President Obama Des Moines Iowa Event – Live-Blog

outstanding governor Chet Culver is here…

Not giving a long speech, want to hear from you –

Where I think the country's at, how to move forward…when I started running for pres back in 2007-08, the reason I was willing to do it even though Michelle was not crazy about politics and I had two young daughters…was a feeling that the country was at a crossroads, that we had fundamental decisions to make that we had been putting off for decades…education, energy, foreign policy…but what concerned me most was the nature of our economy and how the American Dream seemed as if twas slipping away from too many people.  From 2001-20009 the average wage of middle class families in America declined by 5% – job growth was slower during that period than any time since WWII and costs were sky-rocketing…the very top was getting very wealthy but the middle class…was finding it harder and harder to get ahead….alot had to do with policies put in place the basic premise which was if we cut back on regulations, taxes, and cut everybody loose to fend for themselves that somehow the economy would automatically grow…and it didn't work…

…manufacturing companies were moving overseas…where we used to be #1 in college graduates, we now ranked #12…21st in science, 25th in math…all of the things that made us the most productive country on earth were slipping away…so I wanted to run for president to work on long term solutions to rebuild our economy…

…turns out we were in more trouble than I had imagined in 2008…in the six months before Ii was sworn in we lost 4 million jobs…450,000 were lost during the first month of my administration…we had already lost most of the jobs before any of my policies had a chance to take effect…we had to take emergency measures to stop the bleeding…

…I'm very proud of the fact that we've been able to help the economy from going into a second great depression…but 8 million jobs are a lot to make up…and previous foundational problems didn't go away…so we've had a challenge of dealing with a crisis but not taking our eye off of the ball of long term change…that's why health reform and financial reforms were so important…and that's why we've put so much emphasis on education reform…

…we've gotta make tough choices if we're going to solve these problems…we're in election…look at the chhoice we face in this election…the other side is offering the same policies that from 2001-2009 put off hard problems and didn't really speak honestly to the American people about how we're going to get on track in the long term…as an example, they want to borrow 700 billion dollars for the top 2% of Americans, people making over $250,000 per year.  That's 700 billion dollars we don't have so we would have to borrow it, adding to the deficit, or we would have to cut for example 20% of the money for education…so we've got a choice to make…so I hope as you go forward…that you keep in mind that we won't be able to solve our big problems unless we honestly address them…we can't pretend that there are shortcuts…that we can cut our taxes, balance the budget, have what we want and not make any tough choices..

With that, open it up for questions…

Mary Stier:  My son college grad, losing hope, could you speak to the young men and women who are struggling to find a job..could you speak to that message of hope…

Obama:  In Madison yesterday, we had 26,000 young people…they still have so much enthusiasm but this generation is going through the toughest economy of any generation since the 1930's…most of us here don't remember the great depression…okay, maybe a couple…laughter…   this recession had more impact on middle class families than the other 3 combined…an entire generation is worried about the future…

Here's the good news…I think your son's generation is smarter, more sophisticated, more passionate, has a broader world view, they don't take things for granted, they are willing to work hard for what they want to achieve, they think about the community, other people…when I meet young people these days I am very impressed with them, I think they are terrifically talented..

My mesage to them is that we're doing everything they can to make sure they get the best education possible… 60 billion dollars that will go to students via higher grants, reduced loan burdens…will make a difference…obviously, we're doing everything we can to grow the economy so if they have the skills they'll be able to find a job in this new economy…the economy is growing, just not as fast as we'd like it to…expectation is small business tax breaks, shoring up housing market that over the next couple of years the economy will improve…young people who are prepared will be able to find a good job…your son will be able to stay on your health insurance due to health reform until he is 26….we are making tough decisions now so that by the time he has a son or daughter we'll be back to #1 in terms of education, innovation, entrepreneurship…but it will take some time.. in some ways this generation may be less fixated on immediate gratification than our generation because they've seen some hardhip in their careers.

Next questioner: When can we look forward to reducing huge spending on wars?  Would this help us square up our budget and give us resources to spend on our economy here at home?

Obama:  I'm interested in nation-building here at home…was opposed to war in Iraq…we have  now ended our combat mission in Iraq, have pulled out 100,000 troops  (applause)…

Afghanistan:  We had to go after those who killed 3,000 Americans and make sure they didn't have a safe haven to plan more attacks…the situation in Afghanistan had badly deteriorated and the Taliban had started to take over the government again…al quaeda still plotting to attack the U.S…I said during the campaign we needed to get Afghanistan right…said we're not going to do it in an open-ended way…the situation there is very tough…Afghanistan is the second poorest country in the world, 70% illiteracy rate, much less developed than Iraq, and no strong tradition of government or infrastructure…it is messy, hard, and the toughest job I have is deploying young people into a war…but I do think that we are seeing the possibility of training Afghan forces effectively, making sure the Taliban can't plan more attacks…and phasing down…

The impact on our budget:  Costs include taking care of veterans – they've served us well, we've gotta serve them well, disability claims, ptsd, women veterans, all those things cost some money, so as we start winding down the war in Afghanistan, there may not be a huge peace dividend right away, but will be able to responsibly manage our military budget…can't say you want to balance the budget and not take on the Pentagon…we've eliminated some programs in the Pentagon budget that even the generals say we don't need, but shutting those programs down is difficult because these are based in congressional districts where there is investment in keeping those going…

Next question – boy-girl-boy-girl…

Jeanette McKenzie:  health care bill…

Obama:  Is your mom on Medicare? 

