4th of July 2012, White House balcony ~~~
January 20, 2009: New year, new President, the claw-back, back to the future without Laws, Lies, Violations of “patriotic” Fear & Secrets crowd; America, indebted, war-weakened, divided must have Transparency -Excellence daVine Politics
President Obama Schedule- Thursday - April 28, 2011 12:45am
The President arrives at the White House
South Lawn
Open Press
10:15 am The President receives the Presidential Daily Briefing Oval Office Closed Press
10:50 am The President holds a meeting on Libya Situation Room Closed Press
11:30 am The President meets with Secretary of State Clinton Oval Office Closed Press
2:05 pm The President meets with a group of influential Hispanics from across the country on the importance of fixing our nation's broken immigration system to meet our 21st century economic and national security needs so that America can win the future Roosevelt Room Closed Press
3:10 pm The President makes a personnel announcement East Room Open Press
3:45 pm The President meets with Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli Oval Office Closed Press
4:20 pm The President and Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli will deliver statements to the press Oval Office Pooled Press
The White House ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release April 19, 2011 Readout of the President's Meeting with Stakeholders on Fixing the Broken Immigration System
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.
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Office of the Press Secretary - For Immediate Release April 27, 2011
Press Gaggle by Press Secretary Jay Carney, 4/27/2011
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
8:48 A.M. EDT
MR. CARNEY: Good morning, everybody. You can read the paperwork we just handed out in a minute. Let me just get started. Thank you for coming this morning. I have with me today Dan Pfeiffer, the President’s Director of Communications, as well as Bob Bauer, the President’s White House Counsel, who will have a few things to say about the documents we handed to you today. And then we'll take your questions. I remind you this is off camera and only pen and pad, not for audio. And I give you Dan Pfeiffer.
MR. PFEIFFER: Thanks, Jay. What you have in front of you now is a packet of papers that includes the President’s long-form birth certificate from the state of Hawaii, the original birth certificate that the President requested and we posted online in 2008, and then the correspondence between the President’s counsel and the Hawaii State Department of Health that led to the release of those documents.
If you would just give me a minute to -- indulge me a second to walk through a little of the history here, since all of you weren't around in 2008 when we originally released the President’s birth certificate, I will do that. And then Bob Bauer will walk through the timeline of how we acquired these documents.
In 2008, in response to media inquiries, the President’s campaign requested his birth certificate from the state of Hawaii. We received that document; we posted it on the website. That document was then inspected by independent fact checkers, who came to the campaign headquarters and inspected the document -- independent fact checkers did, and declared that it was proof positive that the President was born in Hawaii.
To be clear, the document we presented on the President’s website in 2008 is his birth certificate. It is the piece of paper that every Hawaiian receives when they contact the state to request a birth certificate. It is the birth certificate they take to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get their driver’s license and that they take to the federal government to get their passport. It is the legally recognized document.
That essentially -- for those of you who followed the campaign closely know that solved the issue. We didn’t spend any time talking about this after that. There may have been some very fringe discussion out there, but as a campaign issue it was settled and it was --
Q When you posted this did you post the other side of it where the signature is?
MR. PFEIFFER: Yes.
Q Because it is not here and that's been an issue.
MR. PFEIFFER: We posted both sides and when it was looked at it was looked at by -- the fact checkers came to headquarters and actually examined the document we had.
That settled the issue. In recent weeks, the issue has risen again as some folks have begun raising a question about the original -- about the long-form birth certificate you now have in front of you. And Bob will explain why -- the extraordinary steps we had to take to receive that and the legal restraints that are in place there.
But it became an issue again. And it went to -- essentially the discussion transcended from the nether regions of the Internet into mainstream political debate in this country. It became something that when both Republicans and Democrats were talking to the media they were asked about. It was a constant discussion on mainstream news organizations. And the President believed that it was becoming a distraction from the major issues we're having in this country.
And he was particularly struck by the fact that right after the Republicans released their budget framework and the President released his, we were prepared to have a very important, very vigorous debate in this country about the future of the country, the direction we’re going to take, how we’re doing to deal with very important issues like education, Medicare, how we’re going to deal with taxes in this country. And that should -- that’s the debate we should be having yet.
What was really dominating a lot of discussion was this fake controversy, essentially, a sideshow, that was distracting from this real issue. And an example of that would be when major Democrats and Republicans went onto mainstream news organizations to talk about their budget plans -- including the President -- they were asked about this. They were asked about what they thought about the controversy. They were asked if they believed the President was born in the United States. And it was really a distraction.
That really struck the President, led him to ask his counsel to look into whether we could ask the state of Hawaii to release the long-form certificate, which is not something they generally do. And he did that despite the fact that it probably was not in his long-term -- it would have been in his -- probably in his long-term political interests to allow this birther debate to dominate discussion in the Republican Party for months to come. But he thought even though it might have been good politics, he thought it was bad for the country. And so he asked counsel to look into this.
And now I’ll have Bob explain that, and then we’ll take your questions.
MR. CARNEY: I just want to -- sorry, I meant to mention at the top, as some of you may have seen, the President will be coming to the briefing room at 9:45 a.m., making a brief statement about this -- not taking questions, but just wanted to let you know.
MR. PFEIFFER: And he will use this as an opportunity to make a larger point about what this debate says about our politics.
Go ahead, Bob.
MR. BAUER: Early last week the decision was made to review the legal basis for seeking a waiver from the longstanding prohibition in the state Department of Health on releasing the long-form birth certificate. And so we undertook a legal analysis and determined a waiver request could be made that we had the grounds upon which to make that request.
And by Thursday of last week, I spoke to private counsel to the President and asked her to contact the State Department of Health and to have a conversation about any requirements, further requirements, that they thought we had to satisfy to lodge that waiver request. She had that conversation with the state Department of Health on Thursday -- counsel in question is Judy Corley at the law firm of Perkins Coie, and you have a copy of the letter she subsequently sent to the department with the President’s written request.
The department outlined the requirements for the President to make this request. He signed a letter making that request on Friday afternoon upon returning from the West Coast. And private counsel forwarded his written request -- written, signed request -- along with a letter from counsel, to the state Department of Health on Friday.
The department, as I understood it, after reviewing the law and reviewing the grounds asserted in the request, came to the conclusion that a waiver could be appropriately granted. We were advised that the long-form birth certificate could be copied and made available to us as early as Monday, April 25th -- the day before yesterday. And we made arrangements for counsel to travel to Honolulu to pick it up and it was returned to the White House yesterday afternoon.
