AP-APTN-0930: +World Apple Jobs 2 Thursday, 25 August 2011 STORY:+World Apple Jobs 2- WRAP +4:3 Jobs resigns as CEO; file; analyst ADDS reactions from China LENGTH: 03:45 FIRST RUN: 0830 RESTRICTIONS: See Script TYPE: Engliish/Mandarin SOURCE: Various STORY NUMBER: 702723 DATELINE: Various - 24/25 August 2011/FILE LENGTH: 03:45 APPLE - AP CLIENTS ONLY ABC - NO ACCESS NORTH AMERICA/INTERNET AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY AP PHOTOS - NO ACCESS CANADA/FOR BROADCAST USE ONLY - STRICTLY NO ACCESS ONLINE OR MOBILE SHOTLIST: (FIRST RUN 0330 - 25 AUGUST 2011) APPLE - AP CLIENTS ONLY FILE: Date and location unknown ++16:9++ 1. Wide of audience rising as Apple CEO Steve Jobs walks onto stage, AUDIO: applause 2. Tilt up across Jobs on stage (FIRST RUN 0330 - 25 AUGUST 2011) ABC - NO ACCESS NORTH AMERICA/INTERNET FILE: San Francisco, California - 2 March 2011 ++16:9++ 3. SOUNDBITE (English): Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, (on stage unveiling iPad2): "Anyone can make music now, on something that's this thick and weighs 1.3 pounds. It's unbelievable." (FIRST RUN 0330 - 25 AUGUST 2011) APPLE - AP CLIENTS ONLY FILE: San Francisco, California - 2 March 2011 ++16:9++ 4. Jobs on stage describing various Apple devices, UPSOUND (English): "In 2007 we added the iPhone, and in 2010 we added the iPad" (FIRST RUN 0530 - 25 AUGUST 2011) AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY Hong Kong - 25 August 2011 ++16:9++ 5. Wide of financial analyst and Francis Lun, Managing Director of Lyncean Holdings, sitting at table 6. SOUNDBITE (English) Francis Lun, financial analyst: "Steve Jobs managed to launch three different products that actually changed the lives of the world - iPod, iPhone and iPad. And single-handedly, Steve Jobs actually changed the way that we download music, changed the way we use handsets, and also changed the way we use computers." (FIRST RUN 0330 - 25 AUGUST 2011) APPLE - AP CLIENTS ONLY FILE: San Francisco, California - 2 March 2011 ++16:9++ ++MUTE++ 7. Apple VNR demonstrating how iPad works (FIRST RUN 0330 - 25 AUGUST 2011) AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY FILE: San Francisco, California - February 2011 (exact date unknown) ++16:9++ 8. Various of user touching screen on Apple iPhone4 (FIRST RUN 0330 - 25 AUGUST 2011) AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY Campbell, California - 24 August 2011 ++16:9++ 9. Mid of analyst Tim Bajarin sitting at computer 10. SOUNDBITE (English) Tim Bajarin, Analyst and President of Creative Strategies, Inc.: "There may be this, from an investor's standpoint especially, there may be this fear that Apple is going to implode. That's not even close to being true. This is one of the most well-run companies in the world, with one of the deepest benches, with one of the largest cash reserves. And if anything, I actually expect Apple to be a stronger company going forward, not weaker." (FIRST RUN 0330 - 25 AUGUST 2011) AP PHOTOS - NO ACCESS CANADA/FOR BROADCAST USE ONLY - STRICTLY NO ACCESS ONLINE OR MOBILE FILE: Cupertino, California - 14 October 2008 ++4:3++ 11. STILL of Apple's chief operating officer, Tim Cook, gesturing during meeting at Apple headquarters 12. STILL of (from left) Apple's chief operating officer, Tim Cook, CEO Steve Jobs, and vice president Phil Schiller taking questions during meeting at Apple headquarters (FIRST RUN 0330 - 25 AUGUST 2011) AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY San Francisco, California - 24 August 2011 ++16:9++ 13. SOUNDBITE (English) P.K. Kalyanraman, software engineer: "Even without Steve Jobs, I think almost Steve Jobs has been like a shadow figure for the last one and a half, two years now, with his health problems. So I still feel like the company will function perfectly fine without Steve Jobs for at least a few more years to come. But later on, how they progress into new technology and how they keep up with the market is what we've got to look for in the new person who comes in over there." (FIRST RUN 0330 - 25 AUGUST 2011) APPLE - AP CLIENTS ONLY FILE: San Francisco, California - 2 March 2011 ++16:9++ 14. Various of Jobs on stage during iOS presentation (FIRST RUN 0330 - 25 AUGUST 2011) AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY San Francisco, California - 24 August 2011 ++16:9++ 15. SOUNDBITE (English) Stephen Kelley, technical support specialist: "I don't think it's going to make that much of a difference. I think Apple has kind of built their client base and their cult of Apple, shall we say, and I don't think that it's going to do too much, they've kind of, I think their day-to-day operations aren't going to change that much." (FIRST RUN 0830 - 25 AUGUST 2011) AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY Beijing, China - 25 August 2011 ++16:9++ 16. Various of Apple Store 17. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Vox pop, Huang Xiang: "There was a celebrity effect in Apple products when Steve Jobs was the CEO. People went to buy his products for his name, because we thought he was brilliant. Now another guy becomes CEO, I think people will look at Apple products in a more objective way. People will learn about Apple products in all respects rather than buy them only for its big name." 18. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Vox pop, Xu Xiangyi: "I think Jobs has quit at the right time because Apple has already reached the peak of its development and it takes up a big proportion of the market. Now he's retired, we won't see Apple go down under his leadership." 19. Various of people using Apple products STORYLINE: The man in the black shirt and jeans who knew people would fall in love with the iPod, iPhone and iPad before they did is stepping back from Apple Inc., which grew into one of the world's strongest companies as its leader's health failed him. Steve Jobs's resignation on Wednesday appears to be the result of an unspecified medical condition for which he took a leave from his post in January. Apple's chief operating officer, Tim Cook, was quickly named CEO of the company Jobs co-founded in his garage 35 years ago. In a letter addressed to Apple's board and the "Apple community," Jobs said he "always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come." The company said the 56-year-old Jobs gave the board his resignation on Wednesday and suggested that Cook be named the company's new leader. Apple said Jobs was elected board chairman and that Cook is becoming a member of its board. Genentech's chairman Art Levinson, in a statement issued on behalf of Apple's board, said Jobs's "extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world's most innovative and valuable technology company". He said that Jobs will continue to provide "his unique insights, creativity and inspiration," and that the board has "complete confidence" that Cook is the right person to replace him. Hong Kong-based financial analyst Francis Lun said the technology pioneered by Apple under Jobs has changed for ever how the world uses phones and computers. "Steve Jobs managed to launch three different products that actually changed the lives of the world - iPod, iPhone and iPad," he said. Jobs's health has long been a concern for Apple investors who see him as an oracle of technology. After his announcement, Apple stock quickly fell 5.4 percent in after-hours trading. Tim Bajarin, a well-respected Silicon Valley analyst who's been covering Apple for 30 years, said he expects Apple to be a stronger, not weaker, company in the future. "This is one of the most well-run companies in the world, with one of the deepest benches, with one of the largest cash reserves," he said. Earlier this month, Apple became the most valuable company in America, briefly surpassing Exxon Mobil. At the market close on Wednesday, Apple's market value was 349 (b) billion US dollars, just behind Exxon Mobil's 358 (b) billion US dollars. Software engineer P.K. Kalyanraman said that Jobs had been like "a shadow figure" for at least 18 months and that Apple would "function perfectly fine" without him for at least a few more years to come. "But later on, how they progress into new technology and how they keep up with the market is what we've got to look for in the new person who comes in over there," he added. Stephen Kelley, a tech support specialist, said that while Jobs's charisma and innovative genius is one-of-a-kind, the company he built would survive without him. "I don't think it's going to make that much of a difference," he said. "I think Apple has kind of built their client base and their cult of Apple, shall we say." In Beijing, where sales of Apple products have boomed in recent years, consumers lamented the end of the Jobs era. "There was a celebrity effect in Apple products when Steve Jobs was the CEO," said student Huang Xiang. "People went to buy his products for his name, because we thought he was brilliant." Another Beijing student said she felt Jobs had chosen to go at the right time. "Apple has already reached the peak of its development and it takes up a big proportion of the market. Now he's retired, we won't see Apple go down under his leadership," said Xu Xiangyi. Jobs's hits seemed to grow bigger as the years passed: the colourful iMac computer, the now-ubiquitous iPod, the iPhone, and most recently the iPad tablet computer. Jobs shepherded Apple from a two-man start-up to Silicon Valley darling when the Apple II - the first computer for regular people that caught on - sent IBM and others scrambling to get their own personal computers (PCs) to market. But after Apple suffered a slump in the mid-1980s, he was forced out of the company. He was CEO at Next, another computer company, and Pixar, the computer-animation company that produced "Toy Story" on his watch, during the next 10 years. Apple was foundering when he returned as an adviser in 1996, the year it lost 900 (m) million US dollars as Microsoft Windows-based PCs dominated the computer market. The company's fortunes began to turn around with its first new product under Jobs's direction, the iMac, which Apple launched in 1998. It sold about 2 (m) million units in its first 12 months. Jobs eventually became interim CEO, then took the job permanently. Apple's popularity grew in the US throughout the 2000s as the ever-sleeker line of iPods introduced many lifelong Windows users to their first Apple product. Apple created another sensation in 2007 with the iPhone, the stark-looking but powerful smartphone that quickly dominated the industry. The iPad was introduced less than a year and a half ago, but has already sold nearly 29 (m) million units and inspired myriad rivals in a market that scarcely existed before Apple stepped in. Clients are reminded: (i) to check the terms of their licence agreements for use of content outside news programming and that further advice and assistance can be obtained from the AP Archive on: Tel +44 (0) 20 7482 7482 Email: infoaparchive.com (ii) they should check with the applicable collecting society in their Territory regarding the clearance of any sound recording or performance included within the AP Television News service (iii) they have editorial responsibility for the use of all and any content included within the AP Television News service and for libel, privacy, compliance and third party rights applicable to their Territory. APTN (Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) AP-NY-08-25-11 0603EDT

OUR WORLD - 1937 #1

Various Industrial product commercial spots including: Dreyfus Mutual Funds, Avco Aircraft and Farming Equipment (older lady pilot), Union Carbide (2x "boiled chick" & "Jet Piercing" Equipment), Alcoa Aluminum "Air Conditioning," BF Goodrich, IBM Dictation Recorder, Lasers from Union Carbide, IBM Office Products, Xerox Machines, Alcoa engineering and products, Union Carbide Electric vehicle innovations, Burlington fabrics Tycoon dress slacks, GT&E Electronics telephones, Sylvania TVs, etc., Avco Aircraft Engines & Farming Equipment (middle aged man pilot)

President Clinton presents the Ron Brown Award for Corporate Leadership.

