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President Barack Obama delivers the keynote address at the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) 18th Annual Gala Dinner at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C., May 8, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
This afternoon, the President traveled across town to the Annual Gala for the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies.
There, he spoke about one of the common threads that unites us all as Americans:
We've gone through some tough years because of this extraordinary recession and we've still got a long way to go. But we will get there. We will arrive at that destination where every child born in America regardless of race, creed, color, is going to have a chance. We're going to do that together -- because in this country, we look out for each other. We fight for each other. If somebody is suffering through injustice or inequality, we take up their cause as if it was our own. That's the story of America.
Read the full remarks here.
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Americans across the country are using social media to recognize teachers during National Teacher Week. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan asked Americans to express their gratitude for teachers who have made a difference through tweets, status updates, pictures, and videos.
Take a look what people are sharing below and contribute to the conversation using the hashtag #ThankATeacher.
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Today, Senate Republicans blocked legislation that would have prevented interest rates on student loans from doubling at the end of June.
In a statement to reporters, Press Secretary Jay Carney expressed his dissatisfaction with the vote:
It is extremely disappointing that Republicans in the Senate today voted to ask millions of students to pay an average of $1,000 each in order to protect a loophole that allows millionaires to dodge payroll taxes. On July 1, more than 7.4 million students across the country will see their interest rates double unless Congress acts. We’re pleased that despite failing to address it in their budget, Republicans in Congress now profess to be concerned about this coming rate hike. But now it’s time for them to stop refighting old political battles and prove they’re serious by proposing a real solution to keep rates low for students without burdening middle class families or undercutting preventive health care for women. We look forward to continuing to work with Congress to prevent rates from doubling and ensure that students continue to get a fair shot at an affordable education.
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President Barack Obama delivers remarks on the economy at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering’s Albany NanoTech Complex at the State University of New York, in Albany, N.Y., May 8, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Today, Republicans in Congress voted to block President Obama’s proposal to keep student loan interest rates from doubling. If Congress doesn’t act by July 1, more than 7 million students around the country will rack up an average of $1,000 of extra debt. The President has visited colleges in Iowa, Colorado, and North Carolina to speak with students about this important issue, and he will continue to put pressure on Congress to work together and keep student loan interest rates low.
It’s time for Congress to take action on other common sense initiatives as well. This afternoon, President Obama called on Congress to move forward with a “To-Do List” that will create jobs and help restore middle class security. The President traveled to the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering’s NanoTech Complex in Albany, New York, where he described a list of initiatives that have bipartisan support and will help create an economy built to last.
The first item on the To-Do List will help spur American manufacturing, an industry that’s adding jobs for the first time since the 1990s, including many in upstate New York. But Congress can take action now to help create more jobs for American workers, President Obama said:
At the moment, companies get tax breaks for moving factories, jobs and profits overseas. They can actually end up saving on their tax bill when they make the move. Meanwhile, companies that choose to stay here are getting hit with one of the highest tax rates in the world. That doesn’t make sense.
…before we completely rework the tax code, before we've done a full-blown tax reform, at the very least what we can do right away is stop rewarding companies who ship jobs overseas and use that money to cover moving expenses for companies that are moving jobs back here to America. So we're putting that on Congress’s "To-Do" list.
The proposals that the President highlighted today are important steps that Congress can take right now to create jobs. It’s time for Congress to act. Check out the full to-do list, then join the conversation and make your voice heard with the hashtag #CongressToDoList.
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May 08, 2012
03:18 PM EDTEd. Note: This was originally posted on the blog for the U.S. Department of Treasury.
During today’s trip to Albany, New York, President Obama highlighted an important and emerging trend – rather than outsourcing, companies are increasingly choosing to invest and create jobs in the United States. While companies across industries are bringing jobs back, this trend is particularly important in manufacturing. In addition to creating good middle class jobs, there are broader economic effects for the communities where manufacturers choose to locate their production.
For example, manufacturing accounts for about 70 percent of private sector research and development in the United States, and the innovations sprouting from these investments benefit the communities around these facilities, not just the company itself. That’s why the President has made clear we should strengthen the incentives for companies to insource by ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, giving tax relief to those who choose to move production back to the United States, and refocusing and enhancing the manufacturing deduction as we reform our business tax system.
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Fighting Medicare fraud has long been a top priority for President Obama. Today, we are releasing a new infographic that describes how the Affordable Care Act – the new health care law – is helping the Obama Administration crack down on Medicare fraud and make Medicare stronger. The new infographic shows how the law increases penalties for criminals who commit fraud and provides new enforcement tools to stop fraud and save taxpayers money.
