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Sun Apr 24 04:47:53 EDT 2011
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Weekly Address: "Instead of Subsidizing Yesterday's Energy Sources, We Need to Invest in Tomorrow's" -

WASHINGTON – In his weekly address, President Obama laid out his plans to address rising gas prices over the short and the long term.  While there is no silver bullet to bring down prices right away, there are a few things we can do.  This week, the Attorney General launched a task force dedicated to rooting out fraud or manipulations in the oil markets.  The President called for finally ending the $4 billion in taxpayer money that the oil and gas companies receive annually.  And, we need to continue safe, responsible production of oil at home.  But in the long term, we need to invest in clean, renewable energy.  That is why the President strongly disagrees with a proposal in Congress that cuts our investments in clean energy by 70 percent.
 
The audio of the address is and video of the address will be available online at www.whitehouse.gov at 6:00 a.m. ET, Saturday, April 23, 2011.

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address on Gas Prices
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Washington, DC

This is a time of year when people get together with family and friends to observe Passover and to celebrate Easter.  It’s a chance to give thanks for our blessings and reaffirm our faith, while spending time with the people we love.  We all know how important that is – especially in hard times.  And that’s what a lot of people are facing these days.
 
Even though the economy is growing again and we’ve seen businesses adding jobs over the past year, many are still looking for work. And even if you haven’t faced a job loss, it’s still not easy out there.  Your paycheck isn’t getting bigger, while the cost of everything from college for your kids to gas for your car keeps rising.  That’s something on a lot of people’s minds right now, with gas prices at $4 a gallon.  It’s just another burden when things were already pretty tough.
 
Now, whenever gas prices shoot up, like clockwork, you see politicians racing to the cameras, waving three-point plans for two dollar gas.  You see people trying to grab headlines or score a few points.  The truth is, there’s no silver bullet that can bring down gas prices right away.
 
But there are a few things we can do.  This includes safe and responsible production of oil at home, which we are pursuing.  In fact, last year, American oil production reached its highest level since 2003.  On Thursday, my Attorney General also launched a task force with just one job: rooting out cases of fraud or manipulation in the oil markets that might affect gas prices, including any illegal activity by traders and speculators.  We’re going to make sure that no one is taking advantage of the American people for their own short-term gain.  And another step we need to take is to finally end the $4 billion in taxpayer subsidies we give to the oil and gas companies each year.  That’s $4 billion of your money going to these companies when they’re making record profits and you’re paying near record prices at the pump.  It has to stop.
 
Instead of subsidizing yesterday’s energy sources, we need to invest in tomorrow’s. We need to invest in clean, renewable energy. In the long term, that’s the answer. That’s the key to helping families at the pump and reducing our dependence on foreign oil.  We can see that promise already. Thanks to an historic agreement we secured with all the major auto companies, we’re raising the fuel economy of cars and trucks in America, using hybrid technology and other advances.  As a result, if you buy a new car in the next few years, the better gas mileage is going to save you about $3,000 at the pump.
 
But we need to do more.  We need to harness the potential I’ve seen at promising start-ups and innovative clean energy companies across America.  And that’s at the heart of a debate we’re having right now in Washington about the budget.
 
Both Democrats and Republicans believe we need to reduce the deficit.  That’s where we agree.  The question we’re debating is how we do it.  I’ve proposed a balanced approach that cuts spending while still investing in things like education and clean energy that are so critical to creating jobs and opportunities for the middle class.  It’s a simple idea: we need to live within our means while at the same time investing in our future.
 
That’s why I disagree so strongly with a proposal in Congress that cuts our investments in clean energy by 70 percent. Yes, we have to get rid of wasteful spending – and make no mistake, we’re going through every line of the budget scouring for savings. But we can do that without sacrificing our future.  We can do that while still investing in the technologies that will create jobs and allow the United States to lead the world in new industries.  That’s how we’ll not only reduce the deficit, but also lower our dependence on foreign oil, grow the economy, and leave for our children a safer planet.  And that’s what our mission has to be.
 
Thanks for listening, and have a great weekend.

The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the use of force by the Syrian government against demonstrators. This outrageous use of violence to quell protests must come to an end now. We regret the loss of life and our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the victims, and with the Syrian people in this challenging time.
The Syrian Government's moves yesterday to repeal Syria’s decades-old Emergency Law and allow for peaceful demonstrations were not serious given the continued violent repression against protesters today. Over the course of two months since protests in Syria began, the United States has repeatedly encouraged President Assad and the Syrian Government to implement meaningful reforms, but they refuse to respect the rights of the Syrian people or be responsive to their aspirations. The Syrian people have called for the freedoms that all individuals around the world should enjoy:  freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, and the ability to freely choose their leaders. President Assad and the Syrian authorities have repeatedly rejected their calls and chosen the path of repression. They have placed their personal interests ahead of the interests of the Syrian people, resorting to the use of force and outrageous human rights abuses to compound the already oppressive security measures in place before these demonstrations erupted. Instead of listening to their own people, President Assad is blaming outsiders while seeking Iranian assistance in repressing Syria's citizens through the same brutal tactics that have been used by his Iranian allies. We call on President Assad to change course now, and heed the calls of his own people.
We strongly oppose the Syrian government’s treatment of its citizens and we continue to oppose its continued destabilizing behavior more generally, including support for terrorism and terrorist groups. The United States will continue to stand up for democracy and the universal rights that all human beings deserve, in Syria and around the world. 

The White House Blog

Posted by Attorney General Eric Holder on April 22, 2011 at 01:15 PM EDT

Ed. Note: Learn more about the Attorney General's efforts to protect consumers at StopFraud.gov.

Over the past few years, American businesses and families across the country have suffered the effects of the worst financial crisis in generations.  Today, although our economic recovery is gaining steam, it remains critically important that we continue to use every available tool and resource to safeguard consumers against additional – and unnecessary – financial burdens.

For many, rapidly rising gasoline prices pose a serious concern.  And while some factors – like regional variations and other lawful reasons for increased prices – may be beyond our control, it is imperative that we take action to identify and address potential cases of fraud and manipulation that may harm families and businesses.

Yesterday, I announced the formation of an Oil and Gas Price Fraud Working Group to help identify civil or criminal violations in the oil and gasoline markets, and to ensure that American consumers are not harmed by unlawful conduct.  Since last month, at President Obama’s request, I have been directing efforts to increase cooperation between the Department of Justice and other groups with relevant authority, including federal agencies and state attorneys general.  I am proud to say that this Working Group will enable us to formalize these partnerships, share monitoring information, and exchange ideas about what works – and what doesn’t work – at the state and federal level.

It will foster increased cooperation between investigators and government officials, so we can vigorously enforce state and federal laws against collusion, manipulation and other forms of wrongdoing.  It will also allow us to evaluate significant market developments, including the activities of speculators and index traders, so we can anticipate and aggressively pursue cases of suspected illegal activity.

We’ve already proven that this kind of approach can be effective.  Our new Working Group will report to me through the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (FFETF), a partnership formed in late 2009 between agencies, regulators, state attorneys general, and local law enforcement organizations, which has already brought a powerful array of tools to the fight against financial fraud.  By building on this work, the Justice Department and its partners can help promote a competitive and fraud-free marketplace – and can do so both efficiently and effectively.

As we work to determine if any laws have been violated and, if so, to swiftly bring those wrongdoers to justice, I am confident that the new Oil and Gas Price Fraud Working Group will help protect American consumers from unnecessary pain at the pump due to illegal activity.  My colleagues and I at the Justice Department and across the administration are committed to stopping criminals who would take advantage of others for personal gain.

Eric Holder is US Attorney General

11:23 A.M. PDT

      Q    How did the President view the trip?  Do he view it as a success or did he accomplish what he wanted to accomplish?

      MR. CARNEY:  Absolutely.  It was a very successful trip.  I think he particularly enjoyed the town hall at Facebook, which seems like it was a week ago but I know it was just the other day, and again in Reno yesterday.

      He really enjoyed those events and feels like it’s important for him to have those opportunities to get out and talk about what can seem like pretty esoteric and arcane policy debates in Washington, but engage with Americans from around the country to find out what their concerns are and to explain to them his vision for shared responsibility and shared prosperity, the need for deficit reduction that's done in a way that is balanced so that we can continue to invest in the things that are so important to drive our economy, like education, infrastructure, innovation.

      So he had a -- it’s been a great trip.

      Q    -- trip to Libya, did the White House know that Senator McCain was going to be headed over there?  And then, also, is the President going to authorize this $25 million in aid to the rebels today?

      MR. CARNEY:  We did, of course, know that Senator McCain would be traveling to Libya.  State supported that CODEL, as it always does.  And then on that request, I'll have to take that -- in terms of the President approving it today, is that what you said?  I'll have to check.  I'm not sure.

      Q    Staying with Libya, is he carrying any messages from the administration?

      MR. CARNEY:  No, not that I'm aware of.

      Q    Should the U.S. recognize the National Transitional Council in Libya?

      MR. CARNEY:  We've said all along that we have been meeting regularly with opposition leaders, including, of course, the National Council, and continue to do so to advise them, assist them as they try to prepare for a post-Qaddafi Libya.  And the issue now is providing that kind of assistance and advice as the world -- as their country moves closer to a situation where they can -- the citizens of Libya can pick their own leaders and decide their own political future.

      Q    How would you respond to Senator McCain’s call that the United States recognize the opposition as the head of the country?

      MR. CARNEY:  We think it’s for the people of Libya to decide who the head of their country is, not for the United States to do that.  And our position on Libya in general has been very clear, and we -- both in terms of our support for and commitment through United Nations Council Resolution 1973 and through the non-military means that we’ve participated in quite aggressively both unilaterally and multilaterally to put the squeeze on Qaddafi.

      I think it’s important to remember that Qaddafi’s resources are limited.  And the arms embargo and the sanctions that have been put in place will, as each day goes by, make it harder and harder for him to function and for his regime to function.

      Q    On Syria -- do you have anything to say on Syria today?  Lots of violence and --

      MR. CARNEY:  As we have consistently throughout this period, we deplore the use of violence and we’re very concerned about what we’ve -- the reports we’ve seen from Syria.  We are monitoring it very closely; call on the Syrian government to cease and desist from the use of violence against peaceful protestors; call on all sides to cease and desist from the use of violence; and also call on the Syrian government to follow through on its promises and take action towards the kind of concrete reform that they promised.

      Q    Jay, even though the U.S. and other countries keep condemning what’s happening in Syria, the situation there just gets worse.  So is there any discussion in the administration about taking any further action, since the situation there is starting to look like it was in Libya when the U.S. took action?

      MR. CARNEY:  Well, I mean, I have no updates on that, except to say that every country is different and every situation is different.  And the circumstances that presented themselves in Libya were actually quite unique to Libya in terms of the imminent assault on a town with a sizeable population which Muammar Qaddafi had promised to show no mercy; the opportunity to prevent that kind of slaughter of civilians; the unified international consensus that action should be taken that was not just Western but included Arab League and other support; the request from the opposition there for the kind of assistance that was provided through -- and has been provided through U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973.

      So those circumstances were quite unique.

      Q    Jay, I had a question from one of my radio colleagues. The President has a couple of times this week cited the Minnesota bridge collapse in 2007 as a reason the U.S. should invest in infrastructure, but the NTSB said the collapse was because of faulty design, not maintenance.  So why is it relevant?  

      MR. CARNEY:  Well, in fact, while that is true the NTSB said that in terms of the collapse, what was also true is that there were numerous reports about structural deficiencies and the fact that it was behind in its maintenance and repair.  And I think the President was just pointing out broadly that we have, as anyone who drives around this country can attest, serious needs in terms of upgrading our infrastructure -- bridges, roads, highways, ports, airports.  And I think that’s the point he’s making.

      Q    Jay, the Wall Street Journal story had a story this morning on Iraq wanting to I guess get the 10,000 or so troops out eventually to prevent tension.  Is the U.S. maintaining 10,000?  Is that the idea there?

      MR. CARNEY:  We don’t have -- we, of course, are on schedule to withdraw the remaining U.S. forces that are in Iraq by the end of the year, which was the commitment made by the previous administration that we support.  But we are also in negotiations and discussions with the Iraqis about what their security needs are and will be in the future.  And obviously there have been discussions about whether or not a future security presence by the United States might be requested.  But I don’t anticipate any requests and certainly any decisions that would be made on a request that has not been made.

      Q    Is there any deadline for deciding this, or is it sort of an ongoing thing?

      MR. CARNEY:  Well, certainly there’s a deadline for the troop withdrawal, so I think --

      Q    (Inaudible.)

      MR. CARNEY:  Well, any discussions about a future security relationship with Iraq would obviously be taking place now.  And I think that’s what that story reflected.

      Q    Do you have any guidance for the President’s week ahead?

      MR. CARNEY:  I do, indeed.  I have a week ahead for you.  The schedule for the week of April 25, 2011:  On Monday, the President and the First Lady will host the 2011 White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn.  The event will feature live music, sports courts, cooking stations, storytelling, and, of course, Easter egg rolling.

      The President will also meet with his national security team for his monthly meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

      On Tuesday, the President will welcome Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates to the White House.

      On Wednesday, the President and the First Lady will travel to Chicago to tape an episode of the “Oprah Winfrey Show.”  The President will then travel to New York to deliver -- New York City to deliver remarks at two DNC events.

      On Thursday, the President will welcome Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli to the White House.

      On Friday, the President will welcome Auburn University’s football team to the White House to honor the team’s 2010 BCS National Championship.  Following the ceremony, Coach Gene Chizik and the Tigers will participate in a "Let's Move" South Lawn Series youth football clinic on the South Lawn.  Later the First Family will travel to Cape Canaveral, Florida, to view the launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour.  The President will then travel to Miami, Florida, to deliver the commencement address at Miami-Dade College.

      On Saturday, the President and the First Lady will attend the White House Correspondents Dinner.

      Q    Anything for this Easter weekend?  Any plans?

      MR. CARNEY:  No public schedule that I’m aware of.

      Q    How does the President view the poll in The New York Times that most Americans view the economy as worse than -- going forward?

      MR. CARNEY:  The President, as you’ve heard him talk about, is very aware of and concerned by rising gas prices, which have put added pressure on Americans as they deal with an economy that is recovering but is not back to where it needs to be.  And he’s very concerned about that, and discussed it, as you know, yesterday at the town hall in Reno.

      And that's why, as he said, he wakes up every morning and goes to bed every night with the economy on his mind and thinking about what steps we need to take to continue to grow our economy, make sure we don't do anything that would reverse the recovery or reverse the job creation we’ve seen -- and also to both look at things like what the Attorney General announced yesterday about taking action to investigate whether or not there’s any fraud or manipulation in the oil markets that could have an impact on gas prices.

      But he’s also very focused, as you know, on the need for a long-term energy policy, because the kind of price shock we're seeing at the pumps today is just a reminder that we need a long-term strategy that he’s spoken about a lot.  And that's why we need a clean energy standard.  That's why it would be folly to cut investment in clean energy by 70 percent, which one plan for long-term deficit reduction would entail.

      So he’s -- this is an issue that very much has his attention.

      Q    Back to Iraq just really quick before you leave.  It seems to me that if you're saying there are discussions about security needs of Iraq, that means talking about leaving troops there.  How does that reconcile with --

      MR. CARNEY:  I think we've always said, Jeff -- and I'm not saying anything Admiral Mullen didn’t say or hasn’t said, or Secretary Gates and others, which is that obviously we have an interest in Iraq’s future.  We have, even as we have drawn down our troops, 100,000-plus troops since President Obama came into office, we have ramped up our civilian engagement.  We have a stake in Iraq’s future.  We want Iraq to succeed.

      And obviously we would entertain any request from the Iraqi government for any -- for cooperation or assistance.  But we have long since ended our combat mission in Iraq.  We have continued to meet every deadline and every commitment in terms of drawing down our troops.  And we are on schedule to fully withdraw.  But the question was about these conversations that are taking place, and I don't want to prejudge an outcome.

      Q    Discussion about security needs in Iraq could mean more troops in Iraq staying --

      MR. CARNEY:  I don't want to prejudge what that would mean and what kind of security assistance we might provide Iraq in the future, if any.  Again, I don't want to get ahead of -- in fact, I'll stay safely behind Admiral Mullen and Secretary Gates and others on this issue.  But I'm simply saying that as the Iraqi government continues to take full control of its security, demonstrated its dramatically increased capacity to do that, as the U.S. forces have drawn down, we are obviously in discussions with Iraq about its future writ large -- its economic future, diplomatic future, regional future and security future.

      Q    Thank you.

      MR. CARNEY:  Thanks, everybody.  Thanks for coming with us.
      We had fun.

                                            END                       11:38 A.M. PDT

Soundstage 30 at Sony Studios
Culver City, California

April 21, 2011
7:18 P.M. PDT

THE PRESIDENT: Hello, L.A.! Hello, Los Angeles! (Applause.) It is good to be back in L.A. (Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you!

THE PRESIDENT: Love you back. (Applause.) It’s an honor to be here at Sony Studios Stage 30. (Applause.) For those of you who thought you were being brought in here as extras for the new Spider-Man movie -- (laughter) -- you’re at the wrong soundstage. (Laughter.) I hope you’ll stick around anyway.

We have some wonderful folks here, and I am so grateful for everybody and what they did to participate in this wonderful event. But I just want to acknowledge a few folks. We’ve got a great congressional delegation coming out. Congressman Brad Sherman is here. (Applause.) Congresswoman Laura Richardson is here. (Applause.) Congresswoman Karen Bass is here. (Applause.) Controller John Chiang is here. (Applause.) All the elected officials, the community leaders. There are too many to mention, but I am grateful for all of you.

Now, I’m assuming that Jamie Foxx didn’t say anything too crazy while he was on. Because if he did, I’ll talk to him when I get backstage.

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT: Well, actually, technically it’s about five and a half. (Applause.) That’s our goal.

Now, it is nice to be out of D.C. The weather in D.C. is okay, but the conversation that you hear in Washington is very different from the conversation that you hear around kitchen tables and around water coolers. And that’s why we recently decided that our reelection campaign will be the first one in modern history to be based outside of Washington, D.C. (Applause.) We’re going back to Chicago. (Applause.) I should add, by the way, that the Bulls just won. (Laughter.) So maybe we’ll see you in the finals. I know the Bulls will be there.
 
But, look, here’s the reason that we’re going to be based outside of Washington. I don’t want our campaign to be hearing only from pundits and powerbrokers and lobbyists. I want our campaign to be hearing from the folks who got me into the Oval Office. (Applause.) I want them hearing from you. I want to make sure we are putting the campaign in your hands -- the hands of the same organizers, the same volunteers, the same neighborhood folks, who proved last time that, together, ordinary people can do extraordinary things. (Applause.) That’s what this campaign is still about. I’m glad you’re in. I hope you’re all in. (Applause.)

Now, a few things have changed since the last time around. I’m grayer. (Laughter.) I’m all right? All right, I’m going to let Michelle know you said it’s okay. (Laughter.) See, folks here in Hollywood, they can go gray and they just say, well, that was just for a part and then they rinse. (Laughter.) I can’t do that. But even though some things have changed, all of us can still remember that night in Grant Park -- (applause) -- the excitement on the streets, the sense of possibility. And I hope you also remember what I said to you that night. I said our work hadn’t ended; we were just beginning. And that --

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I love you, President Obama.

THE PRESIDENT: I love you, too, sweetie. (Laughter.) But what I said was that our climb would be steep. We would have a tough road ahead. I said we might not get there in one year; we might not even get there in one term. But I knew in my heart that together we would get there; that we would bring about the change that we had promised -- promised, by the way, to each other. Because the campaign wasn’t just about me, the campaign was you making commitments to each other about the kind of country that you wanted. (Applause.) You made a commitment to each other about the kind of future that we wanted for our children and our grandchildren.

Now, it turns out -- let’s face it, the climb was a little steeper than we anticipated. (Laughter.) I ended up taking office in the middle of the worst recession since the Great Depression. Four million people had lost their jobs before I was sworn in; another 4 million lost their jobs in the first few months before our economic plan had a chance to take effect. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs -- millions of people lost their jobs, hundreds of thousands lost their homes.

It was a recession so bad that families all across America are still grappling with it. Some folks in this audience may still be dealing with the after-effects. So we had to make some tough decisions, and we had to make them very quickly. And they weren’t always popular.

But two and a half years later, the economy is growing again. (Applause.) Two and a half years later, we’re creating jobs again. (Applause.) Two and a half years later, the financial system works again. (Applause.) Two and a half years later, small businesses are opening their doors again. (Applause.)

Over the last four months, we’ve seen the largest drop in unemployment since 1984. (Applause.) Over the last 13 months we have created nearly 2 million private sector jobs. (Applause.) Some of the things that weren’t popular that folks said wouldn’t work have worked. We have a Big Three auto industry in Detroit that is back on its feet, making a profit again. (Applause.) GM announced it’s hiring all its workers back. (Applause.)

So we’ve made progress, but our work is not finished. We’re still climbing. We’re still climbing because the summit we want to reach is a summit where every child in America has opportunity. (Applause.) The summit we want to reach is where we’re looking out for each other if we’re disabled or infirm or in our golden years. (Applause.) The summit we want to reach is where America is more competitive than ever before; where our economy is growing and everybody is sharing in the prosperity. That’s the summit we want to reach. (Applause.)

And it’s going to take more than a couple of years. It’s going to take, in fact, more than one term. (Applause.) I am reminded of that almost every night, because every night I get letters from citizens all across the country. And some of these letters are heartbreaking. You read a letter about someone who’s sent out 16 resumes and hasn’t gotten a response back. Or a child writes you a letter and says, you know, my mommy and daddy, they’re losing their home -- is there something that you can do to help us?

And sometimes I’ll stay up late just trying to figure out what is it that we haven’t tried yet; what is it that we need to do to make sure that we’re reaching every single one of those folks who are working so hard, doing the right thing, looking after their families, meeting their responsibilities, and are still -- still struggling out there. That’s the reason that we ran. It wasn’t for the title. It wasn’t for the trappings of office. It was making sure we were delivering for those families all across America.

And our work is not done. But even though those are the Americans that I’m thinking about when I wake up in the morning and those are the Americans I’m thinking about when I go to bed at night, I want everybody to understand that we have made progress. (Applause.) Because of you, we have made progress. (Applause.)

That progress shouldn’t make us complacent, but it should remind us of what is possible and it should inspire us to try to finish what we started in 2008.

Because of you we were able to prevent a second Great Depression. (Applause.) Because of you we know that we’ve got the chance of making sure that the new jobs, the new industries aren’t located somewhere else, but they’re located here in California; they’re located here in the United States of America. (Applause.)

We’ve got to be prepared to win the future. Because of you we’ve made college more affordable for millions of young people all across America. (Applause.) It used to be that the student loan program run through the government would give billions of dollars to banks, unwarranted subsidies for acting as middlemen in the student loan program. We said, well, let’s end that. Let’s give the money directly to students. (Applause.) And as a consequence millions of more students are able to benefit from a better deal.

We’re not done yet, but we’ve started to reform some of the schools that needed reforming all across America. And because of our Race to the Top program, we’re seeing better teachers in our classrooms, and we are seeing more support for our teachers and more resources for our teachers. And we are making sure that we’re reaching into the schools that are underperforming here in Los Angeles and all across the country. Because of you we’ve been able to accomplish that. (Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: We need your leadership.

THE PRESIDENT: I’m ready to give it, but I’m going to need yours as well. (Applause.) Because of you we made the largest investment in clean energy, in renewable energy in our history. (Applause.) Investments that are already creating new jobs and new businesses.

But at a time of high gas prices -- I know you’ve noticed.

AUDIENCE: Yes!

THE PRESIDENT: It’s rough out there. I admit, Secret Service doesn’t let me fill up the pump anymore. (Laughter.) But it hasn’t been that long since I did. You think about folks -- and certainly here in Los Angeles, everybody understands this experience -- if you’ve got to drive 50 miles for your job, and you can’t afford the new hybrid, so you got that old beater giving you eight miles a gallon -- (laughter) -- and your budget is already strained, I mean, that’s tough. But let me tell you something, we’re already making a difference.

We have increased oil production, but more importantly we’ve also said to ourselves how are we going to find the kinds of alternative energy sources, the new energy sources that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil but also clean up the planet in the process. That’s something we need to invest in. (Applause.)

Because of you we used to only have 2 percent of the world’s advanced battery manufacturing in this country, a whole new industry. These are the batteries that go into these new electric cars. In five years, we’re going to have 40 percent of that market. That’s because of you, because you were able to get us in a position to make those decisions. (Applause.)

Because of you we’ve increased fuel-efficiency standards on cars that will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil. (Applause.) But we’ve got to do more. And to help pay for it, I don’t know about you but I think it’s time we eliminated the $4 billion in taxpayer subsidies that we’re giving to oil companies. (Applause.)

Now, they are making -- keep in mind that the top five oil companies over the last five years, their lowest profits were $75 billion; their highest profits were $125 billion. That’s money coming directly from your pocket into theirs.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: And we feel it.

