HowObamaGotElected.com

President Obama’s Weekly Address

Obama and Everyone speak out about Higher Education

House hurries to pass economic stimulus bill

Washington – Moving with remarkable speed, the Democratic-controlled House lined up eagerly Wednesday to approve $819 billion in spending increases and tax cuts at the heart of President Barack Obama’s economic recovery program. Republicans fought the bill as wasteful. “We don’t have a moment to spare,” Obama declared at the White House as Democrats hastened to do his bidding.

A mere eight days after Inauguration Day, Speaker Nancy Pelosi heralded a new era. “The ship of state is difficult to turn,” said the California Democrat. “But that is what we must do. That is what President Obama called us to do in his inaugural address.”

With unemployment at its highest level in a quarter-century, the banking industry wobbling despite the infusion of staggering sums of bailout money and states struggling with budget crises, Democrats said the legislation was desperately needed.

“Another week that we delay is another 100,000 or more people unemployed. I don’t think we want that on our consciences,” said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., chairman of The House Appropriations Committee and One of the leading architects of the legislation.

Republicans said the bill was short on tax cuts and contained too much spending, much of it wasteful and unlikely to help laid-off Americans.

The party’s leader, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, said the measure “won’t create many jobs, but it will create plenty of programs and projects through slow-moving government spending.”

The legislation includes an estimated $544 in federal spending and $275 billion in tax cuts for individuals and businesses.

Included is money for traditional job-creating programs such as highway construction and mass transit projects. But the measure tickets far more for unemployment benefits, health care and food stamp increases designed to aid victims of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Tens of billions of additional dollars would go to the states, which confront the prospect of deep budget cuts of their own. That money marks an attempt to ease the recession’s impact on schools and law enforcement. With funding for housing weatherization and other provisions, the bill also makes a down payment on Obama’s campaign promise of creating jobs that can reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.

The centerpiece tax cut calls for a $500 break for single workers and $1,000 for couples, including those who don’t earn enough to owe federal income taxes.

The House vote marked merely the first of several major milestones a for the legislation, which Democratic leaders have pledged to deliver to the White House for Obama’s signature by mid-February.

Already a more bipartisan — and costlier — measure is taking shape in the Senate, and Obama personally pledged to House and Senate Republicans in closed-door meetings on Tuesday that he is ready to accept modifications as the legislation advances.

Rahm Emanuel, a former Illinois congressman who is Obama’s chief of staff, invited nearly a dozen House Republicans to the White House late Tuesday for what One participant said was a soft sales job.

This lawmaker quoted Emanuel as telling the group that polling shows roughly 80 percent support for the legislation, and that Republicans oppose it at their political peril. The lawmaker spoke on condition of anonymity, saying there was no agreement to speak publicly about the session.

In fact, though, many Republicans in The House are virtually immune from Democratic challenges because of the makeup of their districts, and have more to fear from GOP primary challenges in 2010. As a result, they have relatively little political incentive to break with conservative orthodoxy and support hundreds of billions in new federal spending.

Also, some Republican lawmakers have said in recent days they know they will have a second chance to support a bill when the final House-Senate compromise emerges in a few weeks.

That gave an air of predictability to the proceedings in The House, as Democrats defended the legislation as an appropriate response to the specter of double-digit unemployment in the near future.

Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, sought to strip out all the spending from the legislation before final passage, arguing that the entire cost of the bill would merely add to soaring federal deficits. “Where are we going to get the money,” he asked.

Obey had a ready retort. “They don’t look like Herbert Hoover, I guess, but there are an awful lot of people in this chamber who think like Herbert Hoover,” he said, referring to the president whose term is forever linked in history with the Great Depression.

Obama hails ‘extraordinary’ moment with presidents

Confronting a grim Economy and a Middle East on fire, Barack Obama turned to perhaps the only people on the planet who understand what he’s in for: the four living Presidents of the United States of America.

“This is an extraordinary gathering,” Obama said, looking plenty at ease in the humbling Office that will soon be his.

“All the gentlemen here understand both the pressures and possibilities of this Office,” Obama said. “And for me to have the opportunity to get advice, good counsel and fellowship with these individuals is extraordinary. And I’m very grateful to all of them.”

Bush, blistered without mercy by Obama during the campaign season, played the role of gracious host.

“All of us who have served in this Office understand that the office transcends the individual,” Bush said as Obama nodded in thanks. “And we wish you all the very best. And so does the country.”

