In his March 7th weekly address, the President capped off a busy week in Washington remarking on new lending guidelines aimed at lowering mortgage payments; an initiative to generate funds for small business and college loans; the release of his administration’s first budget which includes $2T in deficit reduction, and the start of long overdue health care reform.
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President Obama made clear that while the economy he inherited seemed like it was in an endless free fall, “Well, that is not a future I accept for the United States of America.” The recovery plan will help make sure the graduating class he saluted today doesn’t find themselves hitting a brick wall of budget cuts, and can still find the work they thought would be there to support themselves and their families. And that is just one sector in just one town, something that will be replicated all over the country:
As always, White House Photographer Pete Souza captured the day in a way nobody else could:
But as important a step as yesterday was, there is a long way to go. The process will now fan out across the country, with a new series of Regional White House Forums on Health Reform which will be hosted by Governors in their states and will include doctors, patients, policy experts and everybody in between. The regional forums, which will be in California, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina and Vermont over the coming weeks, will be open conversations across ideological and partly lines that build off of what was learned in the forum yesterday, with a video from President Obama to kick them off.
“Health care reform is a fiscal imperative,” President Obama said. “Skyrocketing health care costs are draining our federal budget, undermining our long-term economic prosperity and devastating American families. The time for reform is now and these regional forums are some of the key first steps toward breaking the stalemate we have been stuck in for far too long. The forums will bring together diverse groups of people all over the country who have a stake in reforming our health care system and ask them to put forward their best ideas about how we bring down costs and expand coverage for American families.”
Today, Vice President Biden, U.S. Transportation Secretary LaHood, and Miami Mayor Diaz announced the availability of $8.4 billion in public transportation investments from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to states and local transportation authorities to repair and build America’s public transportation infrastructure.
“All over the country, resources are being put to work not only creating jobs now – but also investing in the future. A future that strengthens our transit system, makes us more energy efficient and increases safety,” said Vice President Joe Biden. Biden commuted by train from Delaware to Washington, DC daily while he was a US Senator.
Vice President Joe Biden shakes hands after speaking at the Intermodal project in Miami, Florida,
Thursday, March 5, 2009. White House Photo/David Lienemann
Our current automobile habits account for a substantial part of our nation’s carbon dioxide emissions. Public transportation projects like the ones that will be funded with this major investment, help the United States meet some of the daunting environmental challenges facing our nation and the world.
Access to mass-transit also helps by providing a wider range of work options to those who don’t own their own vehicles. “Investments in public transportation put people to work, but they also get people to work in a way that moves us towards our long term goals of energy security and a better quality of life,” said Secretary LaHood. The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) has found that every billion invested in federally aided public transportation capital projects supports 30,000 jobs.
Learn how much funding has been made available to repair and build the public transportation infrastructure in your state by visiting Recovery.gov.
We asked Rebecca Adelman of the Department of Health and Human Services, which today unveiled HealthReform.gov, to give us an inside look at the forum as it happens.
1:00: The media is filing in to the East Room as we close in on the start of the Forum on Health Reform. Guests are just beginning to arrive in the Grand Foyer, where they are receiving a copy of the Report on Health Care Community Discussions being presented to the President this afternoon. More on the contents of the report soon!
1:07: In the last ten minutes, the Grand Foyer has filled with members of Congress, health care experts and physicians, business owners, insurers, and everyday Americans – all with a stake in the health reform effort. The energy is building as guests make their way into the East Room.
1:09: The President just entered the room joined by Policy Director Melody Barnes, and Travis Ulerick, a firefighter and EMT who held a community discussion in his hometown of Dublin, Indiana.
[Ed. Note: Watch the President live-streamed here.]
1:15: Travis Ulerick tells the assembled group that the time is now to reform our health system. He thanks President Obama for challenging him to get involved – he held a discussion in his community in January that grappled with the problems in our health system, and submitted suggestions for reforming the system to the President’s health care team. Travis was one of over 30,000 Americans who held community discussions on health care over the holidays.
[Ed. Note: Read about discussions in your state at HealthReform.gov]
1:20: President Obama greets the packed house, saying “This was the hottest ticket in town.” The President’s first address at the Forum is unambiguous that we cannot delay health reform: “Our goal will be to enact comprehensive health reform by the end of this year.”
1:25: Before the group heads to breakout discussion sessions on the subject, the President says he believes this time around the effort to reform the health care system is different: “this time the call for reform is coming from the bottom up.”
1:30: The President concludes his first address to the forum guests, telling everyone to get to work: “this time there is no debate about whether all Americans should have quality, affordable health care – the only question is how?”
[Ed. Note: Few people explain the problems the country faces on health care better than Travis Ulerick, not because he's a leading political advocate, but because he lives those problems. We took some video of him and his town, it's a must-watch.]