THE PRESIDENT: And you feel it. Now, companies make big investments. They’re allowed to make a profit. But let me tell you, for them to get a $4 billion tax break at a time when they’re making record profits, and you’re struggling to fill up your tank does not make sense. It has to stop. (Applause.) Let’s stop subsidizing the energy sources of yesterday, and let’s invest in the energy sources of tomorrow. That’s what we’re going to do because of you. (Applause.)

Because of you we’ve put hundreds of thousands of folks back to work rebuilding our roads and our bridges and our infrastructure. Now we’ve got to make sure America is not just rebuilding and repairing the old infrastructure. We’ve got to be building the new infrastructure -- the high-speed rail, the high-speed Internet, the smart grid that could help electricity move around in more efficient ways. (Applause.) That’s part of what America has always been about.

We’ve had -- I mean, I hate to be parochial here, but we’ve had the best stuff. (Laughter.) But you know what, in some areas we don’t. South Korea now has faster high-speed Internet than we do. You go to a Beijing airport or Singapore airport -- I mean, LAX -- (laughter) -- I’m just saying. It does not have to be that way. We can put Americans to work right now doing the work that needs to be done, but I’m going to need your help doing it, because our job is not yet finished. (Applause.)
 
Because of you we did what folks have talked about for 100 years. We said health care should no longer be a privilege in this country. It should be affordable and available to every single American. (Applause.) We said in America you shouldn’t go broke just because you got sick. (Applause.) But we’ve got more work to do. We’re implementing it now, and many of you are already benefiting from the changes we made, but there are some folks who want to dismantle it. We’re going to have to protect it.

Because of you we passed Wall Street reform to make sure that we don’t have the same kinds of bailouts that we had before, to make sure the consumers are protected and not cheated when you take out a mortgage or a credit card. But there are some folks who want to roll that back. We’ve got to protect it.

Because of you we passed a law that says women should get an equal day’s pay for an equal day’s work. (Applause.)

Because of you we overturned “don’t ask, don’t tell,” so everybody could serve their country. (Applause.)

Because of you we got two more women on the Supreme Court, one of them the first Latina. (Applause.)

And because of you we removed 100,000 troops from Iraq and we have ended combat missions there just like I promised. That happened because of you. (Applause.)

But now we’ve got to protect the changes that we’ve made. We’ve got to -- we got some more changes we’ve got to make. We still got to pass comprehensive immigration reform -- (applause) -- so that we are a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. We still got to have a more comprehensive energy policy. We’ve got to keep moving forward. We have to keep working for the America that we believe in -- the America we want to leave to our children.

And that is the debate that we’re having in Washington right now. That’s what this budget debate is all about. You hear people talking about debt and deficits and spending and budgets. And, yes, this is about numbers, but this debate is really about the kind of future that we want. It’s about what kind of country we believe in. I believe in a country where the government lives within its means. We’ve got to cut spending in Washington. (Applause.) We’ve got to cut domestic spending. We’ve got to cut defense spending. (Applause.) We’ve got to cut health care inflation. We got to cut spending in our tax code -- because we spend a lot through our tax code with loopholes and tricks. We’ve got to eliminate every dime of waste. And if we want to take responsibility for the debt that we owe then we’re going to have to make some tough decisions.

We’ve got to decide what we can do without to make sure we maintain those things that we care deeply about. And that requires shared sacrifice.

But let me tell you what I won’t do. I will not reduce our deficit by sacrificing the things that have always made America great. (Applause.) The things that have made Americans prosper. I will not sacrifice our investment in education. (Applause.) I won’t sacrifice scholarships for our students or medical research for our scientists. (Applause.) I won’t sacrifice the safety of our highways or our airports. I will not sacrifice our investment in clean energy at a time when our dependence on foreign oil is causing Americans so much pain at the pump. I won’t sacrifice clean air and clean water. I will not sacrifice America’s future. (Applause.)

We need shared sacrifice, and that means as part of our overall approach, ending tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans in this country. (Applause.) Let me tell you something. This is important. You know, look, a lot of folks right now, somehow they’ve gotten the idea that we’ve raised taxes. I have lowered everybody’s taxes since I came into office. That’s part of what the Recovery Act was all about -- 30 percent of it were tax cuts. Folks might not have noticed it. (Laughter.) It got spread out over all your paychecks. But those were tax cuts. And then this December we cut some taxes. Your payroll tax got cut because we wanted to make sure that we kept on going with the recovery.

So nobody here is just loving taxes. I just paid my taxes. (Laughter.) And it was a pretty big tax bill. (Laughter.) But I want everybody to understand it’s not that I want to punish success. I want everybody here to be rich. I think somebody may have fainted here. This happens. They’ll be fine. Give them some room. If we can get some medics in the front. Probably what they need is just a little bit of air, maybe a little bit of juice. They’ll be okay. We’ll get the medics up here in a second.

But in the meantime, look, I want all of you to be rich. (Applause.) Now, I don’t mean just going out and buying lottery tickets. (Laughter.) I want your small business to be successful. I want you to succeed in your careers. I want everybody to be successful. We don’t want to punish success. But what we do want is a society where if we’re going to ask everybody to sacrifice a little bit, we don’t just tell millionaires and billionaires, oh, you don’t have to do anything. You go ahead and just relax, count your money. (Laughter.)

Look, I don’t want a $200,000 tax cut for me that’s paid for by asking 33 seniors each to pay more than $6,000 in extra Medicare costs. (Applause.) I don’t want my tax cut paid for by cutting children from Head Start, or doing away with health insurance for millions of people on Medicaid, for seniors in nursing homes, or poor children, or families that have a disabled child. (Applause.) I don’t want to make that trade-off. (Applause.)

And that’s not a trade-off that I think most Americans want to see, no matter what party you belong to, because that’s not who we are as a country. We’re better than that. (Applause.)

The America we know is great not just because of the height of our skyscrapers, not just because of the size of our GDP. It comes because we’ve been able to keep two ideas together at the same time. The first is, is that we’re all individuals endowed with certain inalienable rights and freedoms. We are self-reliant. We don’t expect others to do for us what we can do for ourselves, and we don’t like other people telling us what to do. That’s part of what it’s like to be an American. (Applause.)

But the second idea is that we’re all in this together, that we look out for one another, that I am my brother’s keeper, that I am my sister’s keeper, that I want that child born in a tough neighborhood to have the same opportunities that I had so that someday they may be standing here instead of me. (Applause.)

And so, given the blessings that I’ve received, I want to look out for them, not out of charity but it’s because my life benefits from knowing when I’m driving down the street, look at that school that’s well funded and those kids that are learning. (Applause.) And I see an elderly couple strolling down the street and I say to myself, look at those folks, they’re secure and they’re comfortable in their retirement. (Applause.) And I see that person in a wheelchair going to work because somebody gave them opportunity, and I say, that’s how we make sure that everybody can use their talents. (Applause.)

That makes my life better. That makes my life richer -- knowing that everybody has a measure of dignity and respect, and a shot at the American Dream. (Applause.) I don’t do that for somebody else. I do it because it improves my life and it’s going to improve Malia’s life and Sasha’s life. (Applause.)

That’s our vision for America. It’s not a vision of a small America; it’s a vision of a big America. We do big things. A vision of a compassionate America and a caring America. An ambitious America. When I look at some of the debate in Washington and what some folks are saying, I say, they have a pessimistic view of who we are. Their basic attitude is we can’t afford to look out for kids in poor neighborhoods. We can’t afford to invest in our infrastructure. Yes, we’re going to be driving around potholes and our airports are going to be mangy and -- (laughter). There’s nothing we can do about it. We can’t afford to make sure all of our seniors have the health care that they need.

That’s not my vision for America. That’s not your vision for America. (Applause.) My vision is for one where we’re living within our means but we’re still investing in our future, and everybody is making sacrifices and nobody bears all the burden, and we live up to the idea that no matter what you look like or where you come from, whether you landed here -- your ancestors landed here on Ellis Island or they came here on a slave ship, or they just came over the Rio Grande, that we are all connected to one another and we all rise and fall together. (Applause.)

Los Angeles, that’s the idea at the heart of America. That’s the idea at the heart of our last campaign. That’s the idea at the heart of this campaign. And that’s why I’m going to need your help now more than ever. (Applause.) This campaign is at its early stages, but now is the time you can step up and help shape it, and make sure we’re out of the gate strong. And I know there are times where some of you felt frustrated because we haven’t gotten everything we wanted to get done right away. I know who you all are. (Laughter.) I know the conversations you’ve been having. Oh, I don’t know, I don’t like that compromise with the Republicans. I don’t know, that health care thing, why did it take so long? I don’t know -- Obama, he’s older now. (Laughter.) He used to look so fresh and exciting and -- I still got that poster, but I don’t know.

Look, there are times where I’ve been frustrated, just like you have been. But we knew this wasn’t going to be easy. What also amuses me is when I hear people say, oh, well, the campaign was so smooth -- why is governing so tough? (Laughter.) And I try to remind them -- what campaign were you on? (Laughter.) What campaign were you on? It felt awful hard to me. (Laughter.) I thought we made all kinds of mistakes.

We knew that on a journey like this there were going to be setbacks, there were going to be detours. There were going to be times where we stumbled and we had to get up and dust ourselves off and then keep going. Because we knew that at each and every juncture in our history, when the future was on the line, when we were at the crossroads like we are right now, the country somehow came together. The country somehow found a way to make ourselves more prosperous and deal with the transition from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy, and then to an information economy.

And we figured out how to absorb new immigrants and finally deal with the stain of slavery; make sure that women were full participants in our democracy. (Applause.)

At every juncture, we’ve been able to make the changes that we needed. So when you hear people say our problems are too big or we can’t bring about the changes we seek, I want you to think about all the progress we’ve already made, and I want you to think about all the unfinished business that lies ahead. I want you to be excited about the next 18 months, and then the next four years after that. (Applause.) And I want you to remind everybody else those simple words that summed up our campaign in 2008 and still sum up our spirit: Yes, we can!

Thank you, everybody. God bless you. (Applause.)

END
7:51 P.M. EDT

EARTH DAY, 2011

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

For over 40 years, our Nation has come together on Earth Day to appreciate and raise awareness about our environment, natural heritage, and the resources upon which generations of Americans have depended.  Healthy land and clean water and air are essential to the health of our communities and wildlife.  Earth Day is an opportunity to renew America's commitment to preserving and protecting the state of our environment through community service and responsible stewardship.

From the purity of the air we breathe and the water we drink to the condition of the land where we live, work, and play, the vitality of our natural resources has a profound influence on the well-being of our families and the strength of our economy.  Our Nation has a proud conservation tradition, which includes countless individuals who have worked to safeguard our natural legacy and ensure our children can benefit from these resources.  Looking to the future of our planet, American leadership will continue to be pivotal as we confront the environmental challenges that threaten the health of both our country and the globe.

Today, our world faces the major global environmental challenge of a changing climate.  Our entire planet must address this problem because no nation, however large or small, wealthy or poor, can escape the impact of climate change.  The United States can be a leader in reducing the dangerous pollution that causes global warming and can propel these advances by investing in the clean energy technologies, markets, and practices that will empower us to win the future.

While our changing climate requires international leadership, global action on clean energy and climate change must be joined with local action.  Every American deserves the cleanest air, the safest water, and unpolluted land, and each person can take steps to protect those precious resources.  When we reduce environmental hazards, especially in our most overburdened and polluted cities and neighborhoods, we prioritize the health of our families, and move towards building the clean energy economy of the 21st century.

To meet this responsibility, Federal and local programs will continue to ensure our Nation's clean air and water laws are effective, that our communities are protected from contaminated sites and other pollution, and that our children are safe from chemicals, toxins, and other environmental threats.  Partnerships and community-driven strategies, like those highlighted by the America's Great Outdoors Initiative, are vital to building a future where children have access to outdoor places close to their homes; where our efforts to leave rural working lands and waters are conserved and restored; and our parks, forests, waters, and other natural areas are protected for future generations.

On Earth Day, we recognize the role that each of us can play in preserving our natural heritage.  To protect our environment, keep our communities healthy, and help develop the economy of the future, I encourage all Americans to visit www.WhiteHouse.Gov/EarthDay to learn ways to protect and preserve our environment for centuries to come.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 22, 2011, as Earth Day.  I encourage all Americans to participate in service programs and activities that will protect our environment and contribute to a prosperous, healthy, and sustainable future.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-second day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand eleven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fifth.

BARACK OBAMA

President Obama will welcome Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates to the White House on Tuesday, April 26th.  The President looks forward to discussing with the Crown Prince the strong ties between the United States and the UAE and our common strategic interests in the region.

Tavern Restaurant
Los Angeles, California

April 21, 2011
8:22 P.M. PDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, Jeffrey.  Technically it’s actually five and a half more years.  (Laughter.)  Everybody have a seat, everybody have a seat.

I’m going to be very brief.  First of all, I just want to thank Jeffrey and Marilyn and all of you who were involved in helping put this together.  Jeffrey has been an extraordinary friend from the start, and a lot of you got involved at a time when the prospect of electing a Barack Hussein Obama to the Oval Office was slim.  (Laughter.)  None of you asked for my birth certificate.  (Laughter.)  It was a complete leap of faith.  (Laughter.) 

And so I don’t want to spend a lot of time giving a speech.  I want to just spend time with all of you at these tables.

A couple of people I just want to mention who are here.  The governor of the great state of California, Jerry Brown is in the house.  (Applause.)  And our ambassador to the Bahamas -- (laughter) -- Nicole Avant is in the house.  (Applause.)  It’s a nice gig, isn’t it?  (Laughter.) 

Anyway, as Jeffrey said, when we started this journey -- and we actually started probably about four years ago -- I think we understood that the country was at a crossroads and we were going to have to make some fundamental decisions so that we could make sure our kids, our grandkids, the next generation inherited the same kind of big-spirited America that we had inherited from our parents and our grandparents. 

We didn’t even know how steep the climb was going to be to get to where we needed to go, but we understood it was not going to be easy.  The campaign wasn’t easy.  There’s a lot of revisionist history going on now that, boy, his campaign was so smooth.  It didn’t feel that way at the time.  (Laughter.)  I mean, it was hard.  But we kept at it because we understood that a country that is generous and compassionate, that is looking after our children and making sure they’ve got a shot at the American Dream, that is making sure our seniors have dignity and security in their old age, that looks after families who’ve got a disabled child, that is investing in our infrastructure so that we can move products and services and people and information around rapidly, that is a benevolent influence around the world and is respected around the world -- we understood that getting to where we needed to go wasn’t going to be easy, and it hasn’t been.

But we have made extraordinary progress over the last two and a half years.  We’ve pulled this economy out of a recession.  We’ve stabilized the financial system.  We’ve passed historic health care legislation to make sure 30 million people aren’t going to go without coverage.  (Applause.)  We have repealed “don’t ask, don’t tell.”  We have put two women on the Supreme Court, including the first Latina.  (Applause.)  We’ve passed equal pay for equal work. 

We can go down the list.  But we also know we’ve still got a lot more work to do.  We’ve just started, and we’ve got a lot more work to do.

And there have been times I’m sure during the past two and a half years where you’re reading the papers or you’re watching TV and you’re saying, oh, Obama -- why is he compromising the Republicans?  Or, oh, why did health care take so long?  And I want a single-payer plan anyway.  (Laughter.)  And golly, if he was just as good a communicator as George Clooney -- (laughter) -- then I’m sure the American people would understand exactly what needs to be done.  (Laughter.)  Gosh.  (Laughter.) 

That’s understandable because there have been times where I’ve been frustrated.  But I don’t want you to lose sight of how much we’ve gotten done.  What we’ve done here has been historic, and we’re only a quarter of the way through.  And we’ve got a lot more work to do.  And these budget debates that we’re having now crystallize the debate that we’re going to be having in this country over the next 18 months about who we are, what we care about, what our values are, what our commitments are to each other. 

And I’m confident -- because I travel around the country, and my poll numbers go up and down depending on the latest crisis, and right now gas prices are weighing heavily on people.  But when I talk to ordinary folks, they are not always paying attention.  If you ask them what the makeup of the budget is, they’ll say 25 percent of it goes to foreign aid.  If you ask them about Medicare, they’ll say, I love that program but I wish government wouldn’t get involved in it.  (Laughter.)  Just because they’re busy and they’re tired and they’re working hard.  They’re looking after their families, they’re looking after their kids.

Look, if I wasn’t professionally in this, I wouldn’t be following all these debates in Washington.  But when you talk to them about their values, what they care about, then they say of course we should make sure every child has a good education and gets opportunity, and absolutely we’ve got to make sure that our commitments to seniors are met, and of course we want a family whose child has a disability to make sure that child is getting everything possible to allow them to succeed.  And yes, internationally, we want to stand on the side of human rights and democracy.  And we understand the world is complicated.  But we have a vision about what America should be in the world and we want to live up to that.  And yes, government should live within its means, but we think we can live within its means and still ensure that we’re delivering for the next generation. 

I have faith in them.  And I have faith in you.  And so my closing comment, and then I’ll come around and talk to all of you, is just remember the campaign in 2008.  It wasn’t about big crowds and nice posters.  And it wasn’t even about me.  It was about commitments we made to each other as Americans, about who we are and what we care about.  And those commitments have not ended.  They didn’t end on Election Day.  They don’t end when I take office.  Those are commitments that we have to fight for and work for and be true to each and every day.  And that’s what this next 18 months are going to be about.

All right?  Thank you, guys.  Appreciate it.  (Applause.)

END
8:29 P.M. PDT

The Commissary at Sony Picture Studios
Los Angeles, California

5:39 P.M. PDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you so much.  Thank you.  Thank you, everybody.  Have a seat, have a seat.
 
First of all, I just want to say how grateful I am to Ken and John for agreeing to take on the tough task of co-chairing our finance committee here in southern California.  They have been great friends and great supporters from the get-go.  And I have to say, I did not realize John was that good on the introductions.  (Laughter.)  I might have to take him on the road.  (Laughter.)
 
I also want to thank Michael and Amy who, you know, this is their shop, letting us crash their space, when I know they’re incredibly busy.  I was just hearing about Spiderman 4 -- (laughter) -- so I’m all psyched up about that.
 
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Will you play a part?
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Seriously, I was -- (laughter) -- I’m very big on Spiderman.  I also want to acknowledge a wonderful public servant, one of the finest mayors in the country -- Antonio Villaraigosa is here.  (Applause.) 
 
We set this up so that I am just going to go from table to table and you guys can poke me and prod me -- (laughter) -- you know, lift the hood and kick the tires -- (laughter) -- and give me what I’m sure will be wonderful advice.  (Laughter.)  Looking around this room, this is not a shy group.  (Laughter.)
 
But what I want to say before I visit with all of you is how grateful I am.  You know, many of you were involved in the 2008 campaign and, let’s face it, it was not likely that I was going to end up in the Oval Office.  It was possible, but not likely.  And so many of you took this incredible leap of faith, in part because the campaign wasn’t just about me.  It was about how we could move the country in a new direction and how could we recapture that sense of community that I think had frayed for too long and it prevented us from dealing with so many challenges that we face.
 
As John said, we’ve made incredible progress over the last two and a half years, but we’ve got so much more work to do.  There are still a lot of folks hurting out there.  We’ve got to put people back to work.  We’ve got to grow the economy.  We’ve got to reduce the deficit.  We’ve got to pass immigration reform.  We’ve got to have an energy plan that works for all Americans.  And that’s before I start talking about international affairs.  (Laughter.) 
 
So my inbox keeps on filling up, but I welcome the challenge because I know that I have all of you behind me.  I just want to remind you as we’re going around to the tables that this is going to be just as hard, if not harder, than 2008 and I’m going to need all of you just as engaged, just as motivated, and taking as much ownership over the campaign as you did then. 
 
That’s part of what made 2008 special was you owned it.  It wasn’t just top-down.  That’s part of the reason why our campaign office is going to be in Chicago -- first time in modern history that a President hasn’t had his campaign office run out of Washington.  Because I never want to lose touch, I never want to lose that sense that what this is about is not simply maintaining a status quo but it’s about how do we bring about the changes that are going to make a difference in people’s lives.
 
So, thank you, all of you, for being here.  Thanks in advance for the extraordinary work that you’re going to do over the next 18 months to make sure that we can finish the job that we started.  And with that, let me join you all at the tables.  Thank you.  (Applause.) 
 
END
5:43 P.M. PDT

Reno, Nevada

11:50 A.M. PDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Hello, Reno!  Thank you.  Thank you so much.  Please, everybody have a seat.

It is great to be back here in Reno, great to be back in Nevada.  I am thrilled that all of you are here.  We’ve got some special, special people that I want to acknowledge.  First of all, I want to thank Electra Therm for hosting us, and John Fox, the CEO of Electra Therm, is here.  (Applause.)  Stephen Olson, the president and CFO of Electra Therm.  Thank you very much.  (Applause.)  They just had a chance to meet me backstage and they were describing all the great work that they are doing.  I am told the contraption behind me here is known as the Green Machine.  Produces renewable energy from low-temperature heat waste.  And John and Stephen were explaining to me how it works, and I was nodding, pretending like I understood what they were saying.  (Laughter.)  Actually, I have no idea how it works, but I’m glad it does work.  (Laughter.)

And I want to congratulate Electra Therm for being a fine example of a clean energy company that’s been growing by leaps and bounds over the last few years.  Give yourselves a big round of applause.  (Applause.)

In addition, we’ve got some people who are here.  Somebody who’s working hard for you, Congresswoman Shelley Berkley is here.  (Applause.)  Mayor Bob Cashell is here.  (Applause.)  Lieutenant Governor Brian Krolicki is here.  (Applause.)  State Controller Kim Wallin is in the house.  (Applause.)  State Treasurer Kate Marshall is here.  (Applause.)  Secretary of State Ross Miller is here.  (Applause.)  Catherine Cortez Masto, Attorney General, is here.  (Applause.)  Steven Horsford, Senate Majority Leader, is in the house.  (Applause.)  And John Oceguera, Speaker of the House, is here as well.  (Applause.)

Thank you all for your attendance.  Last week, I laid out a plan on one of the biggest issues that we’re going to be facing this year, and that is how to get America’s finances in order -- a plan for shared prosperity through shared responsibility.  And before I take some of your questions today, I’d like to discuss the plan briefly because it goes to the heart of what’s happening at this company and businesses all across America.  It’s a plan that does two big things.  First, it cuts spending and brings down the deficit.  It cuts spending and brings down the deficit.  And we know how important that is.  Just like any family on a tight budget, America has to start living within its means.  And for a long time, Washington acted like that rule didn’t apply to the federal government.  A lot of folks promised us a free lunch.  We had a surplus in 2000 -- we had a surplus a decade ago.  But we cut taxes -- including for millionaires and billionaires; we fought two wars; we created a new prescription drug plan -- and we didn’t pay for any of it.  Didn’t pay for any of it, just put it on the credit card.

Well, as the saying goes, it turns out there is no such thing as a free lunch.  So we were left with a big deficit when I walked into office, and a lot of accumulated debt, and interest on that debt.  

And then it was made worse by the worst recession that we’ve had since the Great Depression.  And as many of you know, when you have a huge recession like that, two things happen:  On the one hand, revenues go down because companies and individuals aren’t doing as well so you’re not taking in as many taxes.  On the other hand, the demands on government are even greater, whether it’s unemployment benefits, or trying to help states and local governments deal with their shortfalls.  And so that added to the deficit as well.

Now, the bottom line is this:  If we don’t close our deficit, if we don’t start reducing our debt, if we don’t get our finances, medium and long term, under control, if we keep on spending more than we take in, it’s going to cause serious damage to our economy.  Companies might be less likely to set up shop and hire folks here in Nevada and here in the United States.  It could cost us more to take out loans for homes or buying a new car or starting a business.  And we won’t be able to invest in those critical investments we need to win the future.  Those are the kinds of investments that make a company like Electra Therm possible.    

So we have to tackle this challenge.  And I believe the right way to tackle it is to live up to another old-fashioned principle, which is shared responsibility.  That means everybody has to do their part.

First thing we’ve got to do is to comb through the budget and find every dime of savings that we can, wherever we can find it.  And we’ve made a good start a few weeks ago, when both parties came together -- Republicans and Democrats -- around a compromise on spending that reduced it and kept the government open at the same time.  So we need to build on those savings, and I’m not going to quit until we’ve found every dime that we can.  We’ll check under the cushions.  But we’re going to find -- any program that’s not working, we need to eliminate it.  Anything that can be done more efficiently, we want to do it.

But finding savings in our domestic spending by itself won’t be enough; it only gets you so far.  So we’ve also got to find savings in places like the defense budget.  I have no greater honor than being the Commander-in-Chief.  And when I watch what our young mean and women are doing overseas, it’s incredible.  So I can promise you I will not cut a penny if it undermines our national security.  But over the last two years, the Secretary of Defense has taken on wasteful spending that does little to protect our troops or protect our nation -- like old weapons systems that the Pentagon doesn’t want, it says we don’t need them, but somehow still gets into the budget thanks to well-connected special interests.  Secretary Gates has already found $400 billion worth of waste in the Pentagon budget.  I think we can find those same kinds of savings again.

