doctor visits and that we have more community-based health centers for those that are in need.  And I just -- I really appreciate this opportunity to be heard.

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I appreciate that.  I guarantee you nurses were part of the health care summit, and they will be at the table in all these discussions.  I'm biased toward nurses, I just like nurses -- (laughter).  When Michelle and I went in and Malia was being born, the OB/GYNE was a close friend of ours and so was much more attentive than the usual OB/GYNE might be.  But the fact is, we only saw her for like 15 minutes.  The rest of the time, it was nurses who were doing everything.  When Sasha, our little precious pea -- (laughter) -- she got meningitis when she was three months old -- very dangerous.  The doctors did a terrific job, but, frankly, it was the nurses that were there with us when she had to get a spinal tap, and all sorts of things that were just bringing me to tears. 

And we've got a problem in this country, which is we have a shortage of nurses -- makes no sense, given this unemployment rate.  But the reason is, is because the pay of nurses, the hours of nurses, the quality of life of nurses, the fact that nurse professors are even worse paid than the nurses themselves, so that you get these huge bottlenecks in terms of training as many nurses as we want.

All these issues are part of the inefficiency of the health care system that has to be fixed.  And the more we're emphasizing primary care, preventive care, wellness -- all of which will save us money in the long term -- the more that we can deploy nurses as the troops on the front lines in ultimately driving down some of these health care costs. 

So I think it's very important that nurses are a part of this process.

Here, we've got a mic.  I'm hanging on to my mic.  (Laughter.) 

Q    Yes, sir.

THE PRESIDENT:  I might not get it back.  (Laughter.)

Q    Sir, you're the President, you always get it back.  (Laughter.)  Sir, I'm Tom Sawner.  I'm a service-disabled veteran, small-business owner in Arlington, Virginia.  My company, Educational Options, works with public schools.  We serve more than 200,000 at-risk kids within public schools, providing online content, partnering with teachers, and I was honored to serve on your education platform committee.

THE PRESIDENT:  Wonderful.

Q    Today my question is, as a small-business owner, my company is still profitable.  We're still growing, we're still hiring.  The money that I make as a profit, I'm plowing right back in, and even the money that I pay to the bank for my business loans.  Yet under current tax laws, all of that counts as income to me before I ever see a penny of it.

Sir, could you please help small businesses by allowing, some way, somehow, money we pay to the bank in principle to not count against our income, and put us in the "richest" before we ever seem a dime, and allow us to invest in this huge engine to drive economic recovery?

And a final question:  As a veteran, would you please see if we can enforce the existing laws for veteran and other small-business set-asides?  Thank you, sir.

THE PRESIDENT:  Okay, good.  Well, thank you for the question.  Obviously, I'm not completely familiar with your circumstances or your tax status.  But we want to do everything we can to relieve the tax burden on startups and small businesses, and as they grow, then their tax burden is going to grow accordingly.

So one of the things that we have already proposed and is reflected in our budget is that we are eliminating capital gains taxes for small businesses.  That's something that we've already proposed and put in place.

Now, what'll happen is, you won't see that reflected in an immediate benefit because it will kick in five years from now.  The law starts now, but you have to have those capital gains accumulate over the course of five years before it counts, because we don't want people gaming the system.  But that's an example of the kinds of tools that we are already putting in place in the tax code to provide you relief, so that as you're reinvesting, that you are not penalized for that reinvestment.

And we will do everything we can to enforce the existing rules with regard to small businesses for veterans.

Okay, this young lady back here.

Q    Hi, Mr. President.  Thank you so very much for having me, a public school teacher from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, here to be with you.

THE PRESIDENT:  What's your name?

Q    Bonnee Breese.

THE PRESIDENT:  Good to see you, Bonnee.

Q    Thank you.  I'm from Overbrook High School.  I have to say that, because I know all the children are watching.  (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT:  All right.  Hello, Overbrook.  (Laughter and applause.)  There you go.

Q    Thank you.  Two questions in reference of education, since this is a major part of your budget plan and platform.  Definitions of charter schools and definitions of effective teachers -- how do you plan to define those two categories?  And are you willing to have teachers on the platform, in the committees, as a part of developing those plans?