Computer pioneer from NASA and IBM, Lou Robinson, speaking in 1982, believes in the potential benefits of artificial intelligence in aiding humans and how it can be utilised. (LSFA243F - AEVZ001J)

This 1960s Pan film "Across the World in 3 Seconds" shows communication in the modern world, and includes a behind-the-scenes look at Pan Am's complex, computer-based reservation and logistical systems. It presents a fast - moving history of communications from cave drawings to the jet age of electronic computers.<p><p>The film opens with ancient cave paintings and the idea that man’s deepest desire has always been to communicate with others (:51). It leads through the development of communication and we see the Egyptian Sphinx and ciphers developed (1:14). As transportation developed, person to person communication advanced and a painting of a 24-Hour Pony Express rider with a US Mail bag hitched to his saddle is depicted (2:31). Another painting of telephone lines being raised is shown (2:43) and the telegraph had been developed. Afterwards, land transportation progressed further and begins the invention of flight (3:04). In May of 1927, Charles Lindbergh climbs into the Spirit of St. Louis and he makes history flying from New York to Paris in 33 hours (3:21). The Pan Am building in New York (4:49) is shown and is the home of PANAMAC; the extensive IBM communications and reservations network. Magnetic disks which are spinning faster that can be seen with the naked eye spin on screen (5:04) and these are what store the information. A Pan Am worker utilizes a data processing system (5:36). An extensive example of a reservation clerk feeds plans into the system for a flight from Paris to New York (6:16). This example enables viewers to learn the magnetic storage had the ability to retain the multiplicity of fliers needs and plans electronically (9:46), and this was a move from paper and file storage. Quickly, Calcutta’s streets at the time are shown (10:06) with an instance of a flyer wishing to change his itinerary. PANAMAC’s air to cargo (11:05) is shown as well as the transfer of goods by clipper cargo (11:12) as well. The film draws to conclusion with images of Pan American and IBM workers who made the innovative progress possible (11:37). The film was produced by Sidney J Stiber Productions Inc.(11:59).<p><p>The PANAMAC, Pan American's first worldwide airline reservation management system, was installed in 1964, and used the IBM 7080 Data Processing System. PANAMAC linked hundreds of agent sets throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Caribbean with the Pan American computing center in New York City. The IBM 1006 Terminal Interchange was part of the networked system shown in this graphic from the PANAMAC manual. Using teleprocessors networked to the computing center, agents could access Pan Am flight information and book reservations almost instantly. While this is now commonplace, at the time it was an innovative and successful system.<p><p>PANAMAC was based on computer networks developed for the United States military where “real-time” information was necessary to calculate projected trajectories for missiles. The IBM-designed network was only the second real-time network to be installed for high-speed computing and communication in the airline industry. The first networked system developed for real-time airline reservations was American Airline's SABRE (Semi-Automatic Business-Related Environment), developed by IBM and implemented in 1961 on an IBM 7090 system. Delta's Deltamatic flight reservation system, installed in 1964, was also designed by IBM and used an IBM 7074 system. Prior to these systems, reservation information was available but quickly outdated. A few early computer systems, such as American Airlines' Reservisor, designed by Teleregister Corp., provided quick access to flight information but were not set up to receive information. Reservations still had to be taken by hand and calls placed to airlines to confirm availability.<p><p>We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: "01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference."<p><p>This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com

INT BROLL PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA REMARKS AT P-TECH SCHOOL / HEAD ON Friday, October 25, 2013 President Barack Obama Remarks at P-TECH High School in Brooklyn, NY SLUG: 1445 WH NY PATH1 RS33 73 AR: 16x9 DISC: 550 NYRS: 5114 15:55:28 PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA ENTERS 15:55:37 PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA SHAKES HANDS WITH STUDENTS 15:55:49 PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA HUGS RADCLIFFE ON STAGE 15:55:58 (Cheers, applause.) How you doing? (Cheers.) 15:56:11 Well, it is good to be back in Brooklyn. (Cheers.) It's good to be in New York City. And it is good to see some friends who stick up for students and teachers and education every day. 15:56:27 We've got your governor. Andrew Cuomo's in the house. Give him a big round of applause. (Cheers, applause.) We've got your senator, Chuck Schumer. (Cheers, applause.) Outstanding secretary of education, Arne Duncan. We've got -- your outstanding congressional delegation is here. Give them a big round of applause. (Cheers, applause.) We've got -- your public advocate and my friend Bill de Blasio is here. (Cheers, applause.) We've got the outstanding leader of one of America's iconic companies, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty. (Cheers, applause.) 15:57:24 And I want to give a special shout-out to a man who's been an extraordinary mayor for this city. He's been a leader throughout the country for the past 12 years. Mr. Michael Bloomberg is here. (Cheers, applause.) 15:57:48 And I want to thank your principal here at P-Tech, Rashid Davis, who I am pretty confident is the coolest-looking principal in America. (Laughter, cheers, applause.) (Rashid ?). 15:58:02 I think there just are not that many principals with dreadlocks and yellow kicks. (Laughter, applause.) There aren't that many of them. I mean, there may be some, but there aren't that many. (Laughter.) 15:58:22 And I had a wonderful time visiting with one of your teachers, Ms. Salufa (ph) -- Sakula (ph) -- Sakula (ph)? (Cheers, applause.) Ms. Sakula (ph). She was outstanding. She welcomed me into her classroom, she showed me around. I want to thank all of you for letting me spend some time here. In return, you got out of class -- (laughs) -- a little early on Friday, which I know always gets a little applause. Although in this school, maybe not, because you guys are enjoying learning so much. (Scattered applause.) That's worth applauding, that you're enjoying learning so much. (Applause.) 15:59:12 Part of the reason I'm -- I'm glad to be here is because I used to live in Brooklyn and I actually landed Marine One in Prospect Park -- I used to live across the street from Prospect Park. (Cheers.) And -- but mainly I'm here because I want to talk - 15:59:25 I wanted to come here ever since I talked about you in my State of the Union Address this year because what's going on here at P-Tech is outstanding. And I'm -- and I'm excited to see it for myself. 15:59:38 I know Brooklyn in general is blowing up right now. It's -- I -- when I was living here, Brooklyn was cool, but not this cool. (Laughter.) 15:59:48 Barclays Center hadn't been built yet. I know the Nets just picked up Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett off season -- (cheers) -- which -- which is a lesson to all the young people, old people can still play. (Cheers.) We've still got -- (laughs) -- some gas in the tank. 16:00:09 But this whole borough is where generations of hopeful, striving immigrants came in search of opportunity -- a chance to build better lives for themselves and for their kids, and that's been true for decades. 16:00:22 And I'm here today to talk about what we need to do as a country to build the same kind of opportunity for your generation, for the next generation and for your kids and for future immigrants. This country should be doing everything in our power to give more kids the chance to go to schools just like this one. 16:00:40 We should be doing everything we can to put college within the reach of more young people. We should be doing everything we can to keep your streets safe and protect you from gun violence. We should be doing everything we can to keep families from falling into poverty and build more ladders of opportunity to help people who are willing to work hard climb out of poverty. 16:01:04 We should be doing everything we can to welcome new generations of hopeful, striving immigrants. 16:01:14 I want us to do everything we can to give every single young person the same kind of opportunity that this country gave me and gave Chuck and gave Governor Cuomo and gave Mayor Bloomberg and gave your principal. That's what I'm focused on. 16:01:42 Yeah, by the way, if you have chairs, go ahead and sit down. (Laughter.) If you don't have chairs, then don't sit down, because you'll fall. I didn't realize everybody had chairs there. I would have told you to sit down earlier. (Laughter, scattered applause.) So that's what we can achieve together. It's possible. We know we can do it. P-Tech is proof of what can be accomplished, but we've got to have the courage to do it. 16:02:01 You know, the American people work hard, and they try to do right day in and day out. And that resilience and that toughness helped to turn our economy around after one of the hardest periods that we've ever faced as a country. 16:02:15 But what we also need is some political courage in Washington. We don't always see that. Right now, we need to all pull together. We need to work together to grow the economy, not shrink it; to create good jobs, not eliminate jobs. We've got to finish building a new foundation for shared and lasting prosperity so that everybody who works hard, everybody who studies hard at a school like this one or schools all across the country have a chance to get ahead. That's what we need to do, that's what I'm focused on. 16:02:49 And that all begins with the education that we give young people because all of you are growing up in changing times, especially for the economy. The world you're growing up in is different than the one that previous generations here in Brooklyn knew and here -- and all across the country knew. In the old days, a young person, they might just have followed their parents' footsteps, gotten a job in their parents' line of work, keep that job for 30, 40 years. 16:03:15 If you were willing to work hard, you didn't necessarily need a great education, if you had just gone to high school, you might get a job at a factory or in the garment district or you might be able to just get a job that allowed you to earn your wages, keep pace with people who had a chance to go to college. 16:03:33 But those days are over, and those days are not coming back. 16:03:41 We live in a 21st century global economy, and in a global economy, jobs can go anywhere. Companies, they're looking for the best educated people wherever they live. And they'll reward them with good jobs and good pay. 16:03:58 And if you don't have well-educated workforce, you're going to be left behind. If you don't have a good education, then it is going to be hard for you to find a job that pays a living wage. 16:04:13 And by the way, other countries know this. You know, in -- in previous generations, America's standing economically was so much higher than everybody else's that we didn't have a lot of competition. 16:04:32 Now, you've got billions of people from Beijing to Bangalore to Moscow, all of whom are competing with you directly. And they're -- those countries are working every day to outeducate and outcompete us. 16:04:51 And every year brings more research showing them pulling ahead, especially in some of the subject matter that this school specializes in: math and science and technology. 16:05:04 So we've got a choice to make. We can just kind of shrug our shoulders and settle for something less, or we can do what America's always done, which is adapt. 