Let me emphasize again, there is a specific statute that governs access to and inspection of vital records in the state of Hawaii. The birth certificate that we posted online is, in fact, and always has been, and remains, the legal birth certificate of the President that would be used for all legal purposes that any resident of Hawaii would want to use a birth certificate for.
However, there is legal authority in the department to make exceptions to the general policy on not releasing the long-form birth certificate. The policy in question, by the way, on non-release has been in effect since the mid-1980s, I understand. So while I cannot tell you what the entire history of exceptions has been, it is a limited one. This is one of very few that I understand have been granted for the reasons set out in private counsel’s letter.
MR. PFEIFFER: We'll be happy to take some questions.
Q I guess I just want to make sure that we’re clear on this. Even though this one says “certificate of live birth” on here, this is different than the other certificate of live birth that we’ve seen?
MR. PFEIFFER: Yes. The second page there is the one that was posted on the Internet.
Q Okay.
MR. PFEIFFER: And that is a copy of the one that has been kept at the Hawaii Department of Health.
Q Okay. And this is the one that would be referred to -- that people have been asking for that is the birth certificate?
MR. PFEIFFER: They are both -- the second one is the birth certificate. The one on the top is what is referred to as the long-form birth certificate. As you can see -- and Bob can walk you through it -- it contains some additional information that is not on the second page, which was the birth certificate which was released during the campaign.
If you could just explain the difference.
MR. BAUER: There’s a difference between a certificate and a certification. The certification is simply a verification of certain information that’s in the original birth certificate. The birth certificate, as you can see, has signatures at the bottom from the attending physician, the local registrar, who essentially oversees the maintenance of the records. It contains some additional information also -- that is to say, the original birth certificate -- it contains some additional information like the ages of the parents, birthplaces, residence, street address, the name of the hospital.
The core information that’s required for legal purposes and that is put into the actual certification that’s a computer-generated document, which we posted in 2008, that information is abstracted, if you will, from the original birth certificate, put into the computerized short-form certification, and made available to Hawaiian residents at their request.
So the long form, which is a certificate, has more information, but the short form has the information that’s legally sufficient for all the relevant purposes.
Q This first one has never been released publicly, correct?
MR. BAUER: That’s correct. It is in a bound volume in the records at the state Department of Health in Hawaii.
Q Bob, can you explain why President Obama let this drag on for four years? Was it Donald Trump that prompted you to issue this?
MR. BAUER: I’ll let Dan --
MR. PFEIFFER: Sure.
Q I know you expected that question, right? (Laughter.) MR. PFEIFFER: He even said you would be the one who would ask it. (Laughter.)
I don’t think this dragged on for four years because this was a resolved -- for those of you who remember the campaign, this issue was resolved in 2008. And it has not been an issue, none of you have asked about it, called about it, reported on it until the last few weeks.
And as I said earlier, it probably would have been -- a lot of the pundits out there have talked about the fact that this whole birther debate has been really bad for the Republican Party and would probably be good for the President politically. But despite that, the President, as I said, was struck by how this was crowding out the debate, particularly around the budget, on important issues, and was an example of the sort of sideshows that our politics focuses on instead of the real challenges that we have to confront as a country.
And so that’s why he made this decision now, because it became an issue that transcended sort of this -- it essentially was something that was talked about, as I said, from the nether regions of the Internet onto mainstream network newscasts. In fact, Jay has been asked about this just yesterday in this room.
Q So I guess the implication is that you did get political advantage by having not released this until today, over the course of the last four years?
MR. PFEIFFER: There has been -- no one that I can recall actually asked us to -- we were asked to release the President’s birth certificate in 2008. We did that. And then no one -- it never -- up until a few weeks ago, there was never an issue about that that wasn’t the birth certificate from any credible individual or media outlet. And it hasn’t been until -- I mean, Jay was asked about this yesterday --
Q When you say that, you mean certification -- you released the certification?
MR. PFEIFFER: When any Hawaiian wants -- requests their birth certificate because they want to get a driver’s license, they want to get a passport, they do exactly what the President did in 2008. And that’s what that is. And we released that. And that’s what any Hawaiian would do to release their birth certificate. And that was good enough for everyone until very recently this became a question again. And so the President made this decision. He’ll talk to you more about his thinking on that.
Q And this is going to sound -- I mean, you can just anticipate what people are going to -- remain unconvinced. They’re going to say that this is just a photocopy of a piece of paper, you could have typed anything in there. Will the actual certificate be on display or viewable at any -- (laughter.)
Q Will the President be holding it?
MR. PFEIFFER: He will not, and I will not leave it here for him to do so. But it will -- the State Department of Health in Hawaii will obviously attest that that is a -- what they have on file. As Bob said, it’s in a book in Hawaii.
MR. BAUER: And you’ll see the letter from the director of the Health Department that states that she oversaw the copy and is attesting to --
Q But do you understand that this could quiet the conspiracy theorists?
MR. PFEIFFER: There will always be some selection of people who will believe something, and that's not the issue. The issue is that this is not a discussion that is just happening among conspiracy theorists. It’s happening here in this room; it’s happening on all of the networks. And it’s something that, as I said, every major political figure of both parties who’s actually out trying to talk about real issues is asked about this by the media. And so the President decided to release this. And I'll leave it to others to decide whether there’s still -- there will be some who still have a different -- have a conspiracy about this.
Q You’ve got two certified copies, according to this study. You have these physical --
MR. PFEIFFER: Yes. I showed you one. Just one.
Q You showed us a photocopy of one.
MR. PFEIFFER: No, I showed you --
Q Does that have a stamp?
MR. PFEIFFER: It has a seal on it.
Q Why does this rise to the level of a presidential statement?
MR. PFEIFFER: The President -- this in itself -- when you hear the President I think you’ll understand the point he’s making. That will be in not too long.
Q Did the President change his own mind about this? In other words, was he advocating during the campaign let’s just put it out there and get it over with, or was this an internal shift in thinking based -- in other words, was it the President who steadfastly during the campaign said this is ridiculous, I don't want to give this any more ground, and has now changed his mind? Or is this the --
MR. PFEIFFER: Let’s be very clear. You were there for the campaign. There was never a question about the original birth certificate during the campaign. It was a settled issue. I was there for the original decision to release the birth certificate. I was there when we posted it online. I'm not sure I even knew there was an original one that was different than the one we posted online because it wasn’t an issue. So it wasn’t like -- let’s be very clear. We were asked for the President’s birth certificate in 2008; we released the President’s birth certificate; and it was done. That was it.