THE PRESIDENT:  Absolutely.  Well, as I said, the teachers are the most important person in the education system.  So if we don't have teacher buy-in, if they're not enthusiastic about the reforms that we're initiating, then, ultimately, they're not going to work.  So we've got to have teacher participation in developing these approaches.

The definition of charter schools is pretty straightforward.  And that is that in most states you now have a mechanism where you set up a public school -- so this is not private schools, these are public schools receiving public dollars -- but they have a charter that allows them to experiment and try new things.  And typically, they're partnering up with some sort of non-for-profit institution. 

So, in Chicago, you've got charter schools that are affiliated with a museum, or they're affiliated with an arts program, and they may have a particular focus.  It may be a science charter school, or it may be a language academy.  They are still going to have to meet all the various requirements of a state-mandated curriculum; they're still subject to the same rules and regulations and accountability.  But they've got some flexibility in terms of how they design it.  Oftentimes they are getting parents to participate in new ways in the school.  So they become laboratories of new and creative learning.

Now, there are some charter schools that are doing a great job, and you are seeing huge increases in student performance.  And by the way -- one last point I want to make about these charters -- they're non-selective, so it's not a situation where they're just cherry-picking the kids who are already getting the highest grades; they've got to admit anybody.  And typically there are long waiting lines, so they use some sort of lottery to admit them.

Some of them are doing great work, huge progress and great innovation; and there's some charters that haven't worked out so well.  And just like bad -- or regular schools, they need to be shut down if they're not doing a good job.  But what charters do is they give an opportunity for experimentation and then duplication of success.  And we want to encourage that.  So that's the definition of charters. 

In terms of teachers, how we measure performance -- as I said before, I have been a critic of measuring performance just by the administering of a single high-stakes standardized test during the year, and then the teacher is judged.  And that was, I think, the biggest problem with No Child Left Behind.  It basically said that you just go in -- (applause) -- here's the standardized test, we'll see how the kids are doing; and because it doesn't even measure progress, you could have a very good teacher or a very good school in a poor area where test scores have typically been low, and they are still punished even though they're doing heroic work in a difficult situation.

The other problem is that you started seeing curriculums and teachers teaching to the test -- not because they want to, but because there's such a huge stake in doing well on these tests that suddenly the science curriculum, instead of it being designed around sparking people's creativity and their interest in science, it ends up just being, here's the test, here's what you have to learn -- which the average kid is already squirming enough in their seat; now they're thinking, well, this is completely dull, this is completely uninteresting.  And they get turned off from science or math or all these wonderful subjects that potentially they could be passionate about.

So what we want to do is not completely eliminate standardized tests -- there's a role for standardized tests.  All of us have taken them and they serve a function.  We just don't want it to be the only thing.  So we want to work with teachers to figure out how do we get peer review, how do we have evaluation -- I was just talking to Bill Gates yesterday and he was talking about the use of technology where you can use videos to look at really successful teachers and how they interact with their students, how they're monitoring students, et cetera, and then you bring in the teachers at the end of the day and, just like a coach might be talking to his players about how you see how on that play you should have been here and you could have done that -- same thing with teachers. 

But they don't get that feedback.  Usually, especially beginning teachers are completely isolated.  They're in this classroom -- they're sort of just thrown in to sink or swim.  Instead, let's use a variety of mechanisms to assess and constantly improve teacher performance.

Now, one thing I have to say -- I know you'll admit this, although maybe you can't on TV, but in private I'll bet you'd admit that during the -- how long have you been teaching?

Q    Fifteen years.

THE PRESIDENT:  Fifteen years.  Okay, so you've been teaching for 15 years.  I'll bet you'll admit that during those 15 years there have been a couple of teachers that you've met -- you don't have to say their names -- (laugher) -- who you would not put your child in their classroom.  (Laughter.)  See?  Right?  You're not saying anything.  (Laughter.)  You're taking the Fifth.  (Laughter.)

My point is that if we've done everything we can to improve teacher pay and teacher performance and training and development, some people just aren't meant to be teachers, just like some people aren't meant to be carpenters, some people aren't meant to be nurses.  At some point they've got to find a new career. 