16:05:16 We pull together, we up our game, we hustle, we fight back, we work hard and we win. We have to educate our young people -- every single person here, but also all the young people all across Brooklyn, all across New York City, all across New York State and all across this country so that you're ready for this global economy. And schools like P-TECH will help us do that. 16:05:43 Here at P-TECH, you've got folks from IBM, City Tech, City University of New York, City Department of Education. Everybody's pulling together to make sure a high school education puts young people on a path to a good job. So you guys have opportunities here that you don't find in most high schools yet. You can take college- level courses in math and science. 16:06:08 You can work with mentors from IBM. So you're learning specific skills that you know leads to a good job. And most important, you'll graduate with a high school diploma and an associate's degree in computer systems or electromechanical engineering. And that means you'll be in demand. Companies will want to hire you. 16:06:30 IBM has even said that P-Tech graduates will be first in line when you apply for jobs once you graduate. And at a moment when the cost -- higher education keeps going up, and Arne and I are working hard to make sure that we're doing everything we can to reduce the burden of student loans on young people. Here is how much two years of college will cost P-Tech students and their families: Zero. Nothing. 16:06:58 (Applause, cheers.) Nothing. I notice some of the parents were the first to clap. They're all like, yeah. (Laughter.) They like that. But that's a huge burden -- I mean, that's thousands of dollars that you're saving, and that means when you start working you're going to have that much less of a burden in terms of debt, which means you can afford to buy a house sooner; you can afford to start your business sooner. You know, Radcliff (sp) was saying how he's thinking about, you know, starting his own business. And that kind of attitude is a lot easier when you're not burdened with a lot of student loans. 16:07:41 So this is a ticket into the middle class and it's available to everybody who's willing to work for it. And that's the way it should be. That's what public education is supposed to do. And the great thing is that what started small is now growing. 16:08:00 Governor Cuomo, he's opening up P-Tech-model schools in districts throughout the state. Throughout the state. (Cheers, applause.) So -- so all those schools together, they're going to prepare more than 6,000 high school students for good high school jobs. 16:08:21 Back in my hometown of Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's opening up schools like this one. He's opening up a -- a school, for example, called Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy. And -- we got a little Chicago person here. (Laughter.) Yeah. There you go. 16:08:44 Across -- across the country, companies like Verizon and Microsoft and Coned (ph) and Cisco made -- saw what IBM was doing; they said, well, this is a good idea, we can do this too. So they're working with educators and states to replicate what you're already doing here. And you guys should feel good about that. You -- you -- you're -- you're starting something all across the country. (Applause.) 16:09:07 So as a -- as a country, we should all want what all of you are receiving right now, the same chance for a great education. 16:09:15 Here is what I think we should do as a country to make sure they've got the same opportunity as you do. 16:09:23 First of all, we've got to get every child an earlier start at success by making high-quality preschool available to every four-year-old in America. (Applause.) 16:09:37 We should give every student access to the world's information. When I went into the classroom today, you know, young people were working off computers. And the problem is, a lot of places, even if they've got computers, that they're not hooked up to wireless. So what we're doing is having the federal agencies moving forward on a plan that connect 99 percent of American students to high-speed Internet within five years. We're already moving on that front. (Applause.) 16:10:08 We need to bring down the cost of college and give more young people the chance to go to college. (Applause.) So a couple of months ago, I put forward an ambitious new plan to do that, to reduce the cost of college. 16:10:21 We need to redesign more of our high schools so that they teach young people the skills required for a high-tech economy. So I've been meeting with business leaders and innovative educators to spread the best ideas. 16:10:39 And I also want to congratulate Governor Cuomo and all of you in New York for having the courage to raise your standards for teaching and learning to make sure that more students graduate from high school ready for college and a career. It's not easy, but it's the right thing to do. (Applause.) It's going to prepare more young people for today's economy. We should stay at it. 16:11:01 And here's one more thing we should do. And that is, just remember none of this works unless we've got outstanding teachers, which means we've got to -- (applause) -- we've got to make sure -- we've got to make sure that we're funding education so that teachers have the support that they need so that they can support their own families, so that they're not having to dig into their pockets for school supplies. And we've got to show them the respect and provide pathways of excellence for teachers so that they're treated like the professionals that they are. (Applause.) It is a hard job. And we've got to make sure we're investing in them. (Applause.) 16:11:46 Now, some of these ideas I've laid out before. Some of them I'm just going ahead and doing on my own. Some of them do require Congress to do something. (Scattered applause.) 16:11:57 And one way we can start is by Congress passing a budget that reflects our need to invest in our young people. 16:12:12 (Applause.) I know the budget's not the most interesting topic for a Friday afternoon even at a school where young people like math - 16:12:26 and by the way, I just sat in on a lesson called "Real World Math," which got me thinking whether it's too late to send Congress here -- (laughter) -- for a remedial course, but -- 16:12:42 But a budget is important because what a budget does is it sets our priorities. It tells us what we think is important, what our priorities are. And the stakes for our middle class could not be higher. If we don't set the right priorities now, then many of you will be put at a competitive disadvantage compared to other countries. If you think education is expensive, wait until you see how much ignorance costs. (Applause.) So we've got to invest. 16:13:15 So -- so we need a budget that is responsible, that is fiscally prudent, but a budget that cuts what we don't need, closes wasteful tax loopholes that don't create jobs, freeing up resources to invest in the things that actually do help us grow. Things like education and scientific research and infrastructure -- roads, bridges, airports. This should not be an ideological exercise, we should use some common sense. What's going to help us grow? What's going to create jobs? What is going to expand our middle class? What's going to give more opportunity to young people? Those are the things we should be putting money into. That's what we need to do. (Applause.) 16:14:03 And we've got enough resources to do it if we stop spending on things that don't work and don't make sense or if we make sure that people aren't wiggling out of their taxes through these corporate loopholes that only a few people at the very top can take advantage of. If we -- if we just do everything in a fair, common-sense way, we've got the resources to be fiscally responsible and invest in our future. 16:14:32 And this obsession with cutting just for the sake of cutting hasn't helped our economy grow; it's held it back. (Scattered applause.) It won't help us build a better society for your generation. 16:14:47 And by the way, it's important to remember, for those who are following the news, our deficits are getting smaller. They've been cut in half since I took office, all right? (Cheers, applause.) 16:15:00 So -- so that gives us room to fix longer-term debt problems without sticking it to your generation. We don't have to choose between growth and fiscal responsibility; we've got to do both. 16:15:10 And the question can't just be how much more we can cut, it's got to be how many more schools like P-Tech we can create. That should be our priority. (Applause.) 16:15:29 You know, and after the manufactured crisis that Congress -- actually, a small group in the House of Representatives just put us through, shutting down the government and threatening to potentially default on our debt, I don't want to hear the same old stuff about how America can't afford to invest in the things that have always made us strong. Don't tell me we can afford to shut down the government, which costs our economy billions of dollars, but we can't afford to invest in our education systems, because there's nothing more important than this. (Applause.) 16:16:03 In fact, what I'd like to do is have every member of Congress -- maybe Chuck can arrange a -- and the congressional delegation can arrange some tours for some of their colleagues: Come here. Come to Brooklyn. Meet some of these young people. (Applause.) They ought to meet some of the young people here. 16:16:55 You know, meet somebody like Leslie Anne John (ph), the young woman who -- who sang the national anthem this afternoon. (Applause.) You know, Leslie Anne (sp) is in the 11th grade. She's already taking -- she's already taken eight college classes, which is about as many as I took when I was in college. (Laughter.) She knows she has a great opportunity here. She's working hard to make the most of it. Eventually she plans to become a lawyer. 16:17:35 And Leslie Anne (sp) is clear-eyed about the challenges that the students here face. You know, she put it, you know, in a way that a lot of people can relate to. She said: Now, we see a whole bunch of craziness going on in the streets of Crown Heights sometimes. That's what she said. But she also said that being here at P-Tech taught her something important: There's more for us than just the streets. (Applause.) And she said that in the end of the day we've got to make something of ourselves. And that's important -- that's important. It's not just what the government or adults can do for you; it's also what you can do for yourselves.And that sense of responsibility -- (applause) -- that sense that you set the bar high for yourself, that's what America is all about. 16:18:08 That's been the history of New York -- people working hard but also working together to make sure that everybody's got a fair shot; to make sure you don't have to be born wealthy, you don't have to be born famous; that if you've got some drive and some energy, then you can go to a school that teaches you what you need to know, you can go to college even if you don't have a lot of money, you can start your own business even if you didn't inherit a business. 16:18:29 Making something of ourselves, that what we do in this country. That's a message we're sending to Washington: no more games, no more gridlock, no more gutting the things that help America grow and give people the tools to make something of themselves. That's what this is about. That's what P-Tech represents. That's what Brooklyn represents. And as long as I have the privilege to be your president, I'm going to keep fighting to make sure that no matter who you are, where you come from, what you look like. 16:18:56 This country will always be a place where you can make it if you try. (Cheers, applause.) So thank you, Brooklyn. God bless you. God bless America. (Cheers, applause.) 16:19:16 President Obama walks off stage 16:19:24 shakes hands w/ Sen. Chuck Schumer 16:20:42 President Obama shakes hands, profile shot 16:21:29 President Obama shakes hands face visible 16:23:45 President Obama waves goodbye 16:23:55 President Obama exits 16:24:09 WS of students standing on the stage

MCU of Bill Gates sitting "Well we're introducing a lot of new products in the fall because we need to constantly come up with better versions of our software. A big part of this is we're making our software use a new type of interface that people have seen on Apple's machines, like the Macintosh, and we are trying to popularize the idea of that type of interface; the IBM PC type systems, the MSTA system as well."

