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From day one, this Administration has operated on the premise that security is a shared responsibility. No matter who you are – a student, a small business owner, a first responder, a member of the military, or a civilian – we all play a part.
This involves trust and confidence in the American public, as well as the notion that candor and common awareness of the threats we all face, coupled with concrete steps that individuals, families, communities, businesses, and governments can take to prepare for emergencies and disasters, deliver far better security than the federal government can provide acting alone.
Because of the trust we have in Americans to share in our collective security, today I announced the end of the old system of color-coded alerts. In its place, we will implement a new system that is built on a clear and simple premise: when a threat develops that could impact you, the public – we will tell you. We will provide whatever information we can so you know how to protect yourselves, your families and your communities.
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In his State of the Union address, President Obama laid out his vision for winning our future. Part of accomplishing this important goal means fixing our nation’s broken immigration system. The President again reiterated his deep commitment to addressing this issue because it’s critical to strengthening our global competitiveness and boosting our economy. Last July, the President outlined his vision for commonsense, comprehensive immigration reform grounded in the principles of responsibility and accountability:
- Continue to make border security the responsibility and priority of the federal government,
- Hold accountable businesses that break the law by exploiting undocumented workers,
- Make those living in the United States illegally take responsibility for their actions, and
- Strengthen our economic competiveness by creating a legal immigration system that meets our diverse needs.
Over the last two years, the President has taken his responsibility to enforce our immigration laws and secure our borders very seriously. This Administration dedicated unprecedented resources to secure our borders, implemented smarter, more strategic interior and worksite enforcement policies, and improved our legal immigration system.
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We caught up with some of the outstanding Americans who were invited to watch the State of the Union Address from the First Lady's box. Each of the nearly two-dozen guests has an incredible story. On the day of the President’s Address to the Nation, we asked a few of the invitees, including a wounded warrior, a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) advocate, two ice cream shop owners and a student innovator, what their message for Americans would be. Hear what they had to say:
Read their full bios of the invitees we interviewed below and learn about the other guests that joined the First Lady in her box in our interactive feature.
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Editor’s Note: This post is part of a series where readers can meet average Americans already benefiting from the health reform law, the Affordable Care Act.
When Kayla Holmstrom was just 9 years old, she was in a motorcycle accident. While her insurance plan covered her medical expenses, she contracted chronic osteomyelitis, a chronic bone infection. Since contracting the disease she has had over 25 surgeries on her leg and her infection could flare up at any time.
Kayla is now studying to become a nurse at South Dakota State University and would have lost her coverage under her parent’s plan when she turned 24. But thanks to the Patient’s Bill of Rights that was a part of the Affordable Care Act, Kayla can stay on her parent’s health insurance plan until her 26th birthday.
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Today, President Obama and senior officials from around the Administration will be answering your questions about the State of the Union Address and the President’s vision to win the future. You can watch all the live question-and-answer sessions today on WhiteHouse.gov/live.
Here’s the lineup for today on WhiteHouse.gov/live:
11:30 a.m. EST: Economy Roundtable with Austan Goolsbee, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers
1:00 p.m. EST: Foreign Policy Roundtable with Denis McDonough, Deputy National Security Advisor
2:30 p.m. EST: Live YouTube interview with President Barack Obama
3:15 p.m. EST: Education Roundtable with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
4:30 p.m. EST: Health Care Roundtable with Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen SebeliusIf you haven’t already, be sure to watch the President’s State of the Union Address.
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Ed. Note: January is National Mentoring Month. Visit Serve.gov to learn more about how you can get involved.
On Tuesday afternoon, First Lady Michelle Obama delivered the keynote address at the National Mentoring Summit joined by guests including Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and Patrick Corvington, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service. On the importance of mentors, The First Lady stated, "Kids don’t need you to be Superman. They just need you to be there. They need you to be someone they can count on."
First Lady Michelle Obama greets Wim Kooyker, chairman of MENTOR, and Deneen Borner, a mentee at Polished Pebbles Girls Mentoring Program, during a National Mentoring Summit at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. January 25, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)
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Last night, President Obama set a goal of making the United States the first country in the world to put one million advanced technology vehicles on the road. This goal is part of the President’s plan to rebuild our economy by investing in innovation to create the jobs and industries of the future.
