President Obama Rallies Americans to Support Economic Stimulus

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President Obama Rallies Americans to Support Economic Stimulus | Photo 02

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President Obama is holding his first prime-time news conference in the East Room of the White House, to address the American public on the economic rescue plan this evening, Feb. 9.   The text of the President's opening remarks can be read here on NP.

NP readers can follow the news conference here:  Access to live streaming at 8 pm EST.

Earlier in the day, the President traveled to Elkhart, Indiana to hold a town hall meeting with the residents that have been hit with the highest unemployment rate that ranges from 15.3% to 18%.  Significantly, this was a staunchly Republican town that voted for Senator McCain during the presidential election. 

The President fielded random questions among the 1,700 people who attended the meeting.  The questions varied from foreclosure crisis, green energy and jobs, to the mechanism by which the economic stimulus funds will reach their community.  

The following highlights of the questions as provided by the White House:

Q: With respect to the stimulus bill, are there provisions in there that address green job issues, improvement of environmental issues, and those type of matters?

A: Under this plan, we would double the production of alternative energy -- double it from where it is right now….there is money allocated in this plan to develop the new battery technologies that will allow not just cars but potentially RVs as well to move into the next generation of plug-in hybrids….We also have put in money that provide for the weatherization of millions of homes across the country....If we don't use this crisis as an opportunity to start retooling, then we will never catch up and be able to compete effectively against Japanese automakers, Korean automakers, and we will find ourselves continuing to slide. This should be an opportunity for us to retool.

Q: We are truly tired of the economics that we have been getting that has got us into the position that we're in. That theory has been a trickle down. We need to trickle up. So I would hope in your philosophy about trying to kick-start the economy that the money gets directly to the people who are -- have homes that are foreclosed, the people that have lost jobs....So I would hope...that the money gets directly into the hands of the people who are hurting.

A: When it comes to tax cuts, you are exactly right that instead of providing tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, what I've been pushing in this plan is to make sure that the tax cuts go to working families. That is not only good for those families, it's actually good for the economy, because when you give a tax break to working families who are struggling, they will spend it on buying a new coat for the kids, or making sure that they get that car repaired that they use to get to work.

Q: What are you going to do about enticing companies to stay here in the United States once we have them?

A: The single most important factor I think in whether companies are going to continue to locate here in Elkhart and around the country is, what are we doing about education. Because the quality of the work force is probably what most companies are going to pay the most attention to over time…. What we should be looking for is how do we encourage high-wage, high-value work. And there the key is going to be how well we are training our work force….And over the next few days, as we are having these conversations, we should talk about how we can make sure that we're investing in education, because that's what's going to keep companies investing right here in the United States over the long term.

A nine-year old student also had an opportunity to ask the President the last question during the town hall meeting. 

The President: James, how old are you?

Q: I'm nine years old.

The President: Okay, fantastic. What's your question?

Q: What are you going to do to help our schools?

The President: Well, you know, I just started talking about that. So, James, as I said, I think that we've got to rebuild our schools to make sure that they're state of the art. We also have to make sure that we are training new teachers and retraining some of the existing teachers so that they've got the best possible skills.

We also are going to have to reform how we do business in some of the schools. I think it's very important for us to have high standards. I think we've got to do a better job, though, of assessing performance in schools. No Child Left Behind needs to be reworked in a more effective way.

But the last thing that we need in schools -- do in schools has nothing to do with money. It has everything to do with parents. Because we can put as much money as we want into schools -- if parents don't have an attitude that says, I'm going to make sure my child does my homework; that I'm meeting with the teacher to find out what's going on; if all of us aren't instilling a sense of excellence in our kids -- then they're not going to be able to compete. And that means young people like you, you're going to have to -- you're going to have to work a little harder.

Yes. Thank you, James.

The President: All right, everybody. God bless you. God bless America

Source:  President Obama's Q & A   Whitehouse.gov