Produced by NASA in 1969, this forward-looking, color educational film is about the investigation of space and the benefits that research can produce for people on Earth. This includes benefits to a wide variety of scientific disciplines, including meteorology, geology, oceanography, and ecology. The film argues that the development of advanced technology, including the proposed space stations and probes seen in this film, likewise stimulates industrial innovation and production with far-reaching benefits and applications.<p><p>Opening: Surface of the Moon with Earth seen in the distance. Titles: Benefits From Space (:06-:28). Earth as seen from the Moon. Earth as seen from space (:29-1:04). Wheat field. Woman examines computer electronics using a magnifying glass (1:14). Men examine pictures from space as part of a research project. A space walk. Concept for a space station (1:33). A subject wears an astronaut suit in front of a projection screen showing the surface of the Moon. Day and night on earth as seen from outer space. Clouds move across the face of the Earth in time lapse photography, as shot from a satellite (1:54). Pictures of Earth as seen from outer space. The oceans as seen from space. Different rivers and oceans seen from space (1:05-2:59). Forests as seen from space. Infrared photography from space. A man examines a picture of terrain, moving his pen to make a point. A researcher examines a cactus. New technological innovations. A centrifuge spins at high speed (4:24). A fuel cell, a neglected power source which was perfected for use in space. A man drives a tractor which is powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, which is pollution free (3:00-4:46). A heart monitor or biometric sensor is shown in use by a physician, first at NASA and then in a hospital. Spacecraft materials are checked to see how flammable they are. Low flammable materials and life support equipment can also have use on Earth. Men in mock-up astronaut suits at a test facility. Computer technology including a mainframe computer. Buttons are pushed. IBM magnetic tape computers in the Apollo program (5:38). Computer operations room montage. New manufacturing techniques for high tech equipment including computer chips, diodes and transistors. An industrialist looks at a machine. Flawless ball bearings could be produced in space (4:47-6:40). A scientist picks up a test tube. New, uniform alloys are shown off to the camera. Mirrors and lenses. Telstar type satellite as well as others (7:07). TV camera at Olympic Games beamed via satellite. Olympics and an astronaut are shown on a black & white TV. Concept art of a proposed space shuttle type craft for NASA. Men work on a machine. Railroad cars. Cargo loaded onto ships and jumbo jets. Two boys play with an Estes model rocket and launch it with others as part of an experiment (6:41-8:26). Biological investigation. Sun spots on the surface of the sun. The galaxy. Concept art of a space station similar to Skylab. The Moon as seen from the Apollo 8 spacecraft. The craft moves along the surface of the Moon. Earth as seen from the Moon (8:27-9:58). End credits (9:59-10:04). <p><p>We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example like: "01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference."<p><p>This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com

1655 WH COVID BRFG HEAD ON FS23 73 CBS POOL President Trump and members of the White House coronavirus task force briefing WASH 3 PRESIDENT TRUMP WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE BRIEFING 200414 181420 TRUMP>> Thank you very much. Please. Very importantly, I would like to begin by saying that we have just reached agreement. The Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin, with the major airlines, all of our great airlines, to participate in a payroll support program. This agreement will fully support airline industry workers, preserve the vital role airlines play in our economy and protect taxpayers. 181454 Our airlines are now in good shape, and they will get over a very tough period of time that was not caused by them. 181503 The United States is continuing to make substantial progress in our war against the virus. We grieve at every precious life that's been lost to the invisible enemy, but through the darkness we can see the rays of light. We see that tunnel, and at the end of that tunnel, we see light. We are starting to see it more than ever before. We've held our rate, the numbers, everything we've done, we've been very very strong on it and very powerful on it. 181539 You look at what's happening in other countries, Spain, Italy, United Kingdom, we are working with them, we're trying to help them especially with ventilators. They've been calling a lot, they need ventilators so badly. 15% of counties within the United States have zero cases and many counties within the United States have a very small number of cases. 181604 Large sections of our country are really looking at other sections and saying, wow, that looks bad, but they don't have the problem. I salute the American people for following our guidelines on social distancing, even you people, are so different looking out there when I look at you. Their devotion, your devotion is saving lives. 181625 And today I'm instructing my administration to halt funding of the world health organization while a review is conducted to assess the world health organization's role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the Coronavirus. 181644 Everybody knows what's going on there. American taxpayers provide between $400 million and 500 million dollars per year to the W.H.O. In contrast China contributes roughly $40 million a year and even less. As the organization's leading sponsor, the United States has a duty to insist on full accountability. One of the most dangerous and costly decisions from the W.H.O. was its disastrous decision to oppose travel restrictions from China and other nations. 181719 They were very much opposed to what we did. Fortunately, I was not convinced and suspended travel from China, saving untold numbers of lives. 181756 Many countries said "we're gonna listen to the W.H.O.," and they have problems with the likes of which they cannot believe. Nobody can believe. The decision of other major countries to keep travel open was one of the great tragedies and missed opportunities from the early days. The WHO's attack on travel restrictions put political correctness above life-saving measures. Travel bans work for the same reason that quarantines work. 181829 Pandemics depend on human to human transmission. Border control is fundamental to virus control. Since its establishment in 1948, the American people have generously supported the World Health Organization to provide better health outcomes for the world and, most importantly, to help prevent global health crises. With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have deep concerns whether America's generosity has been put to the best use possible. 181903 The reality is that W.H.O. failed to adequately obtain, vet, and share information in a timely and transparent fashion. The world depends on the WHO to work with countries to ensure that accurate information about international health threats is shared in a timely manner. 181924 And if it's not to independently tell the world the truth about what is happening, the W.H.O. failed in this basic duty and must be held accountable. It's time after all of these decades. The W.H.O. failed to investigate credible reports from sources in Wuhan that conflicted directly with the Chinese government's official accounts. 181949 There was credible information to suspect human to human transmission in December 2019, which spurred the WHO to investigate and investigate immediately. Through the middle of January, it parroted and publicly endorsed the idea that there was not human to human transmission happening despite reports and clear evidence to the contrary. The delays the W.H.O. experienced in declaring a public health emergency cost valuable time. Tremendous amounts of time. 182028 More time was lost in the delay it took to get a team of international experts in to examine the outbreak, which we wanted to do, which they should have done. The inability of the W.H.O. to obtain virus samples to this date has deprived the scientific community of essential data. New data that emerges across the world on a daily basis points to the unreliability of the initial reports. And the world received all sorts of false information about transmission and mortality. 182110 The silence of the W.H.O. on the disappearance of scientific researchers and doctors, and on new restrictions on the sharing of research into the origins of Covid-19 in the country of origin is deeply concerning, especially when we put up by far the largest amount of money -- not even close. Had the WHO done its job to get medical experts into China to objectively assess the situation on the ground and to call out China's lack of transparency, the outbreak could have been contained at its source with very little death -- very little death. 182156 And certainly, very little death by comparison. This would have saved thousands of lives and avoided worldwide economic damage. Instead, the WHO willingly took China's assurances to face value, and they took it just at face value, and defended the actions of the Chinese government, even praising China for its so-called transparency -- I don't think so. The WHO pushed China's misinformation about the virus, saying it was not communicable and there was no need for travel bans. 182232 They told us, when we put on our travel ban, a very strong travel ban, there was no need to do it. Don't do it. They actually fought us. The WHO's reliance on China's disclosures likely caused a 20-fold increase in cases worldwide, and it may be much more than that. The W.H.O. has not addressed a single one of these concerns nor provided a serious explanation that acknowledges its own mistakes of which there were many. 182301 America and the world have chosen to rely on the W.H.O. for accurate, timely and independent information to make important public health recommendations and decisions. If we cannot trust that this is what we will receive from the WHO, our country will be forced to find other ways to work with other nations to achieve public health goals. We will have no choice but to do that. 182331 Our countries are now experiencing -- you look all over the world, tremendous death and economic devastation because those tasked with protecting us by being truthful and transparent failed to do so. It would have been so easy to be truthful. And so much death has been caused by their mistakes. We will continue to engage with the WHO to see if it can make meaningful reforms. 182403 For the time being, we will redirect global health and directly work with others. All of the aid that we send will be discussed at very, very powerful letters and with very powerful and influential groups and smart groups. Medically, politically, and every other way. 182424 And we'll be discussing it with other countries and global health partners. What we do with all of that money that goes to W.H.O., and may be W.H.O. will reform and maybe they won't, but we will be able to see. As you know, in other countries hit hard by the virus, hospitals have been tragically forced to ration medical care and the use of ventilators. 182453 But due to our early and aggressive action, the skill of our health care workers and the resilience of our health care system. 182502 No hospital in America has been forced to deny any patient access to a ventilator with all of the talk you have heard, where some states wanted 40,000 ventilators. I said, "that doesn't work. 40 thousand." And they ended up with seven or 8,000. And they had no problem. 40,000 ventilators for one state, it was ridiculous. 182530 The scariest day of my life was about a month ago, when after a long day of meetings, my team told me that we were going to be needing 130,000 ventilators. That we were short hundreds of thousands of ventilators. This is the system we inherited. I had governors requesting unreasonable sums that the federal government just didn't have. 182603 And you look at the states, the states, the states didn't have, the states were not prepared. I knew that every person who needed a ventilator, and didn't get one would die. And that's what we were told. They would die. I saw in other countries doctors having to make decisions on who got a ventilator and who didn't. And I knew that this would be a defining challenge of the crisis. 182628 Those that didn't get ventilators were said to be in a position, only of one alternative. And that was death. Would we be able to prevent Americans from dying because we couldn't get them ventilators? And the ventilators that they needed and needed immediately. 