Vice President Joe Biden tours the Ener1 Inc. battery factory with Director of Manufacturing David Hahn and worker Wendy Howard in Greenfield, Indiana, Jan. 26, 2011. (Official White House photo by David Lienemann) January 26, 2011.
Today, Vice President Biden visited Ener1, Inc., a manufacturer of advanced batteries for electric vehicles, in Greenfield, Indiana to announce our plan to reach this one million vehicle goal by 2015. The facility that the Vice President visited would not exist if not for a $118.5 million grant from the Department of Energy, which was part of a $2.4 billion Recovery Act investment in electric vehicles . Ener1 added 120 jobs across the company in 2010 and the future looks bright. They expect to expand the manufacturing and assembly operation in Greenfield from 80 workers today to over a thousand by the start of 2013.
The Vice President got a first-hand look at Ener1’s assembly line and had a chance to chat with several workers. The Vice President was introduced by Wendy Howard, a mother of three, who joined Ener1 after being laid off from her previous job. Wendy proudly said that she now makes "hi-tech batteries for electric cars that don’t disturb the environment and don’t drink up oil that we don’t have."
Vice President Joe Biden tours the Ener1 Inc. battery factory with CEO Charles Gassenheimer and COO Richard Stanley and is shown a THINK City, an electric car that uses Ener1 batteries, in Greenfield, Indiana, Jan. 26, 2011. (Official White House photo by David Lienemann) January 26, 2011.
Wendy and her co-workers at Ener1 will surely benefit from the three-part plan that Vice President Biden announced today, which will support electric vehicle manufacturing and adoption in the United States through generous new consumer rebates, investments in research and development, and a new competitive program to encourage communities to knock down regulatory barriers and invest in electric vehicle infrastructure, like public charging stations. You can learn more about the plan here.
As the Vice President said today, Ener1 and other companies like it are "building a brighter, cleaner, and more prosperous American future."
Brian Levine is Deputy Domestic Policy Advisor to the Vice President
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Earlier today we brought you some of the initial reactions to the President's State of the Union Address. The list of reactions has grown throughout the day, find more below from America's governors, mayors and experts from various fields covered in the President's speech:
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Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Actuary testified before the House Budget Committee and reiterated his views about the Affordable Care Act. His testimony reaffirmed that millions of previously uninsured Americans will gain coverage, Medicare will be stronger, and the rate of health care spending will decrease. But as we’ve noted on the blog in the past, we disagree with some of the Actuary’s other conclusions. Here’s why:
In previous analyses of the Affordable Care Act, the Actuary discounts proposals that other independent experts credit with getting at the root causes of health care cost growth. The Affordable Care Act, for example:
- Creates new, competitive state-based insurance Exchanges. Exchanges will enable individuals and small businesses to pool together and use their market strength to buy coverage at a lower cost, the same way large employers do today.
- Establishes ways for Medicare to adopt cutting-edge payment reforms, such as the new Innovation Center. These benefits will spill over to the private sector.
- Creates Accountable Care Organizations and other ways to promote value – so that patients are getting better care not just expensive care. The plan gives health care providers incentives to coordinate care to improve the quality of care as well as efficiency.
These policies will bring down health care costs, but they are undervalued by the Actuary.
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January 26, 2011
04:23 PM EDTWe are making great strides toward operating more energy efficient facilities, using more renewable energy, “greening” our vehicle fleets, and achieving other milestones on the path to creating a sustainable agency. In 2010, we developed and implemented dozens of projects, which will translate to improved care of our Veterans and their families, cost-savings, better operational efficiency, and a healthier environment for all.
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See President Obama’s State of the Union Address in photos, thanks to the White House Photo Office:
play2011 State of the Union Address
President Barack Obama delivers his 2011 State of the Union address.
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Last night, President Obama delivered the State of the Union Address. Using the text from the speech, we put together a word cloud that gives greater prominence to the words that appeared more frequently. While the President covered a range of issues (check out the full speech here), you can see some trends in the Address. Words like “jobs,” “people,” “America” and “new” show up often. It's not a scientific measurement, but the visualization gives a sense of the President's priorities on rebuilding our economy so that it’s competitive, growing, and working for all Americans.