We are committed to using these new tools to fight Medicare and other health care fraud, and we are getting results: The Administration’s anti-fraud efforts recovered $4.1 billion in taxpayer dollars last year, the second year recoveries hit this record-breaking level. Total recoveries over the last three years were $10.7 billion. Prosecutions are way up, too: the number of individuals charged with fraud increased from 797 in fiscal year 2008 to 1,430 in fiscal year 2011 – a more than 75 percent increase.
Just last week, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice announced “a nationwide takedown by Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations in seven cities has resulted in charges against 107 individuals, including doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes involving approximately $452 million in false billing.” And on Monday, the Departments announced that, as a part of their Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team initiative, they had resolved an investigation into a pharmaceutical company’s unlawful promotion of a prescription drug. The Justice Department reported that, “the resolution – the second largest payment by a drug company – includes a criminal fine and forfeiture totaling $700 million and civil settlements with the federal government and the states totaling $800 million.”
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Ed note: this post was originally published on the blog at healthcare.gov
From the electric light bulb to the Internet, American innovations have made lives better for people in this country and all over the world.
The kind of work we’ve done to advance technology, communication and so many other aspects of people’s lives is about to get a jump start in health care, thanks to today’s announcement of 26 Health Care Innovation Awards. The awards are part of our We Can’t Wait initiative.
“What America does better than anyone else is spark the creativity and imagination of our people," said President Obama during his 2011 State of the Union address, and that’s exactly what the Health Care Innovation Awards aim to do. These awards provide our most creative minds—whether they’re health care professionals, technology innovators, community-based organizations, patients’ advocacy groups, or others—with the backing they need to build the strong, effective, affordable health care system of the future. These are 26 unique projects, tailored to the needs of patients by local doctors, hospitals, and other leaders in their communities.
These awards will save $254 million over the next three years by testing innovative approaches to improve the quality of health care and prevent disease and illness. And we’re just getting started. We’ll announce another round of innovation awards in June.
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President Obama has put together a "to do" list for Congress that, if acted upon quickly, will create jobs and help restore middle class security. These initiatives all have bipartisan support, and the President believes that they will help create an economy built to last that supports secure American jobs and makes things the rest of the world buys - not one built on outsourcing, loopholes, or risky financial deals.
Here are the items on Congress’s To-Do List:
1. Reward American Jobs, Eliminate Tax Incentives To Ship Jobs Overseas: Attract and keep good jobs in the United State sby passing legislation that gives companies a new 20 percent tax credit for the cost of moving their operations back to the U.S. Congress should pay for this credit by eliminating tax incentives that allow companies to deduct the costs of moving their business abroad.
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May 07, 2012
08:13 PM EDTThis afternoon, President Obama joined elected officials and student leaders from colleges and universities across the country on a phone call to discuss the effort to prevent interest rates on more than 7 million students’ loans from doubling on July 1, unless Congress takes action.
During the call, mayors, governors and other officials were joined in their offices by local students to hear the President’s message and they tweeted out messages to echo his call to keep college affordable for all Americans. You can see photos from those on the call below or at Storify.com.
Learn more about the President’s efforts here and join in the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #DontDoubleMyRate.
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Today is the start of National Teacher Appreciation Week, an opportunity to thank teachers for their hard work and dedication in our nation’s classrooms. Last year, White House staffers and other Administration officials marked the occasion with blog posts explaining what made their favorite teachers so great.
Jon Favreau, Assistant to the President and Director of Speechwriting, wrote about his legendary American history teacher, Mr. Jones. Check it out:
Thank You Mr. Jones
By Jon FavreauBy the time I arrived in his eighth grade classroom, Mr. Jones was already a legend at North Reading Middle School. In addition to teaching American history, he was also the school’s vice principal, and enforced discipline among students in a way that often made him seem more like a drill sergeant than a teacher. He was feared but also deeply respected, and you wanted to work hard to impress him every day.
We were issued a standard variety textbook, but that was just a starting point. Even though it was a U.S. history class, we were expected to read the newspaper and be prepared to discuss current events each morning. Mr. Jones didn’t just want us to know the dates and battles of the Civil War, he asked us to memorize each word of the Gettysburg Address, so that we could understand the power of presidential speech. And then he took us on a camping trip to Gettysburg, so that we could appreciate the sacrifices made for the sake of our union.
Over the course of my year with Mr. Jones, American history was brought to life with creative projects, mock trials, and debates about political issues that were still in the headlines. There was an infamous test that involved us knowing every amendment and provision in the U.S. Constitution. And the culmination of the entire class was another camping trip, this time across the country.