182650 I instructed my team to move heaven and Earth to make sure that this didn't happen. We started to smartly ration and distribute the ventilators that we had and that others had, and I got daily updates on the supply we had from requests coming in and people wanting to have updates. We had a great group of people working on it. I instructed my team to use the Defense Protection Act. 182720 And the Defense Production Act was used very powerfully -- more powerfully than anybody would know. In fact, so powerfully that, for the most part, we didn't officially have to take it out. It was a hammer. It was a very powerful hammer -- in order to manufacture as many ventilators as possible. Last year America manufactured, from a dead start, 30,000 ventilators and this year, the number will be over 150,000 ventilators. It could be as high as 200,000, far more than we will ever need. 182758 So we will be able to stockpile. We'll be able to talk to states about stockpiling. These are high quality ventilators. We had a choice: we could do inexpensive, less productive ventilators or high quality. We've done a high quality ventilator. So we should have any from 150 to 200,000 ventilators. In addition to that, we have 10,000 ventilators right now in the Federal stockpile ready to move, should we need them -- we might not. 182829 Should we need them in New York, or New Jersey, or in Louisiana, or in Illinois or any other state that may need them, if we have a surge. I'd like to ask Adam Boehler to come up and just say a few words. He's done a fantastic job. Young man who worked 24 hours a day on handling this situation, and I'd just like to have Adam -- wherever he may be -- come up and say a few words. Adam, please. Think you very much. ADAM BOEHLER 182904 BOEHLER>> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. At your direction, this country has worked hard over the past few weeks to ramp up ventilator production through all means possible. Thousands of ventilators are coming in now, monthly, with over 100,000 by the end of June. At the same time, there are over 60,000 ventilators in our hospitals right now that are not in use. Knowing this and at your direction, we reached out to the American Hospital Association to design a system that allows hospitals to lend ventilators to other hospitals right when they need it. 182942 Within the past week alone, 20 top health systems have signed up for this dynamic ventilator reserve, representing over 4,000 ventilators. Not only do we have top academic systems like Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic, but we also have top health systems from New York City, New Orleans, Washington state and California. Over a week ago, these places would have needed help, but now they are here to help. 183010 There's been no American that has needed a ventilator that has not received one. This dynamic, virtual reserve, combined with our strategic stockpile, will ensure that this is always the case. I'd like to thank the President for his leadership and directive to focus on public-private partnerships like this one. I'd also like to thank Sam Hazen from HCA, Lloyd Dean from Common Spirit for leading this effort with the AHA and the Federation of American Hospitals. 183042 These have been difficult times. A few weeks ago, the vIce president came into my office, and reminded us of the power of the resilience of American people and of private companies. We needed it that day, Mr. Vice President. This partnership is another example of Americans helping Americans. Thank you. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP 183109 TRUMP>> I'd shake his hand, but I'm not allowed to. Times have changed, haven't they? Thank you very much. You did a fantastic job. We're very proud of you. You and your whole team. Thank you. Today, we are taking further action to maximize our oversupply and available ventilators. This afternoon, I met with the leaders, the top people of many of America's big, powerful, beautiful and you know, very, very important hospitals, and hospital associations, who join us today. 183144 We had a great meeting. Learned a lot. And they've been going through a lot. They've been doing a fantastic job, as everybody here will attest. 183153 I'm pleased to announce that my administration is partnering with the hospitals across the country to create an innovative new system called the dynamic ventilator reserve. So that we're gonna have tremendous numbers of ventilators, that we're able to help our states with at a later date, if there's ever a problem like this, which we hope to God will never happen again. 183215 It was 1917-1918. That's a long time ago. We hope it never happens again. And I'd like to ask Rick Pollack, the CEO of the American hospital association, Sam Hazen, CEO of HCA healthcare, that's the largest in the United States. Warner Thomas, CEO of Ochsner Health and if I could, Mihal(?), are you here from Cleveland clinic? Somebody --Good. Come on up, folks. Please, thank you. Say a few words. RICK POLLACK 183251 POLLACK>> Thank you very much, Mr. President. We appreciate the opportunity to work with you and your team on the dynamic ventilator reserve program. This will provide a really important mechanism for us in serving our patients and communities by ensuring that this vital equipment will be available to critical areas that are in need. You know, as this battle against this disease has affected the country a little bit unevenly, the rates of infection, hospitalization and ICU use varies from one region to another. 183329 And in some places with lower infection rates, some ventilators may not be in use, while other areas are potentially stretched beyond their capacity. The database of available ventilators that we are creating will allow us to flex so that we can make sure that available equipment can be shared with those in need. 183351 We appreciate the leadership of the health systems that are here today that have stepped forward. And Adam mentioned a few. I don't know if you caught Dr. Francois from NYU Langone and David Dill, the CEO of LifePoint as well. We appreciate the work of the administration in helping us to find innovative solutions to ensure the best care for our patients. We will continue to work with hospitals and health systems across the country to add to this reserve further. 183421 Your team has provided us with important leadership, and we look forward to working with you in making this a success. Thank you, Mr. President. >> Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, Adam, team. I stand here before you, in front of our 285,000 colleagues who provide care to patients every day across the country. One of the guiding principles we had when we went into this Covid-19 battle was to find partnerships -- partnerships with other components of the industry, partnerships with other health systems, but partnerships with government, both local and federal. 183500 And we're proud to be part of this prive-public sector partnership, and I think it will do great good for the communities, so thank you very much. TRUMP>> Gread job, thank you. THOMAS>> Thank you, Mr. President. It's great to have Ochsner Health be part of this program. We've certainly have been a recipient and the state of Louisiana has been a recipient of getting ventilators to our state and to Ochsner health. We're currently taking care of about 60% of the Covid patients in New Orleans and we did see a spike in the last few weeks, but we're starting to get on the other side of that and heading in the right direction. 183535 I also want to thank you personally for helping Oschner health. A couple weeks ago, we were running short on surgical gowns and you and your team were able to direct some to New Orleans which was helpful to us and other hospitals around the New Orleans area. So we're excited to be part of this dynamic ventilator reserve and we are proud to be part of that and help other communities around the country. Thank you. 183601 MIHALJEVIS>>>> Thank you, Mr. president, for the invitation here. On behalf of the cleveland clinic, I would just like to offer a slightly different story about the covid pandemic. In our home state of Ohio, with an early institution of social distancing, our ability to scale out the testing and ramping up capacity, we have actually seen a stable number of patients over the last 8-10 days. Only 160 patients have been hospitalized with covid infection in Cleveland clinic health system. 183632 We're also very grateful for the support from our state government as well from our federal government. This is a battle we are all in together. We coordinate our efforts, share our resources and work together as one. I'm firmly convinced that we can do a lot of good when we work together. Thank you very much for having us. 183659 TRUMP>> That was a terrific meeting, and thank you all for being here. Thank you very much. The United States has far more icu beds per capita than any other nation. We have 34.7 icu beds per 100,000 people, which is the best there is. Compared with roughly 12.5 beds per 100,000 in Italy, 11.6 beds in France, 9.7 beds in Spain. Think about that. 34.7 we have. And 6.6 in the U.K. 183734 There are more than 60,000 ventilators at hospitals and other health care facilities that are not in use at this moment. They didn't need them. We got a lot of them out, and they didn't need them. And that's a good thing, that they didn't need them. A lot of good brainpower was involved in making a lot of fantastic decisions. I want to thank our vice president for the task force, and I want to thank all members of your task force on having done an incredible job. You really have done an incredible job. Thank you, Mike, very much. 183802 Through this new partnership with hospitals, unused ventilators will voluntarily lend th, where they have unused ventilators they will voluntarily lend them to other hospitals and other areas of greater need. Thin the last several days, more than 20 of our nation's largest health systems have already split more than 4000 ventilators, should we need them. 183833 I've been told that if they need more, there are more there. We are going to be helping very soon, when the supply really starts pouring in, we'll really start, in less than a month, we will be helping other countries, and they needed very badly. They have no chance without these ventilators. Tey have -- they have to have ventilators. 183858 As we continue our medical war against the virus, the FDA has now authorized the first test, developed by researchers from Rutgers University that can use saliva from patients, it's the first one. The tests can be self administered by patients in health care settings, which will reduce exposure for medical workers and save personal protective equipment. 183924 Rutgers will begin processing 10,000 tests daily. So by using saliva, that's the first, they will be able to do things in terms of speed and ease that we haven't A A Nbeen able to do before. So a lot of great innovation is taking place during this period of time, and that's, innovation -- I call it innovation under pressure. 183943 That's a big difference. Innovation under pressure. Right? Cleveland clinic knows all about that. As we prepare for the next phase of this great struggle, we must also do everything in our power to restore prosperity for the American worker. There's tremendous interest and excitement surrounding the administration's efforts to get the economy roaring once again, and I think it is going to roar once it gets open. I think it is going to go up tremendously. 184015 You see what's happening with the stock market already, because a lot of the very smart financial people, the great minds, they're looking at the stocks and they're saying, Wow.Because what they really -- what they're really seeing is how we are doing. If we weren't doing well, the market wouldn't be at the level that it is today. 184031 They have a lot of confidence that we are doing the right thing and that our country's going to be open soon, and that our country's going to be booming. We've had request to participate from the best in the world, as we share their enthusiasm to get our country going. So I thank them for wanting to contribute, and we look forward to speaking with many industry leaders, seeking their input on how we can return to what was until very recently the greatest economy anywhere in the world, and I can say, the greatest economy in the history of the world. 184108 There's never been an economy like we had, just a little bit more than a month ago. We set every record you could set. More people working than we've ever had working before. Almost 160 million. The best unemployment numbers we've ever had, and the best employment numbers we've ever had. Everybody was doing well. 184129 Stock market hit a record -- 142 days it hit a record. And I think we are going to top those records, ok? And I think we are going to top them soon, once we get rid of the invisible enemy, which will happen. 