Next, we’re going to need to reduce health care spending, and strengthen Medicare and Medicaid through some common-sense reforms that build on what we already have done with the health care reform bill -- eliminates wasteful subsidies to insurance companies, for example; actually improves care by making it easier for folks to buy generic drugs; helps providers manage care for the chronically ill.  And we need to reform the tax code so that it’s fair and simpler.  I know that’s on people’s minds.  Some of you just had to file, and I know I looked at my bill -- and I have actually done my taxes quite a few times.  I admit I don’t do them now.  (Laughter.)  But all of us have gone through the experience of saying this is just too complicated.  It doesn’t make sense.  The amount of taxes you pay shouldn’t depend on a high-priced accountant or lawyer that you can hire.  It should be fair and simple.

And part of what we have to do with our tax code is also
end some of the tax cuts that were instituted for the wealthiest Americans.  (Applause.)  Now, I say that not because I want to punish success.  I’m rooting for everybody to get rich.  But I believe that we can’t ask everybody to sacrifice and then tell the wealthiest among us, well, you can just relax and go count your money and don’t worry about it; we’re not going to ask anything of you.

I’ve been incredibly blessed by this country -- son of a single mom, went on scholarships to get through school.  And so the fact that I’m now well off, I want to be able to give a little bit something back so that the next generation can achieve that same success.  I don’t need additional tax cuts, especially when I know that extending those tax cuts may end up meaning that some senior citizens are getting less health care; or thousands of kids on Head Start might not have that opportunity available to them; or people who are on Medicaid, seniors who are in nursing homes, or families who have got a child who’s autistic or disabled, that somehow they’re left to fend for themselves.  That’s not a good option, from my perspective.  That’s not a trade-off I’m willing to make.

And I don’t believe it’s a trade-off that most Americans are willing to make -- no matter what party you belong to.  That’s not who we are as a country.  We are better than that.  We don’t allow people who are vulnerable just to sink further and further without giving them a little bit of a hand up.  It’s part of what has made this country great.

So that’s the first part of our plan.  We’re going to cut spending in a way that’s fair and asks everybody to share responsibility.  We’re going to reform our tax code.  But here’s what else we need to do, we’ve got to make sure that even as we’re living within our means, even as government is not spending more than it’s taking in, that we’re still investing in the future; we’re still strengthening the middle class; we’re still growing the economy and putting people back to work.  (Applause.)

So we’re going to make some cuts in some programs, including some that I like and if we were in better fiscal shape we’d keep on funding, but I’m telling you what we’re not going to do.  We’re not going to reduce our deficit by gutting our investment in clean energy and medical research and basic science.  I refuse to make that choice.  (Applause.)

America has always been the world’s engine for innovation, the leader in discovery.  That’s who we are.  That’s how we’ve prospered.  I don’t want other countries to get the lead in the industries of tomorrow; I want America to lead in these industries.  I want new technologies invented here.  I want companies like Electra Therm to set up shop here in America and to hire American workers and build American products.  That’s the future that we deserve.  (Applause.)

Let’s just take the example of energy.  Think about it, everybody right now is dealing with $4 a gallon at the pump.  Now, I admit Secret Service doesn’t let me fill up my own tank now.  (Laughter.)  But I remember before I was President the last time gas prices went up this high -- it’s tough.

And if you’re somebody who’s got to drive 20 miles, 30 miles to a job, and maybe you don’t have the money to buy a new car that gets better gas mileage, so you got that old beater.  It’s eight miles a gallon, and -- you know?  (Laughter.)  I’ve been there.  (Laughter.)

It hurts because you know every time you go to work a big chunk of your paycheck is being eaten up.  And you might already be having trouble making ends meet at the end of the month.  So this gas issue is serious.  But here’s the problem -- every time it happens, every time gas prices go up like this, like clockwork, suddenly politicians look around and they discover high gas prices.  And they’re shocked, and they get in front of TV and they say, we’ve got a three-point plan to bring gas down to two bucks a gallon.  And then when gas prices go down, nothing ever happens, and we’re back into the same old patterns, and we don’t have a comprehensive energy strategy for the future.

Now, there are some things that we can do right now.  Last month I asked my Attorney General to look into any cases of price gouging so we can make sure nobody is being taken advantage of at the pump.  Today, I’m going to go a step further.  The Attorney General is putting together a team whose job it is to root out any cases of fraud or manipulation in the oil markets that might affect gas prices, and that includes the role of traders and speculators.  We’re going to make sure that nobody is taking advantage of American consumers for their own short-term gain.  (Applause.)

And while we’re at it, if we’re looking for places to save money that we can then use to invest in clean energy projects like Electra Therm, let’s start with the $4 billion in taxpayer subsidies that right now are going to big oil companies even though they are making billions of dollars a year as it is because of these high oil prices.  (Applause.)  Four billion dollars a year are going to companies that are making record profits -- even during the recession they were making big profits.

The big five oil companies over the last five years, the least they’ve made in profits is $75 billion.  The most they’ve made is $125 billion.  They are doing fine.  And we are encouraging production.  We are working to make sure that there are safe and secure ways for us to drill for more oil, develop more natural gas.  We are all for production in a safe way.  But these folks don’t need further incentives by getting a better deal than the mom-and-pop shop down the street are getting when it comes to their taxes.  They shouldn’t get special tax breaks worth $4 billion that we could invest someplace else.  That doesn’t make sense.  It’s got to stop.  

Instead of subsidizing yesterday’s energy sources, let’s invest in tomorrow’s.  (Applause.)  Some in Congress have proposed slashing by 70 percent our investment in clean energy.  I’m not going to do that.  I was talking to John about the fact that the investment made by the Department of Energy helped Electra Therm do what it’s doing -- helped it expand, helped it hire more workers.  Why are we going to stop making investments in companies like this?

We’re also not going to reduce our deficit by sacrificing investments in infrastructure.  You know, America used to have the best roads, the best bridges, the best trains, the best airports, the best ports.  That’s part of what made us great.  That’s part of why businesses wanted to locate here -- they could move businesses -- or they could move products, services, information.  We don’t have the best infrastructure anymore.  Our roads and bridges are deteriorating.

Remember what happened in Minnesota when that bridge just collapsed?  There are bridges like that all across the country.  Our sewer systems, our water systems are not where they need to be.  And that’s the old infrastructure.  What about the new infrastructure?  You go to Beijing Airport, it is unbelievable.  You go to some of ours, it was built back in the ‘50s.

We don’t have high-speed rail in this country.  Why not?  Every other advanced country has got it.  It works.  We can do this.

If we want businesses to locate here in America and create jobs, we’ve got to make sure that America is built to compete.  We’ve got to have the best roads and the quickest trains and the best broadband networks so we can move information around.  (Applause.)  We don’t want to be dodging potholes for the next 30 years.  Let’s put some people to work doing the work that America needs done.   

And if we’re going to reduce our deficit, we’re not going to do it by cutting education.  (Applause.)  We’re not going to do it by cutting education.  This is another bright idea that some in Congress have.  In a world where our kids are going to be facing tougher competition than ever before, where you’ve got hundreds of millions of Chinese kids and Indian kids and Brazilian kids and Eastern European kids, all who are trying to compete for the jobs of tomorrow, how are we not going to invest in making sure our kids have the best skills possible?

We see why this matters right here.  More than 50,000 college students from Nevada are relying on Pell Grants to help them pay their tuition.  Now, working with folks like Shelley, we were able to eliminate some subsidies that were going to big banks because they were middlemen on student loan programs, and take that money and put more money into Pell Grants so that the grants were higher, so that more kids could get them and they’d have less debt when they graduate.  That was the right thing to do.  (Applause.)  Now you’ve got some folks in Congress who want to roll back some of those changes.  How many of those students do you think can afford to pay $1,000 more to go to school?  I know what it’s like.  I could not have made it through college without scholarships, without loans.

I’m standing here before you because America gave me opportunity.  How am I going to pull up the ladder on the next generation of kids who are just as talented, smarter than I am?  (Applause.)  All they need is a chance.  So I think it would be a mistake to balance the budget on the backs of students by cutting their scholarships by more than $1,000 and forcing a whole lot of students to go without them altogether.

So that’s the bottom line.  We need to cut spending.  We can’t ignore future deficits.  But just as ignoring deficits would mortgage our future, failing to invest in our kids, in our infrastructure, in our basic research and clean energy, that would be mortgaging our future as well.  And I’m not willing to do it.  And that’s at the core of the debate that we’re having right now.

Both Democrats and Republicans agree that we need to cut the deficit.  In fact, there is general agreement on the need to cut about $4 trillion over the medium term to hit our targets.  And when folks in Washington agree on anything that’s quite an accomplishment.  (Laughter.)  So the debate isn’t about whether to cut the deficit, the debate is about how we cut the deficit.  And my view is we can live within our means while still investing in our future.  We can take a balanced approach, cutting where we can while investing in education and innovation and infrastructure, strengthening the safety net of Medicare and Medicaid to make sure that they’re there for future generations.

And I think that Democrats and Republicans can come together to solve this problem.  It has been done before.  (Applause.)  It won’t be easy.  There will be some strong disagreements.  I’m willing to bet that along the way some politics will be played.  (Laughter.)  That’s just a guess.  And there will be some who say, you know what, the country is just too divided, we’re not going to get it done.  But I’m optimistic.  I’m hopeful.  I’m confident that we can come together.

And here’s why this is so important.  Ultimately, this debate is not just about numbers on a page.  It’s about the vision we have for our future -- who we are as a country.  It’s about making sure that the most you can do here is not just live out your own American Dream, but make sure that the people around you are living out their American Dream as well.

We want to make sure this is a country where if you’re willing to try hard you can make it, where everybody has a chance at prosperity.  That’s my focus, that’s my guiding light.  It’s what I think about when I wake up in the morning and go down to the Oval Office.  That’s what I think about when I leave the Oval Office and go to bed at night.  And that’s why I’m going to need the help of all of you.  I don’t want you to be bystanders in this debate.  I want you to hold me accountable.  I want you to hold Washington accountable.  I hope you will hold all of our feet to the fire, because you’ve got a big stake in this fight.  And if your voices are heard, we will meet this challenge.  That’s how we’re going to secure our future; that’s how we’re going to make our country everything that it can be.

Thank you very much, everybody.  (Applause.)

All right, everybody, have a seat.  I’ve got a little time for questions.  I’ll take off my jacket, because I know I’m in the hot seat here.  We’ve got some folks in the audience with microphones, so if you just raise your hand I will call boy, girl, boy, girl -- (laughter) -- make sure it’s fair.  And I’ll try to get through as many questions as I can.

This gentleman right here.  Here, here’s a microphone.  Introduce yourself, if you don’t mind.

Q    Hi, my name is Howard Crabtree (ph).  And I go to the TMCC school right now, just trying to get an education after we lost our -- my wife and I lost our jobs here.

So I entered the renewable energy program, and the more and more I learn about energy and the policies and things, I wonder what -- is the federal government doing anything to encourage the states, because I know the states really control it -- are they doing anything to encourage the states to open the market up so that there are more competitors in the market to bring prices down?  I know that I’ve only ever had NV Energy as a choice.

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I am not fully familiar with what Nevada’s state regulatory structure is, I’ll admit.  But let me make some general points about how we can start creating not only more competition, but also more innovation in the energy sector.

When it comes to electricity, the traditional sources that we get electricity from are coal, natural gas, and some nuclear.  That’s typically the menu from which we get most of our electricity production at most of the big utilities.  And the advantage, particularly of coal, is that it’s been very cheap.  We are the Saudi Arabia of coal.  We’ve got a lot of coal.

But each of these fossil fuels that we use have some problems, particularly with pollution.  And coal, in particular, in some of these old plants create a lot of particulates that go into the atmosphere and create all kinds of problems in terms of asthma, and it’s also having an impact on the climate overall.

Nuclear doesn’t produce greenhouse gases, but we’ve got problems in terms of storing waste.  And obviously we’re heartbroken by what’s happened in Japan, and that’s raising questions about the safety of the existing storage mechanisms.  And I know obviously there’s a big debate here in Nevada about Yucca Mountain.

Natural gas -- we actually have a lot of natural gas available, but getting to it has historically been a little bit difficult, and so now we’re developing new technologies for that.

But when you think about what’s going to be sort of our future electricity sources, I want to make sure that we are also the frontrunners, the leaders, when it comes to solar, when it comes to wind, when it comes to waste heat -- (laughter) -- geothermal, right?  So there are a whole range of additional energy sources that we’re just not tapping into, and that’s what a company like Electra Therm is all about.

Now, the question for Electra Therm is -- or any of these companies that are innovating -- is, is there enough demand out there that they can start building to scale, they can start making the capital investments that allow them to catch up with these older ways of producing electricity that had a 50-year head start?  Right?  I mean, if you built an old coal plant 30, 40 years ago, well, it’s -- whatever money you put into it, that’s already sunk costs, and now you’re producing electricity that may be relatively cheap, but it’s also relatively dirty.  And the question is, how do we make sure that new companies with newer, cleaner technologies are able to catch up?

So one of the things that we’ve proposed is what’s called a clean energy standard.  It’s a very simple concept.  What it says is, the country, state by state, will purchase a certain amount of energy from these alternative sources.  So we’re not saying that immediately you shut down the old plants, because, frankly, we couldn’t.  I mean, the economy needs a certain amount of electricity just to run our businesses and do everything that we do.  But if we set a target and we say here’s the amount of alternative energy that is going to be purchased every year, then suddenly all these companies out here start saying, you know what, I’ve got some certainty.  I know that if I invest in building a new plant that I’m going to be able to sell that electricity.

And that changes the economic incentives, and then the market can sort out which ones are the best -- who’s got the best company, who’s got the best technologies, et cetera.  It’s not the government saying -- picking winners and losers, it’s just saying get a certain amount from this option, this array of options of clean energy.  That can make a huge difference.

Now, in addition to doing that, the other thing that we really have to do is make sure that as an economy, as a society, we just become more energy efficient generally.  And that’s a lot of what Electra Therm is all about.  They’re capturing -- when you’re talking about waste heat, every business, every industry, is generating some sort of energy byproduct, some sort of heat; it’s going up in smoke stacks and nobody is using it.  And the question is, can we capture that energy and use it in a smart way?  That’s what Electra Therm is all about.

But we waste energy everywhere -- schools, hospitals, our homes.  When we don’t insulate our houses, when we don’t have the kinds of windows that are properly insulated, when our air conditioning systems are all old and creaky and make a lot of noise -- energy is being dissipated everywhere.  Now, I think most people understand that, but the problem is that you might not have a couple thousand bucks initially to insulate your home.  You don’t have that kind of spare change lying around.  Even though if you made the investment you’d get the money back in three or four or five years, you may not be able to make that investment on the front end.

So one of the things that we’re doing, both for homeowners, but also increasingly for commercial buildings, we want to give you some incentives where we say, you know what, you buy that insulation, you make your home more energy efficient, we’ll give you a tax break.  Or we say to companies, you’re going to make your building more energy efficient, we will give you some money on the front end and then you can pay it back by the savings that you get on your electricity bill every month.  So a combination of creating a market for clean and alternative energy, and also providing incentives to consumers to be more energy efficient -- you combine those two things, there’s no reason why we can’t have a brighter energy future.  But it does require some investment from the federal government.  That’s why I’m not willing to see our investment in clean energy slashed by 70 percent, and that’s part of the debate that we’re having in Washington right now.  All right?  (Applause.)

Okay, this young lady right there.  Go ahead.  You got the microphone right here.

Q    Jill Derby (ph).  I’m an educator who’s fighting educational cuts in Nevada that will slash our education budget.  (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT:  Okay, Jill.

Q    But my question is about health care reform.  I would say all of us in this room understand that the health care reform act that you championed and was passed is critical for the whole country, but somehow the opposition got the message ahead of us and now there isn’t widespread support.  I want to know what you and others are doing to turn that around to help people realize how important that reform act is.  (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, first of all, I appreciate the support and I appreciate the work you’re doing on education.  It turns out that when Social Security was passed, initially it was really unpopular, and all kinds of lawsuits were brought against Social Security.  And people said we were going socialist.  Sound familiar?  (Laughter.)  And now everybody loves Social Security, because once the program got up and running, people understood, you know what, this provides a basic floor, a baseline, so if something goes wrong in my life, even though I’m doing all the responsible things, even though I’m saving, I’m working hard every day, I’m looking out for my family, I’m doing what I’m supposed to do -- if at the end, somehow, things didn’t work out the way I planned, I’ve still got this baseline of savings.

Then, when Medicare was passed in the middle ‘60s, low and behold, it turns out it was very controversial.  And everybody said this is socialized medicine, and there were efforts to repeal it.  And then once it got up and running, lo and behold, people said, you know what, it’s a good thing that our senior citizens now, if they don’t have the health care that they need, they don’t have money, they have something to count on so that if they get sick they’ve got some support.

And I make that point just to say that every time we make a change like this, there are some folks who say no.  And ordinary folks who aren’t following the debate, all they hear is a lot of arguing; it makes folks uncertain about, well, is this thing actually going to work or not.

The big thing that we need is the three years that we designed to implement the plan.  Now, we’re already making progress.  There are already changes that are benefiting you right now.  Everybody who’s sitting here right now, whether you know it or not, you’re being benefited by the health care reform that we passed.  If you’ve got a child who graduated from college, doesn’t yet have a job that provides health insurance, you can keep that child on your health insurance until they’re 26 years old.  (Applause.)  If you’re a parent whose child has a preexisting condition, you now have to be able to get health insurance.  An insurance company cannot turn you down from getting health insurance for that child.  (Applause.)

Right now, insurance companies can’t drop you when you get sick.  They can’t impose arbitrary lifetime limits so that if you really get sick and you really need it, you don’t find out right in the middle of treatment it turns out that you’ve already hit your limit and there’s no more money left and you’re on your own.

So we’ve already implemented a wide range of reform.  Small businesses are eligible right now for huge tax breaks about a third of what small businesses pay for their employees to provide them health care, now they can deduct from their taxes.  And that can save tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands on their health care bills.  That’s already going on right now.

Senior citizens, you’re getting a $250 rebate on your drugs because of the health care bill.  And by the time we’ve fully implemented it, that doughnut hole that used to be there, where if you got sick, you’d pay -- Medicare would pay only up to a certain point, and then suddenly you had to pick it up in your own pocket because of that doughnut hole, that’s going to be fully closed.  So we are making all sorts of reforms right now.

But the big change comes in 2014 when we’re working with states, including Nevada, to set up a system so that you can be part of a big pool if you’re on your own, if your employer doesn’t provide you health insurance.  You can be part of a big pool with all that purchasing power to get the same health care that Shelley Berkley and other members of Congress get for themselves at reduced prices and higher quality.  (Applause.)

The other thing that we did in health care reform bears on what I was talking about earlier, which is our deficit reduction.  We were giving -- we were giving about $180 billion worth of subsidies to insurance companies under the Medicare program.  It wasn’t making seniors healthier, but it was making the profit margins for those insurance companies a lot healthier.

And we said, you know what, you’re doing just fine without those subsidies.  We are saying to providers, let’s make some changes so instead of having multiple tests for one patient, let’s have one test and then email all the tests through electronic medical records to the specialists that need to work with them.  That saves us money.

Twenty percent of the sick account for 80 percent of the costs under Medicare -- typically the chronically ill, folks who have diabetes, for example.  So why not reimburse providers to help manage the illnesses of the chronically ill?  That will save us money.

So part of what we’re doing is providing care for people.  Part of what we’re doing is making sure that you as a consumer of health insurance are getting a fair deal for insurers.  But part of what we’re doing also is making the overall system more efficient.  And that’s how we’ll save money in the long term.

That’s the big debate that we’re having about Medicare as part of this budget.  There has been a proposal -- it passed through Congress -- that would essentially make Medicare a voucher system.  Essentially what Medicare would become is you’d get a certain amount of money and then you could use that money to buy health insurance on the private marketplace.  But guess what.  If health inflation keeps on going up, you’re out of luck.  If the insurance that you buy isn’t good enough to cover you, too bad.

So what we’ve said is, no, we’re not going to change Medicare as we know it.  What we will do is work inside of Medicare to make sure that providers -- the health care system as a whole is more efficient.  We think that’s the better way to go.  (Applause.)  And I think most folks on Medicare do, too.

All right, let’s see.  Gentleman back there -- right there.  Yes.

Q    John Galbraith, Geothermal Resources Council.  Mr. President, we applaud and commend you for supporting clean, green, renewable, 24-hour baseload energy.  Please describe your thoughts going forward.  Can we expect the same?

THE PRESIDENT:  You can expect the same.  We want to keep on giving the same incentives for clean alternative energies.  We want to make sure that, for example, the tax credits that are in place, that we make those permanent so that folks aren’t always in a guessing game each year as to whether or not they’re going to be there for you.

We think that needs to be part of a overall, comprehensive energy package.  And I was talking earlier about electricity generation, but obviously what’s on the minds of a lot of folks right now are gas prices.  Let me just make this point:  One of the key ways we’re going to get gas prices down is just to use less oil.  Right?  If you buy less, prices go down.  (Applause.)

The best way for us to reduce usage is in the transportation sector.  So a couple of things that we’re doing already:  Number one, we increased fuel-efficiency standards on cars last year for the first time in 30 years.  First time in 30 years.  It’s going to save us 1.8 billion barrels of oil.  And by the way, we didn’t do it through legislation.  We got the car companies, autoworkers, environmental groups -- we got everybody to agree that this made sense for America.  So that’s point number one.

Point number two is we want a million electric cars on the road.  (Applause.)  Over the next several years, we want to develop electric cars and make them affordable for everybody.  And Detroit is now making some good electric cars; the problem is they’re still too expensive.  A couple of things are involved in that.  One is the technology for batteries is still not as developed as it needs to be.  But here’s the good news:  We used to have 2 percent of the market for advanced batteries that go into electric cars; we are going to have 40 percent in five years because of the investments we made with the Recovery Act.  We’re going to have -- 40 percent of those batteries are going to be made here in the United States of America.  (Applause.)

There is no reason why we can’t get cars out there that are getting 150 miles per gallon.  We’ve got the technology for it; we’ve just got to keep on investing it and developing it.  And so one example of how we can really make a difference -- it turns out as President I’ve got a lot of cars in my fleet.  (Laughter.)  The federal government has the biggest fleet of automobiles of anybody, any organization.  So what we’ve said is let’s make our fleet 100 percent alternative-fuel cars.  (Applause.)

And what that does, that creates a big market for American-made cars that are efficient.  (Applause.)  It puts people to work, but it also helps us free ourselves from dependence on foreign oil.

And now what we’re doing -- I was just over at a UPS facility in Maryland.  We’ve gotten Federal Express, Verizon, AT&T -- there are a bunch of companies now that are joining together, and they’re doing the same thing with their truck fleets.  So part of what this is all about is just creating a market.

And once you create a market -- let me tell you, I have driven that -- I didn’t -- when I say drove, they let me drive like five feet.  (Laughter.)  They didn’t really let me zip around there.  But I’ve been in one of these Chevy Volts.  That is a nice car.  It drives really well.

And so the question is can we start getting enough demand that prices go down.  And think about it, I mean, it used to be having a flat-screen TV was a big deal, right?  Now, everybody is going into Best Buy -- because it was such big volume that prices started going down.  Same thing with all technology.  It’s no different in the transportation sector.  We can drive prices down, we just have to make sure that there’s enough demand out there for them.

So for all of you out there who are still driving those eight-mile-a-gallon, big SUVs, some of you -- that’s the car you got to drive right now, you can’t afford a new car, but when you do decide to buy a new car, think about the fact that we’re putting a whole bunch of money into the pockets of some folks in some cases who don’t like us at all.

We send billions of dollars to other countries, some of whom do not like us at all.  We’re just giving away our wealth.  That makes no sense, and it’s got to change, and we’re going to change it.  So -- all right.  (Applause.)

It’s a young lady’s turn.  Right here, in the red.  Right in front.  You got a microphone coming.

Q    Mr. President, my name is Courtney Miller (ph).  And I want to thank you for returning science to the national priority.  And I need to ask for some help for my family.  My husband has chronic fatigue syndrome, which is an illness very much like multiple sclerosis.  And we spend billions of dollars in this country on roughly a million patients for disability and Medicare and lost tax revenue and lost productivity, and we spend less than $6 million for NIH research on this illness.  And I’m asking you for my husband and my kids, who want their father to be able to go to their baseball games, if there’s a way to make improvements on that.

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, let me, first of all, say that you are absolutely right that we’ve tried to put science back where it belongs.  (Applause.)  I am a Christian and a person of faith, and I believe that God gave us brains to figure things out -- (applause) -- and that we’ve got to use science to make life better for our families and our communities and this planet.

That’s one of the reasons why part of the Recovery Act was reinvesting in National Institute of Health -- NIH -- which does a huge amount of the basic medical research that ends up then creating so many of the scientific advances that are making our lives longer and making our lives better.

Now, I will confess to you that, although I’ve heard of chronic fatigue syndrome, I don’t have expertise in it.  But based on the story that you told me, what I promise I will do when I get back is I will have the National Institute of Health explain to me what they’re currently doing and start seeing if they can do more on this particular ailment.  Okay?  (Applause.)

Gentleman there, back there with the beard.  That’s you.  Oh, actually, I was calling on this guy with the beard, but I -- (laughter.)  That’s all right, go ahead.