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Ed. note: Today at 3:30 pm EDT, Mary Wakefield, a Registered Nurse and Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, will host a session of Office Hours on Twitter to kick off National Nurses Week and discuss what the health law means for nurses. Find out how you can get involved here.
Thanks to the President’s new health care law, the Affordable Care Act, there will be significantly more nurses to help make our health care system stronger. One place where we’re already seeing more nursing positions added is in community health centers, which provide low-cost care to more than 20 million people across the country, many of whom do not have health insurance or live in communities with little access to other sources of quality health care. These centers have added about 3,000 jobs for nurses since the Obama Administration’s efforts to expand the community health center program began in 2009.
A new report released today, the beginning of National Nurses Week, shows some of the other ways the new law is helping invest in education and training opportunities for nurses:
- The Affordable Care Act’s investment in Nurse Managed Clinics is projected to help train more than 900 nurses by 2013 and serve 94,000 patients.
- The Affordable Care Act’s Prevention and Public Health Fund is supporting the training of 600 new nurse practitioners and nurse midwives by 2015.
- Training and educational support programs reauthorized through the Affordable Care Act are supporting more than 50,000 nurses and students.
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Summer Jobs+ is a call to action for businesses, non-profits, and government to work together to provide pathways to employment for young people in the summer of 2012. It's about helping people find their first jobs.
Arne Duncan's first summer job set him on a lifelong path to a career as an educator. The US Secretary of Education says he learned the importance of having a great work ethic, as well as the impact a good environment has on young people's ability to learn.
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Note: This live session of Office Hours has concluded. Check out the full question and answer session below or at Storify.com
Today, we are excited to celebrate the start of National Nurses Week. Nurses are at the center of the American health system. And they do it all, from delivering preventive care to our children to helping seniors manage chronic disease.
Thanks to the President’s new health care law, there will be significantly more nurses to help make our health care system stronger. The Obama Administration is committed to educating new nurses, improving the training of today’s nurses, and placing nurses in the parts of the country where they are needed most.
The new law and the Obama Administration are investing in education and training opportunities for nurses. According to a new report we released today:
- The number of National Health Service Corps primary care providers nearly tripled between 2009 and 2011 with support from Affordable Care Act, the Recovery Act and ongoing appropriations, supporting more than 1,900 nurse practitioners and certified nurse midwives.
- Since the beginning of 2009, community health centers have added about 3,000 nursing positions, including 800 in advanced practice, a 20 percent increase.
- The Affordable Care Act’s investment in Nurse Managed Clinics is projected to help train more than 900 nurses by 2013 and serve 94,000 patients.
- The Affordable Care Act’s Prevention and Public Health Fund is supporting the training of 600 new nurse practitioners and nurse midwives by 2015.
- Training and educational support programs reauthorized through the Affordable Care Act are supporting more than 50,000 nurses and students.
To kick off National Nurses Week and discuss what the health law means for nurses, we’ll be hosting a session of Office Hours on Monday, May 7th at 3:30pm EST with Mary Wakefield, a Registered Nurse and Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, which runs many of the programs that help train and support nurses.
Here’s how White House Office Hours work:
- Ask your questions now and during the live event on Twitter with the hashtag #WHChat
- Follow the Q&A live through the @WHLive Twitter account
- If you miss the live session, the full session will be posted on WhiteHouse.gov and Storify.com/WhiteHouse
We hope you’ll join us!
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The White House LGBT Conference on Aging will meet today at the University of Miami -- where it will provide advocates, community leaders, and members of the public an opportunity to engage with the Obama Administration on the health, housing, and security needs of aging members of the LGBT community.
You can watch live on the university website, starting at 9:00 AM ET.
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After signing an agreement that details our future relationship with Afghanistan, President Obama explains that we must now focus on the type of nation our troops return home to, and calls on Congress to take the money we are no longer spending at war, use half of it to pay down our debt, and use the other half to rebuild America.
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President Barack Obama welcomes the University of Kentucky men’s Wildcats basketball team to the East Room of the White House to celebrate their 2012 NCAA championship, May 4, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
Today, President Obama welcomed the University of Kentucky Wildcats to the White House to congratulate the team on its 2012 NCAA championship.
Although he didn’t have the Wildcats at the top of his bracket, the President said he “knew Kentucky was good.”
I had them in the championship game. But in the end, I thought, they got all these freshmen. These guys are too young. And keep in mind, at this time last year, three of the Wildcats’ five starters were still in high school. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist couldn’t even vote yet.
But let’s face it, sometimes talent trumps experience. And sometimes, a bunch of young players, even if they’re used to being big fishes in their ponds, even if they’ve never played together before, they can buy into a system, they understand the concept of team, and they do something special right away. And that’s exactly what happened in Kentucky.