184143 The plans to reopen the country are close to being finalized, and we will soon be sharing details and new guidelines with everybody. I will be speaking to all 50 Governors very shortly, and of their state at a time and in a manner as most appropriate. 184223 The day will be very close because certain states, as you know, are in a much different condition, and in a much different place than other states. It's going to be very, very close -- maybe even before the date of May 1st. So, that will be for some states. Actually, there are over 20 that are an extremely good shape. 184252 And we think we're gonna be able to get them open fairly quickly, and then others will follow. 184258 The federal government will be watching them very closely, and we'll be there to help, we will be there to help in many different ways, as we've been, where we built hospital beds at a number that nobody's ever seen before, where we did the ventilators, that we just discussed at a level that nobody has seen before. Nobody can believe. 184319 Other foreign countries, even powerful countries can't believe what we were able to do with ventilators. Big, powerful countries, big producing countries, can't believe what we were able to do. We will hold the governors accountable, but again, we're gonna be working with them to make sure it works really well. Now, we have a list of people that I will be speaking to over the next very short period of time, in many cases tomorrow. We're going to have elected officials, and we'll be submitting that list to you within the next 24 hours. 184358 But we have a list of different industries that I will be discussing by -- meeting by telephone, because we don't want people traveling right now. The American farm bureau federation, (?) Duval, Cisco systems, Tyson foods, Purdue farms, Cargal, Archer Daniels, Midland company, Cortiva, tractor supply company, seaboard corporation, grimmway farms, Mount Air farms, and others in the agricultural business. 184436 In banking, it's bank of America, Brian Moynahan has been great, J.P. Morgan chase, Jamie Dimon, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank corps, Morgan Stanley, James Gorman, Grand Rapids, state bank, southern bank corps, all great institutions with lots to say and lots of good ideas. And if you look at how paycheck has been working out, the numbers are incredible, and I hope congress is goig to be able to supplement the amount of money going to our workers. 184510 I hope they are able to get that done very quickly, because it has been an incredible success, and many are already spending that money, and the money's been distributed at numbers that nobody believed possible for this short period of time. It was only a week ago, but a lot of money's been disturbed already. It's gonna keep our small businesses open. 184531 The construction labor workforce, international union of operating engineers, Jim Calahan, north American building trades union, Sean McGarvey, these are a lot of friends of mine. Laborer's international union of North America, Terry O'Sullivan, International brotherhood of teamsters, James Hoffa. National electrical contractors association, David Long. Beck Tell. Floor 184600 National association of homebuilders. Association of builders and contractors. Associated general contractors. Richard Trumka, af of L-cio. GH Palmer. So these are some of the unions, pretty much, almost all of the ones that will be on the line. In defense, we have Lockheed Martin, Honeywell, Northrop grumman, these are all top of each company, CEO's, chairmans, presidents. 184634 Raytheon, general dynamics. Energy, we had tremendous success recently with energy over the weekend. It finished with tremendous credit going to Russia and Saudi Arabia, and it could be as much as 20 million barrels a day a cut, so we can get rid of some of the tremendous excess oil that's been produced because of the fact that the virus just knocked out almost 50% of the business. 184704 It has been an amazing achievement, some people say one of the biggest oil deals ever made, maybe the biggest oil deal ever made, they are saying. I didn't know that. But we were involved in getting that done and it was very important. We're gonna save hundreds of thousands of jobs for our energy industry, Texas and North Dakota, Oklahoma, all of our different energy states. It's great. So we are very happy about it. 184727 I want to thank everybody. We had the -- it's called the Opec-plus, that's opec-plus, meaning some nations outside of OPEC. And I also want to thank the president of Mexico. Because he was, he was terrific. He showed great dexterity and flexibility in getting the deal done. We want to thank him very much. On the energy front, we had Exxon Mobil, Continental resources, Chevron, Southern company, Alabama power, conocophillips, oxendale petroleum, kindermorgan, Hess corporation, Pero group, and a few others, big ones, great ones. 184806 Financial services, we have Blackstone, Stephen Schwarzman; Paulson and Company, John Paulson; Citadel, Ken Griffin; Elliott Management, Paul Singer; Vista Equity partners, Robert Smith; Fidelity investments, Abigail Johnson; Mastercard, Visa, Chubb, Sequoia, Stevens -- Warren Stevens, great -- Charles Schwab, chuck Schwab will be here by phone. 184844 Food and beverage, national restaurant association; McDonald's, Darden restaurants, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Chik-fil-A, Subway, Bloomin' Brands, Yum Brands, papa John's, Wendy's, Waffle House, Starbucks, Wolfgang park, Thomas Keller, Jean Gorges -- my friend Jean-Georges, and Danielle. You know them. From the transportation world, FedEx, Fred Smith -- a legend. 184914 United airlines, Oscar Munos (?); UPS, David Abney; JB Hunt, YRCworldwide, Crowley, Maritime. Incredible -- big, powerful shippers and transportation companies In telecommunications, we have the legendary John Malone of Liberty media, Verizon, T-Mobile, Charter communications and Brian Roberts of Comcast, thank you all very much. 184948 Health care: New York Presbityrian, Jerry Spire -- a friend of mine -- HCA Health Care, Sam Hazen -- thank you, Sam. Just met with Sam; Ascension Health; Common Spirit Health, Community Health Systems, Trinity Health, Cardinal Health, McKisson. 3M -- Thank you Mike Roman for helping us with face masks. It worked out well for everybody. 185018 Procter & Gamble, Abbott laboratories, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Thermo fisher scientific -- they've been helping us incredibly with testing. 185031 Gilead sciences, abbvie, regeneron, biogen, Roche. And Roche has been fantastic on testing, and the job they have done, I have to call them out. They have really, they have stepped up like very few. 185047 Anthem, UnitedHealth group, Aetna, Cigna, and Humana -- all the big ones. The tech companies -- We have the right ones: Apple, we have Tim cook. Google, Sundar -- thank you, Sundar. Oracle -- Larry Ellison and Safra Catz. Salesforce, Mark Benioff. SAP, sap -- Jen Morgan. Microsoft -- Satya, great job he's done. 185118 Thank you, Satya. Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. IBM, Intel, Qualcomm, CISCO, Advanced Micro Devices, Broadcom -- incredible companies. Companies that no other country will catch, if they're smart. They have to be smart. But I've dealt with a lot of different countries, and I'll say that no -- the respect for silicon valley and our tech companies, there nobody even close to our tech companies. 185153 They can't catch them, so they try and buy them, but we sort of put an end to a lot of that. In sports -- we want to get our sports back. So importantly, these will be some separate calls -- some will be together, by the way -- lists (?) -- and some will be separate. But we have to get our sports back. I'm tired of watching baseball games that are 14 years old. But I haven't actually had too much time to watch. I would say, maybe, I watch one batter, and then I get back to work. 185223 The NBA, Adam Silver. The Major League Baseball -- we miss our baseball. This is baseball season right here. Rob Manfred, thank you very much. NFL, Roger Goodell. Thank you, Roger. UFC, Dana White. Great Dana White. PGA, Jay Moynahan. LPGA, Michael Wan. USTA, Patrick galbraith. Major league soccer, John Garber. WWE, the great Vince Mcmahon. 185259 NASCAR, Lisa Kennedy. Thank you, Lisa. NHL, Gary Bettman. From the New England Patriots, Bob Kraft. Dallas Cowboys, Jerry Jones. Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban. And some of the thought leaders that we are going have and there are some others that we are having -- we're just waiting to hear but everybody is saying yes, I must say. John Ellison, Heritage Foundation. Kay Cole James, great person, Hoover institute. 185330 Condoleezza rice, another great person. Art Laffer, Steve Moore. Steve Forbes. Larry Lindsey. Catherine Reynolds. Scott Gottlieb. Just spoke with Scott. Jim Demint. And Jim has been a terrific friend. Bill Haggerty and Ray Washington. And religious leaders will be coming. On Friday, we will be speaking to -- and we're gonna have a separate list, but we have tremendous enthusiasm to meet by our great religious leaders. 185407 We have incredible people, and they want to -- they want to be a part. And we will be talking about churches, and we will be talking about opening, and we'll be talking about things that are very important to a lot of people, including me. We're gonna find out how we are doing in that regard. So those are the names we have on our list, they're the names that are, I think, the best and smartest, the brightest, and they're gonna give us some ideas. But we're all set. As I said, the governors will be opening up their states. 185442 They're gonna declare when -- they're gonna know when. Some can open very, very shortly, if not almost immediately. We will give a date, but the date's gonna be in the very near future. So we will get it open. Individual states, the governors will be held accountable. 185458 If they need things, we will help them get those things, but we want them to do their testing. We want them -- because they're equipped to do testing. We've created incredible testing. We've done more testing than anybody's ever done in the world right now, and we had a broken system. And now we have a great system. We have a system where other countries are coming to us, and saying we want to get some of those tests. I want to thank Abbott.Cause Abbott came up with the first simpler test. The first one was rough, if you were, I think it was more of an operation than a test. 185529 The first one was for anyone who took it, it was not easy. But now we have a very simple test with Abbott. Now we have saliva. We have lots of other things that are happening. But we have millions of tests. 185545 The governors are responsible. They have to take charge. They have to do a great job, and we're going to suggest that they check people through tests or otherwise coming into their states, and they run their states very strong. 185558 Eventually, we won't have to do that. Eventually, this will be gone, but for a while we are going to do it, so they are going to take charge at their borders. They are going to take charge of people coming in, and maybe to an extent, depending on what they work out with a nearby state, maybe also people leaving. And they'll be able to do that very shortly. 185617 We will be announcing a date, but it will be very short and, frankly, it will be at a time that will be earlier than the deadline that we imposed, the end of April. So we think that some of the Governors will be in really good shape to open up even sooner than that. We'll speak to that, but we are all set. We're counting on the governors to do a great job. 185641 Others are going to have to take a longer period of time until they are in a position to say "we are ready to go." And that's okay. We understand that. Some of the governors have a very tough situation. But in almost all cases, it's all starting to come down. We're very proud of the job everybody has done. 185702 And if you look at the numbers, so the minimum as you -- as portrayed, Deborah is here, Dr. Birx has been fantastic. The minimum was 100,000 deaths, and I hope to be substantially under the minimum. Meaning we all hope -- Mike, right, we all hope to be substantially under. We did the right thing, because otherwise it would have been -- the projections were two million people, the actual projection was 2.2 million people, and if you cut it in half, that would be 1.1 million people. 185738 That's many more, that's double the civil war. And if you cut that in half, you are talking 5 or 600,000 people. That's what we lost in the civil war, and that is cutting it, cutting it, cutting it. And we're not gonna -- that would not be acceptable. That would not be acceptable. Nothing's accept -- One life isn't acceptable, but we weren't given that option. 