And so there hasn’t been a discussion about this other document for years. It’s only been in the last few weeks. And so to your second question, the President decided to do this and he'll talk about this when he gets here -- decided to do it at the timeline that Bob laid out because it was a -- this was a sideshow that was distracting from the real challenges that we're facing.
It’s not just a sideshow for him; it’s a sideshow for our entire politics that have become focused on this.
Q Not to give Donald Trump more publicity than he has, but is he the person who sort of -- sort of that bridge between what you're calling a fringe and the mainstream? Do you think that he’s the reason why this tripped the switch to a level where you now have to deal with something you thought was dealt with?
MR. PFEIFFER: It’s not for me to say why mainstream media organizations began to cover this debate. They’ll have to answer that for themselves.
Q How concerned were you about running against Donald Trump in a general election?
MR. PFEIFFER: I'd refer any questions on the election to the campaign.
Q Can you address the reports of Petraeus to the CIA and DOD --
MR. PFEIFFER: You get points for that, Carol. (Laughter.) MR. CARNEY: Yes. I don't have -- but you’ll be disappointed to learn that I don't have a personnel announcement for you. The President will be addressing this -- questions about personnel tomorrow.
Q Dan, was there a debate about whether or not this deserved being discussed by the White House, whether or not -- and I'm going back to the birth certificate. I lose points, I understand. But was there debate about whether or not this was worthy of the White House?
MR. PFEIFFER: The point I'd make is that we weren't the ones who -- we're not the first ones to bring this up in this room. Jay has been asked questions about this; the President has been asked about it in media interviews. And so that wasn’t a decision that we made, and the President made the decision to do this and he made the decision to -- and when he comes down here this morning he'll talk to you about why he thinks there’s an important point to be made here.
Q Getting back to the personnel announcements, does the President understand that these announcements have been made and sourced satisfactorily for most news organizations before he speaks up and he’s not letting his White House corroborate?
MR. CARNEY: I don't have a comment on that for you, Bill. (Laughter.)
Q I mean, this is such BS. It’s all out there and you guys are -- okay, the President is going to talk about this tomorrow so we can't say anything.
MR. CARNEY: Bill, you're free to make phone calls everywhere you can. I'm just saying that we don't have a personnel announcement for you today.
Q And he'll tomorrow, he'll cover all the aforementioned switches?
MR. CARNEY: We'll have a personnel announcement tomorrow.
Q Jay, yesterday you talked about failsafe triggers as sort of a positive alternative to spending cuts. I'm wondering if the White House has any openness to including that, because it’s a White House proposal, including that in any legislation that would raise the debt ceiling limit.
MR. CARNEY: Well, what we've said very clearly, and I think Secretary Geithner said it eloquently yesterday, it is a dangerous, risky idea to hold hostage any other -- hold hostage, rather, raising the debt ceiling, a vote on raising the debt ceiling, to any other piece of legislation. The commitment this President has to moving aggressively towards a comprehensive deficit reduction plan is clear. It will be clear again when the Vice President convenes a meeting, bipartisan, bicameral meeting, next week. And he hopes that progress will be made on that very quickly.
In terms of negotiating what that would look like, I think the negotiators should do that, led by the Vice President, Republicans and Democrats together. But again, explicitly linking or holding hostage the absolute necessity of raising the debt ceiling to any other piece of legislation and declaring that we'll tank the U.S. economy and perhaps the global economy if we don't get this specific thing that we want, I think is a dangerous and unprecedented thing to do.
And we're confident, remain confident, that the leaders of both parties in Congress, as well as the President, will agree with the President, as I have said many times, that we do not have an alternative to raising the debt ceiling because, as many have said, outside observers, economists and businessmen and women, the impact of that would be calamitous at best.
Q So even though it’s your own proposal that you guys endorsed you don't want to see it as part of the final package?
MR. CARNEY: I'm not negotiating individual pieces of a package that we hope Republicans and Democrats can come together around from this podium. But again, we believe it’s essential to -- the President believes -- that's one of the reasons why we're doing this right now -- we believe that these are big debates that need to be had. They can be contentious, argumentative, serious, comprehensive, detailed, because they’re important; they’re all about America’s future. And they’re about visions of this country and where we're going that need to be debated. And this debate was being crowded out in many ways by a sideshow.
And he looks forward to having a debate on the real issues that Americans want us to talk about -- long-term economic plans, deficit reduction, investments in the kinds of things that will help this economy grow and create jobs, dealing with our energy needs, a long-term energy plan. These are all issues that have been sidetracked at least in the public debate by some of the issues that we're talking about this morning.
Q Is there a concern that more and more people were actually starting to believe its sideshow -- I mean, people have been asking about --
MR. CARNEY: I will let the President speak for himself, but what Dan was saying and I think is important is that the issue here is that the President feels that this was bad for the country; that it’s not healthy for our political debate, when we have so many important issues that Americans care about, that affect their lives, to be drawn into sideshows about fallacies that have been disproven with the full weight of a legal document for several years.
So, again, as Dan said, and a lot of political pundits have said, you could say that it would be good politics, smart politics, for the President to let this play out. He cares more about what’s good for the country. He wants the debate on the issues. He wants the focus on the issues that Americans care about.
Q Jay, the President yesterday said that he had been talking to oil exporters about increasing output. Who specifically has he been talking --
MR. CARNEY: Well, I said -- I want to clarify. I said several times I believe from this podium when asked questions about our overall handling of the issue of high gas prices that we've had conversations with oil-producing states and allies and those conversations continue. I don't have specific “the President spoke with this leader or other government officials spoke with others,” but those are ongoing conversations that, of course, we would be having in a situation like this.
Q Do you guys have any comment on the NATO soldiers that were killed in Afghanistan and any confirmation on whether there were Americans?
MR. CARNEY: I don't have anything for you on that this morning.
Q Just quickly, back on the birth certificate, yesterday you said this was a settled issue. So --
MR. CARNEY: Well, as Dan said, again, it has been a settled issue.
MR. PFEIFFER: From a factual point of view, it’s absolutely a settled issue. But the fact that it was a settled issue did not keep it from becoming a major part of the political discussion in this town for the last several weeks here. So there’s absolutely no question that what the President released in 2008 was his birth certificate and answered that question, and many of your organizations have done excellent reporting which proved that to be the case. But it continued; the President thought it was a sideshow and chose to take this step today for the reasons Bob laid out.