It was a moment of statesmanship that tends to happen when presidents get together, no matter how bitter their previous rivalries. In a photo opportunity that lasted less than two minutes, Carter, Clinton and the senior Bush smiled but said nothing. They deferred to the nation’s incoming and outgoing leaders.

Earlier, Bush and Obama met privately in the Oval Office in a chat expected to cover events of the day, mainly the troubled Economy and Middle East. The two have shown solidarity since Obama’s win in November, with One previous Oval Office sit-down and at least a few phone calls in recent weeks.

The Presidents speak to the press at the gathering

“I want to thank the president-elect for joining the ex-presidents for lunch,” said Bush, who was in fact still the president at the time.

“One message that I have, and I think we all share, is that we want you to succeed,” Bush added, a beaming Clinton at his other side. “Whether we’re Democrat or Republican, we care deeply about this country.”

White House aides tried to usher the media out of the Oval Office when Bush stopped speaking. The lighting for the event even went dark.

But sometimes, there is more than One president at a time.

Obama spoke up on his own, the lights went back on, and the cameras kept rolling.

“I Just want to thank the president for hosting us,” Obama said. When a reporter asked Obama what he could learn from the mistakes of the four presidents surrounding him, he smiled and said he planned to learn from their successes.

The get-together was Obama’s idea, and Bush liked it. The lunch lasted about 90 minutes, held in a small dining room off the Oval Office.

Carter, Clinton and the two Bush presidents were last together at the Washington funeral service of President Gerald Ford in 2007. And presidents have gathered at other occasions over the years. But not since October 1981, 27 years ago, had all of the living presidents gathered at the White House.

HowObamaGotElected.com

A movement is sweeping the nation. Frenzied crowds gather in every state. Young people chant and sing. women swoon. The result is record voter turn out and a rare political enthusiasm. At the head of this unprecedented phenomenon stands a charismatic figure intent on becoming the President of the United States.

“I’m asking you to believe.”
“We are the ones we have been waiting for.”
“Yes, we can!”
“change.”
“Hope.”

These words, from Barack Obama, have inspired everything from outrageous videos to the largest campaign fundraising success in history. He has taken what was considered a sure bet Clinton machine and turned it on its head. His supporters claim he is the new Martin Luther King, Jr. He is hailed as this generation’s John F. Kennedy. This documentary explores the HYPE behind Barack Obama.

President Barack Obama said attacking global climate change is a “matter of urgency” that will create jobs as he got advice from Al Gore, who won a Nobel peace Prize for his work on the issue.

In remarks to reporters, Obama made clear he would adopt an aggressive approach to global warming when he takes over the White House on January 20.

He and Vice President-elect Joe Biden met for nearly two hours with former Vice President Gore at Obama’s presidential transition Office in Chicago.

“All three of us are in agreement that the time for delay is over, the time for denial is over,” Obama said.

Obama hopes addressing climate change can create the kind of jobs that will help pull the U.S. Economy out of a deepening recession. He has begun to lay out plans for a massive recovery program to help stimulate the U.S. economy and create about 2.5 million jobs.

He said he would work with Democrats and Republicans, businesses, consumers and others with a stake in the issue to try to reach a consensus on a bold, aggressive approach to tackling the problem.

“This is a matter of urgency and of national security and it has to be dealt with in a serious way. That’s what I intend my administration to do,” Obama said.

Obama had a willing partner in Gore, who won a Nobel in 2007 for his years-long effort to educate people about the gradual warming of the planet and to argue against those scientists who believe a warming trend is a naturally occurring event.

There was no talk of offering Gore a job in the Obama administration. Gore has indicated he is not interested in a position of climate “czar” or any Cabinet post.

Just two days after Obama won the November 4 election, Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection rolled out a media campaign to push for immediate investments in energy efficiency, renewable power generation like wind and solar technology and the creation of a unified national power grid.

Gore and his group are in line with most U.S. environmental groups, which believe the Obama administration has a chance to stem global warming.

Critics have accused the outgoing Bush administration of stalling on the issue, but the White House insists it is taking steps aimed at addressing the problem without damaging the U.S. Economy.

“We have the opportunity now to create jobs all across this country, in all 50 states, to re-power America, to redesign how we use energy, to think about how we are increasing efficiency, to make our Economy stronger, make us more safe, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and make us competitive for decades to come, even as we’re saving the planet,” Obama said.

HowObamaGotElected.com

Twice in the opening moments of the NBC interview, the president-elect said the economic situation “is going to get worse before it gets better,” an unspoken plea with voters to have patience as the incoming administration tries to grapple with the issue.

He announced plans Saturday for the largest public works spending program since the creation of the interstate highway system a half-century ago, although he said aides are still debating among themselves how much it should cost.