185800 So I am confident that these respected people that I just read from the list will give us some great ideas, in addition to what the governors have learned. The governors have learned a lot. I've spoken to governors that, at the beginning it was a contentious relationship, and now it's a very friendly relationship, a great relationship, and I am proud to say that some of them, I think are friends. In some cases they are Democrats, but I think they like me, and I actually like them, some of them. I'll tell you who they are someday. 195830 But we are all getting along, and we all want to do the right thing, and I think they will do a great job of leading their individual states. It will be a beautiful thing to watch. They'll go and rely on their mayors and their local town officials. They bring it right now, and Washington shouldn't be doing that. We can't be thinking about a Walmart parking lot that's 2000 miles away, where we are doing testing, but a governor of the state can and a mayor can. And -- right there on the line. So it's gonna be -- I think it's gonna be a terrific system. 185901 And if we are unhappy with the state, we're going to let them know we are unhappy. And if they are not doing the job and they can't get the job done -- and for some reason things are happening that we aren't going to like, like the numbers are heading in the wrong direction, we will have to do something that's very serious -- very serious. We'll have to maybe close them up and start all over again. But I don't think we're gonna have to do that. I think the governors are going to come out at a time -- and these will be individual dates -- and the governors are gonna come out at a time when they're ready. 185931 Some can come out very, very shortly, and we look forward to watching that process. I think it's gonna be a very beautiful process. Our discussions will focus with the people that we are dealing with on rejuvenating the economy, and always health, always health. Health and life. Living is number one. But the rejuvenated economy, and I think it's going to go quickly. We will be utilizing our robust testing capacity for the Governors. 190002 We'll be giving them what they need if they don't have it themselves. We hope by now they will be able to have it themselves. We were hoping they would have had it themselves early on, but they weren't. But such great advances have been made. So we'll be dealing with them on that, and we -- They can rely on us very strongly. They're gonna be relying on us, I think, for some help, and we are there. Whether it's building hospital beds, which I don't think they're going to need. You look at Javits Center -- a great, great job that the Army Corp of Engineers did. FEMA got involved. 190034 We actually ended up sending our medical people. That was not a Covid-19 center. And they asked, "could you do that?", and even after we did that, it was not used very much, meaning they did not have to use it nearly to the extent that they thought when they conceived it. It wasn't that they made a mistake. Nobody made a mistake. We built it. I would rather have too much than too little -- err on the side of caution. And it's really incredible what they did, including the two ships -- the great ships. 190104 And I just want to thank a lot of really great people, a lot of politicians. And again, we're gonna be announcing the political list tomorrow and, on there, we're gonna have a lot of Senators. And we're going to be having a meeting with the governors probably on Thursday, a meeting by teleconference. And A lot of things will be discussed, and some of the details will be discussed. But we want them to do an incredible job of running their states. I think they will do an incredible job too. 190135 After having gotten to know so many of them, I think each one of them will do an incredible job. And again, the government is there. We have ventilators, if they need them. We have beds if they need them. We have hospitals if they need them. We have a testing capacity that is, now, second to none. We're -- again, other countries are calling us -- countries that you thought were doing well are calling us for help with testing. 190200 So we're there to help. And with that, if you have a few questions, we'll take them, and if not, that would be ok too. Yeah, go ahead. Please, Jeff. Q>> Mr. President, two questions. First on your announcement about the WHO. I understand your grievances with them, but can you address why it is the correct time to do this now, in the middle of a pandemic? 190222 TRUMP>> Well, we're going to be dealing with countries and we're gonna be dealing with leaders of different parts of the world. We spend 500 million a year. We have for many years. -- far more than anybody else, including China. And I mean, I read off a long list of problems that we have and we have had problems with them for years. It doesn't m-- We are looking at a term of 60 to 90 days. We are doing a thorough investigation right now, as we speak. But this should have been done by previous administrations a long time ago. 190253 And when you look at the mistakes that were made -- all of the mistakes that were made, it's just something we have to look at. And it is very china-centric. I told that to President Xi. I said, "The World Health Organization is very China-centric," meaning whatever it is, China was always right. You can't do that, can't do that. Not right, and we we spend -- again, it's not a question of money. But when we are spending $500 million and China is spending 38 million, 34 million, 40 million, 42 million in a case. 190330 It's, again, not money, but it's not right. So we will see. This is an evaluation period but, in the meantime, we are also putting a hold on all funds going to World Health. We will be able to take that money and channel it to the areas that most need it, and that's another way of doing it. But we have not been treated properly. Yeah, please. Q>> Mr. President, you mentioned you will be speaking with all of the governors tomorrow. TRUMP>> Yes. Q>> Make recommendations -- TRUMP>> Or, probably Thursday. 190358 Q>> What if don't' they don't listen to you take your advice? Will you consider taking away federal funding? TRUMP>> I don't want to say that. They'll listen. They'll be fine. I think we're gonna have a good relationship. They need the federal government not only for funding, and I'm not saying take it away, but they need it for advice. They'll need maybe equipment that we have. We have a tremendous stockpile that we're in the process of completing. We're in a very good position. Again, the cupboard was bare when I got here. Nobody ever thought a thing -- in all fairness to previous administrations, nobody ever thought anything like this was going to happen, but it did happen. 190435 No, the governors will be very very respectful of the presidency. Again, this isn't me, this is the presidency. The presidency has such a great importance in terms of what we're doing. And you can talk about constitution, you can talk about federalism, you can talk about whatever you want. But the best way, I'm talking now from a managerial standpoint, is to let individual governors run individual states and come to us if they have difficulty, and we will help them.

1655 WH COVID BRFG CUTS FS24 74 CBS PO0L President Trump and members of the White House coronavirus task force briefing WASH 3 PRESIDENT TRUMP WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE BRIEFING 200414 181420 TRUMP>> Thank you very much. Please. Very importantly, I would like to begin by saying that we have just reached agreement. The Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin, with the major airlines, all of our great airlines, to participate in a payroll support program. This agreement will fully support airline industry workers, preserve the vital role airlines play in our economy and protect taxpayers. 181454 Our airlines are now in good shape, and they will get over a very tough period of time that was not caused by them. 181503 The United States is continuing to make substantial progress in our war against the virus. We grieve at every precious life that's been lost to the invisible enemy, but through the darkness we can see the rays of light. We see that tunnel, and at the end of that tunnel, we see light. We are starting to see it more than ever before. We've held our rate, the numbers, everything we've done, we've been very very strong on it and very powerful on it. 181539 You look at what's happening in other countries, Spain, Italy, United Kingdom, we are working with them, we're trying to help them especially with ventilators. They've been calling a lot, they need ventilators so badly. 15% of counties within the United States have zero cases and many counties within the United States have a very small number of cases. 181604 Large sections of our country are really looking at other sections and saying, wow, that looks bad, but they don't have the problem. I salute the American people for following our guidelines on social distancing, even you people, are so different looking out there when I look at you. Their devotion, your devotion is saving lives. 181625 And today I'm instructing my administration to halt funding of the world health organization while a review is conducted to assess the world health organization's role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the Coronavirus. 181644 Everybody knows what's going on there. American taxpayers provide between $400 million and 500 million dollars per year to the W.H.O. In contrast China contributes roughly $40 million a year and even less. As the organization's leading sponsor, the United States has a duty to insist on full accountability. One of the most dangerous and costly decisions from the W.H.O. was its disastrous decision to oppose travel restrictions from China and other nations. 181719 They were very much opposed to what we did. Fortunately, I was not convinced and suspended travel from China, saving untold numbers of lives. 181756 Many countries said "we're gonna listen to the W.H.O.," and they have problems with the likes of which they cannot believe. Nobody can believe. The decision of other major countries to keep travel open was one of the great tragedies and missed opportunities from the early days. The WHO's attack on travel restrictions put political correctness above life-saving measures. Travel bans work for the same reason that quarantines work. 181829 Pandemics depend on human to human transmission. Border control is fundamental to virus control. Since its establishment in 1948, the American people have generously supported the World Health Organization to provide better health outcomes for the world and, most importantly, to help prevent global health crises. With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have deep concerns whether America's generosity has been put to the best use possible. 181903 The reality is that W.H.O. failed to adequately obtain, vet, and share information in a timely and transparent fashion. The world depends on the WHO to work with countries to ensure that accurate information about international health threats is shared in a timely manner. 181924 And if it's not to independently tell the world the truth about what is happening, the W.H.O. failed in this basic duty and must be held accountable. It's time after all of these decades. The W.H.O. failed to investigate credible reports from sources in Wuhan that conflicted directly with the Chinese government's official accounts. 181949 There was credible information to suspect human to human transmission in December 2019, which spurred the WHO to investigate and investigate immediately. Through the middle of January, it parroted and publicly endorsed the idea that there was not human to human transmission happening despite reports and clear evidence to the contrary. The delays the W.H.O. experienced in declaring a public health emergency cost valuable time. Tremendous amounts of time. 182028 More time was lost in the delay it took to get a team of international experts in to examine the outbreak, which we wanted to do, which they should have done. The inability of the W.H.O. to obtain virus samples to this date has deprived the scientific community of essential data. New data that emerges across the world on a daily basis points to the unreliability of the initial reports. And the world received all sorts of false information about transmission and mortality. 182110 The silence of the W.H.O. on the disappearance of scientific researchers and doctors, and on new restrictions on the sharing of research into the origins of Covid-19 in the country of origin is deeply concerning, especially when we put up by far the largest amount of money -- not even close. Had the WHO done its job to get medical experts into China to objectively assess the situation on the ground and to call out China's lack of transparency, the outbreak could have been contained at its source with very little death -- very little death. 