Q Aside from the policy distractions that was presented, did you have some concern because it was sort of reaching back into the mainstream news coverage that this could become a factor in the 2012 election with centrist voters?
MR. PFEIFFER: No.
Q Just to clarify what this document is --
MR. PFEIFFER: This is the -- the letter first and the two certified copies -- this is one of those. This is the same thing you have a copy of as the first page of your packet.
Q How did it get here?
MR. PFEIFFER: As Bob said, it arrived by plane -- the President’s personal counsel went to Hawaii and brought it back and we got it last night.
Q Last night?
MR. PFEIFFER: Last night.
Q What time?
MR. PFEIFFER: Between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.
Q When did you decide to do this gaggle?
MR. PFEIFFER: What’s that?
Q When was this gaggle put on -- when was this planned?
MR. PFEIFFER: Whatever time you received your guidance suggesting that it would be “this time tomorrow morning.”
Q Are these letters supposed to demonstrate the legal steps that were involved in releasing it to the White House counsel?
MR. BAUER: The letters that you have, the personal request from the President, along with the accompanying letter from private counsel, is merely meant to document the legal path to getting the waiver of that policy so we could get the long-form certificate.
Q The waiver of Hawaii state government policy?
MR. BAUER: Right. The non-release of the long-form certificate, which has been in effect since the 1980s -- a natural question would have been, well, what did you do to obtain the waiver, and those letters represent the request.
Q Well, isn’t it true that anybody who was born in Hawaii can write this letter? I mean, that's all there is to the waiver process?
MR. BAUER: No. Let me just explain once again because I also noticed, by the way, in one report already the wrong certificate was actually posted on the website. The certificate with the signatures at the bottom -- and that's a key difference between the short form and the long form -- the long form has signatures at the bottom from the attending physician, the local registrar, and the mother, is the original birth certificate, which sits in a bound volume in the State Department of Health.
The short from is a computerized abstract, and that's the legal birth certificate we requested in 2008 and that Hawaiians are entitled to. Since the mid-1980s, the State Department of Health, for administrative reasons, only provides to people who request their birth certificate the short form. They do not provide the long form.
So in order for us to obtain the long form, we had to have a waiver. We had to actually determine that there was a legal basis for providing it, and then ask them to exercise their authority to provide us with the long form. The steps required to accomplish that were a letter from the person with the direct and vital interest -- the President -- so you have a letter from the President, and then there was an accompanying letter from counsel basically formalizing the request. So the reason we included that is that those were legal steps we took to obtain the long form by way of this waiver.
Q Do we have the letter from the President --
MR. BAUER: It’s in the packet.
Q And you went to Hawaii?
MR. BAUER: I did not go to Hawaii. The counsel, Judy Corley, who signed the -- the President’s personal counsel at Perkins Coie, Judy Corley, whose letter -- signed letter of request is in your packet, traveled to Honolulu and picked up the birth certificate.
Q A question on the situation regarding the Defense of Marriage Act. Yesterday Attorney General Eric Holder rejected attacks on Paul Clement, who is taking up defense of the statute on behalf of the U.S. House. Paul Clement has taken a lot of heat from the LGBT community for volunteering to take up defense of DOMA. Eric Holder said, “Paul Clement is a great lawyer and has done a lot of really great things for this nation. In taking on the representation -- representing Congress in connection with DOMA, I think he is doing that which lawyers do when we’re at our best. That criticism I think was very misplaced.” And Holder went on to compare the criticism of Clement to attacks on the Justice Department lawyers for their past for detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Does the President share Eric Holder’s views on this?
MR. CARNEY: We do share Eric Holder’s views on this. We think -- as we said from the beginning when we talked about -- when I did from this podium -- about the decision no longer from the administration to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, that we would support efforts by Congress if they so chose to defend it. And so I have nothing to add to the Attorney General’s comments.
Q Following Monday’s Af-Pak Situation Room meeting, what is the President’s assessment of the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan? And does he think that July drawdown is still on?
MR. CARNEY: The President’s policy, which included the beginning of a transition -- beginning of a drawdown of American troops, is absolutely still on track. I don’t have anything additionally from the meeting yesterday beyond what we’ve said. But the policy remains as it was.
MR. EARNEST: Jay, we should wrap it up here.
MR. CARNEY: Yes. Last one, yes.
Q Given the comments of the Pakistani official quoted in the Wall Street Journal, is Pakistan still a U.S. ally, and to what extent?
UPDATE - for 9:45 AM EDT The Elephants in -out of Congress: from "conservative" to ignorant to dumb to extreme right-wing have put up the "question" that the person elected 44th President of the United States was not born in the US --not natural-born US citizen --disqualified to hold the office.
No rocket science degree required --to deduce: the Elephants/Republi-cants questioning Barack Obama's citizenship cannot tolerate that the current President is highly intelligent --and/or smarter than they, and most probably, than 90% of the previous holders of the office --and/or has black skin. All of which is intolerable to them.
One needn't be an historian nor visit all parts of the US to know: racism is still bred --145 years after the War Between the States ended.
Happily: the Dumb and the Stupid are small in number. Unhappily: That doesn't lessen the embarrassment they Also branded "American." Unhappily: the Seriously Stupid also the most vocal --given megaphone by pandering "news" directors -print editors.
Anyone with Basic intelligence: knows vast number of Intelligence agencies exist in the federal government, with hundreds, if not thousands, of agents. If the person elected to the Presidency November 2008 was NOT a natural-born citizen: several Intelligence agents would have investigated long before nomination --spoken up --prevented his candidacy. --Agents do nothing else but investigate, certainly would NOT silently permit a foreign-born to become their Commander-in-Chief.
Unhappily for Don Trump: he has given serious evidence he does not possess even the Basic intelligence G-d gave chickens. His specious attempt to "run" --generate air --print --interest --money(?) in himself as a candidate for the office of President --about to be trumped --crash.
However, Mr. Obama, in this author's view, about to make a serious mistake. --Yet Cannot prevent Mr. Obama from swathing specious small racist people in plenty of rope --report:
President Barack Obama will have a press event at 9:45 AM this day in which, it is reported, he will present "long form" record of his birth.