“What we need to do is examine, what are the projects where we’re going to get the most bang for the buck? How are we going to make sure taxpayers are protected? You know, the days of Just pork coming out of Congress as a strategy, those days are over,” he said.

Some lawmakers have mentioned an economic aid plan in the range of $500 billion or higher, and Democratic leaders say they hope to have legislation ready soon after Jan. 20.

The economic indicators have darkened since Obama’s election, and Friday’s report that 533,000 jobs were lost in November was the worst performance in more than 30 years. Unemployment stands at 6.7 percent, retailers are reporting weak holiday sales and the credit markets have yet to recover from the freeze that led Congress to approve a $700 billion bailout before the election.

Turning to foreign policy, the president-elect sidestepped a question about the pace of a troop withdrawal from Iraq, saying he would direct U.S. generals to come up with a plan “for a responsible drawdown.” He said in the campaign he wanted most U.S. troops withdrawn within 16 months, but did not say then, nor has he now, how large a deployment should be left behind.

“We are going to maintain a large enough force in the region to assure that our civilian troops or our civilian personnel and our embassies are protected, to make sure that we can ferret out any remaining terrorist activity in the region” and providing training support for Iraqi personnel.

He did not respond directly when asked whether he believes India should have the right to pursue terrorist targets inside Pakistan in the wake of the deadly attacks in Mumbai. He also said he wants to “reset U.S.-Russian relations” following the Bush era.

“They are increasingly assertive and when it comes to Georgia and their threats against their neighboring countries I think they’ve been acting in a way that’s contrary to international norms,” he said of Kremlin leaders.

HowObamaGotElected.com

Hillary Clinton will bring global star power, a long-standing commitment to improving the status of women and children around the world and muscular promises of military action when U.S. interests are crossed.

The question for Hillary Rodham Clinton, nominated for secretary of State on Monday by President-elect Barack Obama, is whether She can forge the sort of close relationship with a former rival that is crucial to giving the nation’s top diplomat the credibility to get things done.

Obama is choosing for his most prestigious Cabinet post an independent-minded policymaker whose world view has been shaped by eight years as a globe-trotting first lady and eight years as a senator with time on the Armed Services Committee. She combines a focus on “soft” issues such as maternal health with rhetoric more hawkish than Obama’s on containing Iran’s nuclear program and protecting Israel.

She will be taking the lead on a crushing set of global challenges, including repercussions from last week’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, which threaten a conflagration on the nuclear-armed subcontinent.

In collaboration with other administration officials, the incoming secretary of State will deal with the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, efforts to turn around the war in Afghanistan, nuclear programs in such rogue nations as North Korea and Iran, the challenge from a resurgent Russia and growing concerns about global climate change.

Obama’s pick is non-traditional on several fronts. Not since James Garfield appointed James Blaine to head the State Department in 1881 has a president chosen a major political rival for the job. What’s more, Clinton’s grounding in women’s rights contrasts with her predecessors, most of whom had pursued careers in academia, the military or law steeped in U.S. relations with major world powers.

Clinton is “a tough pragmatist who understands it’s a dangerous world out there, who understands it can be necessary at times to use force and at other times to be able to back your diplomacy with the threat of force,” says Martin Indyk, a former assistant secretary of State and ambassador to Israel who is close to Clinton.

“On the other hand, She has shown a very deep commitment to the causes of human rights, women’s rights in particular, and the pursuit of peace and resolution of conflict.”

When Clinton decided to run for the Senate in 2000, She launched her campaign with a “listening tour” to hear from New York voters. When she began her presidential campaign in 2007, she announced a similar “listening tour” through states with early primaries and caucuses.

It would be no surprise, then, if She chose to begin her tenure as secretary of State with a “listening tour” around the globe, especially to hear from allies in Europe and elsewhere who have complained about what they see as a penchant for unilateral action by the Bush administration.

She also has other ideas in her pocket.

During a trip last year to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Clinton met separately with then-Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, each of whom expressed suspicions of the other. She asked each if it would be helpful for the United States to appoint a special envoy to work with leaders of the two countries. They said yes.

On her return to Washington, She called White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley to pitch the idea, but to no avail. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe says the White House did look into her suggestion but decided it wasn’t feasible because the administration, while also working on tensions between Musharraf and Karzai, was focused on a governmental transition in Pakistan and the need to name a new U.N. representative for Afghanistan.

As secretary of State, Clinton would be in a position to put her ideas into action.

HowObamaGotElected.com

weblo Cities in New Jersey