Q    Hi, I’m Will Adler (ph).  I’m a student at UNR.  And currently we are facing millions -- millions in cuts.  And you mentioned higher education earlier.  I think it’s the most important thing for America’s future in general, and I’m just worried, with the rhetoric nowadays, that -- the word “tax” is like the most evil word on Earth now.  So our state in particular cannot raise enough revenues to support our higher education.  I was wondering how we can change that rhetoric and get more funding in the state level and federal to support our education for the future.  (Applause.)  

Thank you very much, Mr. Obama.  I love you, by the way.  I voted for you.

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, first of all, something that a lot of folks may not be aware of, you hear people say, oh, the stimulus didn’t work, the stimulus didn’t work, the recovery didn’t work.  Well, you know what, we had a terrible recession and shed so many jobs so fast that we had lost 4 million jobs before I came into office.  We lost another 4 million probably in the first six months that I was in office, before any of my economic policies took effect.  So we had a big hole we dug.

But when you look at the Recovery Act, about a third of it was direct support to state budgets.  About a third of it was tax cuts -- your taxes all got cut by the Recovery Act.  Nobody knew it, and I don’t blame folks for not knowing it because it was happening paycheck for paycheck so the increments were relatively small each month and a lot of folks -- if you saw your hours cut back or you had lost your job, you might not have felt it.  But we cut taxes.  That was about a third.

About a third of it was infrastructure investment.  And about a third of it was support to states.  And by the way, some of these same governors who go on TV denouncing the Recovery Act, the stimulus, they took that money.  (Laughter and applause.)  And they used it to close their state budget deficits.  I’m just saying.  (Laughter.)  It is funny, sometimes you’re watching TV and you say, hold on a second.  (Laughter.)  That guy right there, he took that check.  (Laughter.)  And he used it to balance his budget, and then he starts getting on TV complaining about how irresponsible we are.  What are you talking about?  It’s not on the level sometimes.

But what happened as a consequence was for two years we were able to prevent some of the worst choices that states might have to make about laying off teachers and police officers and firefighters and so on.

Now the economy is growing again and state revenues are getting a little bit better.  But I understand here in Nevada, the economy has been the slowest to recover because this is also where the housing boom was hottest.  So that’s put bigger strains on the budget here than just about anywhere.

So I recognize that a state like Nevada has to make tough choices.  I just think it is very important in making those choices not to be shortsighted.  If you’re a family and you’ve got to tighten your belt, you might cut out eating out.  You might say, you know what, we can’t afford that vacation this year.  But you’re not going to decide not to replace the boiler if it has to be replaced.  You’re not going to decide not to fix a hole in the roof, because you know if it starts raining it’s going to ruin the house.  You’re not going to say, we’re going to use up all the savings we had for our kids’ college education and still go on vacation.  Right?  You’re going to prioritize.

That’s what we have to do at the federal level, and that’s what we have to do at the state level.  And I don’t think there is a more important priority than education.  (Applause.)

Now, I think it’s important that our education system is efficient like every other system.  So universities -- I’ve said to universities, try to figure out how you can reduce costs for students.  Don’t just ask for more money.  You should also look at your operations to figure out are there ways that you can make it a better bargain for your kids.  Because they’ve got to pay for it, or somebody has got to pay for that tuition.

I mean, look, I’m a big supporter of state colleges and universities having nice facilities, but you go to some of these gyms and some of these athletic facilities -- I’m thinking, this is really nice.  Shoot, I wouldn’t mind being a member of this club.

And I’ve got to tell you, when I was going to college -- I’m showing my age now where you start “when I was back in my day” -- but it’s true, like the cafeteria was horrible.  The food was bad.  You didn’t expect to get good food when you went to college.  You go to the gym, it had some old rusty weights, a medicine ball.  You didn’t have some gleaming state-of-the-art.

I’m just using those as examples.  There are ways that universities have to cut costs as well.  But ultimately we’ve got to make sure that we’re not cutting education unnecessarily.  And you’re right.  In some cases, revenue is going to be necessary.

Now, how many people here know that not only did we cut your taxes when I first came into office, but back in December we just cut your taxes again?  How many folks are aware of that?  (Applause.)  I mean, you wouldn’t know it from watching TV.  You would think I was just out there raising everybody’s taxes.  Just these big-spending Democrats out there -- we haven’t raised your taxes; we’ve lowered your taxes.  Because it was important during the recession to make sure that middle-class families were able to land on their feet.

And that’s actually helping absorb some of the increased costs of gas prices and food prices that are out there right now, and helping to sustain consumer spending to keep the economy growing.

But at a certain point, as the economy begins to grow again, as people are getting back on their feet, we’ve got to go back and say to ourselves, you know what, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.  Taxes are lower now than they have been in a generation.  Taxes are a lot lower now than they were under Ronald Reagan.  They’re lower than they were under Bill Clinton.  They’re lower than they were under George Bush, in many cases.

And what I’ve said is, at minimum, we should say, for those like myself who can afford it, let’s pay a little bit more.  Let’s go -- we can go back -- if we went back to the Clinton rates for the wealthiest 2 percent, going back to the Clinton rates -- you remember back in the ‘90s, the economy was doing really well, and rich people were doing just fine.  And I can afford it.  It’s not that I like paying taxes.  I don’t like paying taxes.  Nobody likes paying taxes.  But if the choice is keeping my tax break, or 33 seniors having to pay an extra 6,000 bucks for their Medicare, why would I want that -- why would I wish that on those 33 seniors?  If the choice is between me keeping my tax cut and a couple hundred kids being to go get their Head Start, why would I want that?

This isn’t a matter of charity; it’s a matter of what we think it is to live in a good society.  And I think it is good for me, it is good for my life if when I’m driving around, I’m saying to myself, you know what, that school is producing all kinds of kids who are smart and are going to help build America’s future.

And I drive around and I see some seniors, and they’re out for a walk.  And I know, you know what, I’m glad that I live in a country where in their retirement years, they’re going to be secure.  That makes me feel good.  That’s the kind of country I want to live in.  (Applause.)  That’s the kind of country you want to live in.  And we’ve got to make sure we’re willing to fight for it.

Everybody, thank you very much.  God bless you.  (Applause.)

END
12:50 P.M. PDT

En Route Reno, Nevada

11:01 A.M. PDT

MR. CARNEY:  I have no announcements, so let’s do questions.  Rapid fire.  Yes, ma’am.

Q    Can you talk a little bit about the President’s mood during this trip?  He seemed to be enjoying himself last night.  Is he enjoying getting back into campaign mode, talking to his supporters?

MR. CARNEY:  He is in a good mood, there’s no question.  I think he likes getting out of Washington.  It’s not a sort of anti-Washington thing so much as he just really enjoys getting beyond the Beltway, interacting with people.  I think he -- this trip in particular he’s been happy about because of the town hall at Facebook, the town hall he’s doing today.  Those kinds of events really I think give him some energy.

He likes to -- he often takes questions from you and questions from his staff in policy meetings and all that kind of stuff, and it’s nice to do it directly with other Americans.  So, yes, he’s in a good mood.

Q    How did that Gen 44 event go last night?

MR. CARNEY:  It was great.  I mean, he definitely -- he clearly had fun and there was a lot of energy in the room.  He clearly enjoyed it and had some good lines.

Q    -- enjoy today’s fundraiser?

MR. CARNEY:  He did, actually --

Q    What was his reaction --

MR. CARNEY:  He was talking about it when he came out.  He was  -- he said, “You don't get that every day,” I think was the quote when he came out.  And he thought it was kind of funny.  And like he said after, it sort of broke his flow a little bit, but he took it, as I think Carol wrote in her pool report, took it in stride.  It certainly perked up the morning.

Q    Jay, can you describe a little about what he’s doing to keep up with Libya, given that the -- the ongoing events in Misurata are about what you’d expected when he went into Benghazi?  And is he doing -- is the United States likely to do any more to help out there?    

MR. CARNEY:  Well, I mean, we're doing quite a bit, working with our -- as part of the coalition, to answer your last question.  And he has obviously national security staff with him and he’s briefed regularly, and he -- I mean, I don't have any specifics on the phone calls he’s made, but he’s in touch with senior staff back at the White House pretty regularly.  So he’s gotten a lot of updates.  He was updated obviously on the loss of two journalists yesterday, the terrible loss, including an American.  But he is constantly updated on that.

Q    Will the President meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu when he comes to Washington to address Congress?

MR. CARNEY:  I don't have any scheduling updates.  I can check.  There may be a firm answer to that, I'm just -- I'm not sure.

Q    Jay, the President often talks about disagreeing without being disagreeable.  How do you reconcile that with calling Republicans “shortsighted” and “radical”?

MR. CARNEY:  Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about this because I think it’s important to note that the speech the President gave on Wednesday and every time he speaks about it, he always calls for and describes the need for bipartisan cooperation and compromise, and expresses optimism about the willingness to do it.  And I think sometimes what’s absent -- and then he also goes on to describe the stark contrast between his vision and the vision outlaid in the House Republican budget proposal.  But -- and both are true.  He thinks there are stark contrasts, but he thinks that because the times demand it, the economy demands it, the budget demands it, the deficits demand it and the people demand it, that we need to and can find some common ground.

That part of -- that observation you don't often hear when some lawmakers in Congress are critical of the President’s approach.  All you hear is the criticism, and you don't hear the acknowledgement that the only way to get this done is through bipartisan compromise.  There is not an option to do a “my way or highway.”  It’s not -- the President is not going to get everything he wants and the Republicans are not going to get everything they want, and they're certainly not going to get the House Republican budget passed and made law.

Q    On the debt ceiling, Cantor, who was just recently appointed to be part of the group that will negotiate this with the President, said yesterday that small concessions are not going to be enough by the Democrats, by the President.  Can you tell me what’s going on as far as negotiations now between now and May 5th?  And also are you -- what is your response to that, that more needs to be done in terms of spending cuts?

MR. CARNEY:  Well, two things.  One, obviously, Congress is in recess and a number of leaders are in various places around the country and the globe, so the first major meeting will be May 5th.  But there’s a lot of contact with -- if you guys feel like you’re in danger, just let me know -- with the turbulence.

But there’s a lot of contact among staffs and obviously the phones work around the world, so those conversations continue.

On Congressman Cantor’s statement, I would simply say that  -- I would point to the fact that he and other leaders from both parties have made clear that the debt ceiling has to be raised, that there isn’t an option.  And I think it’s risky to suggest that if he or others did not get what they wanted, they would then throw the government into default.  I think that's a pretty bold assertion.  And it’s not consistent with statements that Speaker Boehner, Senate Minority Leader McConnell, or others have made.

And we think the preponderance of statements by Republican leaders has been in accord with what the President has said, which is that we have to raise the debt ceiling no matter what -- even as we pursue, in the same time frame, aggressively bipartisan negotiations on reaching some sort of agreement on deficit reduction.

But what the President has said and others said is you cannot hold one hostage to the other.  We certainly think it’s possible and it can be done to get that kind of agreement by June.  But if something happens and it’s not, you can’t say, well, then we’re just going to let the United States government go into default, tank the economy, send the economy into recession, not just domestically but globally.  I think that’s -- that would be the height of irresponsibility.

Q    -- like an agreement on that.  You just said by June.  Do you want to --

MR. CARNEY:  Well, I mean, these are tough issues, but obviously we look forward to the first meeting that the Vice President will oversee on May 5th.

Q    I mean on the debt ceiling, though, specifically.

MR. CARNEY:  Oh, on the debt ceiling?  Well, we’ve been calling for timely -- a timely vote.  Congress is obviously in recess, but we hope they would act expeditiously.

Q    Has he laid the groundwork with the Vice President in the past few days, or talked with him to lay the groundwork for the talks that start on May 5th?

MR. CARNEY:  Well, I haven’t had any readouts of specific conversations they’ve had lately, but they obviously talk about this a lot and meet about it a lot.  I don’t have any specifics on that.

Q    Well, when you say that the President is engaged and phones work around the world -- you’ve said that a few times -- what do you mean by that?  Who is he talking to?

MR. CARNEY:  I think that the fact that Congress is out of session and, in this case, at least several days the President isn’t in Washington doesn’t mean that if a decision has to be made or a discussion has to take place between the President or the Vice President and congressional leaders -- it can happen.  But I’m not saying that --

Q    You’re not saying that any of that has happened?

MR. CARNEY:  No.

Goodness gracious.  I hope people were counting on holding onto their breakfast.  (Laughter.)  But any other questions, guys?

Q    In terms of the fundraiser, can we use that audio from the fundraiser, given that there was news in that fundraiser?

MR. CARNEY:  I think whatever the rules basically are we’re going to stick to them.

Q    What are the rules, because it doesn’t seem to be clear?

MR. CARNEY:  You’ve been doing this longer than I have, but I believe -- I’ll check.  It was print only, right?  I’ll get back to you.

Q    Audio for note-taking and transcription.

MR. CARNEY:  We can talk about it afterwards.

Q    You’ll get back to us?

MR. CARNEY:  Yes.  All right, guys, strap in.

END
11:09 A.M. PDT

Vice President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Putin this morning and discussed a range of issues including Russia’s World Trade Organization accession, the Obama Administration’s commitment to terminate Jackson-Vanik’s application to Russia, and next steps on missile defense cooperation.  The Vice President and Prime Minister agreed on the importance of continuing momentum in relations between the United States and Russia.  Vice President Biden underscored the continued need for cooperation between the United States and Russia on global security issues and pledged to continue to work with Russia on facilitating travel between our two countries.

WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to key Administration posts:
 
·         Susan Athey, Member, President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science
·         Judge Wm. Terrell Hodges, Member, Board of Trustees of the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation
·         Robert Stanton, Member, Board of Trustees of the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
·         Bill Stetson, Member, Advisory Committee on the Arts for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
·         Brady J. Deaton, Chairman, Board for International Food and Agricultural Development
·         Gebisa Ejeta, Member, Board for International Food and Agricultural Development
·         Jo Luck, Member, Board for International Food and Agricultural Development
·         Marty McVey, Member, Board for International Food and Agricultural Development
·         David Blitzstein, Member, Advisory Committee to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
·         Joyce Mader, Member, Advisory Committee to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

President Obama announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to key Administration posts:
 
Susan Athey, Appointee for Member, President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science
Susan Athey is a Professor of Economics at Harvard University and co-director of the Market Design Working Group at the National Bureau of Economic Research.  Her current research studies the design of auction-based marketplaces, the statistical analysis of auction data, and internet economics.  Dr. Athey was the first female recipient of the highly prestigious John Bates Clark medal, awarded by the American Economic Association, and she is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  She recently served as an elected member of the executive committee of the American Economics Association as well as the Council of the Econometric Society.  Dr. Athey received her B.A. from Duke University in economics, mathematics, and computer science and her Ph.D. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
 
Judge Wm. Terrell Hodges, Appointee for Member, Board of Trustees of the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation
Judge Wm. Terrell Hodges was appointed as a United States District Judge for the Middle District of Florida in 1971 after practicing law in Tampa.  Judge Hodges has served as Chief Judge of his Court; as a member of the Circuit Council of the Eleventh Circuit; and as a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States as well as Chair of its Executive Committee.  In addition, he has served as a member and as Chair of several  committees of the Conference and the Federal Judicial Center and as Chair of the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.  He has been President of two Chapters of the American Inns of Court, and has received the Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award conferred by the American Judicature Society.  Judge Hodges received his B.S., J.D., and Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Florida.
 
Robert Stanton, Appointee for Member, Board of Trustees of the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
Robert G. Stanton is a Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C.  He advises the Secretary on a wide range of environmental, educational, organizational and management challenges and opportunities, and provides executive leadership and program direction for the Interior Museum at the Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior Building, and the congressionally authorized Indian Arts and Crafts Board.  Prior to assuming this position in 2010, Mr. Stanton served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Program Management in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget at the Department of the Interior.  From 1997 until 2001, he was the Director of the National Park Service.  Since 2001, Mr. Stanton has served as an Executive Professor at Texas A&M University, a Visiting Professor at both Howard and Yale Universities, and consultant to a number of national conservation organizations.  Mr. Stanton earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Huston-Tillotson University, Austin, Texas, and did his graduate work at Boston University.  He has been awarded four honorary doctorate degrees.
 
Bill Stetson, Appointee for Member, Advisory Committee on the Arts for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Eugene William Stetson III is an environmental consultant and film, television, and radio producer.  He served as an advisor to the HBO movie Earth and the American Dream and has produced both narrative feature films and documentaries, including the 2002 documentary, A Closer Walk, which aired on PBS.  Mr. Stetson has established several regional film festivals, including White River Indie Films in Vermont, and, this year, served as the external affairs consultant for the Environmental Film Festival In Our Nation’s Capital.  For over twenty years, he co-produced Dartmouth College Radio's "Environmental Insight."  For nearly 15 years, Mr. Stetson advised former Governor Howard Dean on media and environmental issues, establishing the Vermont Film Commission, for which he served as founding president, a position he again holds for Governor Peter Shumlin.  He presently serves on the board of Vermont Public Radio and the founding board of the Center for the Environment at Harvard University, where he received a bachelor's degree and subsequently studied at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
 
Brady J. Deaton, Appointee for Chairman, Board for International Food and Agriculture Development
Brady J. Deaton is Chancellor of the University of Missouri. During his tenure, Mr. Deaton served as Provost, Deputy Chancellor, Chief of Staff to the Chancellor, Chair of Agricultural Economics, and Social Science Unit Leader. Since 2010, he has served as vice-chair of the Council on Public Higher Education in Missouri. He has also served on the Board of the Association of Public & Land Grant Universities, and the Commission on International Programs. Mr. Deaton holds a B.S. in Agricultural Economics, an M.A. in Diplomacy and International Commerce from the University of Kentucky, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Wisconsin.
 
Gebisa Ejeta, Appointee for Member, Board for International Food and Agriculture Development
Gebisa Ejeta is currently a Professor at Purdue University and serves as the Executive Director of the Purdue Center for Global Food Security.  He previously served as Principal Plant Breeder for the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics assigned to Sudan.  Dr. Ejeta serves on the Consortium Board of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research, the Sasakawa Africa Association, and the Chicago Council for Global Affairs Agricultural Development Program. He is a Fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Sciences, the Crop Science Society of Agronomy, and the American Society of Agronomy. Dr. Ejeta was the recipient of the 2009 World Food Prize. He holds a B.S. in Plant Sciences from Alemaya College of Agriculture in Ethiopia, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Plant Genetics and Breeding from Purdue University.

Jo Luck, Appointee for Member, Board for International Food and Agriculture Development
Jo Luck is President of Heifer International, a global organization working to end hunger and poverty.  Ms. Luck previously served as president/CEO of Heifer International beginning in 1992 until 2010. During her academic tenure, she attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where she served on the Executive Committee of the Alumni Advisory Board, and the Harvard Business School’s Executive Education Session on Governing for Nonprofit Excellence. Ms. Luck was co-recipient of the 2010 World Food Prize. She holds a B.A. from Lipscomb College and honorary doctorates from several colleges and universities.
 
Marty McVey, Appointee for Member, Board for International Food and Agriculture Development
Marty McVey is President of McVey & Co. Investments, a private equity firm that focuses primarily on Healthcare, Real Estate and Energy Investments.  Mr. McVey is also the founder and Chairman of Safi Energy, a renewable energy company that has interests in alternative energy and real estate. He is a member of the Indus Entrepreneurs board. He holds a B.A. and an M.B.A. from American University.
 
David Blitzstein, Appointee for Member, Advisory Committee to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
David Blitzstein is currently the Special Assistant for Multiemployer Plans for the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW).  From 1990-2009, Mr. Blitzstein served as the Director of the Negotiated Benefits Department of the UFCW. Mr. Blitzstein represents the UFCW as a member of the Steering Committee of the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans, a member of the Employee Benefits Research Institute, a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and a Director of the Pension Research Council of the Wharton School - University of Pennsylvania. In 2008, he was appointed by the Governor of Maryland to serve a four year term on the Board of Trustees for the Maryland State Retirement and Pension Systems. Mr. Blitzstein received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and his M.S. in labor studies from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
 
Joyce Mader, Appointee for Member, Advisory Committee to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
Joyce A. Mader is a partner at O'Donoghue & O'Donoghue LLP, a Washington, DC based law firm, where she has represented multi-employer pension, health, and other employee benefit plans for more than 30 years.  Ms. Mader is currently a member of the of the American Bar Association’s Council of the Section of Labor and Employment Law and serves as the Council’s Liaison to the Section’s Employee Benefits Committee. She is a frequent speaker before labor and industry groups and at educational programs on issues relating to employee benefit plans, and, in 2000, she was inducted as a Charter Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel.  Ms. Mader received her law degree from Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law and her undergraduate degree from Dickinson College.

St. Regis Hotel
San Francisco, California

9:28 A.M. PDT

THE PRESIDENT: Everybody please be seated. Thank you. It is wonderful to be here, and I’ll admit I sort of slept in. (Laughter.) That whole three-hour time difference is okay. I did stay up late last night, so I had an excuse.

We’ve got just some great friends in the audience, people who have helped us in so many ways and helped California is so many ways. I just want to acknowledge a few folks to make sure, if they haven’t been already acknowledged. Somebody who I had the pleasure of serving with and is one of the finest senators in the country, Dianne Feinstein is here. (Applause.) Your dynamic lieutenant governor, Gavin Newsom is in the house. (Applause.) One of my favorites, somebody who was with me through thick and thin during the course of my campaign, and then hopefully she felt I was there with her during the course of her campaign, Attorney General Kamala Harris is here. (Applause.)

San Francisco mayor Edwin Lee is in the house, doing a great job. (Applause.) Former mayor Willie Brown is here. (Applause.) No matter how hard I try, Willie is still better dressed than me. (Laughter.) Although I’m still getting used to the no mustache thing. I mean, he’s a pretty good-looking guy, but I still remember that.

And what can I say about Nancy Pelosi? She has been -- I think will go down in history as one of the finest Speakers that we have ever had -- (applause) -- and she is going to continue to be in the future one of the great Speakers that we’ve ever had. (Applause.)

So many of you were with us in 2008, and I had great fun last night talking to a big crowd, and you could start feeling people getting back -- Jerry already left, I thought. Jerry was here. (Laughter.) Your governor, Jerry Brown, was in the house. (Laughter and applause.) But it’s always awkward when you introduce someone and they’re not there. (Laughter.) So Jerry had to leave, but -- because he had important business to do on behalf of the state of California.

Last night was a wonderful event, and I had a chance to talk to a lot of our grassroots supporters here in California. And I reminded them that the campaign we ran in 2008 wasn’t about me. It was about a commitment that the American people were making to each other. It was about a vision of what America could be, because what we understood was that we were at a crossroads.

There are moments in history that are inflection points, and I think we understood back in 2008 that we were entering into one of those periods. Domestically, we had gone through a decade in which the economy was growing but it was growing on top of a bubble. And people at the very top were doing very well, but the wages and incomes of ordinary families had flatlined, and we were starting as a government to live beyond our means with tax cuts and two wars that weren’t paid for. And so I think people understood even before the recession hit that somehow the way our economy was operating was not conducive to long-term sustained economic growth or making sure that everybody had a chance at the American Dream.

Internationally, we were seeing changes around the world -- countries like China and India rising; areas like the Middle East becoming less stable; the world shrinking because of technology, much of it invented right here in this region. And so I think we understood that we were going to have to adapt in some fundamental way in order to make sure that our kids and our grandkids ended up inheriting the kind of America that we inherited.

And so as I think about the campaign, what always excited me was not the huge crowds. It wasn’t all the attention that I got. What really excited me was whenever we went into a community and it turned out that people who hadn’t been involved in politics before were suddenly getting involved. And folks who would normally not meet suddenly were meeting and planning and plotting. And entire virtual communities got set up in places like Idaho and northern Nevada. And these folks would set up their own teams, and they were coming up with ideas about how to get folks more engaged and more involved.

There was a sense that from the bottom up, the American people were saying we’re going to reach for a more hopeful future, and we’re going to make our politics work. We’re going to insist on a politics that is responsive to the hopes and dreams of ordinary folks.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Mr. President, we’re going to do a song. Can we stand?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, let me --

(Group begins to sing.)

THE PRESIDENT: That’s very nice.

Nancy, did you plan this? (Laughter.)

All right, how about -- that was a pretty good song. You guys sing better than I do.

(Song continues.)

All right, guys. That was a nice song. You guys have much better voices than I have. Okay, thank you very much, guys.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you for listening.

THE PRESIDENT: Of course. Well, I appreciate that. Now, where was I? (Laughter.) It did break my flow, I’ve got to admit. (Applause.)

Now, there’s an example of creativity that we saw during the campaign. (Laughter.) You know, it wasn’t always convenient but it’s part of what made 2008 special. And what’s happened -- and I think that was indicative of that performance as well -- is, is that over the last two and a half years, change turned out to be tougher than a lot of us expected. Right? I think a lot of folks didn’t recognize that we might end up going through the worst recession since the Great Depression, and that we’d see 8 million jobs lost, devastating entire communities all across the country. I think we didn’t anticipate a housing crisis that kept on worsening, or the potential of a financial meltdown.

And what ordinary folks are going through still, even after the economy has started growing again, is something that keeps me up at night, and it’s something that I think about the first thing when I wake up in the morning.