Afterward: Watch --how "busy" he-who-cannot-speak-proper-English becomes. Loudmouth Don's "detectives" sent to Hawaii on "investigation" of Mr. Obama's birth --"...finding very very interesting things" --will submit "report" written in invisible ink, held in "secret" location --revealed on the 12th of never. Hey small person: where is the big Receipt for those "detectives"? -- PROVE it that you ACTUALLY hired real one's --with Proof of payment --Let us SEE it.
Ah well, it was banal while it lasted --the deeply narcissistic always flame out, eventually.
daVine Politics --for Don strumpet and his ilk: IF NBC hires the racist small person --gives he-who-cannot-speak-English a contract for "reality" show: the 98% of Americans Smarter than the little--broke?--Don should Boycott ALL of NBC --delete "nbc" from remote, for Minimum, duration of Mr. Obama's second term in office. Racists: loathe being ignored.
* * * * *
President Obama and President Shimon Peres of Israel walk White House colonnade, April 2011
President Obama Schedule - Wednesday April 27, 2011
8:45 AM
Press Secretary Jay Carney will convene an off-camera gaggle in the Brady Press Briefing Room
Open Press
10:05 AM The President departs the White House en route Andrews Air Force Base
Travel Pool Coverage
10:20 AM The President departs Andrews Air Force Base en route Chicago, Illinois Out-of-Town Travel Pool Coverage - Call Time 9:00AM
12:10 PM The President arrives in Chicago, Illinois
Chicago O’Hare International Airport
Open Press
1:15 PM The President and the First Lady tape an episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show
Local Event Time: 12:15 PM CDT
Harpo Studios
Pool Spray
Stills Only Pool Spray
3:30 PM The President departs Chicago, Illinois
Local Event Time: 2:30 PM CDT
Chicago O’Hare International Airport
Open Press
5:10 PM The President arrives in New York, New York
John F. Kennedy International Airport
Open Press
6:00 PM The President delivers remarks at a DNC event
Private Residence
Print Pool
9:25 PM The President delivers remarks at a DNC event
Waldorf Astoria
Travel Pool Coverage
10:15 PM The President delivers remarks at a DNC event
The Town Hall
Pooled TV, Open to Correspondents
11:30 PM The President departs New York, New York
John F. Kennedy International Airport
Open Press
Pres. Obama - White House patio after budget meeting, April 2011
President Obama: Schedule - Wednesday April 20, 2011 Departs Washington to Political events in California today
9:20am The President receives the Presidential Daily Briefing
Oval Office
Closed Press
10:05 am The President departs the White House South Drive Travel Pool Coverage
10:40 am The President departs Andrews Air Force Base en route San Francisco, California Andrews Air Force Base Travel Pool Coverage
4:30 pm The President arrives in San Francisco, California Local Event Time: 1:30 PM PDT San Francisco International Airport Open Press
4:45 pm The President participates in a Shared Responsibility and Shared Prosperity town hall hosted by Facebook to discuss his vision for bringing down our deficit Local Event Time: 1:45 PM PDT California, Facebook Headquarters, Palo Alto Press Information
9:15 pm The President delivers remarks at a DNC event Local Event Time: 6:15 PM PDT California, Private Residence, San Francisco Print Pool
11:30 pm The President delivers remarks at a DNC event Local Event Time: 8:30 PM PDT California, Nob Hill Masonic Center, San Francisco
Town Hall Meeting: Questions posted and live shown Internet and C-Span
Website header image: Obama family member Bo, gift of late Senator Ted Kennedy, enjoying blossoming cherry trees in White House garden
White House Announces 2011 Easter Egg Roll Program and Talent Line-up
The White House announces the program, activities, and talent line-up for the 2011 White House Easter Egg Roll, a tradition in its 133rd year.
This year’s theme is “Get Up and Go!” The theme focuses on promoting health and wellness and encouraging children to lead healthy and active lives. This is a central part of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! initiative, which is a national effort to combat childhood obesity.
The Easter Egg Roll is the largest annual public event at the White House.
30,000 people from all 50 states and the District of Columbia have received tickets to the event.
For the third year in a row, tickets were distributed online. Members of the public from all over the country had the opportunity to enter an online lottery for a chance to win tickets to the event. Over 200,000 tickets were requested via the online lottery, and guests from all 50 states and the District of Columbia were selected as winners.
The timing for this year’s event has been extended even further than previous years, with a start time of 7:30 AM and an end time of 6:20 PM. 30,000 tickets have been distributed in 5 different groups. Each group of 6,000 guests will be able to spend two full hours on the South Lawn.
The Ellipse will have an entertainment pavilion. Guests are able to enjoy musical acts and games as they prepare to enter the South Lawn. DJs and the official Emcee of the Easter Egg Roll will be on the Ellipse welcoming guests in, spinning music, and getting the guests excited about their two hours on the South Lawn!
The entire Easter Egg Roll event, including all of the headliner music acts and Storytime Stage readers, will be broadcast live on www.whitehouse.gov/live. A full schedule will be posted on the morning of April 25th so people from across the country will be able to participate in the event.
With the “Get Up and Go!” theme, all of the activities on the South Lawn promote healthy and active living. The activities include obstacle courses, yoga, dancing, playing sports with professional athletes, and of course, the traditional egg roll. The full list of events is below:
An Easter egg hunt & the traditional Easter egg roll
Rockin’ Egg Roll Stage - Live musical performances for all ages.
Storytime Stage - Celebrities bring books to life.
Hop To It! - An instructional dance party on the South Lawn! Get up and go jump rope, hula hoop, dance and more.
Eggtivity Zone Obstacle Course - A series of obstacles and drills, including soccer, football and baseball obstacle courses.
Basketball and Tennis- Get hands-on training from basketball and tennis pros on the President’s court!
Yoga Garden - Come enjoy a session of yoga from professional instructors.
Eggspress Yourself - An arts and crafts workshop filled with egg dying, egg decorating, face painting and more.
Play with your Food - Family Farmer’s Market, Kids’ Kitchen, Make-your-own Garden, Buzzing about Bees, and more led by the White House chefs and celebrity guest chefs. This activity center is built around the White House Kitchen Garden.
Talent Line-up
Colbie Caillat, Greyson Chance, Willow Smith, Mindless Behavior, John Lithgow, Sesame Street, and Little Beats and DJ WillyWow will perform on the Rockin’ Egg Roll Stage. Colbie Caillat will sing the National Anthem.
Reading on the Storytime Stage will be Kelly Ripa, Mark Consuelos and family; John Lithgow; Elmo, Maria and Gordon of Sesame Street; John Bemelmans Marciano; Kristi Yamaguchi; and Geena Davis.