A word cloud of President Obama's 2011 State of the Union Address gives greater prominence to words that appear more frequently. January 26, 2011. (by Wordle.net)
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Do you have questions about any of the topics President Obama discussed in his State of the Union Address last night? Over the next few days we will do our best to answer as many of them as possible. We’ve lined up plenty of ways you can get involved and ask your questions answered about the topics you care about the most.
Check out the line-up below, find a way to ask your question, and be sure to tune in for the answers.
TODAY, WEDNESDAY
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Twitter Interview
Follow @PressSec on Twitter to find out when we’ll be taking your questions, then respond to @PressSec using the hashtag #1Q and watch for video responses from a special guest early this afternoon.
TOMORROW, THURSDAY
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11:30 a.m. EST: Economy Roundtable with Austan Goolsbee, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.
Submit your questions through MSNMoney, Mint.com, and Examiner.com. Tune in to WhiteHouse.gov/live to watch the live event. -
1:00 p.m. EST: Foreign Policy Roundtable Denis McDonough, Deputy National Security Advisor.
Submit your questions through ForeignPolicy.com, Economist.com, and Military.com. Tune in to WhiteHouse.gov/live to watch the live event. -
2:30 p.m. EST: Live YouTube interview with President Barack Obama.
Submit your questions or vote for your favorite questions at YouTube.com/AskObama. Tune in to WhiteHouse.gov/live to watch the live event. -
3:15 p.m. EST: Education Roundtable with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
Submit your questions on mtvU, GOOD, BabyCenter, and PBS Teachers. Tune in to WhiteHouse.gov/live to watch the live event. -
4:30 p.m. EST: Health Care Roundtable with Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.
Submit your questions on WebMD, AOL Health, Nurse.com, and Medscape. Tune in to WhiteHouse.gov/live to watch the live event. -
Yahoo! Interview with Vice President Joe Biden.
Yahoo! will be sitting down with Vice President Biden asking him your questions on Thursday afternoon. Go to Yahoo! to submit your question and check back again to see his answers.
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Twitter Interview
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Today, the House Budget Committee is holding a hearing about the fiscal impacts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which the President signed into law last year and has already given Americans new freedoms and protections. It’s important to get the facts straight about what impact the Affordable Care Act has on our deficits and long-range fiscal situation.
Rising health care costs are the biggest driver of our long-term deficits, and getting them under control is crucial if we want to grow the economy, create jobs, compete in the world economy and win the future. The Affordable Care Act helps us achieve that goal.
As the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) made clear in a letter sent earlier this month to the Speaker of the House, repealing the Affordable Care Act would increase the budget deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade. The CBO letter notes that “over the 2012–2021 period, the effect of H.R. 2 [the repeal of ACA] on federal deficits … is likely to be an increase in the vicinity of $230 billion.” And in the decade after that, we will save more than $1 trillion thanks to the new law.
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The reactions have been pouring in since the President gave his State of the Union Address last night. If you missed it, you should by all means read the speech or watch the video of our first-ever “enhanced” presentation of the Address, but we thought you might also be interested in some of the early responses from observers across the country:
Newspapers and Magazines
Wall Street Journal: “President Barack Obama Used His State of the Union Address to Challenge Lawmakers in Both Parties to Rise Above Partisan Divisions to Tackle Problems that Will Allow the U.S. to Compete in the Global Economy.” “President Barack Obama used his State of the Union address to challenge lawmakers in both parties to rise above partisan divisions to tackle problems that will allow the U.S. to compete in the global economy.” [WSJ, 1/25/11]
New York Times: Obama Called “For Americans to Unleash Their Creative Spirits, Set Aside Their Partisan Differences and Come Together Around a Common Goal of Out-Competing Other Nations in a Rapidly Shifting Global Economy.” “President Obama called Tuesday night for Americans to unleash their creative spirits, set aside their partisan differences and come together around a common goal of out-competing other nations in a rapidly shifting global economy.” [NY Times, 1/25/11]
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Editor’s Note: This post is part of a series where readers can meet average Americans already benefiting from the health reform law, the Affordable Care Act.
Janine Marie Vaughn owns a vintage lighting restoration, manufacturing, and retail shop in Spokane, Washington. As a small business owner, she believes providing health insurance is “vital for the health of our business and the health of our employees.” And she’s committed to keeping her employees healthy. As Janine said, “We’re a small business. We care about everybody that works here.”