We knew that we had to make changes in energy, and we’ve made some, but we understood that despite these changes, folks are still out there with $4-a-gallon gas, and that’s tough on ordinary families. They can’t afford to buy a new hybrid car if they’re driving 50 miles a day to go to work.

And so what I think a lot of folks feel over the last two and a half years is we’ve done extraordinary work -- in part, thanks to folks like Nancy and Dianne and people in Congress -- but we understand that we’ve still got more work to do.

I could not be prouder of our track record over the last two and a half years. (Applause.) But yanking this country out of a great depression, passing historic health care laws so that people who are bankrupt -- people who are sick don’t have to go through bankruptcy in order to pay their medical bills -- (applause) -- making sure that "don’t ask, don’t tell" was finally repealed, making sure that we’ve got two women on the Supreme Court -- and one of them is the first Latina on the Supreme Court -- (applause) -- making sure that we made the largest investment in clean energy and education and infrastructure in our history. I could not be prouder of those achievements. But we’ve got so much more work to do.

And we’re not going to be able to make those changes unless that same spirit that drove us in 2008 drives us in 2012.

I think that a lot of folks feel that, well, he’s now President; he’s a little grayer, he’s a little older. It’s not quite as new as it was. And so we can run a different kind of campaign -- more top-down, more Washington.

And I guess part of my message here in California today is that we need you now more than ever. Your engagement, your involvement, your commitments are going to be critically important because the work that we wanted to do, the vision that we had for the country is unfinished; and because we’re facing as stark as a choice -- as stark of a choice as we’ve seen I think in this country philosophically as we’ve seen in a very long time. And we’re seeing that in the budget discussions that we’re having right now.

We’ve got a serious deficit and debt problem. There is no doubt about it. It’s one that we inherited, but it’s real. And we’ve got a responsibility to fix it. The question is how do we fix it. Are we going to fix it by making sure that we eliminate spending that we don’t need, as I’ve proposed, but also making sure that everybody shares the burden, and we’re raising additional revenues by making sure that those of us who have done so well in this society can afford to pay a little bit more? Or do we end up balancing our budget and reducing our deficit by fundamentally reworking our social compact, so that suddenly kids on Head Start don’t have those opportunities anymore; so that we say to our seniors Medicare is no longer a guarantee that you will have health care when you are older -- here’s a voucher; we’re going to shift the costs on to you, and if you can’t get the health care that you need on the open market, then tough luck?

Is it a vision of America that is big and ambitious and generous and says we’re going to invest in clean energy, and we are going to invest in our kids’ college educations, we’re going to invest in math and science education because we know that innovation is going to be the key to the 21st century? And we’re going to invest in our infrastructure because we want to make this a great country to do businesses, and we understand that means moving goods and services and people and information efficiently around the country?

Or do we have a shrunken image of America that says we can’t afford to do those things anymore; that America just doesn’t do big things anymore? That’s the vision that is reflected in the budget that’s already been voted on by the House Republicans, one that says we can’t afford to do big things anymore.

I fundamentally disagree with that vision. That’s not what built California. That’s not what built Silicon Valley. That’s not what made us the greatest country on Earth. So this debate is going to be fierce. It is going to be serious. But it can’t just take place in Washington. It’s going to have to be animated by conversations that you have with your friends and your neighbors and your coworkers. And you’re going to have to be speaking out and pulling together networks, and it’s going to be a conversation that’s taking place at the state and local levels just as much as it is as the national level. It already is.

Here’s the thing -- for all the challenges that we’ve experienced over the last two and a half years, for all the issues international and domestic that we’ve dealt with, despite the occasional setback and the frustrations, what we’ve already gotten accomplished in two and a half years gives me confidence about what we can accomplish in the next six.

We have gone through tougher times before -- both as a country, but also as a movement. And each time, because we’ve come together, we’ve been able to achieve what a lot of folks thought was impossible. People really didn’t think we were going to get health care passed, but Nancy helped prove them wrong. (Applause.)

We didn’t think -- a lot of people -- a lot of people didn’t think that we were going to get "don’t ask, don’t tell" repealed until we got it repealed. (Applause.)

A lot of folks didn’t think that we could elect a guy named Barack Obama to the presidency until we got Barack Obama elected to the presidency. (Applause.) You have proved time and again that when people of goodwill come together, there’s nothing that’s impossible.

And so I just ask all of you to make sure that your participation in this process over the next 18 months isn’t restricted to writing a check, but rather continues to embody the same kinds of imagination and can-do spirit, and I think most importantly that sense of community that was so central to us being successful in 2008.

Thank you very much, everybody. (Applause.) God bless you. And thank you again for the song. (Applause.)

END
9:46 A.M. PDT

TOWN HALL AT ELECTRATHERM
RENO, NEVADA
11:50 AM PDT

On Thursday, the President will conduct his third town hall meeting in three days and discuss his plan for getting America’s finances in order through shared responsibility and shared prosperity at ElectraTherm in Reno, Nevada.

ElectraTherm, Inc. is a small renewable energy company (45 employees) headquartered in Reno, Nevada. ElectraTherm's product, the Green Machine, generates fuel-free, emission-free power from low to mid temperature waste heat using the Organic Rankine Cycle and patented technology. ElectraTherm is an example of a company where smart investments in clean energy are creating good jobs and growing our economy.

In September of 2010, the Department of Energy announced that ElectraTherm was awarded approximately $982,000 to research, develop, and demonstrate the financial and technical viability of using a new method to produce electricity. This announcement was part of a larger, $20 million initiative by DOE to boost the development of innovative geothermal technologies that can reduce demand for fossil fuels, reduce carbon pollution, and create new clean energy jobs.

The audience of approximately 400 people will consist of ElectraTherm employees and their guests, local community college students and faculty from Truckee Meadows Community College, local leaders and invited guests.

Officials expected to greet on the tarmac

Governor Brian Sandoval and family
Representative Shelley Berkley
Mayor Bob Cashell, Reno

Officials expected to attend the event

Representative Shelley Berkley
Lt. Governor Brian Krolicki
Mayor Bob Cashell, Reno
Ross Miller, Nevada Secretary of State
Kate Marshall, Nevada State Treasurer
Kim Wallin, Nevada State Controller
Catherine Cortez Masto, Nevada Attorney General
Steven Horsford, Senate Majority Leader
John Oceguera, Speaker, Nevada Assembly
Wayne Burke, Chairman, Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe
Arlan Menendez, Chairman, Reno-Sparks Indian Colony
John Breternitz, Chair, Washoe County Commission

Rating period ends Friday, April 29 at 11:59 PM ET

WASHINGTON – Public review and rating of the six high school finalists in the Race to the Top Commencement Challenge begins today and ends Friday, April 29 at 11:59 pm ET.  Rating of the schools will be based on a short video from each school, produced with support from the Get Schooled Foundation, along with an essay on how each school is preparing its students to win the future and achieve the goal of having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. 

President Obama taped a video message encouraging the public to go to www.whitehouse.gov/commencement and rate the final six schools.  Schools will be rated on a scale from 1 to 5 (with 5 being the best).  The three schools with the highest average ratings will be announced on Monday, May 2ndwith the final winner selected by President Obama later that week.   

Finalist Videos: 

• Bridgeport High School (Bridgeport, Washington)  
• Booker T. Washington High School (Memphis, Tennessee)
• High Tech High International (San Diego, CA)
• Pittsburgh CAPA 6-12, School for Creative and Performing Arts (Pittsburgh, PA)         
• Science Park High School (Newark, New Jersey)
• Wayne Early Middle College High School (Goldsboro, North Carolina)

Click here to view a highlight reel of all the videos and here to watch a video of the schools being notified of their selection on Thursday, April 7 and Friday, April 8, 2011.

Background on Videos and Commencement Challenge

The While House partnered with Viacom and the Get Schooled Foundation to ensure that each of the finalist high schools had access to the tools and media expertise needed to produce high quality videos.  Viacom provided the services of a producer and camera equipment to each of the high school finalists, where they worked with a team of students to help bring their applications to life on video.  The crews - which hailed from Viacom's BET, MTV, CMT, Spike and Nickelodeon - assisted the students in pre-production, story-boarding, filming and editing over a three-day period.  In addition, Viacom's mtvU provided a college mentor to each school who helped the teams to develop and execute their respective visions.  After the final winner is selected, Viacom will be on hand to film the President's visit to the winning school and his commencement address.

The President set a goal of having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020 and the Commencement Challenge invited the nation’s public high schools to submit applications that demonstrate their commitment to preparing students for college and a career.   Hundreds of applications were received and were judged based on the schools’ performance, essay questions and supplemental data. The six finalists were selected for their creativity in engaging and supporting students, academic results, and progress in preparing students tograduate college and career ready.

8:52 P.M. PDT

      THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, San Francisco!  (Applause.)  Thank you!  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you so much.  Thank you, everybody.  Everybody, have a seat.  Thank you so much.  It’s good to be back in San Francisco.  (Applause.)

      Part of the reason is I've got some great friends here.  (Applause.)  And a couple people I want to acknowledge:  Somebody who is one of the greatest Speakers that I know of and is going to be one of the greatest Speakers again -- Nancy Pelosi is in the house.  (Applause.)  The lieutenant governor, former mayor, Gavin Newsom is here.  (Applause.)  An outstanding congressional delegation -- Barbara Lee, Mike Honda -- where’s Mike Honda?  John Garamendi is here.  (Applause.)  Jerry McNerney is here.  (Applause.)  State Comptroller John Chiang is here.  (Applause.) And State Treasurer Bill Lockyer is here.  (Applause.)

      And you’re here.  (Applause.)  I see you.  (Applause.)  Thank you.

      It is nice to be back West in the great state of California. And let me -- (applause) -- let me just say this.  Obviously, there are extraordinary responsibilities to this job.  There are certain pleasures, as well.  And coming in on Marine One and then just coming right past the Golden Gate Bridge, that's a pretty nice perk.  (Applause.)  I’ve got to say, one of the greatest -- one of the greatest views in the world.

      I had come in from a town hall meeting hosted by Facebook.  (Applause.)  And I was happy to find out that my Facebook page was doing pretty well.  (Laughter.)  We had -- I’ve got 19 million friends, which -- (laughter and applause) -- which only puts me half a million friends behind SpongeBob SquarePants.  (Laughter.)  So that's something to aspire to.  (Laughter.)  Keeping up with SpongeBob.  (Laughter.)

      AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We love you!

      THE PRESIDENT:  I love you back.  (Applause.)  I do.

      It’s especially nice to be out of Washington, D.C.  (Applause.)  There are wonderful folks doing great work in Washington, but I have to say that the conversation you hear in Washington is just different from the conversation you hear around kitchen tables or around office coolers.  And that's why we decided that our reelection campaign will be the first one in modern history to be based outside of Washington, D.C.  We're going back to Chicago.  (Applause.)   

      We’re going back to Chicago because I don't want our campaign only hearing from pundits and power brokers and the cable chatter.  I want our campaign to be hearing from the people who got us here.  (Applause.)  I want to make sure we’re putting the campaign back in your hands, the hands of the same organizers and volunteers that proved the last time that together ordinary people can do extraordinary things.  (Applause.)  When we’re together there is nothing we can’t do, including elect a guy names Barack Obama to the highest office in the world.  (Applause.)

      Now, a few things have changed since the last time around.  I’m older.  (Laughter.)  I am grayer.  (Laughter.)

      AUDIENCE MEMBER:  That's all right, you still fine.  (Applause.)

      THE PRESIDENT:  But my memory has not gone, and so I can still remember that night in Grant Park when there was so much excitement in the streets and that sense of hope and possibility. And I know you remember not only the good feeling, but also what I said on that night.  I said that our work wasn’t ending; it was just beginning.  I said that our climb was going to be steep.  We had so many challenges ahead of us.  And I have to say that, at the time, I cautioned people.  I said we may not get there in one year.  We may not even get there in one term.  But if we came together, if we showed the same fortitude and persistence and optimism that had gotten us to Election Night, then we could bring about the change that we had talked about; the change that we had envisioned for our communities, for our kids, for our grandkids; the commitments that we had made to each other.

      Because that’s what the campaign was about.  It was a sense of mutual commitment.  The campaign wasn’t about me.  It was about what all of us imagined our country could be.  (Applause.)     And it turns out that the climb was even steeper than some of us had anticipated.  We took office in the middle of the worst recession in our lifetimes -- one that left millions of Americans without jobs; hundreds of thousands of people without homes; folks who kept their jobs or kept their homes struggling to pay the bills.  It was a recession that was so bad that many families are still grappling with the aftershocks even to this day.

      And we had to make tough decisions right off the bat.  We had to immediately move a Recovery Act through that would ensure that we didn’t dip into a depression; that would help states and local governments keep teachers on the job, and firefighters on the job, and police officers on the job -- (applause) -- that would make sure that we cut taxes for Americans so they had a little more money in their pockets to help get through tough times.

      Some of the decisions we made were not popular.  You remember folks talking about the auto bailout.  A lot of folks were skeptical -- we should just let the auto industry in America go by the wayside.  But two and a half years later, our economy is growing again.  We’re creating jobs again.  (Applause.)  Over the last four months, we’ve seen the largest drop in unemployment since 1984.  (Applause.)  Over the last 13 months, we’ve added nearly 2 million private sector jobs.  (Applause.)

      And along the way, we did a few other things:  The largest investment in clean energy in our history.  (Applause.)  The largest investment in science and basic research that we had seen in years.  (Applause.)  Largest investment in our infrastructure since Dwight Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System.  (Applause.)

      We passed a law that had eluded folks for a hundred years, finally making sure that every single American in this country won’t go bankrupt because they get sick, will be able to get health care coverage even if they’ve got a preexisting condition. We moved that forward.  (Applause.)

      We changed our student loan program so that billions of dollars that were going to big banks are now going directly to students, and millions more young people are able to go to college as a consequence.  (Applause.)

      We put two wise women on the Supreme Court, including the first Latina Supreme Court justice.  (Applause.)  And we rolled back “don't ask, don't tell,” so that everybody can serve their country regardless of who they love.  (Applause.)

      And then we dealt with pirates -- (laughter) -- and a pandemic.  You forgot about that.  An oil spill.  We’ve been pretty busy.  And yet our work is not finished.  It is going --

      AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Gay marriage.

      THE PRESIDENT:  Our work is not finished.  (Applause.)  It is going to take -- it is going to take more than a couple of years.  It is going to take more than one term for us to finish everything that we need to do.  (Applause.)  And I am reminded -- I’m reminded almost every night, when I read letters from people from all across the country talk about what it’s like to send out 16 resumes and not get a response back; a child writing saying their parents are about to lose their home -- Mr. President, is there something you can do to help?

      It’s heartbreaking.  There’s so much resilience and so much strength out there, and yet still so much that needs to be done.
      And so when I think about running for reelection, I don’t look backwards.  I look forward.  I say to myself, what can we do for those Americans out there?  That’s what I think about when I wake up every morning.  That’s what I think about when I go to bed at night.  And that’s what this campaign has to be about -- about your jobs, about your families, about your hopes, about your dreams.  That’s what we’re fighting for.

      Because of you, we’ve been able to make great progress over these last few years.  But that progress can’t make us complacent.  It can’t make us content.  It should remind us that change, yes, is possible, but we’ve got to finish what we started.  We’ve got to finish what we started.  (Applause.)

      Because of you, yes, we were able to prevent another depression.  But in the next few years, we’ve got to make sure that the new jobs and industries of our time are created right here in the United States of America.  (Applause.)  We’ve got to be prepared to win the future.  We’ve got to be prepared to win the future.  And that means making sure we’re investing in innovation, education, infrastructure -- (applause) -- all those ingredients that can keep our economy dynamic.

      Because of you, we’ve made college more affordable for millions of students.  (Applause.)  But we’re not done.  We’re not done.  We’ve raised standards for teaching and learning in schools all across the country by launching a competition called Race to the Top, but now we’ve got to keep that reform going until every child is ready to graduate, every child is ready for college, every child can actually afford to go to college, every child is ready for a career.  (Applause.)

      That’s how we’ll out-educate and out-compete the rest of the world for the jobs of the future right here in the United States of America.  (Applause.)

      Yes, because of you, we’ve made the largest investments in clean and renewable energy in our history.  (Applause.)  And those are already creating jobs and new businesses.  But high gas prices are killing folks out there -- killing you.  You know.  It’s rough.  You say, “it’s just really rough.”  (Laughter.)

      I admit, Secret Service doesn’t let me pump gas now.  (Laughter.)  But I remember what it was like filling up.  (Laughter.)  And you think about a family that has to drive 50 miles to work.  They don't have a choice.  That's where their job is.  They may not be able to sell their home and move closer, That's not an option for them, especially in this housing market.
      It would be nice if they could buy a hybrid, but they might not have the money, and they're driving that old beater.  And it’s getting eight miles a gallon.  (Laughter.)  And that's no joke.  We gave everybody a tax cut, but a lot of that money gets eaten up by high gas prices.

      And so we’ve got to keep making investments in clean energy. We’ve got to strive for energy independence in this country.  (Applause.)  We’ve got to invest in solar and wind and electric cars, and it’s time we stopped giving the oil companies $4 billion in taxpayer subsidies -- take that money and put it into clean energy.  (Applause.)

      That makes no sense.  We’ve got to change it.  Instead of subsidizing yesterday’s energy, let’s invest in tomorrow’s energy.  (Applause.)  It’s good for our security.  It will grow our economy, and it will leave our children with a safer and cleaner planet.  (Applause.)

      Because of all of you, we’ve put hundreds of thousands of people to work rebuilding our infrastructure.  But now we’ve got to make sure that we’re built to compete in the 21st century.  Not just new roads and new bridges, but high-speed rail and high-speed Internet.  (Applause.)  A smart grid to make sure that we can move all that clean energy all across the country.

      I want to make sure that America is the best place on Earth to do business.  (Applause.)  And part of that is having a world-class infrastructure.  I don't want folks flying around the world and saying, how come our airports aren’t as nice as they are in Beijing or Singapore?  I don’t want people going to Europe and saying, boy, these are really nice trains -- how come we don’t have trains like this?  (Applause.)

      That’s not the American way.  I mean, I hate to be parochial but I want us to have the best stuff.  (Applause.)  That’s part of what it means to be American.  We got nice infrastructure.

      AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We’ve got the best President!

      THE PRESIDENT:  Well -- (applause.)  We got to out-build, we got to out-educate, out-innovate the rest of the world.

      Because of you we finally got health care passed.  (Applause.)  We said health care should no longer be a privilege in this country; it should be something that’s affordable and available for every American.  We said in the United States you should not go bankrupt when you get sick.  But you know there are folks who want to roll it back --

      AUDIENCE:  Booo --

      THE PRESIDENT:  -- before it even has a change to get implemented effectively.

      Because of you we passed Wall Street reform that helps to make sure that we don’t go through the same kind of crisis that we went through before, and you as consumers aren’t taken advantage of when it comes to mortgages or credit cards.  But you know there are some folks who want to roll it back.

      AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Booo --

      THE PRESIDENT:  Because of you we passed a law that says a woman should get an equal day’s pay for an equal day’s work.  What do you think, Nancy Pelosi?  Do you agree with that?  (Applause.)

      But you all know that there’s a lot more that can be done. With it comes to enforcement of those laws.  Yes, we overturned “don’t ask, don’t tell,” but we still have more work to do to make sure this country is fully equal and treats everybody with dignity and respect.  (Applause.)  We’ve got more work to do.  We removed 100,000 troops from Iraq and ended combat missions there like I promised we would.  (Applause.)  But we’ve still got more work to do to make ourselves secure and bring our troops home.

      We’ve got to protect the changes that we made, and we’ve got to make the changes that remain undone.  We’ve got to keep moving forward.  We’ve got to keep working for the America that we believe in, the America we want to leave behind to our kids.  And that’s what the debate we’re having in Washington right now is all about.

      There’s a lot of talk right now about debt and deficits and budget and spending.  What this debate is really about is what kind of future we want; about what kind of country we believe in fundamentally.  I believe in an America where a government lives within its means.  (Applause.)  I want a government that is lean and effective and not wasting your money -- because you don’t have any money to waste -- which means we’ve got to cut some spending in Washington.  We’ve got to cut domestic spending.  We’ve also got to cut defense spending.  (Applause.)  And we’ve got to cut spending in our tax code.  We’ve got a whole bunch of loopholes in there that we don’t need.  We’ve got to eliminate every dime of waste.

      And if we want to take responsibility for the debt that we owe, then we’ve got to make some tough decisions.  There are going to be some things that would be nice to have but we can afford to do without.  We all need to share in the sacrifice to get us on a stable financial footing.

      And by the way, if you are progressive, you’ve got to be just as concerned about that as somebody who considers themselves a fiscal conservative, because the fact of the matter is, if money that could be going to Head Start or money that could be going to programs that are putting people back to work, if that money is being wasted, that’s not good -- that doesn’t promote progressive values.  We’ve got to be just as scrupulous in thinking about how government spends money as anybody else.  We’ve got to be more so.  (Applause.)

      But let me tell you something.  I will not reduce our deficit by sacrificing the things that have always made America great.  (Applause.)  The things that have made Americans prosper. I won’t sacrifice our investments in education.  I will not sacrifice those.  (Applause.)  I won’t sacrifice our investments in science and basic research.  (Applause.)  I won’t sacrifice the safety of our highways or our airports.  I won’t sacrifice our investment in clean energy at a time when our dependence on foreign oil is causing Americans so much pain at the pump.  (Applause.)  I will not sacrifice America’s future.  That I will not do.  (Applause.)

      If we want to reduce our deficit, yes, we need to cut spending.  But we need shared sacrifice.  And that means ending the tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans in this country.  We can afford it.  (Applause.)

      It’s not because we want to punish success.  It’s because if we’re going to ask everybody to sacrifice a little, we can’t just tell millionaires and billionaires they don't have to do a thing -- just relax, that's fine.  We’ll take care of this.  (Laughter.)  Go count your money.  That's fine.  (Laughter and applause.)

      Because some of you bought my book, I fall in this category.  (Laughter.)  I’m speaking about myself.  I can afford to do a little more, especially when the only way to pay for these tax cuts for the wealthy is to ask seniors to pay thousands of dollars more for health care.

      AUDIENCE:  Booo!

      THE PRESIDENT:  Or cut children from Head Start, or doing away with health insurance for millions of people on Medicaid, seniors in nursing homes, or poor kids, or middle-class families who’ve got an autistic child.  That's not a tradeoff I’m willing to make.  (Applause.)  And that's not a tradeoff most Americans are willing to make, regardless of party.  We can do better than that.  We are better than that!  (Applause.)  We are better than that!  (Applause.)

      The America we know is great not because of our skyscrapers or the size of our GDP.  It’s because we’ve been able to keep two ideas together at the same time.  The first idea is that we are all individuals endowed with certain inalienable rights and liberties; that we are self-reliant; we are entrepreneurs.  We don't expect others to do for us what we can do for ourselves, and we don't really like people telling us what to do.  (Laughter.)

      But the second idea, just as important is that we’re all in this together; that we look out for one another; that I am my brother’s keeper; that I am my sister’s keeper.  (Applause.)  That I want to make sure that a child born in a tough neighborhood has the same opportunities I had.  (Applause.)  And I do that -- I feel that way not out of charity, but because my life is richer, my life is better, when the people around me have some measure of security and some measure of dignity, and they, too, have a shot at the American Dream.  (Applause.)

      That’s our vision for America.  It’s not a vision of a small America.  It’s a vision of a big America, of a compassionate America, a caring America, an ambitious America.  And that’s what this campaign is about.

      There are those right now who say that this is kind of the end of the line.  We’ve got these deficits, we’ve got debt, we’ve gone through this recession, there’s international competition.  China and India and Brazil, they’re all growing faster than we are.  And you know what, maybe we’ve just got to shrink.  We’ve got to shrink everything.  We can’t afford to do big things.  We can’t afford to make sure every child gets a shot at college.  We can’t afford to make sure that we’ve got the best roads and ports and airports.  We can’t afford to make sure that every senior knows they’ve got basic health care available to them when they get older.  We can’t afford to keep our air and water clean.  We can’t afford to invest in the arts.  We can’t afford to maintain our national parks.

      That’s not a vision of America that I want to pass on to Malia and Sasha.  (Applause.)  I want a vision of America that is big and bold and ambitious as it has ever been.  (Applause.)  That’s what I’m fighting for and that’s what this campaign has to be about -- a vision of a big, generous, compassionate America; a vision where we’re living within our means but we’re still investing in our future; a vision where we all share sacrifice, nobody bears all the burden, and we all share an opportunity; a vision where we live up to the idea that no matter who you are, no matter where you come from, no matter what you look like, no matter whether your ancestors landed here on Ellis Island or came here on slave ships or came across the Rio Grande, we are all connected.  (Applause.)  We will rise and fall together.  (Applause.)

      That's the vision of America that I’ve got.  That's the idea at the heart of America.  (Applause.)  That's the idea at the heart of our campaign!  (Applause.)

      And that's why I’m going to need your help, now more than ever.

      AUDIENCE MEMBER:  I’m in!

      THE PRESIDENT:  This campaign -- you’re in.  (Applause.)
      I need you all in.

      AUDIENCE:  I’m in!  We’re in!  (Applause.)

