Posted by Macon Phillips After more than 11,000 questions and 630,000 votes, the folks from CitizenTube who will interview President Obama tomorrow have reminded everyone that the deadline for submitting questions is tonight at 8pm EST: On Monday afternoon, as a follow-up to his State of the Union address, President Obama will give a live interview to YouTube [...]
Posted by Dan Pfeiffer In an appearance on a morning news show today, House Minority Leader John Boehner repeatedly charged that the health insurance reform bills being considered in Congress represent a “big government takeover” of health care. It’s important to know that’s just not true. The claim of a “government takeover” is a time-worn attack [...]
Posted by Ed DeSeve A short time ago, the independent Recovery and Transparency Board posted the latest round of reports from recipients of Recovery Act dollars on Recovery.gov. These reports provide a detailed look at how a portion of Recovery Act spending was put to work in the last three months of last year creating jobs and boosting local [...]
Posted by Dan Pfeiffer During these tough economic times, American families are forced to make tough choices about what they can spend money on and what they need to cut from their household budgets. Through the course of the budget process we did the same thing. The President believes we need to be honest about [...]
Posted by Jesse Lee The President pledges to rein the deficit, citing three specific steps to this end. He praises the Senate for restoring the pay-as-you-go law, discusses his proposal for a freeze in discretionary spending, and calls for a bipartisan Fiscal Commission to hammer out further concrete deficit reduction proposals.
Posted by Jesse Lee Today the President did something unusual in American politics – initiated an open dialogue with members of the opposite party. Visiting the House Republican retreat, he took questions on anything they wanted to talk about. He heard them out, acknowledged where they were right, and gave a genuine explanation where he felt [...]
Posted by Terrell McSweeny This week, the Middle Class Task Force unveiled a series of initiatives in the President’s FY 11 budget aimed at helping families with soaring child care costs, balancing work with caregiving, paying for college and saving for retirement. These are costs that have risen dramatically for families at a time when their [...]
Posted by Phil Larson [Ed. note: Learn more about the Educate to Innovate campaign] Two remarkable young women sat with First Lady Michelle Obama during the President’s State of the Unionaddress, representing President Obama’s commitment to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education (STEM). Li Boynton, an 18-year-old senior from Bellaire, Texas, was a winner of the Intel International [...]
Posted by Norm Eisen In September, the President announced that – for the first time in history – the White House would release visitor records. Last month, the White House released more than 25,000 visitor records from September 16 to September 30 as provided in the President’s voluntary disclosure policy. Today, we continue to fulfill President’s [...]
Posted by Administrator Karen Mills Ed. Note: You can watch video of each Cabinet member describing what his or her department or agency has accomplished this year and what to expect in the year ahead at our The President’s Cabinet Reporting to You page. Today the President went to a small business in Baltimore to announce [...]
Posted by Jesse Lee It’s not often that the President and the Vice President get together for a town hall, but the occasion yesterday was something special for Vice President Biden. They were in Florida, one of the sites just announced for a massive down payment on high-speed rail, the future of transportation, and a great source [...]
Posted by Secretary Hilda Solis One year ago today, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which restores the law to where it was before the Supreme Court’s decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. by clarifying that a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice that is unlawful under title VII [...]
Posted by Tina Tchen Last Friday, I had the opportunity to help break ground on a transitional housing facility for homeless women veterans in Cocoa, Florida. Named Operation Home Front and run by the Center for Drug-Free Living, the new facility will provide integrated services to help residents address warfare trauma and substance abuse, gain [...]
Posted by Jesse Lee Not everybody is up for watching a sixty-nine minute, forty-four second speech, no matter how good it may be. So we thought we’d provide the opportunity to watch some key sections, broken out by topic. State of the Union: Building Infrastructure and Creating Jobs at Home State of the Union: The Challenges [...]
Posted by Christina Romer Today’s GDP report is the most positive news to date on the economy. The data show that the total output of the U.S. economy increased strongly in the fourth quarter of 2009. Real GDP (that is, GDP adjusted for inflation) increased at an annual rate of 5.7 percent. The change from the [...]
Posted by Terrell McSweeny This week the Middle Class Task Force unveiled a series of initiatives in the President’s FY 11 budget that are aimed at helping families with soaring child care costs, balancing work with caring for elderly relatives or people with disabilities, paying for college, and saving for retirement. These are costs that – [...]
Posted by Secretary Ray LaHood Cross-posted from the DOT’s Fast Lane blog. I have looked forward to this day for a long time. It is a great honor–a great honor–to have President Obama and Vice President Biden in Tampa, Florida, to announce our American Recovery and Reinvestment Act High-Speed and Inter-city Passenger Rail grants. The investments we announce today make [...]
Posted by Dave Cole The State of the Union Address was available live to more people and in more ways than any event we’ve hosted since the President’s Inauguration. Now that the dust has settled from last night’s speech, we wanted to share some of the results with you. Last night nearly 1,300,000 people tuned into to [...]
Posted by Stephen Leeds Ed. Note: You can watch video of each Cabinet member describing what his or her department or agency has accomplished this year and what to expect in the year ahead at our The President’s Cabinet Reporting to You page. In his first year in office, President Obama crafted an ambitious agenda that called on [...]
Posted by Lisa Brown Today is the last day for you to submit nominees for the 2010 Presidential Citizens Medal! President Obama wants to recognize Americans from all across the country who represent the best of the core American value of service. And he wants to hear from you about who has inspired you and made your [...]