[Ed. Note: We're pushing it to capacity but you can watch breakout sessions at the same live-stream link.]
2:20: US Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue addresses the panel, saying there is a “vigorous understanding” that improvement is needed and health care costs need to be lower. It’s an intense discussion, but productive.
2:32: On to the 3rd floor of the Executive Office building to another panel. Moderating this discussion are Valerie Jarrett and OMB’s Zeke Emanuel. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Senators Chris Dodd, Robert Bennett, Debbie Stabenow, and Bernie Sanders are among the 22 panelists. Chip Kahn of the Federation of American Hospitals and Pfizer’s Jeff Kindler are also part of the discussion.
[Ed. Note: Watch that breakout at this link]
2:50: I keep coming back to the report that Travis Ulerick presented to the President earlier this afternoon. As background, over the holidays, then President-elect Obama called on Americans to hold community discussions on health care. Over 9,000 Americans signed up to host in all 50 states – over 30,000 Americans attended a discussion near them. The groups submitted reports to the President’s health care team listing their concerns about the system and their suggestions for reform. The responses from around the country were summarized and analyzed in the report. And today, seven Americans who participated in these discussions are joining us at the White House today. There are a lot of “stakeholders” here at the Forum, but I have a sense that having those people here who engaged just as a way of standing up with their community keeps everybody grounded by realizing that every oridinary person is a “stakeholder” in this discussion.
[Ed. Note: Read the report in full (pdf)]
3:05: I just entered another one of the five breakout sessions as Sister Carol Keehan from the Catholic Health Association was passionately addressing her fellow panelists about the need for reform. Budget Director Peter Orszag and Secretary Shinseki are moderating.
[Ed. Note: Watch that breakout here. You can also find the OMB fact sheet on the budget for HHS here (pdf).]
3:16: Dan Danner from the National Federation of Independent Businesses urged Orszag’s panel to pay special attention to the voices of small business owners in the health reform debate, who are struggling to insure their workers because of skyrocketing costs. Danner told the lawmakers, including Congressmen Patrick Kennedy, Eric Cantor, and Senator Barbara Mikulski that “The status quo is not acceptable.”
3:25: Ron Pollack from Families USA just closed Orszag’s panel. He stressed to the assembled members of Congress that President Obama’s budget was the first important step in helping make health coverage affordable. Now we’re heading back to the East Room where the President will again address the group and take questions.
4:05: Everyone is seated – the President will enter any minute. This time the East Room is set up in a town hall style format, with seating on all sides of the podium. Sitting in the first row behind the President’s podium are the 7 everyday Americans who hosted health care discussions in their hometowns.
4:09: The President and surprise guest Senator Ted Kennedy were just introduced and walked in to the East Room together. The whole room leaps to their feet and erupts in cheering, the President introduces the Senator as “Sir Edward Kennedy” as the cheers subside. The two receive another sustained standing ovation.
4:20: The President passes the microphone to Senator Kennedy, who said “the time for action is now.” He said he looked forward to being a footsoldier in the reform effort and firmly stated: “This time we will not fail.” The room erupts in applause again.
5:15: The President closed with some marching orders – he asked the groups to stay involved, he promised a summary report describing the views aired today, and stressed it was time to move aggressively to achieve health care reform. He then addressed the notion that we are taking on too much in attempting reform this year. He said when times were good – when the economy was better and we were not at war, we failed to get it done. President Obama said there is always a reason not to do it – and he could think of no better time than now. Everyone stood and cheered as the President shook hands with participants and the event concluded.
It’s been a busy couple of weeks, and you might not feel like you truly got to know President Obama’s choice to head up the Commerce Department. Here’s your chance – we sat down with former Washington governor Gary Locke for this brief video:
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President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Gordon Brown walk along the colonnade between the residence and the West Wing of the White House. (White House photo 3/3/09 by Joyce N. Boghosian)“Where are the Brits? They’re over there,” President Obama said, playfully, during a press Q&A following a meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
“In fact, they’re everywhere,” Prime Minister Brown replied.
And in that spirit of Anglo-American equity, the President and Prime Minister took questions from reporters from both sides of the pond.
“I think that there are a set of shared values and shared assumptions between us,” President Obama said said during a meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. “That we believe in the free market, we believe in a government that is not overbearing and allows entrepreneurs and businesses to thrive, but we also share a common belief that there have to be sufficient regulatory structures in place so that the market doesn’t spin out of control.”
Answers to other questions, including clarification of rumors about a letter to the Russian President and reaction to the tragic shooting in Pakistan, are in the full transcript.
President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Gordon Brown meeting in the Oval Office of the White House. (White House photo 3/3/09 by Pete Souza)Celebrating Black Inventors, a place of inspiration for inner-city kids and youngsters that experience adversity, African-Americans' contributions to modern society past and present.
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