Chefs Jacque Pepin, Art Smith and trainer Az Ferguson, Marcella Valladolid, Carla Hall and the White House Chefs will prepare healthy eating demonstrations in the Play with your Food station.
In the Eggtivity Zone, professional players and coaches from professional sports teams will teach kids how to play sports and show kids easy, fun ways to stay active and fit.
Athletes participating in the Eggtivity Zone include Olympic stars Tyson Gay and Bryan Clay; Lorenzo Alexander with the NFL; DC United’s Bryan Namoff, Josh Wolff and Ben Olsen; the Washington Nationals Jim Riggleman, Adam Laroche and Ryan Zimmerman; along with Sean Casey and others.
Alana Beard and Crystal Langstrom from the WNBA, Nick Young from the Wizards, former basketball player Darryl Dawkins, and the Harlem Globetrotters will participate in basketball.
Chris Evert, Katrina Adams, Brian Vahaly, Mal Washington, Patrick Monroe and Chanda Rubin will be joining kids on the tennis courts, along with the Washington Kastles Mascots.
The Hop To It Stage offers a variety of interactive dance, sports, and other physical fun, including Zumba, the National Double Dutch League, the Happiness Club, Rhythm Child, and KidTribe.
The Isiserettes, an Iowa based drill team and drum corp, will perform on the South Lawn, as well as help guide the visitors on and off of the South Lawn. The United States Marine Corps Band will perform again this year.
DJ Rekha and DJ WillyWow will perform on the ellipse. The official Emcee of the 2011 White House Easter Egg Roll is Tommy McFly. He will introduce acts on the music stage and get everyone excited about the different Egg Roll activities to make for another wonderful Easter Egg Roll.
Fun Facts for the 2011 White House Easter Egg Roll
Ticketing
1) 205,739 tickets were requested through the online public lottery. 2) 48,164 applications were received through the online public lottery. 3) This was the third year an online lottery was used. This gave people from all over the United States the chance to attend. 4) At least one family from all 50 states was successful in the public lottery. 5) About 3,000 tickets were distributed to public schools in DC, Maryland and Virginia. 6) Over 4,000 tickets were distributed to military families.
Eggs
7) The souvenir wooden eggs are available in four pastel colors – purple, green, yellow, and pink. They include the stamped signatures of the President and First Lady. 8) The wooden eggs are produced through a process of wood turning and barrel dying. They are made in the US from FSC-certified, US hardwood. 9) The souvenir wooden eggs will be given to children 12 and younger at the event. 10) A total of 83,000 souvenir wooden eggs were produced for this year’s event. 11) The National Park Foundation produces and sells the rest of the souvenir wooden eggs. You can purchase them at http://easter.nationalparks.org/ . 12) 14,500 hard-boiled and dyed eggs will be used between the egg roll and the egg hunt. 13) 4,500 boiled white eggs will be decorated at the Egg Dying station throughout the course of the day. 14) “Chirping eggs” will be available for visually impaired children participating in the Egg Roll and Egg Hunt.
Healthy Activities
15) The activities are centered on the theme of the event, “Get Up and Go!” The theme is based on the First Lady’s Let’s Move! initiative to encourage healthy and active living. 16) The Play with your Food station is a hands-on environment that enforces the message that nutritious eating is both delicious and energizing. 17) What’s in Season features seasonal produce from the White House gardens and local organic farms. Kids can explore the different fruits and vegetables, learn about seasonal eating, and learn how to find fresh produce in the junior farmer’s market. 18) Kids are able to take home seedling cups in egg cartons to start their own garden in Make Your Own Garden. 19) Children will have the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of basketball and tennis from professional athletes on the President’s court. 20) Kids will be able to relax and learn yoga moves in the Yoga Garden. 21) The Egg Roll is accessible to children in wheelchairs with the addition of wheelchair matting.
History
22) The Easter Egg Roll is a White House tradition dating back to 1878 and President Rutherford B. Hayes, but there are records of informal egg rolling events as early as Abraham Lincoln’s administration. 23) After the Civil War, egg rolling often took place on the Capitol building’s grounds. But by 1876, Congressmen grew tired of the torn up grounds and rowdy crowds and passed a law prohibiting the use of the Capitol Grounds as a play area. 24) On Easter day in 1878, when the ban on egg rolling at the Capitol went into effect, some claim that President Hayes saw tearful children while riding by the Capitol Grounds in his carriage and invited them to play on the White House lawn. 25) By 1899, the White House Easter Egg Roll had become quite popular, with over 8,000 people in attendance. This year, over 30,000 were invited to attend the event. 26) The Easter Egg Roll has been held at the White House every year except during World War I, World War II and the Truman Renovation of the White House, when it was moved to other Washington locations or cancelled. 27) President Ronald Reagan was the first President to hide autographed eggs for children to find in the Egg Hunt. 28) President Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon were the first to include the White House Easter Bunny in the festivities. 29) President George H.W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush were the first to affix the signature of the President and First Lady to the commemorative egg. 30) First Lady Grace Coolidge was known for her love of pets, but none were more famous than her pet raccoon, Rebecca, who made an appearance at the White House Easter Egg Roll in the 1920’s.
Easter Bunny and Ceremony
31) The First Lady is the official host of the White House Easter Egg Roll. 32) The event cannot officially be called the White House Easter Egg Roll until the opening ceremony, when the Easter Bunny makes an appearance.
Poster Contest
33) The White House held a poster competition and invited local Elementary and Middle school children in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia to submit entries for the 2011 White House Easter Egg Roll Official Poster. 34) There were a total of 464 posters submitted from 135 schools. 35) Students were asked to incorporate this year’s theme, “Get Up and Go!” into their posters. 36) The First Lady selected the winning designs. There were two winners again this year. 37) Morgan Ferrans was selected for the official 2011 Easter Egg Roll Program Cover. Morgan is twelve years old and attends Maryvale Preparatory School in Brooklandville, Maryland. 38) Alyssa Pendergast’s submission was selected for the official 2011 Easter Egg Roll Poster. Alyssa is twelve years old and attends Harper Park Middle School in Leesburg, Virginia. 39) Morgan and Alyssa will be attending the White House Easter Egg Roll along with their classes, teachers and parents.