Posted by Secretary Kathleen Sebelius If a friend or family member gets robbed, you would want to see the perpetrator brought to justice. The same is true for catching criminals who steal money from American taxpayers and businesses. This exact scenario is playing out in the form of health care fraud. Criminals are stealing billions of [...]
Posted by Linda Douglass Tonight the President made it clear once again that he will not back away from his commitment to enacting health reform that protects Americans from abusive insurance company practices, lowers rising health care costs, provides security and stability to all Americans seeking health insurance, strengthens Medicare and reduces the deficit. He called [...]
Posted by Mona Sutphen In his State of the Union Address tonight, the President laid out an agenda attempting to attack one problem from every conceivable angle: the terrible squeeze felt by America’s middle class. Fundamentally, that means prying government away from special interests and dedicating it to measures that put Americans to work and [...]
Posted by Julia Frost Ed. Note: We asked Julia Frost, a guest of Dr. Biden’s for the State of the Union tonight, to talk about her experience leading up to the event – many thanks to her for obliging. Dr. Biden, a community college instructor for over 16 years, met Julia while visiting her campus [...]
Posted by Jesse Lee Tonight at 9:00PM EDT, the President will give his first State of the Union Address. He will talk directly to the American people about restoring security for middle class families after a lost decade of declining wages, eroding retirement security and escalating health care and tuition costs. Immediately afterwards, we will hold [...]
Posted by Tina Tchen Last week, we were excited to help President Obama launch the Citizens Medal public nominations process. Byasking the public to submit nominees, President Obama hopes to recognize exemplary citizens and local heroes who have significantly impacted their communities but who may not have garnered national attention. We are thrilled to have received [...]
Posted by Norm Eisen Now that the Administration has served for more than a year, we are starting to see real progress on the openness and transparency front. For the most part, we have gotten high marks in this area, but we take exception to the views expressed in a Washington Post story today. The Post acknowledges that, [...]
Posted by Liz Oxhorn Yesterday, we introduced you to some of the many people CNN has met through their Stimulus Project who are finding work, growing their businesses, buying their first homes and receiving needed financial assistance thanks to the Recovery Act. Here are even more Americans who have told CNN the Recovery Act is making a [...]
Posted by Jordan Farmar Monday was not an average day on the road for us. We’re in the middle of a long eight game road trip and flew into Washington, D.C. late Sunday night after tough game in Toronto. Fortunately, Monday had a couple opportunities for us that kept the team’s energy high despite the minimal [...]
Posted by Jesse Lee First Lady Michelle Obama attends the Joint Armed Forces Officers’ Wives’ Luncheon at Bolling Air Force Base January 26, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton) First Lady Michelle Obama attends the Joint Armed Forces Officers’ Wives’ Luncheon at Bolling Air Force Base January 26, 2010. (Official White House Photo by [...]
Posted by John Berry Ed. Note: You can watch video of each Cabinet member describing what his or her department or agency has accomplished this year and what to expect in the year ahead at our The President’s Cabinet Reporting to You page. I’ve been very lucky to be at OPM this past year for a few reasons. [...]
Posted by Jared Bernstein So I’m on my way to do a TV interview last night on a set of middle-class initiatives we announced yesterday, when I learn that what they really want to talk about is our proposed freeze on non-security discretionary spending. Ok — I’m flexible — and in fact, the two are related in [...]
Posted by Jim Gilio This week, CNN has been taking a good, hard look at the Recovery Act and examining some of the projects being funded across the country to create jobs and drive economic growth. As they do this, they’re asking some questions about how Recovery dollars are being spent. We wanted to provide the [...]
Posted by Chris Lu When President Obama and his Cabinet took office a year ago, they faced an array of historical challenges: an economy in freefall; job losses averaging almost 700,000 a month; a middle class under assault; two wars and badly frayed global alliances; and a staggering $1.3 trillion budget deficit. Faced with these unparalleled [...]
Posted by Heather Zichal The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) released their 4th Quarter 2009 industry assessment, in which they credited the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) with almost solely turning a potential decline into historic growth in the U.S. wind industry. According to their press release: Early last year, before [ARRA], the industry anticipated that in [...]
Posted by Liz Oxhorn As we’ve been following CNN’s Stimulus Project coverage this week, we’ve noticed that, like us, they’re meeting Americans across the country who are finding work, growing their businesses, buying their first homes and receiving needed financial assistance thanks to the Recovery Act. Here is just a sampling of some of the people [...]
Posted by Liz Oxhorn Last month, two Senators – who, by the way, opposed the Recovery Act from the beginning – released a report claiming that Recovery Act funds have largely been wasted or mismanaged and the program is not working. Curiously, their report came just as we learned the economy had begun to grow again [...]
Posted by Macon Phillips When President Obama walks into the Capitol on Wednesday to deliver his State of the Union speech, millions of American viewers will tune in. It is a unique moment for the President to address the public on a broad spectrum of issues, including economic recovery and job creation. Of course, many Americans [...]
Posted by Jesse Lee President Obama and Vice President Biden held a Middle Class Task Force meeting during which they discussed key initiatives for middle class families. Topics of discussion previewed the major themes of the President’s State of the Union address, which include creating good jobs, addressing the deficit, changing Washington, and fighting for middle [...]
Posted by Lt. Lesley Lykins Ed. Note: In addition to the post below, take a look at some photos and footage courtesy of the Navy. America’s young Sailors are serving with compassion and strength alongside their multi-agency partners as they distribute food, water, medical help and shelter to the Haitian people. The U.S. Navy has 14 ships and [...]