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May 04, 2012
05:53 PM EDTHere's a quick look at what happened this week on WhiteHouse.gov:
Correspondents' Dinner: At the annual Correspondents' Dinner, which has been held since 1920, President Obama joked about himself and the coverage he has received from the reporters in attendance. In case you missed it – or if you want to watch it again – you can watch President Obama's speech here.
US-Japan Friendship: On Monday, President Obama met with Prime Minister Noda of Japan at the White House to reaffirm the U.S.-Japan Alliance, a 60-year old partnership and friendship that was exemplified in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the tsunami and nuclear crisis that followed. After a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office, the two leaders laid out a new joint vision to guide the alliance for decades to come.
Rebuilding America: Speaking to 3,000 attendees of the Building and Construction Trades Department conference in Washington, D.C. Monday, President Obama made an argument for investing in rebuilding America and urged Congress to get construction workers on the job by passing a bipartisan bill that could guarantee work for millions of construction workers.
2012 Warrior Games: The First Lady joined Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the Opening Ceremonies of the 2012 Warrior Games Monday – an event that enables men and women who suffered injuries during a tour of duty to compete in a variety of athletic events. "No matter how seriously you're injured, no matter what obstacles or setbacks you face, you just keep moving forward," the First Lady remarked. "You just keep pushing yourselves to succeed in ways that just mystify and leave us all in awe."
Surprise Trip: President Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Tuesday, where he signed an historic agreement – the Strategic Partnership Agreement – that defines how the partnership between the two countries will be normalized as we look toward a responsible end to the war. After his meeting with President Karzai, President Obama met with U.S. troops at Bagram Air Base, and took the opportunity to thank them for the sacrifices that they and their families have made over the past decade of war.
Cinco de Mayo: President Obama hosted a Cinco de Mayo reception Thursday – a few days early – at the White House. Speaking from the Rose Garden, President Obama remarked, "Right now, there are more than 50 million Americans of Latino descent – one sixth of our population. You're our neighbors, our coworkers, our family, our friends. You're starting businesses. You're teaching in classrooms. You're defending this country. You're driving America forward."
Continuing Student Loan Push: On Friday, President Obama headed to Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, Virginia, where he continued his push to prevent interest rates on student loans from doubling on July 1st like they are currently scheduled to. "You guys shouldn't have to pay an extra $1,000 just because Congress can't get it together," the President said. "This should be a no-brainer. This is something we need to get done."
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President Barack Obama delivers remarks on interest rates on student loans and affordable higher education, at Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, Va., May 4, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)
Today, President Obama continued his push to prevent interest rates on students loans from doubling on July 1 -- as they're currently scheduled to do.
Unless Congress takes action, more than 7 million students around the country will rack up an average of $1,000 of extra debt each.
In a speech today at Washington Lee High School in Arlington, Virginia, the President told students and parents that education has become more than a luxury.
"[It] is an economic imperative that every American should be able to afford," he said.
The Obama administration has taken a number of steps that to keep higher education within reach of the middle class -- including reforming the student loans system and using the savings to help more people afford college.
But it's going to take Congress to keep interest rates on federal student loans from doubling, and today, the President called on lawmakers to act:
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Since taking office, President Obama has supported an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy. A strategy that’s cleaner, cheaper, and full of new jobs.
As part of that effort, the Administration has focused on expanding production of natural gas. After all, we have a supply of natural gas that can last America nearly 100 years. And this Administration will continue to take steps to develop this energy resource in a way that can help fuel our economy and, according to industry experts, support more than 600,000 jobs by the end of the decade.
Last year, U.S. natural gas production grew by more than 7 percent in 2011 – the largest year-over-year volumetric increase in history – and easily eclipsed the previous production record set in 1973. As we produce more of this resource in the years ahead, its potential to power everything from our trucks to our factories only grows, while at the same time reducing our dependence on foreign oil.
At the same time, it’s imperative that we develop our natural gas resources in a safe and responsible way. For the Administration, this is a top priority.
So today – following through on a promise that the President made in his State of the Union address – the Department of Interior (DOI) has proposed a rule that will require companies to publicly disclose the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing operations on public and Indian trust lands.
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Summer Jobs+ is a call to action for businesses, non-profits, and government to work together to provide pathways to employment for young people in the summer of 2012. It's about helping people find their first jobs.
Cecilia Munoz, Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, says her first job taught her to be quick on her feet, keep track of details in her head, and deal with the smell of french fries in her hair. Check it out:
So far, employers have committed to providing more than 300,000 jobs, mentorships, and other employment opportunities this summer through Summer Jobs+.
You heard about Cecilia's first job. Now go find yours.
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