      THE PRESIDENT:  This campaign is still at its early stages, but now is the time when you can shape it.  Now is the time when you can get out of the gate strong.  I know there are times where some of you have felt frustrated because we haven’t gotten everything done as fast as we wanted.  We didn't get everything exactly the way we had planned.

      AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Health care.

      AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Single-payer.

      THE PRESIDENT:  See, there?  Case in point, right?  All right.  See I knew I’d open up this can of worms.  (Laughter.)

      Look, there are times where I felt the same way that you do. This is a big, complicated, messy democracy.  Change is not simple.  Everybody likes change in the abstract, but change in the concrete is hard.  (Applause.)  It’s tough.  It requires work.  (Applause.)

      Not everybody agrees with us.  Not everybody agrees in this auditorium about issues.  That's part of what makes this country special, is the nature of our democracy.  And so sometimes it can be frustrating.  And I know there are times where you’re sitting there and you’re thinking, golly, you know, Obama, he’s made some compromise with the Republicans on this or that.  Or, how come he’s -- he should have done it this way.  Everybody is a political consultant.  (Laughter.)  And if he had just phrased it that way, I’m sure we could have gotten health care done in two months.  (Laughter and applause.)  You know who I’m talking about -- you.  That’s right.

      And then your friends come and you say, oh, Obama has changed.  I used to be so excited; I still have the poster, but  -- (laughter and applause.)  I know.  I know.

      Sometimes I get frustrated.  There are times where I am just so burdened by the fact that there are still so many folks out there who we haven’t -- haven’t gotten the help that they need.  And so I understand how you guys feel.  But we knew this wouldn’t be easy.  We knew that on a journey like this there were going to be setbacks, there were going to be detours.  There were going to be some times where we stumbled.

      People act like the campaign was easy.  They weren’t on the campaign.  (Laughter.)  They all look back -- oh, Obama, he ran such a perfect campaign; it was so smooth.  What campaign were you on?  (Laughter and applause.)  This was hard.  So we knew that there were going to be setbacks and stumbles.

      But here’s what keeps me going:  At every juncture in our history, when our future was on the line, when we were at a crossroads like we are right now, we pulled through, and we pulled through together.  We were able to make the changes that were needed.  And it was hard. It was full of debate and sometimes rancor, and sometimes worse. That’s how this country became more equal.  That’s how the women’s movement started.  That’s how the civil rights movement started.  That’s how the union movement started.  (Applause.)

      At every juncture there’s been resistance and debate and uncertainty, but somehow, we pulled through -- together.  So whenever you hear people say our problems are too big to solve; whenever you hear people say we’ve got to shrink back on our dreams; whenever you hear people say we can’t bring about the changes that we seek; whenever you hear people say, well, the campaign was this or that, but now governing is somehow different -- I just want you to think about all the progress that we’ve already made.  (Applause.)

      I want you to think about all the unfinished business we’ve got ahead of us.  I want you to be excited about the future that lies before us.  I want to remind you and everybody else of those three simple words that summed up what we believe as a people:  Yes, we can.

      Thank you, everybody.  God bless you.  (Applause.)

                                              END                  9:32 P.M. PDT

7:30 P.M. PDT

      THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, everybody.  Thank you.  Please -- thank you so much.  (Applause.)  Thank you.  Everybody sit down.  Have a seat.

      I know all of you wish that Stevie would just keep on playing.  (Laughter.)  I understand that, and I can relate to it.  I was mentioning to Marc -- and I hate to do this to you, Stevie, because I’m dating you a little bit -- but the first album that I ever bought with my own little spending money was “Talking Book.”  I was 10 years old.  (Applause.)  I was 10 years old, and I would sit in my room and I had this old phonograph, and the earphones were like really big.  You didn’t have the little iPod buds.  They covered your whole ear.  And I would sit in my room and pretend I was Stevie Wonder.  (Laughter.)  And unfortunately, my grandparents, who were -- I was living with at the time, they had to suffer hearing me sing.  I couldn’t hear myself sing.  I was just hearing Stevie, and I figured I sounded just like him.  (Laughter.)  But I’m sure that was not the case.

      Anyway, Stevie and will.i.am have both been huge supporters, huge friends from very early on in this campaign process.  And so it’s wonderful to have them here.  But I want to most of all thank Marc and Lynne -- and Leia -- for sharing their homes.  This is an incredible setting, but what makes it special is the fact that I’ve got a lot of friends in this room.

      As Marc indicated, people who are leaders, not just in this community but nationally and internationally, but so many of you helped get this project started.  Some of you are involved in startups.  Well, I was a startup just -- not so long ago.  And when I think about that campaign in 2008, the fact is, so many of you took a chance on me.  It was not at all likely that I was going to win.  A lot of people couldn’t pronounce my name, much less expect that I would end up being in the Oval Office.

      But a lot of you put faith in that campaign, primarily because the campaign wasn’t about me.  What the campaign was about was a particular vision of America, an idea about who we are as a people.  It was a notion that for all our differences, for all the shifts that have taken place in this country, for all our sometimes troubled history, despite -- no, because of our diversity of race and faith and region, that there was something special when we come together, and that we can somehow combine a fierce individualism and a sense of entrepreneurship and risk-taking and self-reliance and responsibility with also a sense of community, a sense of mutual obligation, a sense that our lives are better if we’re looking out for one another.

      And that spirit was captured in the campaign, and I was sort of a repository for a lot of hopes and expectations that we could get past so many of the divisions and start working together because we were facing some fundamental challenges in this country that we hadn’t seen in a very long time.

      Now, as Marc mentioned, I think none of us realized how profound some of the crises that we were going to confront would be.  When I started running, and even up until maybe a couple months before the campaign, we didn’t realize we faced the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.  We didn’t realize that we had already lost 4 million jobs by the time I was sworn in and would lose another 4 million probably in the first three, four, six months of my presidency.

      We didn’t understand the degree to which the financial system might melt down and its global consequences.  And yet, despite the enormous economic challenges we faced, despite the changes that we’re seeing internationally, we have made extraordinary progress -- not just pulling the economy back from the brink, but also pushing through that vision that we had, making an America that was more competitive, that was more inclusive, an America that was tapping into that entrepreneurial spirit and once again regaining our edge in this 21st-century global economy, and ended up delivering on promises and commitments that we had made to each other that we knew were going to be very hard, but we knew were going to be important for our future.

      So not only did we make the biggest investment in education that the federal government has ever made, not only did we make the biggest investment in clean energy in our history, not only did we make the biggest investment in infrastructure since Dwight Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System, not only did we put the most money in basic research in our history, but we passed a health care bill that finally began to deliver on the promise of universal health care, something we’d been trying to do for a hundred years.

      We got “don’t ask, don’t tell” repealed so that anybody who loves this country can serve this country.  We got two women on the Supreme Court including the first Latino woman -- the first Latina on the Supreme Court.  (Applause.)

      On issue after issue we’ve made progress.  Now, here’s the challenge -- and then I’m going to shut up because I want to -- well, I won’t shut up, I want to take some questions from folks.  For all the good work that we’ve done, we’re not finished.  We’ve got more work to do.

      And I think most of the people here understand that we still have some fundamental choices to make in this country if we’re going to deliver the kind of America to our children and our grandchildren that we dreamed about and thought about in 2008.

      The economy is still not as strong as it needs to be, and we’ve still got millions of people all around the country who are out of work, at risk of losing their home, can’t pay their bills.  And we’ve got to deliver for them.

      There are still too many children out there who are in substandard schools, can’t imagine working for one of the companies that are represented here today, don’t even know these companies exist, can’t imagine a career that was stable and steady and that would allow them to raise a family, so we’re going to have to deliver on education reform here and all across the country, and make sure that those kids can go to college and get career-ready.

      We’re not finished when it comes to energy.  Right now we’ve got $4-a-gallon gas, and most of the people under this tent don’t have to worry about that.  But for the average person who has to drive 50 miles to work and can’t afford to buy the Tesla -- (laughter) -- it’s hammering them.  It’s hurting them.  So there’s a huge economic imperative.  There’s a national security imperative, as well, because we see what’s happening in the Middle East and we understand that a finite resource that is primarily located in a very unstable part of the world is not good for our long-term future.

      And then there’s the environmental aspect of it.  There are climate change deniers in Congress and when the economy gets tough, sometimes environmental issues drop from people’s radar screens.  But I don’t think there’s any doubt that unless we are able to move forward in a serious way on clean energy that we’re putting our children and our grandchildren at risk.

      So that’s not yet done.  And then we’ve got this big budget debate that we’re having, which really is probably the most fundamental example of the choice that we’re going to be facing over the next 10, 15, 20 years.  And I won’t repeat some of the speeches that I’ve given recently because I suspect some of you have heard them.  But let me just be very clear:  The deficit is real.  Our debt is real.  We’ve got to do something about it.  But how we do it is going to make a huge difference in terms of whether we can win the future.

      And we’ve got a very stark choice.  You’ve got a Republican vision right now in Congress that says we are going to slash clean energy funding by 70 percent, education funding by 25 percent, transportation funding by a third; we’re going to cut taxes further for the well-to-do; and we’re going to make up the entire deficit not only by cutting programs for things like Head Start, but we’re also going to fundamentally change our social compact so that Medicare is no longer something that our seniors can count on.

      The alternative vision, the one that I presented, says we can manage this debt and this deficit in a serious way by eliminating spending we don’t need, saving $2 trillion making some tough choices, but also raising a trillion dollars’ worth of revenue primarily from folks like us who have benefited incredibly from this society and everything that it offers, that will save us a trillion dollars on interest, and that we can change our health care system so instead of just shifting those costs on to people who aren’t in a position to bear those costs, actually making the health care system more efficient, making it work -- using things like health IT and managing of chronic care, and making sure that our providers are reimbursed in smarter ways, to bend the cost curve on health care so that it’s sustainable for the next generation.

      That’s a fundamental choice, a fundamental distinction in terms of how we view the future.

      And so I’ll just close these opening remarks by saying that I am a congenital optimist when it comes to this country, and I do not accept a vision that says America gets small, where suddenly we can’t build a world-class smart grid, or we can’t build the best ports and airports, or we don’t have the best scientific research, or our kids can no longer access the best universities unless they’re wealthy, or we can’t afford to look after people who are the most vulnerable in our society, or we can’t provide a guarantee to our seniors that they’re going to be cared for after a lifetime of hard work.

      That’s the easy path, in some ways.  I mean, the easiest thing to do is for the rich and the powerful to say, we’ve got ours and we don’t have to worry about the rest.  Doesn’t require a lot of imagination.  The easiest way to cut health care is just stop giving health care to people.

      But that’s not the America I believe in.  That’s not the America you believe in.  And that’s what 2012 is going to be about.  We started something in 2008; we haven’t finished it yet.  And I’m going to need you to help me finish it.

                            END            7:45 P.M. PDT

"We were deeply saddened to hear that journalist Chris Hondros has died as the result of injuries sustained while covering the conflict in Misrata. Chris's tragic death underscores the need to protect journalists as they cover conflicts across the globe.  Our thoughts are with Chris's family and loved ones."

In the two years since President Obama laid out his vision for a world without nuclear weapons in Prague, the United States has pursued an aggressive nonproliferation agenda at the United Nations. Today the United States and the other members of the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted UN Security Council Resolution 1977 to extend the mandate of the Committee established pursuant to UNSCR 1540.  The 1540 Committee’s new ten-year mandate allows it to continue its valuable work, including through adoption of effective laws, security measures, border controls, and financial controls.  Under resolution 1977, the 1540 Committee will also be aided by a group of experts and work more closely with relevant regional and inter-governmental organizations to effectively implement UNSCR 1540.

The continuation and enhancement of the 1540 Committee’s work is an important element of the United States’ nonproliferation objectives outlined in the President’s April 2009 Prague speech and the 2010 Washington Nuclear Security Summit communiqué and work plan.  To further underscore its commitment to these goals, the United States recently announced our intention to make a voluntary contribution of $3 million to the UN to support 1540 Committee activities.  Resolution 1977 ensures that those vital activities will continue unabated during the 1540 Committee’s new, lengthy mandate.

Facebook Headquarters
Palo Alto, California

1:58 P.M. PDT

      THE PRESIDENT:  Well, thank you so much, Facebook, for hosting this, first of all.  (Applause.)  My name is Barack Obama, and I'm the guy who got Mark to wear a jacket and tie.  (Applause.)  Thank you.  (Laughter.)  I'm very proud of that.  (Laughter.)

      MR. ZUCKERBERG:  Second time.

      THE PRESIDENT:  I know.  (Laughter.)  I will say -- and I hate to tell stories on Mark, but the first time we had dinner together and he wore this jacket and tie, I'd say halfway through dinner he’s starting to sweat a little bit.  It’s really uncomfortable for him.  So I helped him out of his jacket.  (Laughter.)  And in fact, if you’d like, Mark, we can take our jackets off.  (Applause.)

      MR. ZUCKERBERG:  That's good.

      THE PRESIDENT:  Woo, that's better, isn’t it?

      MR. ZUCKERBERG:  Yes, but you're a lot better at this stuff than me.  (Laughter.)

      THE PRESIDENT:  So, first of all, I just want to say thank you to all of you for taking the time -- not only people who are here in the audience, but also folks all over the country and some around the world who are watching this town hall.

      The main reason we wanted to do this is, first of all, because more and more people, especially young people, are getting their information through different media.  And obviously what all of you have built together is helping to revolutionize how people get information, how they process information, how they’re connecting with each other.

      And historically, part of what makes for a healthy democracy, what is good politics, is when you’ve got citizens who are informed, who are engaged.  And what Facebook allows us to do is make sure this isn’t just a one-way conversation; makes sure that not only am I speaking to you but you're also speaking back and we're in a conversation, were in a dialogue.  So I love doing town hall meetings.  This format and this company I think is an ideal means for us to be able to carry on this conversation.

      And as Mark mentioned, obviously we're having a very serious debate right now about the future direction of our country.  We are living through as tumultuous a time as certainly I've seen in my lifetime.  Admittedly, my lifetime is a lot longer than most of yours so far.  This is a pretty young crowd.  But we're seeing, domestically, a whole series of challenges, starting with the worst recession we've had since the Great Depression.  We're just now coming out of it.  We've got all sorts of disruptions, technological disruptions that are taking place, most of which hold the promise of making our lives a lot better, but also mean that there are a lot of adjustments that people are having to make throughout the economy.

      We still have a very high unemployment rate that is starting to come down, but there are an awful lot of people who are being challenged out there, day in, day out, worrying about whether they can pay the bills, whether they can keep their home.

      Internationally, we're seeing the sorts of changes that we haven't seen in a generation.  We've got certain challenges like energy and climate change that no one nation can solve but we're going to have to solve together.  And we don't yet have all the institutions that are in place in order to do that.

      But what makes me incredibly optimistic -- and that's why being here at Facebook is so exciting for me -- is that at every juncture in our history, whenever we face challenges like this, whether it’s been the shift from a agricultural age to a industrial age, or whether it was facing the challenges of the Cold War, or trying to figure out how we make this country more fair and more inclusive, at every juncture we’ve always been able to adapt.  We’ve been able to change and we’ve been able to get ahead of the curve.  And that’s true today as well, and you guys are at the cutting edge of what’s happening.

      And so I’m going to be interested in talking to all of you about why this debate that we’re having around debt and our deficits is so important, because it’s going to help determine whether we can invest in our future and basic research and innovation and infrastructure that will allow us to compete in the 21st century and still preserve a safety net for the most vulnerable among us.

      But I’m also going to want to share ideas with you about how we can make our democracy work better and our politics work better -- because I don’t think there’s a problem out there that we can’t solve if we decide that we’re going to solve it together.

      And for that, I’m grateful for the opportunity to speak to you.  And instead of just giving a lot of long speeches I want to make sure that we’ve got time for as many questions as possible.

      So, Mark, I understand you got the first one.

      MR. ZUCKERBERG:  Yes, let’s start off.  So let’s start off with the conversation about the debt.  So I understand that yesterday morning you had a town hall in Virginia where you talked about your framework not only for resolving the short-term budget issues, but the longer-term debt.  And you spent some time talking about tax reform and some cost cutting, but you also spent a lot of time talking about things that you didn’t think that we could cut -- in education, infrastructure and clean energy.

      So my question to kind of start off is:  What specifically do you think we should do, and what specifically do you think we can cut in order to make this all add up?

      THE PRESIDENT:  Well, let me, first of all, Mark, share with you sort of the nature of the problem, because I think a lot of folks understand that it’s a problem but aren’t sure how it came about.

      In 2000, at the end of the Clinton administration, we not only had a balanced budget but we actually had a surplus.  And that was in part because of some tough decisions that had been made by President Clinton, Republican Congresses, Democratic Congresses, and President George H.W. Bush.  And what they had said was let’s make sure that we’re spending wisely on the things that matter; let’s spend less on things that don’t matter; and let’s make sure that we’re living within our means, that we’re taking in enough revenue to pay for some of these basic obligations.

      What happened then was we went through 10 years where we forgot what had created the surplus in the first place.  So we had a massive tax cut that wasn’t offset by cuts in spending.  We had two wars that weren’t paid for.  And this was the first time in history where we had gone to war and not asked for additional sacrifice from American citizens.  We had a huge prescription drug plan that wasn’t paid for.

      And so by the time I started office we already had about a trillion-dollar annual deficit and we had massive accumulated debt with interest payments to boot.  Then you have this huge recession.  And so what happens is less revenue is coming in -- because company sales are lower, individuals are making less money -- at the same time there’s more need out there.  So we’re having to help states and we’re having to help local governments.
      And that -- a lot of what the recovery was about was us making sure that the economy didn’t tilt over into a depression by making sure that teachers weren’t laid off and firefighters weren’t laid off, and there was still construction for roads and so forth -- all of which was expensive.  I mean, that added about another trillion dollars worth of debt.

      So now what we’ve got is a situation not only do we have this accumulated debt, but the baby boomers are just now starting to retire.  And what’s scary is not only that the baby boomers are retiring at a greater rate, which means they're making greater demands on Social Security, but primarily Medicare and Medicaid, but health care costs go up a lot faster than inflation and older populations use more health care costs.  You put that all together, and we have an unsustainable situation.

      So right now we face a critical time where we’re going to have to make some decisions how do we bring down the debt in the short term, and how do we bring down the debt over the long term.

      In the short term, Democrats and Republicans now agree we’ve got to reduce the debt by about $4 trillion over the next 10 years.  And I know that sounds like a lot of money -- it is.  But it’s doable if we do it in a balanced way.

      What I proposed was that about $2 trillion over 10 to 12 years is reduction in spending.  Government wastes, just like every other major institution does, and so there are things that we do that we can afford not to do.  Now, there are some things that I’d like to do, are fun to do, but we just can’t afford them right now.

      So we’ve made cuts in every area.  A good example is Pentagon spending, where Congress oftentimes stuffs weapons systems in the Pentagon budget that the Pentagon itself says we don’t need.  But special interests and constituencies helped to bloat the Pentagon budget.  So we’ve already reduced the Pentagon budget by about $400 billion.  We think we can do about another $400 billion.

      So we’ve got to look at spending both on non-security issues as well as defense spending.  And then what we’ve said is let’s take another trillion of that that we raise through a reform in the tax system that allows people like me -- and, frankly, you, Mark -- for paying a little more in taxes.  (Laughter.)

      MR. ZUCKERBERG:  I’m cool with that.

      THE PRESIDENT:  I know you’re okay with that.  (Laughter.)  Keep in mind, what we’re talking about is going back to the rates that existed when Bill Clinton was President.  Now, a lot of you were -- (laughter) -- I’m trying to say this delicately -- still in diapers at that time.  (Laughter.)  But for those of you who recall, the economy was booming, and wealthy people were getting wealthier.  There wasn’t a problem at that time.  If we go back to those rates alone, that by itself would do a lot in terms of us reducing our overall spending.  And if we can get a trillion dollars on the revenue side, $2 trillion in cutting spending, we can still make investments in basic research.

      We can still invest in something we call ARPA-E, which is like DARPA except just focused on energy, so that we can figure out what are the next breakthrough technologies that can help us reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

      We can still make investments in education, so we’ve already expanded the Pell Grant program so that more young people can go to college.  We’re investing more in STEM education -- math and science and technology education.  We can still make those investments.  We can still rebuild our roads and our bridges, and invest in high-speed rail, and invest in the next generation of broadband and wireless, and make sure everybody has access to the Internet.  We can do all those things while still bringing down the deficit medium term.

      Now, there’s one last component of this -- and I know this is a long answer but I wanted to make sure everybody had the basic foundations for it.  Even if we get this $4 trillion, we do still have a long-term problem with Medicare and Medicaid, because health care costs, the inflation goes up so much faster than wages and salaries.  And this is where there’s another big philosophical debate with the Republicans, because what I’ve said is the best way for us to change it is to build on the health reform we had last year and start getting a better bang for our health care dollar.

      We waste so much on health care.  We spend about 20 percent more than any other country on Earth, and we have worse outcomes because we end up having multiple tests when we could just do one test and have it shared among physicians on Facebook, for example.

      We could focus on the chronically ill; 20 percent of the patients account for 80 percent of the costs.  So doing something simple like reimbursing hospitals and doctors for reducing their readmissions rate, and managing somebody with a chronic illness like diabetes so that they're taking their meds on a regular basis so that they don't come to the emergency room, that saves huge amounts of money.

      So that's what health care reform was about last year or a year and a half ago, and what we want to do is build on that and continue to improve the system.

      What the Republicans right now are saying is, number one, they can't agree to any increases in taxes, which means we’d have to cut out -- of that $4 trillion, all of it would come from education, transportation -- areas that I think are critical for our long-term future.

      So, for example, they proposed 70 percent cuts in clean energy.  Well, I don't know how we free ourselves from dependence on foreign oil -- and anybody who is paying gas prices knows that there’s an economic component to this as well as an environmental component to it -- if we’re not investing in the basic research and technology that allows solar, wind and others to thrive and develop.

      At the same time, what they’ve said is let’s make Medicare into a voucher program, so that retirees, instead of knowing that they're always going to have health care, they're going to get a voucher that covers part of the cost, and whatever health care inflation comes up is all going to be on them.  And if the health insurance companies don't sell you a policy that covers your illnesses, you’re out of luck.

      I think it is very important for us to have a basic social safety net for families with kids with disabilities, for seniors, for folks who are in nursing homes, and I think it’s important for us to invest in our basic research.  We can do all those things, but we’re only going to be able to do it by taking a balanced approach.  And that's what this big debate is about -- all about right now.  All right?

      MR. ZUCKERBERG:  All right, so -- sorry, don't mean to cut off the applause.  (Applause.)

      THE PRESIDENT:  No, no, no, no, no.

      MR. ZUCKERBERG:  That was a very thorough answer.

      THE PRESIDENT:  No, they were -- they were stunned by the length of that answer.  (Laughter.)  But it’s complicated stuff.

      MR. ZUCKERBERG:  So the next question is from someone watching Facebook live.  Jay Aptine (ph) from Williamsburg, Virginia writes in and asks:  “The housing crisis will not go away.  The mortgage financing for new homebuyers with low to moderate income is becoming very difficult.  As President, what can you do to relax the policies that are disqualifying qualified homebuyers from owning their first home?  How can you assure the low to moderate homebuyers that they will have the opportunity to own their first home?”

      THE PRESIDENT:  Well, it’s a good question.  And I’ll be honest with you, this is probably the biggest drag on the economy right now that we have -- along with I know the frustrations people have about gas prices.  What we’ve really seen is the housing market, which was a bubble, had greatly over-inflated in all regions of the country.  And I know I probably don't get a lot of sympathy about that here because I can only imagine what rents and mortgages you guys are paying.

      It is a real drag in all sorts of ways.  People, first of all, they feel poorer even if they still have a home or they’ve already purchased a home, because for a lot of folks their mortgage is now what’s called underwater.  The mortgage is more than the home is worth.  And so if you feel like your most important asset is now worth less than your debt, that's going to constrain how you spend.  People who want to move have a great deal of trouble selling, and people who want to buy, as you pointed out, are seeing terms a lot more restrictive.

      So we've put in place a bunch of programs to try to see if we can speed along the process of reaching a new equilibrium.  For example, what we did is we went to the mortgage lender and said, why don't you renegotiate with your mortgage -- with the person with the mortgage, renegotiate the terms of their mortgage so that their principal is a little bit lower, they can afford the payments, and that way homes don't get foreclosed on, there are fewer homes on the market, and that will raise prices and that will be good for everybody.  And we've seen some significant progress on that front.

      The challenge we still have, as your questioner properly points out, is that a lot of people who bought a first home when credit was easy now are finding that credit is tough.  And we've got to strike a balance.  Frankly, there’s some folks who are probably better off renting.  And what we don't want to do is return to a situation where people are putting no money down and they’ve got very easy payment terms at the front end and then it turns out five years from now, because they’ve got an adjustable rate mortgage, that they couldn't afford it and they lose their home.

      I think the regulators are trying to get that balance right. There are certain communities with high foreclosure rates where what we're trying to do is see if can we help state and local governments take over some of these homes and convert them and provide favorable terms to first-time home buyers.  But, frankly, I think we've got to understand that the days where it was really easy to buy a house without any money down is probably over.  And what we -- what I'm really concerned about is making sure that the housing market overall recovers enough that it’s not such a huge drag on the economy, because if it isn’t, then people will have more confidence, they’ll spend more, more people will get hired, and overall the economy will improve.