Mckenzie:  Yes

Obama:  Do you have health care?

Mckenzie:  Yes

Obama:  There's nothing in your health care bill that would prevent your mom from getting coverage…there's nothing in the bill that says you have to change what you've got right now.  What is it that you think might happen as a consequence of health care reform?

(she seems confused…)

Obama:  If you already have health care, that doesn't change.  Insurance can no longer drop your coverage when you get sick…we provided tax breaks for small businesses so they can provide health care, so now 4 million businesses get tax breaks for providing health care…also said if you don't have health insurance, (explained exchange…)…, etc.  You are not going to be forced to buy a gov't health care plan..if you don't have health care and you get sick and have to go to the ER, everyone has to pay for it which isn't fair, so if you can afford it you have to have some basic coverage…  [how is that people still don't know what was in the health care bill?]

Mckenzie:  Just moved here a year ago from Las Vegas …immigrants here getting free health care right now…doctors can't afford to stay open because of the illegal immigrants…[watch, this questioner will be the only video clip you see on the media coverage of this event].

Obama:  Important to clear this up…talked about compassion…there's  nothing in my health care plan that covers undocumented workers…illegal immigrants under-use the health care system…there's a lot more citizens who are not getting adequate health care so if we can provide them with basic checkups, basic health care, that will make the system more efficient overall… our health care reform will reduce the deficit…

Next questioner:  I'm a Drake grad, thank you for coming…moved here from Chicago 30 years ago…the reason I stayed here was it's a wonderful place to start a business…been in business 28 years… [going on and on...]  says $250,000 a year for a family isn't alot…

Obama:  After a long time, Obama tries to start answering the question, the questioner tries to talk over the president…  Obama says, I have signed 8 small business tax cuts..the pkg we signed this week cut taxes 8 more ways, so your taxes haven't gone up in this administration – your taxes have gone down in this administration (applause) , I want to be clear about this…taxes have gone down for the small business owner and 95% of Americans…with respect to the debate on the Bush tax cuts we've proposed to extend cuts for all persons up to $250,000.  If you're making $300,000 you still get a tax cut on the first $250,000.  98% of small businesses have a profit of less than $250,000…  folks say let's cut gov spending, but most gov spending is medicare, medicaid, veterans benefits…  even if I eliminated every earmark by congress, that's 1% of the budget…I'd like to keep taxes low so that you can crfeate more jobs but I also have to make sure we're paying our bills and we're not putting off debt to future generations, which is what happened during the Bush years…it's not anything we did during emergency spending…the single biggest reason for the deficit had to do with Bush tax cuts because they weren't paid for and we didn't cut anything to match them up…so I think to say to the top 2% of businesses, which includes hedge funds managers who are pulling down a billion a year, to say to them you've gotta pay a modestly higher amount to help make sure that our budget over time gets balanced, I think that's a fair thing to do…

Next questioner a social worker:  asking about the high poverty rate…[why do all the questioners sound so lecturing today...]  What am I going to do, or more specifically, what are you going to do to get people out of poverty?

Obama:….everything we can do to make sure we are…improving economy, helping business, reducing unemployment rate….2nd most powerful thing to improve poverty rate is improve education…graduating from hs and 2ndary education is powerful poverty-reducer…set up Race to the Top…education dollars to help poorer schools….recruitment and training of teachers, tracking student progress, not just passing students from grade to grade…

One more question..

Father Michael, pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Beaverdale…thank you for being here…thank you for your leadership…these are tough economic times…question from member of my congregation…lost job in manufacturing a year ago…what will your economic policies do for him within the next year and help him secure the American Dream again…

Obama:  This story is duplicated all across the country…I get 40,000 letters every single day…I read ten a day…many of those letters talk about being 50 years old, worked hard all my life, plant closed or office shut down,  hard to find work…sometimes get letters from kids concerned about their parents who they know feel bad…long term I've spoken generally…immediately, I mentioned how we're trying to improve the business climate…we think the clean energy sector hold a lot of promise…some of the mfg jobs won't come back…many think the reason mfg has gone down fast becaue jobs are shipped overseas which is a contributing factor…because their wages are much lower…and because our trade deals weren't enforced very well…

signing off…if you have high speed internet, you can watch the video at IPTV.org

Rally with President Obama at Madison Live-Blog