Sustainability
40) All goody bags are recyclable and are made from recycled materials. 41) The packaging of the eggs, made from recyclable paperboard, was designed to minimize waste and environmental impact. 42) The wooden souvenir eggs are made in the US from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) - certified US hardwood. 43) 90 trash bins and 90 recycling bins will be placed throughout the South Lawn and Ellipse.
Volunteers
44) 10 professional American Sign Language interpreters are volunteering their time for the event. There will also be 6 nurses and 2 physicians from George Washington University. 45) The White House Easter Egg Roll is made possible by the hard work of close to 1,200 volunteers. 46) All volunteers attended at least one training session and some traveled from as far away as Germany to be part of this year’s event. 47) Many volunteers will arrive for their shifts as early as 5:00 AM to help get the Easter Egg Roll rolling.
Fun in Numbers
48) The Egg Roll will use 72 wooden spoons and 8 whistles. 49) The event will incorporate almost 60 volunteer face painters. 50) 2,000 eggs will be used to provide breakfast for the volunteers.
--Amazingly somebody omitted from above: White House EasterEggRoll will be held Monday, April 25, 2011
8:35 am The President hosts an Easter Prayer Breakfast East Room Pooled Press
10:15 am The President holds a town hall to discuss his vision for reducing our debt and bringing down our deficit, based on the values of shared responsibility and shared prosperity Annandale Campus, Northern Virginia Community College Open Press
3:25 pm The President meets with a broad group of business, law enforcement, faith, and current and former elected and appointed leaders from across the political spectrum on the importance of fixing our nation's broken immigration system for our 21st century eco State Dining Room Closed Press
4:30 pm The President meets with Secretary of Defense Gates Oval Office Closed Press
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
THE WHITE HOUSE ~ENERGY~
We're in the Global Clean Energy Race to Win: Federal Investment in California Solar Energy Plant
Posted by Secretary Steven Chu on April 18, 2011 at 03:57 PM EDT
I have good news. Today, the Department of Energy offered a $2.1 billion conditional commitment loan guarantee to support a concentrating solar thermal power plant near Blythe, California. This is the largest amount ever offered to a solar project through our the Department's Loan Programs Office.
The loan will support two units of the Blythe Solar Power Project that will have a combined 484 megawatt generating capacity. These units are part of a larger project, sponsored by Solar Trust of America, that when completed will generate 1,000 megawatts of solar power, enough to power 95,000 homes a year.
The project is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs and is estimated to avoid more than 710,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, which is equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from more han 123,000 vehicles.
The Department's loan guarantees play a critical role in facilitating the large-scale deployment of innovative clean energy technologies. Including loans for advanced vehicle technologies, the Department has committed financing to support 27 clean energy projects that will create or save more than 60,000 jobs across the U.S.
Today, we are in a global race to develop and deploy clean energy technologies. We can either sit on the sidelines and watch the competition pass us by or we can get in the race and play to win.
When we rev up the great American innovation machine, we can out-compete any other nation.
To spur innovation and grow the domestic clean energy market, President Obama has proposed doubling the amount of electricity we generate from clean energy sources by 2035. Investments in projects like the Blythe Solar Power Project will help meet this goal while creating jobs and positioning the U.S. to lead in the solar industry.
Steven Chu is the United States Secretary of Energy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
THE WHITE HOUSE ~EVENT~
Passover Seder First night at the White House
Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights? Recipes for Passover
Posted by Danielle Borrin on April 18, 2011 at 03:36 PM EDT
Tonight and tomorrow night, Jewish families and friends in the United States and around the world will gather for Seders to commemorate the Exodus from Egypt and the triumph of hope and perseverance over injustice and oppression. For most Jewish families, the Passover meal is full traditions passed down through the generations like the maror, or bitter herbs, which symbolize the bitterness of slavery in Egypt or the matzoh, unleavened bread, which recalls the haste with which the Israelites left Egypt – giving them no time to allow their bread to rise.
While some families hold the secret to the fluffiest matzoh balls in town, others have created new traditions to share with their families and friends.
Here at the White House tonight, President and Mrs. Obama will again host a small Seder, complete with recipes provided by friends and family. It’s a tradition that started in Pennsylvania in 2008, when after a long day on the campaign trail then-Senator Obama gathered a group of staffers – Jewish and non-Jewish alike – for an impromptu Seder. Each year since, the same group, along with a few close friends and family, have come together to carry on the tradition at the White House. Among the family recipes on the menu this year are a traditional chicken soup with matzoh balls, braised beef brisket, potato kugel, carrot soufflé, and matzoh chocolate cake.
As the eight days of Passover begin tonight, we reached out to eight Jewish chefs around the country to share their own thoughts, menus and recipes for a healthy, satisfying Seder. We hope these recipes will give you some new ideas for your own Passover traditions.
We’re grateful to these participating chefs:
* Joan Nathan, Cookbook Author, Washington, DC - Moroccan Charoset Truffles (pdf) * Todd Aarons, Executive Chef of Tierra Sur at Herzog Wine Cellars, Oxnard, CA - Persian Style Chicken Soup (pdf) * Michelle Bernstein, Chef and Owner of Michy’s and Sra. Martinez, Miami, FL - Moroccan Spiced Cornish Hens (pdf) * Gail Gand, Pastry Chef of Tru, Chicago, IL - Passover Lemon Sponge Cake with Strawberries (pdf) * Joyce Goldstein, Cookbook Author and Guest Chef for Passover Seder at Perbacco Restaurant, San Francisco, CA - Spinach with Pine Nuts and Raisins (pdf) * Peter Hoffman, Chef of Savoy Restaurant, New York, NY - Tahrir Square Salad (pdf) * Michael Leviton, Chef of Lumiere, Newton, MA - Maple-Mustard Glazed Smoked Sable (pdf) * Michael Solomonov, Chef of Zahav, Philadelphia, PA - Carrot and Apple Salad with Pine Nuts (pdf)
Chag Sameach!
Note: These commentaries, menus and recipes are products of the chefs themselves.
Danielle Borrin is the Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and liaison to the Jewish community.