      But I recognize for a lot of folks who want to be first-time homebuyers it’s still tough out there.  It’s getting better in certain areas, but in some places, particularly where there was a big housing bubble, it’s not.

      MR. ZUCKERBERG:  So I think the next question is from a Facebook employee in the room today.  So Lauren Hale has a question.  Lauren, where are you from?

      Q    Hi -- over here.

      THE PRESIDENT:  Hey, Lauren.

      Q    Hi, Mr. President.  Thank you so much for joining us today.  I am originally from Detroit, Michigan, and now I'm out here working at Facebook.  So my question for you kind of builds on some of the things we were just talking about.  At the beginning of your term you spent a lot of time talking about job creation and the road to economic recovery, and one of the ways to do that would be substantially increasing federal investments in various areas as a way to fill the void left from consumer spending.  Since then, we’ve seen the conversation shift from that of job creation and economic recovery to that of spending cuts and the deficit.  So I would love to know your thoughts on how you’re going to balance these two going forward, or even potentially shift the conversation back.

      THE PRESIDENT:  Well, you’re exactly right that when I first came into office our number-one job was preventing us from getting into another Great Depression.  And that was what the Recovery Act was all about.  So we helped states make sure that they could minimize some of the layoffs and some of the difficult budget choices that they faced.  We made sure that we had infrastructure spending all around the country.  And, in fact, we made the biggest investment in infrastructure since Dwight Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System.

      We made the largest investment in history in clean energy research, and it’s really paying off.  For example, when I came into office, we had about 2 percent of the advanced battery manufacturing here in America.  And as everybody here knows, what’s really holding us back from my goal of a million electric vehicles on the road is that battery technology is still tough.  It’s clunky; it’s heavy; it’s expensive.  And if we can make significant improvements in battery technology then I think the opportunities for electric vehicles, alternative vehicles that are much cheaper -- our opportunities are limitless.

      So those were all investments that we made in the first two years.  Now, the economy is now growing.  It’s not growing quite as fast as we would like, because after a financial crisis, typically there’s a bigger drag on the economy for a longer period of time.  But it is growing.  And over the last year and a half we’ve seen almost 2 million jobs created in the private sector.

      Because this recession came at a time when we were already deeply in debt and it made the debt worse, if we don’t have a serious plan to tackle the debt and the deficit, that could actually end up being a bigger drag on the economy than anything else.  If the markets start feeling that we’re not serious about the problem, and if you start seeing investors feel uncertain about the future, then they could pull back right at the time when the economy is taking off.

      So you’re right that it’s tricky.  Folks around here are used to the hills in San Francisco, and you’ve driven -- I don’t know if they still have clutch cars around here.  Anybody every driven a clutch car?  (Laughter.)  I mean, you got to sort of tap and -- well, that’s sort of what we faced in terms of the economy, right?  We got to hit the accelerator, but we’ve got to also make sure that we don’t gun it; we can’t let the car slip backwards.  And so what we’re trying to do then is put together a debt and deficit plan that doesn’t slash spending so drastically that we can’t still make investments in education, that we can’t still make investments in infrastructure -- all of which would help the economy grow.

      In December, we passed a targeted tax cut for business investment, as well as the payroll tax that has a stimulus effect that helps to grow the economy.  We can do those things and still grow the economy while having a plan in place to reduce the deficit, first by 2015, and then over the long term.  So I think we can do both, but it does require the balanced approach that I was talking about.

      If all we’re doing is spending cuts and we’re not discriminating about it, if we’re using a machete instead of a scalpel and we’re cutting out things that create jobs, then the deficit could actually get worse because we could slip back into another recession.

      And obviously for folks in Detroit, where you’re from, they know that our investments can make a difference because we essentially saved the U.S. auto industry.  We now have three auto companies here in America that are all turning a profit.  G.M. just announced that it’s hiring back all of the workers that it was planning to lay off.  And we did so, by the way, at the same time as we were able to increase fuel efficiency standards on cars for the first time in 30 years.  So it can be done, but it takes a balanced approach.  (Applause.)

      MR. ZUCKERBERG:  All right, so we have a question from the University of Florida, where in February, you launched this initiative at Whitehouse.gov, younger Americans with this goal to have a hundred youth roundtables across the country and a bunch of them are taking place right now, watching this Facebook live.

      So Cesar Fernandez (ph) and Elisa Rectanas (ph) are participating in one of those roundtables, and they wanted to ask you this:  “Mr. President, in your deficit reduction speech last week you spoke of the need to not only reduce government spending but to also increase federal revenue.  In light of our nation’s budget challenges, will your administration consider revisiting policies such as the DREAM Act, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will reduce the deficit by $1.4 billion and increase the government revenue by $2.3 billion over the next 10 years?”  (Applause.)

      THE PRESIDENT:  Let me talk about not only the DREAM Act but about immigration policy generally.  And I want to thank -- Sheryl Sandberg actually participated in a discussion that we had yesterday, bringing together business leaders and government officials and faith leaders, a broad cross-section of Americans together to talk about how do we finally fix an immigration system that's fundamentally broken.

      For those of you who aren’t familiar, the DREAM Act is -- deals with a particular portion of the population, kids who were brought here when they were young by their parents; their parents might have come here illegally -- the kids didn't do anything.  They were just doing what kids do, which is follow their parents. They’ve grown up as Americans.  They went to school with us or with our kids.  They think of themselves as Americans, but many of them still don't have a legal status.

      And so what we’ve said is, especially for these young people who are our neighbors, our friends, our children’s friends, if they are of good character and going to school or joining our military, they want to be part of the American family, why wouldn’t we want to embrace them?  Why wouldn’t we want to make sure that -- (applause.)  Why wouldn’t we want to make sure that they're contributing to our future?

      So that's the DREAM Act.  But that's just a small part of a broader challenge that we have.  Immigration in this country has always been complicated.  The truth of the matter is that we are both a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws.  Sometimes the laws haven’t been fair.  Sometimes the laws have been restrictive to certain ethnic groups.  There have been quotas.  Sometimes our immigration policies have been arbitrary and have been determined by whether industry at a particular time was willing to bring in workers on the cheap.

      But what’s undeniable is America is a nation of immigrants. That’s our history and that’s what makes us stronger.  Because we’ve got ambitious people from all around the world who come here because they’ve got a new idea and they want to create the new big thing, or they just want a better future for their kids and their family, and that dynamism is part of what’s propelled our progress and kept us young.

      Now, I think most Americans understand that and most Americans agree with that.  At the same time, I think most Americans feel there should be an orderly process to do it.  People shouldn’t just be coming here and cutting in front of the line, essentially, and staying without having gone through the proper channels.

      So what we’ve said is let’s fix the whole system.  First of all, let’s make the legal immigration system more fair than it is and more efficient than it is.  And that includes, by the way, something I know that is of great concern here in Silicon Valley. If we’ve got smart people who want to come here and start businesses and are PhDs in math and science and computer science, why don’t we want them to say?  (Applause.)  I mean, why would we want to send them someplace else?  (Applause.)

      So those are potential job creators.  Those are job generators.  I think about somebody like an Andy Grove of Intel. We want more Andy Groves here in the United States.  We don’t want them starting companies -- we don’t want them starting Intel in China or starting it in France.  We want them starting it here.

      So there’s a lot that we can do for making sure that high-skilled immigrants who come here, study -- we’ve paid for their college degrees, we’ve given them scholarships, we’ve given them this training -- let’s make sure that if they want to reinvest and make their future here in America that they can.  So that’s point number one.

      But point number two is you also have a lot of unskilled workers who are now here who are living in the shadows.  They’re contributing to our economy in all sorts of ways.  They’re working in the agricultural sector.  They are in restaurants, and they’re in communities all across the country looking after children and helping to building America.  But they’re scared, and they feel as if they’re locked out of their surroundings.

      And what I’ve said is they did break the law; they came here -- they have to take responsibility for that.  They should pay a fine.  They should learn English.  They should go to the back of the line so that they don’t automatically get citizenship.  But there should be a pathway for them to get legalized in our society so they don’t fear for themselves or their families, so that families aren’t separated.

      At the same time, let’s make sure we’ve got a secure border so that folks aren’t wandering through the desert to get here.  Let’s make the legal immigration system more efficient and more effective so there aren’t huge backlogs.

      This is all part of what we call comprehensive immigration reform.  And there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to achieve a system that is fair, is equitable, is an economic engine for America that helps the people who are already here get acculturated, and make sure that our laws aren’t being broken but we’re still true to our traditions.

      But, as I mentioned to Sheryl yesterday, I can’t solve this problem by myself.  Nancy Pelosi is a big champion of this.  The Democratic caucus in the House I think is prepared for -- a majority of them are prepared to advance comprehensive immigration reform.  But we’re going to have to have bipartisan support in order to make it happen.  And all of you have to make sure your voices are heard, saying this is a priority, this is something important -- because if politicians don’t hear from you, then it probably won’t happen.  I can’t do it by myself.  We’re going to have to change the laws in Congress, but I’m confident we can make it happen.  (Applause.)

      MR. ZUCKERBERG:  All right.  So the next one is from a Facebook employee, Leo Abraham.  Leo, where are you from?

      THE PRESIDENT:  Hey, Leo.

      Q    Hi, hey.  I’m from -- originally from San Jose, California.  My question is:  The 2012 budget plan proposed by Paul Ryan has been praised by many in the media as bold or brave. Do you see this as a time that calls for boldness, and do you think that the plan you outlined last week demonstrated sufficient boldness, or is this just a media creation?

      THE PRESIDENT:  No, it’s a great question.  Look, here is what I’d say.  The Republican budget that was put forward I would say is fairly radical.  I wouldn’t call it particularly courageous.  I do think Mr. Ryan is sincere.  I think he’s a patriot.  I think he wants to solve a real problem, which is our long-term deficit.  But I think that what he and the other Republicans in the House of Representatives also want to do is change our social compact in a pretty fundamental way.

      Their basic view is that no matter how successful I am, no matter how much I’ve taken from this country -- I wasn’t born wealthy; I was raised by a single mom and my grandparents.  I went to college on scholarships.  There was a time when my mom was trying to get her PhD, where for a short time she had to take food stamps.  My grandparents relied on Medicare and Social Security to help supplement their income when they got old.

      So their notion is, despite the fact that I’ve benefited from all these investments -- my grandfather benefited from the GI Bill after he fought in World War II -- that somehow I now have no obligation to people who are less fortunate than me and I have no real obligation to future generations to make investments so that they have a better.

      So what his budget proposal does is not only hold income tax flat, he actually wants to further reduce taxes for the wealthy, further reduce taxes for corporations, not pay for those, and in order to make his numbers work, cut 70 percent out of our clean energy budget, cut 25 percent out of our education budget, cut transportation budgets by a third.  I guess you could call that bold.  I would call it shortsighted.  (Applause.)

      And then, as I said, there’s a fundamental difference between how the Republicans and I think about Medicare and Medicaid and our health care system.  Their basic theory is that if we just turn Medicare into a voucher program and turn Medicaid into block grant programs, then now you, a Medicare recipient, will go out and you’ll shop for the best insurance that you’ve got -- that you can find -- and that you’re going to control costs because you’re going to say to the insurance company, this is all I can afford.

      That will control costs, except if you get sick and the policy that you bought doesn’t cover what you’ve got.  Then either you’re going to mortgage your house or you’re going to go to the emergency room, in which case I, who do have insurance, are going to have to pay for it indirectly because the hospital is going to have uncompensated care.

      So they don’t really want to make the health care system more efficient and cheaper.  What they want to do is to push the costs of health care inflation on to you.  And then you’ll be on your own trying to figure out in the marketplace how to make health care cheaper.

      The problem is, you’re just one person.  Now, you work at Facebook, it’s a big enough company; Facebook can probably negotiate with insurance companies and providers to get you a pretty good deal.  But if you’re a startup company, if you’re an entrepreneur out there in the back of your garage, good luck trying to get insurance on your own.  You can’t do it.  If you’re somebody who’s older and has a preexisting condition, insurance companies won’t take you.

      So what we’ve said is let’s make sure instead of just pushing the costs off on to people who individually are not going to have any negotiating power or ability to change how providers operate, or how hospitals or doctors operate, how insurance companies operate, let’s make sure that we have a system both for Medicare but also for people who currently don’t have health insurance where they can be part of a big pool.  They can negotiate for changes in how the health care system works so that it’s more efficient; so that it’s more effective; so that you get better care, so that we have fewer infection rates, for example, in hospitals; so there are fewer readmission rates; so that we’re caring for the chronically ill more effectively; so that there are fewer unnecessary tests.  That’s how you save money.  The government will save money, but you’ll also save money.

      So we think that’s a better way of doing it.  Now, what they’ll say is, well, you know what, that will never work because it’s government imposed and it’s bureaucracy and it’s government takeover and there are death panels.  I still don’t entirely understand the whole “death panel” concept.  But I guess what they’re saying is somehow some remote bureaucrat will be deciding your health care for you.  All we’re saying is if we’ve got health care experts -- doctors and nurses and consumers -- who are helping to design how Medicare works more intelligently, then we don't have to radically change Medicare.

      So, yes, I think it’s fair to say that their vision is radical.  No, I don't think it’s particularly courageous.  Because the last point I’ll make is this.  Nothing is easier than solving a problem on the backs of people who are poor or people who are powerless or don't have lobbyists or don't have clout.  I don't think that's particularly courageous.  (Applause.)

      MR. ZUCKERBERG:  All right, the next one is from the web.  We’ve got a question from Kwami Simmons (ph) from Orlando, Florida.  And he asks:  “I strongly believe that education is the greatest equalizer.  With so many problems plaguing our current system, is it possible to examine a complete overhaul of the system so that it addresses the needs of modern students?”

      And before you jump in, I just want to say as someone who has spent a bunch of time researching education and who cares about this, I think the Race to the Top stuff that you guys have done is one of the most under-appreciated and most important things that your administration has done.  (Applause.)  

      THE PRESIDENT:  I appreciate that.  This is an area where actually I think you’ve seen the parties actually come together. And there’s some good bipartisan work being done.

      It used to be that the argument around education always revolved around the left saying we just need more money, and the right saying we should just blow up the system because public schools aren’t doing a good job.  And what you’re now seeing is people recognizing we need both money and reform.  It’s not an either-or proposition; it’s a both-and proposition.

      So what Mark just mentioned, something called Race to the Top, pretty simple concept.  Most federal dollars are allocated through a formula.  If you’ve got a certain number of poor kids or you’ve got a certain number of disabled kids in your school district, there’s a formula, and you get a certain amount of money.  And every state and every school district gets that money according to the formula.

      What we did was we took about 1 percent of the total spending on education and we said, to get this 1 percent, show us that you’re reforming the system.  It’s almost -- it’s like a competition model.  And so every state, every school district could apply.  And you had to show us that you had a good plan to retrain teachers and recruit and do good professional development so we’ve got the best teacher possible.

      You had to have accountability.  You had to show us that you were actually making progress in the schools, and that you were measuring through data the improvements that were being made; that you were reaching into the schools that were hardest to reach -- because there are about 2,000 schools around the country that account for the majority of dropouts in our country.  They're like dropout factories -- so show us a plan to go into those schools and really make a big difference.

      And what’s happened is that over 40 states, in the process of competing for this extra money, ended up initiating probably the most meaningful reforms that we’ve seen in a generation.  And so it’s made a huge difference.  Even those states that didn't end up actually winning the competition still made changes that are improving the potential for good outcomes in the schools.

      So that's the kind of creative approach that you’ve seen some Democrats and some Republicans embrace.  And our hope is we can build on that.

      A couple of things that we know work:  The most important thing to a good education is making sure we’ve got a good teacher in front of that classroom.  And so providing more support for teachers, recruiting the best and brightest into teaching, making sure that they're compensated, but also making sure that they're performing, that's hugely important.

      The other thing is good data so that there’s a constant feedback, not just a bunch of standardized tests that go into a drawer or that people may game in order not to get penalized.  That's what happened under No Child Left Behind.  But instead, real good data that you can present to the teacher while they're still teaching that child and say, you know what, this child is falling behind in math; here are some ways to do it, to improve their performance.

      So we’re starting to see real progress on the ground, and I’m optimistic that we can actually, before the 2012 election, potentially have a federal education law that will embody some of the best information that we have about how to initiate good school reform.

      Now, last point I’ll make on this:  Government alone can’t do it.  One of the things every time I come to Silicon Valley that I’m inspired by but I’m also frustrated by is how many smart people are here, but also frustrated that I always hear stories about how we can’t find enough engineers, we can’t find enough computer programmers.  You know what, that means our education system is not working the way it should, and that's got to start early.

      And that's why we’re emphasizing math and science.  That's why we’re emphasizing teaching girls math and science.  (Applause.)  That's why we’re emphasizing making sure that black and Hispanic kids are getting math and science.  (Applause.)

      We’ve got to do such a better job when it comes to STEM education.  AAnd that’s one of the reasons, by the way, that we had our first science fair at the White House in a very long time, just because we want to start making science cool.  (Applause.)  I want people to feel the same way about the next big energy breakthrough or the next big Internet breakthrough, I want people to feel the same way they felt about the moon launch -- that that’s how we’re going to stay competitive for the future.  And that’s why these investments in education are so important.

      But, as I said, government alone can’t do it.  There has got to be a shift in American culture, where once again we buckle down and we say this stuff is important and it’s -- that’s why, Mark, the work you’re doing in Newark, for example, the work that the Gates Foundation are doing in philanthropic investments, in best practices and education -- especially around math and science training -- are going to be so important.

      We’ve got to lift -- we’ve got to lift our game up when it comes to technology and math and science.  That’s, hopefully, one of the most important legacies that I can have as President of the United States.  (Applause.)

      MR. ZUCKERBERG:  All right.  So the next one is from another Facebook employee.  Here’s James Mitchell.  So, James Mitchell, where are you from?

      THE PRESIDENT:  Here’s James back here.

      Q    Hi, Mr. President.

      THE PRESIDENT:  Hey, James.

      Q    I'm James Mitchell, born in Chicago and raised out here in Cupertino, California.  I have yet another question for you about the debt and health care.

      THE PRESIDENT:  Go ahead.

      Q    So the biggest threat we have fiscally is the rise in health care costs.  Unfortunately, a lot of the solutions we hear to Medicare and Medicaid don’t involve actually slowing down the rise in health care costs.  Instead, they involve shifting costs to beneficiaries and states.  So my question is:  Can you talk a bit more about what provisions of the Affordable Health Care Act are designed to slow down the rise of health care costs, and what policies you’d like to see enacted in the future to continue to slow down the rise of health care costs?

      THE PRESIDENT:  Let me give you a couple of examples, because you’re exactly right in how you describe it.  I don’t want to just shift the health care costs on to the American people, I want to actually reduce health care costs.

      Let’s take the example of health IT.  We’re in Silicon Valley, so we can talk about IT stuff.  I’ll try to sound like I know what I’m talking about.  (Laughter.)  The health care system is one of the few aspects of our society where a lot of stuff is still done on paper.  The last time you guys went to a doctor’s office or maybe to your dentist’s office, how many people still had, like, to fill out a form on a clipboard?  Right?  And the reason for that is because a large chunk of our provider system is not automated.  So what ends up happening is you may go to your primary care physician; he does some basic tests, he sees something of concern, he refers you to a specialist.  You go to the specialist; he’ll do another test.

      You’re getting charged, or your insurance company is getting charged, for both those tests, as opposed to the test that was taken by your primary care physician being emailed to the specialist.  Or better yet, if it turns out that there may be three or four specialists involved, because it’s a difficult diagnosis -- this is all hypothetical; you look very healthy.  (Laughter.)  But let’s say there were a bunch of specialists.  What would be ideal would be if you get all the specialists together with the primary care physician the first time you’re seen so that you’re not paying for multiple visits as well as multiple tests.

      That’s not how it works right now.  Now, part of it is technology.  So what we did in the Affordable Care Act, building on what we did with the Recovery Act, is try to provide incentives to providers to start getting integrated, automated systems.  And it’s tough because the individual doctor may say to him or herself, I don’t want to put out the initial capital outlay; that’s expensive even though it may make my system more efficient later on.

      So providing some incentives, some help, for the front end investments for a community hospital or for individual providers so that we can slowly get this system more effective, that’s priority number one.

      We know it can be done, by the way.  Surprisingly enough, the health care system that is -- does the best job on this of anybody is actually the Veterans Administration, the VA health care system, because it’s a fully integrated system.  Everybody is working for the VA, all the doctors, all the hospitals, all the providers, so they’ve been able to achieve huge cost savings just because everybody is on a single system.     

      It’s also, though, how we reimburse doctors and how we reimburse hospitals.  So right now, what happens is, when you’ve taken those two tests, if you’re old enough to qualify for Medicare, well, each doctor sends their bill to Medicare and Medicare pays both bills.  And let’s say that you end up getting an operation.  They’ll send the bill for that, and Medicare pays that.  Let’s say they didn’t do a very good job, or you got sick in the hospital, and you are readmitted and you have to be treated again and they have to do the operation all over again.  Medicare then gets billed for the second operation.

      I mean, imagine if that’s how it worked when you bought a car.  So you go, you buy your car.  A week later, the car doesn’t work.  You go back to the dealer and they charged you to fix the bad job that they did in the first place.  Well, that’s what Medicare does all the time.  So we don’t provide incentives for performance.  We just provide -- we just pay for the number of qualified items that were procedures that were performed or tests that were performed by the provider.

      So what we want to do is to start changing how folks are reimbursed.  Let’s take a hospital.  We want to give -- this is sort of like Race to the Top, what Mark was talking about in education.  We want to be able to say to a hospital, if you do a really good job reducing infection rates in the hospital, which kill tens of thousands of people across America every year and are a huge cause for readmission rates, and we know that hospitals can drastically reduce those reinfection rates just by simple protocols of how employees are washing their hands and how they’re moving from room to room and so forth -- there are hospitals who have done it -- if we can say to a hospital, you’ll get a bonus for that, Medicare will reimburse you for instituting these simple procedures, that saves the whole system money.

      And that's what we’ve tried to do in the Affordable Care Act, is to start institutionalizing these new systems.  But it takes time because we’ve got a private sector system -- it’s not like the VA -- a bunch of individual doctors, individual hospitals spread out all across the country with private insurers.  So it’s not something that we can do overnight.

      Our hope is, is that over the next five years, we’re able to see significant savings through these mechanisms, and that will save everybody -- not just people who are on Medicare and Medicaid -- it will save everybody money including folks here at Facebook.  Because I’m sure that you guys provide health insurance and I suspect if you look at your health insurance bills they don't make you happy.  Okay.  (Applause.)

      MR. ZUCKERBERG:  So we have time for only one more question.
      THE PRESIDENT:  All right.

      MR. ZUCKERBERG:  It’s a question from Terry Atwater (ph) from Houston, Texas:  “If you had to do anything differently during your first four years, what would it be?”

      THE PRESIDENT:  Well, it’s only been two and a half, so I’m sure I’ll make more mistakes in the next year and a half.  The jury will still be out.  (Laughter.)  There are all sorts of day-to-day issues where I say to myself, oh, I didn't say that right, or I didn't explain this clearly enough, or maybe if I had sequenced this plan first as opposed to that one, maybe it would have gotten done quicker.

      Health care obviously was a huge battle, and if it hadn’t been for Nancy Pelosi and her leadership in the House and the great work that -- (applause) -- Anna Eshoo and Mike Honda and others did -- we wouldn’t have gotten it done if it hadn’t been for great work in Congress.

      But I do think that it was so complicated that at a certain point people just started saying, oh, this is typical Washington bickering.  And I’ve asked myself sometimes is there a way that we could have gotten it done more quickly and in a way that the American people wouldn’t have been so frustrated by it?   I’m not sure I could have because there’s a reason why it hadn’t gotten done in a hundred years.  It is a -- it’s hard to fix a system as big as health care and as complicated as our health care system.

      I can tell you that -- I think the best way to answer the question is what do I feel I still have to get done, where I still feel a huge sense of urgency.  I’ve talked about a couple of things.  Getting our deficits and debt under control in a balanced way I feel needs to happen while I’m President.  I don't want to leave it to the next President.

      Immigration -- something I mentioned -- we have not gotten done.  It’s something I care deeply about.  It’s the right thing for the country.  I want to get that done while I’m President.

      Energy -- we haven’t talked a lot about energy today, but first of all, $4-a-gallon gas really hurts a lot of people around this country.  It’s not because they're wasteful, but if you’re driving 50 miles to work and that's the only job you can find, and you can’t afford some hybrid so you’re stuck with the old beater that you’re driving around that gets eight miles a gallon, these gas prices are killing you right now.

      And so this is the reason why I’ve said that it is so important for us to invest in new approaches to energy.  We’ve got to have a long-term plan.  It means investing in things like solar and wind, investing in biofuels, investing in clean car technology.  It means converting the federal fleet 100 percent to fuel-efficient vehicles, because we’re a huge market maker. Obviously it turns out that I’ve got a lot of cars as President. (Laughter.)