Janine has been in business for more than a decade and has seen her health insurance costs rise dramatically each year. She also spends a significant amount of time combing through various insurance plans to secure the best possible option for her employees, trying to compare the plans.
The Affordable Care Act is already providing immediate relief to business owners like Janine. Today, small businesses pay 18 percent more for health insurance premiums than large businesses. The Affordable Care Act changes that by providing tax credits for small businesses that offer employees health insurance. Up to 4 million small businesses could be eligible for relief from high health insurance premiums and, according to the independent Congressional Budget Office, the tax credit will save small businesses $40 billion by 2019. And small business owners like Janine are benefiting from the tax credit today.
Janine says that the Affordable Care Act has given her more peace of mind. Before it was signed into law in March 2010, she had to think hard about whether she was going to be able to even offer insurance to her employees in the future, but now, the tax credits remove that worry.
And Janine likes how the law helps consumers compare “apples to apples” when searching for insurance plans. You can see more about how the law does this on HealthCare.gov, which includes an Insurance Finder that compares details about private plans.
Listen to her story:
Stephanie Cutter is Assistant to the President for Special Projects.
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Tonight, President Obama delivered the State of the Union Address at the U.S. Capitol. In case you missed it, check out the video of his speech below. And be sure to check back tomorrow for video of the live Open for Questions event immediately following the speech, a photo gallery and more State of the Union content.
If you have questions about the President’s State of the Union Address, we’ll be answering as many as we can throughout the week. Check out WhiteHouse.gov/sotu to find out how to get involved.
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At President Obama’s direction, the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) is working hard to unleash the power of America’s innovators and entrepreneurs to build a green energy economy. By producing renewable energy – especially biofuels – America’s farmers, ranchers and rural communities have incredible potential to help ensure our nation’s energy security, environmental security, and economic security. Here are just some of the ways USDA is involved in helping create green energy jobs for the 21st century:
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January 25, 2011
01:08 PM EDTPresident Obama made his commitment to science and technology very clear in the first minutes of his presidency, when he promised in his Inaugural Address that his Administration would “restore science to its rightful place.”
Tonight that rightful place will be the First Lady’s Box in the U.S. Capitol, where four remarkable science students from across the country will join Michelle Obama and other guests during the President’s State of the Union Address.
The extraordinary placement of so many young achievers in science and technology in this prominent location during tonight’s historic Address reflects a core theme for the President, and one expected to be echoed in his remarks tonight—that science and technology, which have been responsible for so much of this Nation’s economic growth in the last century, will be key to America’s global leadership and security in the new century as well.
For a preview of who is likely to be part of that 21st century leadership team, check out these amazing students who will be listening to the President tonight from the best seats in the house:
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Ed. Note: Tonight at 9 p.m. EST, the President delivers the State of the Union. Learn more about who’s in the First Lady’s box, our enhanced live stream presentation, opportunities to engage with Administration officials, or watch a new behind-the-scenes video.
I wrote yesterday about how proud I was to stand with the President and First Lady at the White House as we highlighted the efforts of the Federal government to support our nation’s military families. It was an honor to stand in the East Room and be surrounded by individuals who have dedicated themselves to serving our country. Today, I am particularly pleased to have two such special Americans join me as my guests at tonight’s State of the Union Address: Army Sergeant Brian Mast and his wife Brianna.
I met Brian and Brianna at one of my favorite events last year – the annual Thanksgiving dinner that my husband Joe and I host for wounded warriors and their families at the Vice President’s Residence. Joe and I are always filled with such gratitude for both the commitment and the enormous sacrifices made by the families who join us for this meal and at other events and meetings throughout the year. Families whose service to our country all too often goes unrecognized.
Last September, while Brianna was juggling the stresses of being a first-time mother with a deployed husband, Brian was seriously injured by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan -- losing both of his legs just below the knee and an index finger, while also suffering a broken arm and shrapnel wounds. Brianna moved from Michigan with her infant son, Magnum, to Walter Reed Army Medical Center to be by her husband’s side during his recovery. Day in and day out, Brianna has devoted herself to aiding her husband’s recovery while caring for their young son.
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