And it can't be impossible to move out bad teachers, because that brings -- that makes everybody depressed in a school, if there are some folks -- and it makes it harder for the teachers who are inheriting these kids the next year for doing their job. 

So there's got to be some accountability measures built in to this process.  But I'm optimistic that we can make real progress on this front.  But it's going to take some time.  All right?

DR. BERNSTEIN:  Mr. President, we have --

THE PRESIDENT:  How many times --

DR. BERNSTEIN:  One more question, please.

THE PRESIDENT:  Oh, one more question.  Now, yelling -- just saying it right here is not going to get you the question.  (Laughter.)  You know what I'm going to do, is -- I hope I don't seem biased here; I'm going to go with a young person here.  Last question -- at least younger than me.  (Laughter.)

Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  My name is Sergio Salmeron.  I want to find out about health care.  In a society, a lot of times we have to step back and ask ourselves if what we're doing in principle, not in practice, is right.  And so when we think about health care, I want to know from you if the things like preexisting conditions and preventive medicine, if they are a symptom of what's going on in our health care system, then what is the problem and how do you address it?

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I'll talk to you about preexisting conditions, because this is something that I talked about during the campaign; it's something that touched on me personally.

My mother contracted ovarian cancer when she was 53, and she died six months later.  It's one of those cancers that typically is diagnosed very -- at late stages; it's hard to catch early. 

She was at the time working as an independent contractor.  She was working for an international assistance organization.  And so she had insurance, but when she was diagnosed and the medical bills started mounting up, some of -- this insurance company started saying that this is a preexisting condition, so maybe we don't have to reimburse you.  And we had to spend a bunch of time fighting with these insurance companies about this issue. 

Now, eventually we were lucky we got these costs approved, because the point was she didn't know, nobody had diagnosed it, and if you start having a -- the standard of preexisting condition is you might have had that illness some time at some point before you -- or you were genetically predisposed to it, potentially none of us would ever get any insurance. 

So -- but I still remember watching her -- you know, she's sick, she's going through chemotherapy, and she's on the phone arguing with insurance companies.  And she's lucky she had insurance.  There are tons of people out there who, once they've had one heart attack, once they've been diagnosed with diabetes, once they've got some form of chronic illness, from that point forward it is almost impossible for them to get health insurance.  And if their employer, especially if it's a small employer, wants to give them health insurance, the costs are so prohibitive that they can't do it even if the employer wants to help.

I mean, if Carlos has got a small business, if -- I don't know how many employees he has, but if he has 10 employees, 22 employees, and if one of them got a serious illness like leukemia, it would send his insurance rates skyrocketing to a point where he just couldn't operate.

So this is why any reform of the health care system I think has to address this issue, and to say we are going to allow anybody to get health insurance.  And if you've got a preexisting condition you're not going to be excluded but you're going to be able to obtain health insurance.  And if you can't obtain it through a private plan then there is going to a public plan that is available in some way to give you insurance, or insurers are obligated to provide you with insurance in some way.

Now that's a principle.  What are the details of how we're going to do that?  There are a lot of different approaches. 

We have seen some progress with the insurance companies where they have said, we are willing to take everybody in, but only if everybody is required to be in.  That's the position that they're taking right now.  So the idea is you combine a rule that eliminates preexisting condition exclusions with mandatory health insurance, just like auto insurance is mandatory.  That's a proposal they've put forward.

Now, that's progress in the sense that they've acknowledged that this preexisting condition situation is a real problem.  Whether that ends up being the best mechanism -- during the campaign, I was skeptical of mandates only because my attitude was the reason people don't have health insurance is not because they don't want it, it's because they can't afford it.  And if we drive down cost, then people will have it.

But that's part of the debate that's going to be taking place over the next several months as we try to develop a health care plan for the future. 

Okay?  Listen, I know that there were other people who had questions, both here in the live audience, as well as in our virtual audience.  But we're out of time.  I just want to say thank you for participating.  Thanks for paying attention.  And we need you guys to keep paying attention in the months and years to come.  (Applause.)

Thank you, everybody.  (Applause.)

END
12:50 P.M. EDT