      And if we’re out there purchasing electric cars and hybrids, that can help boost demand and drive down prices.  Continuing to increase fuel-efficiency standards on cars; increasing oil production but in an intelligent way.  I mean, those are all hugely important.  And by the way, we can pay for it.

      Let me say this.  We lose -- the Treasury loses $4 billion a year on subsidies to oil companies.  Now, think about this.  The top five oil companies have made somewhere between $75 billion and $125 billion every year for the last five years.  Nobody is doing better than Exxon.  Nobody is doing better than Shell or these other companies.  They are doing great.  They are making money hand over fist.  Well, maybe Facebook is doing a little better.  (Laughter.)  But you get the idea.  They’re doing really well.  They don’t need special tax breaks that cost us $4 billion.  So what we’ve said is, why can’t we eliminate the tax breaks for the oil companies who are doing great, and invest that in new energy sources that can help us save the planet?  (Applause.)

      So when it comes to energy, when it comes to immigration, when it comes to getting our deficit under control in a balanced and smart way, when it comes to improving our math and science education, when it comes to reinvesting in our infrastructure, we’ve just got a lot more work to do.

      And I guess my closing comment, Mark, would just be I hope that everybody here -- that you don’t get frustrated and cynical about our democracy.  I mean it is frustrating.  Lord knows it’s frustrating.  (Laughter.)  And I know that some of you who might have been involved in the campaign or been energized back in 2008, you’re frustrated that, gosh, it didn’t get done fast enough and it seems like everybody is bickering all the time.  Just remember that we’ve been through tougher times before.  We’ve always come out ascendant, we’ve always come out on top, because we’ve still got the best universities in the world, we’ve still got the most productive workers in the world, this is still the most dynamic, entrepreneurial culture in the world.

      If we come together, we can solve all these problems.  But I can’t do it by myself.  The only way it happens is if all of you still get involved, still get engaged.

      It hasn’t been that long since Election Day, and we’ve gone through some very, very tough times and we’ve still gotten a lot done.  We’ve still been able to get this economy recovering.  We’ve still been able to get health care passed.  We’ve still been able to invest in clean energy.  We’ve still been able to make sure that we overturn “don’t ask, don’t tell.”  We still made sure that we got two women on the Supreme Court.  We’ve made progress.  (Applause.)

      So rather than be discouraged, I hope everybody is willing to double down and work even harder.  Regardless of your political affiliation, you’ve got to be involved, especially the young people here, your generation.  If you don’t give us a shove, if you don’t give the system a push, it’s just not going to change.  And you’re going to be the ones who end up suffering the consequences.

      But if you are behind it, if you put the same energy and imagination that you put into Facebook into the political process, I guarantee you there’s nothing we can’t solve.

      All right?  Thank you, Mark.  (Applause.)

      MR. ZUCKERBERG:  So I just want to thank you again.  It’s such an honor to have you here.

      THE PRESIDENT:  We had a great time.

      MR. ZUCKERBERG:  And as a small token of our appreciation, in case for some reason you want to dress like me --

      THE PRESIDENT:  Nice, nice.

      MR. ZUCKERBERG:  A Facebook hoodie.  (Applause.)

      THE PRESIDENT:  This is a high-fashion statement right here. This is beautiful.

      Thank you very much, everybody.  Appreciate you.  (Applause.)

                                           END                         3:04 P.M. PDT

Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough welcomed African Union (AU) Commission Chairperson, Jean Ping to the White House today.  The two discussed the ongoing situations in Libya, Sudan, Cote d’Ivoire and Somalia and how the United States and the AU can partner on a range of development and democracy related issues.  Mr. McDonough stressed the importance of the AU, the Arab League, the UN, and NATO working together to secure a peaceful resolution to the crisis in Libya. He also emphasized the indispensability of the AU-U.S. relationship to our engagement with Africa, and reiterated the U.S. commitment to work with the AU and African governments to strengthen democracy, provide economic opportunity and maintain peace and stability across the continent.  AU Chairperson Ping was in Washington, D.C. to attend the second annual U.S.-AU high-level dialogue, which includes meetings with Secretary Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder.

We were saddened to learn of the death of film director and photographer Tim Hetherington while working in Misrata, and we are deeply concerned about the well being of other journalists who were wounded alongside him. Journalists across the globe risk their lives each day to keep us informed, demand accountability from world leaders, and give a voice to those who would not otherwise be heard. The Libyan government and all governments across the world must take steps to protect journalists doing this vital work. The United States will work to do everything possible to assist those who were injured in getting the care they need. Our thoughts are with these brave journalists and their loved ones.

President Obama spoke with British Prime Minister David Cameron today as part of his ongoing consultations with coalition allies and partners on Libya.  The President and Prime Minister agreed that United Nations Security Council resolutions on Libya must be fully implemented. In addition to increasing military pressure and protecting civilians through the coalition operation that NATO is leading, the leaders discussed the importance of increasing diplomatic and economic pressure on the Qadhafi regime to cease attacks on civilians and comply with UN Security Council resolutions. The two leaders noted the international consensus achieved at last week’s Contact Group meeting in Doha and the NATO Foreign Ministerial in Berlin, both of which emphasized the need for Qadhafi to leave power.

En Route San Francisco, California

11:45 A.M. EDT

MR. CARNEY:  I have no announcements or statements so I will just take your questions.

Q On some of the criticism from the Republicans on the Hill over the President’s plan for reducing the deficit, they say that there’s no comparison between what the President is out on the West Coast this week pitching and the level of detail about Paul Ryan’s plan.  Does the President think that his plan is as detailed and comprehensive as Congressman Ryan’s?

MR. CARNEY:  Julie, the President has made clear two things -- one, that there is not a debate about the need to reduce our deficits.  Democrats and Republicans agree that that needs to be done, and he strongly agrees that it needs to be done.  He has demonstrated his commitment already to reducing the deficit.

Secondly, as he has said for a long time now, and certainly since his State of the Union address, the only way we’re going to deal with a serious fiscal reform is if we do it in a bipartisan way, if we have serious, responsible -- serious-minded, responsible leaders in Washington come together to work out an approach, a compromise, that will be bipartisan, that can reach a consensus, a bipartisan consensus.  There is no way to do it otherwise.

And what he has done -- what he did last week is lay out a vision, his vision, for how we should get there.  And it is quite detailed.  The issue is not -- at this point is not do we need deficit reduction, or how specific are the proposals -- because the balance is key.  Everyone knows what needs to be done in terms of finding savings in health care costs; additional spending cuts that we’ve already made a lot of progress on, but additional spending cuts; dealing with spending through our tax code; and obviously -- and the fourth leg of that stool, if you will, is savings on interest payments.

So he looks very much forward to working in a bipartisan way to getting this done.  Because it is fine to say for one house of Congress and one party and one house to say we passed a bill -- which they have, indeed.  That bill cannot and will not become law.  If we’re serious about doing something, we have to work together.  That's what the American people expect us to do.

And anticipating, perhaps, a question, I’d like to say that when people talk about the way that the President spoke last week and laid out competing visions that now exist for how we get there, I would remind you that a good portion of the speech was dedicated to talking about just this, the need for bipartisan compromise, the need for consensus, the same themes that he has been sounding for a long time now.

And that's really what the American people want.  He has demonstrated his willingness to cut spending in programs that he thinks are good programs that provide valuable services but that are not absolutely essential in a time when we have to tighten our belts, live within our means.

In other words, he’s demonstrated his willingness to move outside the traditional comfort zone for Democrats because he knows that we have to get something done.  And he looks forward to all interested parties in this debate to doing the same thing.

Q Jay, the President said yesterday at the town hall that there were still very big philosophical differences between the two sides.  How does he expect to bridge those gaps?

MR. CARNEY:  There have long been very large philosophical differences between our two parties.  It’s the nature of our two-party system.  It’s part of what makes our country great.  And it’s also why we have such spirited debate about the issues.

That diversity of opinion or disagreement, if you will, did not prevent Ronald Reagan from coming to an agreement on some very weighty matters with Tip O’Neill, Democratic Speaker of the House; did not prevent Bill Clinton -- President Bill Clinton from coming to an agreement on balancing the budget with Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.  It did not prevent President Obama from reaching an agreement last December with Republican leaders on a broad tax cut for all Americans.  And it did not prevent the President from reaching an agreement with Speaker of the House John Boehner to reduce deficits substantially, more than ever before, in an annual budget appropriation bill just a few weeks ago.

So when there is a sense of urgency, when there is something that everyone agrees has to be done, there is an enormous amount of pressure I believe from the American people, from all sides of the debate, to get something done that we can and should come together, that the President believes that's possible.

Q It seems hard to reconcile that optimism with the fact that both sides are still fighting over taxes and the very basic building blocks of the two different plans.

MR. CARNEY:  I just think that this is a process.  We’re obviously not going to come to an agreement on all the issues that divide us in the next few months.  Then we’d have a one-party system, right?  But that's not going to happen.  But what we can do is reach an agreement on the need to reduce deficits and address our long-term debt problem, deal with fiscal reform.

And there’s no reason why we can’t do this, because the elements of what needs to be done are pretty clear to reasonable people, and I think there’s going to be a lot of pressure from the American people for Washington to work, and for each side to demonstrate its willingness to compromise.

Compromise should not be a dirty word.  It’s what Americans expect out of their leaders in Washington; not to sacrifice their principles, but to enact legislation that achieves essential goals.  And in this case, the essential goals are reducing our deficit, reforming our fiscal situation, and all -- not as an esoteric exercise, but to strengthen our economy and improve job creation.

Americans are going to work today, they're taking their kids to school today.  They're worried about gas prices; they're worried about are we going to continue growing this economy -- is it going to continue growing after we suffered the worst recession since the Great Depression; are there going to be more jobs in their communities; do they have job security themselves.

And they see this debate in Washington through that lens, and they see that -- I think they want -- the President believes that they demand that their leaders in Washington make sure that everything they do is aimed at strengthening our economy, improving our job creation, and certainly doing nothing that would harm that.  And not taking this action would be detrimental to our economy, and that's why we have to do it.

Q Jay, there was -- there were reports this morning that the administration is considering an executive order requiring companies seeking government contracts to disclose their contributions to groups that under current law would be secret.  Is that correct?

MR. CARNEY:  Well, what I can tell you is there is a draft -- there’s a process, and it’s in the -- it’s part of a process.  There’s a draft, and the particular specifics of that executive order could change over time, so I can’t talk about the specifics.  What I can tell you is the President is committed to improving our federal contracting system, making it more transparent and more accountable.  He believes that American taxpayers deserve that, and that's what he intends to pursue through this executive order.

Q     Is there any political goals behind this?

MR. CARNEY:  Quite the contrary.  He believes very strongly that taxpayers deserve to know whether or not the contractors that their money is going to is being used -- how they're spending their money, and how -- whether they're -- how they're spending in terms of political campaigns.  And his goal is transparency and accountability.  That's the responsible thing to do when you’re handling taxpayer dollars.

Q Is he likely to go ahead with the executive order?  Or is there another way to accomplish it?

MR. CARNEY:  I can’t -- there’s an executive order in the draft process.  I can’t give you any specifics on it because the specifics could change.  That's the nature of the process.

Q Jay, on a trip like this that combines presidential events with campaign events, can you talk about how it’s funded?  For example, there are no presidential events in Los Angeles.  Is that entire part of the trip funded through the campaign?

MR. CARNEY:  Ari, you know the -- when there is travel like this that involves official travel and also political travel, this administration very diligently follows all the same rules that the Bush administration did.  And as far as the specifics on how that breaks down, I’ll have to get back to you.  I don't have that.  But we’re very careful about making sure that all those rules are followed.

Q Can you talk a little bit about the Facebook approach and the social media approach as this campaign unfolds?

MR. CARNEY:  Well, as you know, dating back to the President’s first campaign for the presidency, there’s a great focus on social media.  But this is not -- I mean, first of all, back up.  I mean, that was a question about -- the campaign is using social media.  The issue here is about reaching the American people on what we were talking about at the top of this, which is the need for fiscal reform, the need to reduce our deficit, the need to do it in a balanced way through bipartisan compromise and consensus.

That's a pretty esoteric debate -- or it can sound like that to most people who have a lot of other things on their minds than the comparative debt-to-GDP ratio in two different proposals or visions, right?

So what the President looks forward to doing through this town hall, as well as the one he did in Virginia and the one he’s doing in Nevada, is have a discussion with Americans from around the country about what this means to them, why it’s so important, how it relates directly to growing the economy, creating jobs, and giving everyone a greater sense of economic security.

And this is -- as you know, because you cover it in detail, it can be arcane and -- arcane material and it can sometimes just sound like a lot of noise coming out of Washington, and especially when there is disagreements about how to approach it.  And what the President thinks is very important is that the public is keenly aware of the need to -- for the government to live within its means, just as they have to; to tighten its belt, just as they have to; and he wants to explain, as he did in his Wednesday speech -- you can’t just do it once -- he wants to explain what the problem is, how we got there, and how he believes we should get out of it.

Q    Jay, on Libya, we have Italy, France and UK sending, essentially, boots on the ground.  I was wondering if the administration had a reaction to that and if you’ve changed whatsoever your stance on that subject.

MR. CARNEY:  The President, obviously, was aware of this decision and supports it, and hopes that -- believes it will help the opposition.  But it does not at all change our -- the President’s policy on no boots on the ground for American troops.

Q    Jay, the White House has made great use of Facebook in terms of its messaging strategy.  Could the appearance today at Facebook headquarters be construed as an effort to also promote Facebook, to thank Facebook?

MR. CARNEY:  Absolutely not.  I mean, Facebook has half a billion users, I think something like that -- more people than you can possibly imagine.  The President -- we get our message out in a variety of ways and the President appears in a variety of private enterprises to have events.  And this is not about endorsing a specific company; it’s about accepting an invitation for a forum to speak to the American people.  This is an excellent opportunity to do that.

Q    What do you think about the press corps watching the Social Network as we fly to Facebook headquarters?

MR. CARNEY:  I thought it was a very interesting movie myself.  I hope you enjoy it.

Q    I have a question on the immigration meeting, yesterday the President had with all those stakeholders, business leaders, et cetera.  It was interesting, afterwards none of the prominent Latino or Hispanic leaders came out to the stakeout.  How do you convince people that are really interested in the immigration issue that meetings like yesterday aren’t just checking a box?  Like what’s really going to happen, or what’s the President really going to do on immigration in this Congress?

MR. CARNEY:  Well, Athena, you know that the President’s time is a valuable commodity.  We all fight for space on it for the things we need to do -- for example, when I say, sir, we need a press conference or an interview.  And meeting with the President with those stakeholders is a demonstration of his commitment to continue to try to get comprehensive immigration reform, because he thinks it’s vitally important.

And by bringing those stakeholders together from a broad array of the American society -- business, labor, interest groups, all that kind of thing -- he’s trying to -- he wants to reenergize and reinvigorate this discussion, because as you know, there was -- this is another issue, like fiscal reform; you can’t do it without a bipartisan compromise.  It has to be through bipartisan compromise and consensus.

And there was a time not so long ago in our country when there were prominent Republicans that supported comprehensive immigration reform.  He believes that they were right then and hopefully there is a capacity, there is a possibility of rebuilding a core bipartisan element of support within the Congress towards doing something serious, because it’s essential for our economy to do that.

And that’s why he had that meeting and why -- the President doesn’t shy away from trying to do hard things.  I think that’s been true of the first two-plus years of his presidency and it will be true for the duration of his first term and for his full second term.  So he’s committed to doing this.

Q    Isn’t it -- I was going to say, why not set a realistic goal, like why not say we’re going to put together a group of congressmen to talk about this, and by December or whatever we’re going to have --

MR. CARNEY:  I’m not going to lay out what our strategy is on how to move from here to there.  But be assured that he’s committed to this.  We are taking steps, and yesterday’s meeting was one of those steps.

Q    Jay, the incident with the First Lady’s plane at Andrews yesterday, how concerned was the President about his wife when he heard about this incident, and then just on the larger picture of this, where we seem to have this pattern of incidents involving air traffic controllers?

MR. CARNEY:  I haven’t spoken with the President about it.  I would refer you to the FAA for specifics.  I mean, it’s my understanding that there was no imminent danger for the First Lady or Dr. Biden or anybody else on the plane.

Q    Jay, one more on the budget, please.  The Gang of Six is considering a mechanism where if the GDP and the percentage of debt is not stabilized by 2014, that there would be automatic across-the-board spending cuts as well as tax increase.  It’s similar to what the President laid out, but there are some differences.  Is Lew and Sperling and company looking at that Gang of Six plan?

MR. CARNEY:  Well, I think it’s an important point to make that what has not gotten a lot of focus is what we call the trigger mechanism in the President’s plan, which is very important, which is a way of sort of holding everyone’s feet to the fire to ensure that we take the necessary steps so that we don’t hit that trigger, so that we do reach well before that period, that critical debt-to-GDP ratio.

So I think the fact that their thinking is similar to ours is probably a positive thing.  And we have worked with, and had discussions with, a number of members of Congress who are interested in pursuing a comprehensive approach to fiscal reform that, as it has to, that addresses all the elements that drive our long-term deficits and debt.

Q    But is the Gang of Six, though -- or is the White House looking at that Gang of Six mechanism?

MR. CARNEY:  Well, again, I would say that the mechanism your just described to me is somewhat similar to the one -- or very similar to the one that the President described last Wednesday in his speech.  So I don’t have the specifics on whether our discussions with members of the Senate have focused on that detail, but it sure sounds like something similar to me.

Q    A year after the Gulf oil spill, is the President concerned about reports about people in the region still really struggling?

MR. CARNEY:  Absolutely.  And even as that catastrophic oil spill disappeared from the front pages and the newscasts, this administration has been focused on doing everything it can to mitigate the damage, to restore the Gulf region, to assist those families and businesses that were affected by it.

And I think we put out some paper this morning on all the different things the administration continues to do.  And the President remains very committed to doing everything we can to help mitigate the effects of that terrible spill, including what he has done and the administration has done to ensure that we can continue to drill in deepwater and, as well, shallow water, off shore, as long as it is safe and responsible.  And that’s why we have undertaken these significant reforms so that now that we have in recent weeks begun issuing new permits for deepwater drilling, that we have only done so when industry has demonstrated capacity to contain a spill similar to the BP oil spill.

Q    Any concern about the perception of the President being out in California fundraising for his campaign on the anniversary of the explosion?

MR. CARNEY:  Well, look, the President is going out to California and Nevada for a number of reasons, including talking about -- to the American people about why we need to take the some of the steps we need to take to grow our economy and create jobs.  He has -- as the lengthy statement we put out from him this morning makes clear, we’re very focused on this.  The agencies responsible for various elements of it are very focused on it.  So we continue to have our eye on the ball on that.

Q    Jay, can you give us a preview of tomorrow’s town hall?  Why Nevada, and will it be different in significant ways from the Facebook --

MR. CARNEY:  I actually don’t have a lot of details on that.  They’re available -- I think we made in that call or briefing that Dan Pfeiffer and others did, I think there were some details on that.  I’ll refer you to that.  But I can certainly come back with more paper on that if you need it.  I mean, it’s all -- all three town halls are focused on having the President take questions from and engage with the American people on his vision for fiscal reform and shared responsibility and shared -- if we're going to share in the prosperity and share in the responsibility to get our fiscal house in order.

Q    Thank you.

MR. CARNEY:  All right, thanks.

END
12:06 P.M. EDT

One year ago today, the Deepwater Horizon oil platform exploded, killing eleven men and ultimately releasing an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico.  That catastrophic event deeply affected the lives of millions of Americans, from local fishermen to restaurant and hotel owners and small businesses throughout the region.  From the beginning, my administration brought every available resource to bear, amassing the largest oil spill response in our nation’s history.  At the height of the response, approximately 48,000 men and women worked tirelessly to mitigate the worst impacts of the spill.  While we’ve made significant progress, the job isn’t done. 

Nearly 2,000 responders are actively working in the Gulf to aid in the ongoing recovery efforts. We continue to hold BP and other responsible parties fully accountable for the damage they’ve done and the painful losses that they’ve caused. We’re monitoring seafood to ensure its continued safety and implementing aggressive new reforms for offshore oil production in the Gulf so that we can safely and responsibly expand development of our own energy resources. And EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is leading a task force to coordinate the long-term restoration effort based on input from local scientists, experts, and citizens.

The events that unfolded on April 20, 2010 and the oil spill that followed underscores the critical link between the environment and economic health of the Gulf. My Administration is committed to doing whatever is necessary to protect and restore the Gulf Coast. Today, we remember the eleven lives lost as a result of this tragic event and thank the thousands of responders who worked to mitigate this disaster. But we also keep a watchful eye on the continuing and important work required to ensure that the Gulf Coast recovers stronger than before.

The President today declared a major disaster exists in the State of North Carolina and ordered Federal aid to supplement State and local recovery efforts in the area struck by severe storms, tornadoes, and flooding on April 16, 2011.

The President's action makes Federal funding available to affected individuals in the counties of Bertie, Bladen, Cumberland, Halifax, Harnett, Johnston, Lee, Onslow, Wake, and Wilson.

Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.

Federal funding also is available to State and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis in the counties of Bertie, Bladen, Craven, Cumberland, Currituck, Greene, Halifax, Harnett, Hertford, Hoke, Johnston, Lee, Onslow, Pitt, Robeson, Sampson, Wake, and Wilson for debris removal and emergency protective measures, including direct Federal assistance.

Federal funding is also available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures statewide.

W. Craig Fugate, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security, named Michael Bolch as the Federal Coordinating Officer for Federal recovery operations in the affected area.

FEMA said that damage surveys are continuing in other areas, and more counties and additional forms of assistance may be designated after the assessments are fully completed in the affected areas.

FEMA said that those who sustained losses in the counties designated for aid to affected individuals and business owners can begin applying for assistance tomorrow by registering online at http://www.fema.gov or by calling 1-800-621-FEMA(3362) or 1-800-462-7585 (TTY) for the hearing and speech impaired.  The toll-free telephone numbers will operate from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. (local time) seven days a week until further notice.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:  FEMA (202) 646-3272.

In a meeting in the State Dining Room this afternoon, the President and members of his Cabinet and senior staff met with a broad group of business, law enforcement, faith, and former and current elected leaders from across the political spectrum to hear their ideas and suggestions on how to tackle our shared challenge of fixing our nation’s broken immigration system in order to meet our 21st century economic and security needs.
 
The President reiterated his deep disappointment that Congressional action on immigration reform has stalled and that the DREAM Act failed to pass in the U.S. Senate after passing with a bipartisan majority in the U.S. House in December. The President listened to stakeholders describe a variety of problems that result from the broken system, including: educating the best and brightest but then shipping that talent overseas; concerns over the ability of businesses to reliably hire and retain a legal workforce; and the need to level the playing field for American workers by ending the underground labor market.  In addition, local law enforcement officers expressed concern that without reform, enforcing federal immigration laws is a distraction from their important public safety and crime fighting mandates to keep their local communities safe, and faith leaders highlighted the damage to families and communities when families are separated, including parents who are taken away from their U.S. Citizen children.
 
The President reiterated his commitment to comprehensive immigration reform that both strengthens security at our borders while restoring accountability to the broken immigration system, and pointed out that perpetuating a broken immigration system is not an option if America is to win the future.
 
The President made it clear that while his Administration continues to improve our legal immigration system, secure our borders, and enhance our immigration enforcement so that it is more effectively and sensibly focusing on criminals, the only way to fix what’s broken about our immigration system is through legislative action in Congress. The President noted that he will continue to work to forge bipartisan consensus and will intensify efforts to lead a civil debate on this issue in the coming weeks and months, but also noted that he cannot be successful if he is leading the debate alone. The President urged meeting participants to take a public and active role to lead a constructive and civil debate on the need to fix the broken immigration system.  He stressed that in order to successfully tackle this issue they must bring the debate to communities around the country and involve many sectors of American society in insisting that Congress act to create a system that meets our nation's needs for the 21st century and that upholds America's history as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. The President further committed that his Cabinet and White House team will follow up with each participant to maximize the outcome of this meeting in order to elevate the immigration debate.

Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough met April 20 with Dr. Rafi al-Issawi, the Finance Minister of Iraq and a leading member of the Iraqiyya political bloc.  Dr. al-Issawi was in Washington, D.C. to attend the spring IMF and World Bank meetings.  The two discussed the situation in Iraq and the bilateral relationship between the United States and Iraq.  Mr. McDonough underscored the U.S. commitment to a long-term partnership with Iraq, and stressed the need for Iraq’s elected leaders to fully implement the power-sharing agreements that led to the formation of the Iraqi government.

Sixteen years ago today, America witnessed a horrific attack in Oklahoma City, killing more than 160 men, women and children, and wounding hundreds of others.  Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to the families and friends who lost a loved one and suffered through this tragic event.  We also need to remember the resilience and toughness of the American people and know that our nation’s resolve to fight terror and combat violent extremism, in all its forms, will not waver.  As a nation, we should take a moment to recognize the courage and spirit of our fellow citizens, the first responders who rushed to the site to save countless lives, and the people of the nation who stood together to lift up this tight-knit community.  Our thoughts and prayers are never far from those who lost their lives sixteen years ago.