* * * * * Note: Header photo - cherry trees in blossom on White House lawn enjoyed by Bo, furry now fully-grown Obama family member
* * * * * tag: solar energy panel production investment job added creation federal vision investment, Passover Jewish event holiday religious two-night sedar Seder April 18 - 19, 2011, Christian Easter prayer
The President departs Chicago, Illinois en route Andrews Air Force Base
Local Event Time:
11:55 AM CDT
Chicago O’Hare International Airport
Open Press
2:35pm
The President arrives at Andrews Air Force Base
Andrews Air Foce Base
Travel Pool Coverage
2:50 pm The President arrives at the White House South Lawn Open Press
3:20 pm The President and the Vice President meet with leadership of the National Conference of State Legislators Roosevelt Room Closed Press
Oval Office: President Obama meets with chairs of Fiscal Commission Simpson (seated, left) & Bowles, Secretary of Treasury Geithner (seated, center), Budget Director (seated, right), reporters
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release April 16, 2011
Weekly Address:
“We Can Live Within Our Means and Live Up to the Values We Share as Americans”
Remarks of President Barack ObamaAs Prepared for Delivery Saturday, April 16, 2011Washington, DC
This week, I laid out my plan for our fiscal future. It’s a balanced plan that reduces spending and brings down the deficit, putting America back on track toward paying down our debt.
We know why this challenge is so critical. If we don’t act, a rising tide of borrowing will damage our economy, costing us jobs and risking our future prosperity by sticking our children with the bill.
At the same time, we have to take a balanced approach to reducing our deficit – an approach that protects the middle class, our commitments to seniors, and job-creating investments in things like education and clean energy. What’s required is an approach that draws support from both parties, and one that’s based on the values of shared responsibility and shared prosperity.
Now, one plan put forward by some Republicans in the House of Representatives aims to reduce our deficit by $4 trillion over the next ten years. But while I think their goal is worthy, I believe their vision is wrong for America.
It’s a vision that says at a time when other nations are hustling to out-compete us for the jobs and businesses of tomorrow, we have to make drastic cuts in education, infrastructure, and clean energy – the very investments we need to win that competition and get those jobs.
It’s a vision that says that in order to reduce the deficit, we have to end Medicare as we know it, and make cuts to Medicaid that would leave millions of seniors, poor children, and Americans with disabilities without the care they need.
But even as this plan proposes these drastic cuts, it would also give $1 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthiest 2% of Americans – an extra $200,000 for every millionaire and billionaire in the country.
I don’t think that’s right. I don’t think it’s right to ask seniors to pay thousands more for health care, or ask students to postpone college, just so we don’t have to ask those who have prospered so much in this land of opportunity to give back a little more.
To restore fiscal responsibility, we all need to share in the sacrifice – but we don’t have to sacrifice the America we believe in.
That’s why I’ve proposed a balanced approach that matches that $4 trillion in deficit reduction. It’s an approach that combs the entire budget for savings, and asks everyone to do their part. And I’ve called on Democrats and Republicans to join me in this effort – to put aside their differences to help America meet this challenge. That’s how we’ve balanced our budget before, and it’s how we’ll succeed again.
We’ll build on the savings we made from last week’s bipartisan budget agreement, while protecting the job-creating investments that are critical to our future.
We’ll find additional savings in our defense budget. Over the last two years, the Secretary of Defense has taken on wasteful spending that does nothing to protect our troops or our nation, saving $400 billion in current and future spending. I believe we can do that again.
We’ll reduce health care spending, and strengthen Medicare and Medicaid through common-sense reforms that will get rid of wasteful subsidies and increase efficiency.
We’ll reduce spending in our tax code with tax reform that’s fair and simple – so that the amount of taxes you pay doesn’t depend on how clever an accountant you can afford. And we should end the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, too. Because people like me don’t need another tax cut.
So that’s my approach to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over the next 12 years while protecting the middle class, keeping our promise to seniors, and securing our investments in our future. I hope you’ll check it out for yourself on WhiteHouse.gov. And while you’re there, you can also find what we’re calling the taxpayer receipt. For the first time ever, there’s a way for you to see exactly how and where your tax dollars are spent, and what’s really at stake in this debate.
Going forward, Democrats and Republicans in Washington will have our differences, some of them strong. But you expect us to bridge those differences. You expect us to work together and get this done. And I believe we can. I believe we can live within our means and live up to the values we share as Americans. And in the weeks to come, I’ll work with anyone who’s willing to get it done.
Thanks for listening. Have a great weekend.
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 16, 2011.
This is daVine politics. WHEN will the Elephants in the House: get it? Trying to "reduce" deficit --disguised. Elephant's Plan: want the disabled, the ill, the senior adults to pay so wealthiest 2% --donors to Republican Party, can get wealthier. 'Road map' to hell ...sick...nuts... the Elephants need to stop sipping all that loose-leaf Tea....
* * * * *
tag: budget 2011, 2012 credit federal debt deficit paul ryan tea party elephants republican house of representatives disabled retired Medi-Care medicare, wealthiest 2% taxes balance daVine Politics http://davinepolitics.blogspot.com
11:00 am The President receives the Presidential Daily Briefing Oval Office Closed Press
12:30 pm The President departs Andrews Air Force Base en route Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Andrews Air Force Base Travel Pool Coverage Call Time 11:15AM – Virginia Gate, Andrews Air Force Base
1:15 pm The President arrives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia International Airport
Open Press
2:10pmThe President holds a town hall discussion with Gamesa workers
Fairless Hills, Gamesa Technology Corporation, Inc, Pennsylvania
Open Press
4:20pm The President departs Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia International Airport
Open Press
5:00pmThe President arrives in New York, New York
John F. Kennedy International Airport Open Press
6:05 pm The President delivers remarks at National Action Networks Annual Gala New York, Sheraton New York Hotel
Pooled TV, Open to Correspondents
Open to pre-credentialed correspondents and still photographers only
7:40 pm The President departs New York, New York John F. Kennedy International Airport Open Press
8:35 pm The President arrives at Andrews Air Force Base Andrews Air Force Base Travel Pool Coverage
8:50 pm The President arrives at the White House South Lawn Open Press
Non-emergency bills You have up to 5 days to read, send your input before he takes any action: 00President Obama00--If true, refreshing change from the lying -spying -arrogant "just go shop" of previous eight years. 1-25-09
The Nominee NY fed head --as biggest Wall Street Ponzi scam in history -on American mortgagees -pensions -jobs -values wiped out -economic tsunami; Rep.-appointed, taxes unpaid four years --Senators voted "FOR" Tim Geithner as Sec. of Treasury, head of IRS anyway
Front door to the White House Office of Public Liaison & Intergovernmental Affairs: through which everyone can participate and inform the work of the President.
"Will bring new voices to the table, build relationships with constituents and seeks... change through the meaningful engagement of citizens and their elected officials..."
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