182156 And certainly, very little death by comparison. This would have saved thousands of lives and avoided worldwide economic damage. Instead, the WHO willingly took China's assurances to face value, and they took it just at face value, and defended the actions of the Chinese government, even praising China for its so-called transparency -- I don't think so. The WHO pushed China's misinformation about the virus, saying it was not communicable and there was no need for travel bans. 182232 They told us, when we put on our travel ban, a very strong travel ban, there was no need to do it. Don't do it. They actually fought us. The WHO's reliance on China's disclosures likely caused a 20-fold increase in cases worldwide, and it may be much more than that. The W.H.O. has not addressed a single one of these concerns nor provided a serious explanation that acknowledges its own mistakes of which there were many. 182301 America and the world have chosen to rely on the W.H.O. for accurate, timely and independent information to make important public health recommendations and decisions. If we cannot trust that this is what we will receive from the WHO, our country will be forced to find other ways to work with other nations to achieve public health goals. We will have no choice but to do that. 182331 Our countries are now experiencing -- you look all over the world, tremendous death and economic devastation because those tasked with protecting us by being truthful and transparent failed to do so. It would have been so easy to be truthful. And so much death has been caused by their mistakes. We will continue to engage with the WHO to see if it can make meaningful reforms. 182403 For the time being, we will redirect global health and directly work with others. All of the aid that we send will be discussed at very, very powerful letters and with very powerful and influential groups and smart groups. Medically, politically, and every other way. 182424 And we'll be discussing it with other countries and global health partners. What we do with all of that money that goes to W.H.O., and may be W.H.O. will reform and maybe they won't, but we will be able to see. As you know, in other countries hit hard by the virus, hospitals have been tragically forced to ration medical care and the use of ventilators. 182453 But due to our early and aggressive action, the skill of our health care workers and the resilience of our health care system. 182502 No hospital in America has been forced to deny any patient access to a ventilator with all of the talk you have heard, where some states wanted 40,000 ventilators. I said, "that doesn't work. 40 thousand." And they ended up with seven or 8,000. And they had no problem. 40,000 ventilators for one state, it was ridiculous. 182530 The scariest day of my life was about a month ago, when after a long day of meetings, my team told me that we were going to be needing 130,000 ventilators. That we were short hundreds of thousands of ventilators. This is the system we inherited. I had governors requesting unreasonable sums that the federal government just didn't have. 182603 And you look at the states, the states, the states didn't have, the states were not prepared. I knew that every person who needed a ventilator, and didn't get one would die. And that's what we were told. They would die. I saw in other countries doctors having to make decisions on who got a ventilator and who didn't. And I knew that this would be a defining challenge of the crisis. 182628 Those that didn't get ventilators were said to be in a position, only of one alternative. And that was death. Would we be able to prevent Americans from dying because we couldn't get them ventilators? And the ventilators that they needed and needed immediately. 182650 I instructed my team to move heaven and Earth to make sure that this didn't happen. We started to smartly ration and distribute the ventilators that we had and that others had, and I got daily updates on the supply we had from requests coming in and people wanting to have updates. We had a great group of people working on it. I instructed my team to use the Defense Protection Act. 182720 And the Defense Production Act was used very powerfully -- more powerfully than anybody would know. In fact, so powerfully that, for the most part, we didn't officially have to take it out. It was a hammer. It was a very powerful hammer -- in order to manufacture as many ventilators as possible. Last year America manufactured, from a dead start, 30,000 ventilators and this year, the number will be over 150,000 ventilators. It could be as high as 200,000, far more than we will ever need. 182758 So we will be able to stockpile. We'll be able to talk to states about stockpiling. These are high quality ventilators. We had a choice: we could do inexpensive, less productive ventilators or high quality. We've done a high quality ventilator. So we should have any from 150 to 200,000 ventilators. In addition to that, we have 10,000 ventilators right now in the Federal stockpile ready to move, should we need them -- we might not. 182829 Should we need them in New York, or New Jersey, or in Louisiana, or in Illinois or any other state that may need them, if we have a surge. I'd like to ask Adam Boehler to come up and just say a few words. He's done a fantastic job. Young man who worked 24 hours a day on handling this situation, and I'd just like to have Adam -- wherever he may be -- come up and say a few words. Adam, please. Think you very much. ADAM BOEHLER 182904 BOEHLER>> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. At your direction, this country has worked hard over the past few weeks to ramp up ventilator production through all means possible. Thousands of ventilators are coming in now, monthly, with over 100,000 by the end of June. At the same time, there are over 60,000 ventilators in our hospitals right now that are not in use. Knowing this and at your direction, we reached out to the American Hospital Association to design a system that allows hospitals to lend ventilators to other hospitals right when they need it. 182942 Within the past week alone, 20 top health systems have signed up for this dynamic ventilator reserve, representing over 4,000 ventilators. Not only do we have top academic systems like Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic, but we also have top health systems from New York City, New Orleans, Washington state and California. Over a week ago, these places would have needed help, but now they are here to help. 183010 There's been no American that has needed a ventilator that has not received one. This dynamic, virtual reserve, combined with our strategic stockpile, will ensure that this is always the case. I'd like to thank the President for his leadership and directive to focus on public-private partnerships like this one. I'd also like to thank Sam Hazen from HCA, Lloyd Dean from Common Spirit for leading this effort with the AHA and the Federation of American Hospitals. 183042 These have been difficult times. A few weeks ago, the vIce president came into my office, and reminded us of the power of the resilience of American people and of private companies. We needed it that day, Mr. Vice President. This partnership is another example of Americans helping Americans. Thank you. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP 183109 TRUMP>> I'd shake his hand, but I'm not allowed to. Times have changed, haven't they? Thank you very much. You did a fantastic job. We're very proud of you. You and your whole team. Thank you. Today, we are taking further action to maximize our oversupply and available ventilators. This afternoon, I met with the leaders, the top people of many of America's big, powerful, beautiful and you know, very, very important hospitals, and hospital associations, who join us today. 183144 We had a great meeting. Learned a lot. And they've been going through a lot. They've been doing a fantastic job, as everybody here will attest. 183153 I'm pleased to announce that my administration is partnering with the hospitals across the country to create an innovative new system called the dynamic ventilator reserve. So that we're gonna have tremendous numbers of ventilators, that we're able to help our states with at a later date, if there's ever a problem like this, which we hope to God will never happen again. 183215 It was 1917-1918. That's a long time ago. We hope it never happens again. And I'd like to ask Rick Pollack, the CEO of the American hospital association, Sam Hazen, CEO of HCA healthcare, that's the largest in the United States. Warner Thomas, CEO of Ochsner Health and if I could, Mihal(?), are you here from Cleveland clinic? Somebody --Good. Come on up, folks. Please, thank you. Say a few words. RICK POLLACK 183251 POLLACK>> Thank you very much, Mr. President. We appreciate the opportunity to work with you and your team on the dynamic ventilator reserve program. This will provide a really important mechanism for us in serving our patients and communities by ensuring that this vital equipment will be available to critical areas that are in need. You know, as this battle against this disease has affected the country a little bit unevenly, the rates of infection, hospitalization and ICU use varies from one region to another. 183329 And in some places with lower infection rates, some ventilators may not be in use, while other areas are potentially stretched beyond their capacity. The database of available ventilators that we are creating will allow us to flex so that we can make sure that available equipment can be shared with those in need. 183351 We appreciate the leadership of the health systems that are here today that have stepped forward. And Adam mentioned a few. I don't know if you caught Dr. Francois from NYU Langone and David Dill, the CEO of LifePoint as well. We appreciate the work of the administration in helping us to find innovative solutions to ensure the best care for our patients. We will continue to work with hospitals and health systems across the country to add to this reserve further. 183421 Your team has provided us with important leadership, and we look forward to working with you in making this a success. Thank you, Mr. President. >> Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, Adam, team. I stand here before you, in front of our 285,000 colleagues who provide care to patients every day across the country. One of the guiding principles we had when we went into this Covid-19 battle was to find partnerships -- partnerships with other components of the industry, partnerships with other health systems, but partnerships with government, both local and federal. 183500 And we're proud to be part of this prive-public sector partnership, and I think it will do great good for the communities, so thank you very much. TRUMP>> Gread job, thank you. THOMAS>> Thank you, Mr. President. It's great to have Ochsner Health be part of this program. We've certainly have been a recipient and the state of Louisiana has been a recipient of getting ventilators to our state and to Ochsner health. We're currently taking care of about 60% of the Covid patients in New Orleans and we did see a spike in the last few weeks, but we're starting to get on the other side of that and heading in the right direction. 183535 I also want to thank you personally for helping Oschner health. A couple weeks ago, we were running short on surgical gowns and you and your team were able to direct some to New Orleans which was helpful to us and other hospitals around the New Orleans area. So we're excited to be part of this dynamic ventilator reserve and we are proud to be part of that and help other communities around the country. Thank you. 183601 MIHALJEVIS>>>> Thank you, Mr. president, for the invitation here. On behalf of the cleveland clinic, I would just like to offer a slightly different story about the covid pandemic. In our home state of Ohio, with an early institution of social distancing, our ability to scale out the testing and ramping up capacity, we have actually seen a stable number of patients over the last 8-10 days. Only 160 patients have been hospitalized with covid infection in Cleveland clinic health system. 183632 We're also very grateful for the support from our state government as well from our federal government. This is a battle we are all in together. We coordinate our efforts, share our resources and work together as one. I'm firmly convinced that we can do a lot of good when we work together. Thank you very much for having us. 183659 TRUMP>> That was a terrific meeting, and thank you all for being here. Thank you very much. The United States has far more icu beds per capita than any other nation. We have 34.7 icu beds per 100,000 people, which is the best there is. Compared with roughly 12.5 beds per 100,000 in Italy, 11.6 beds in France, 9.7 beds in Spain. Think about that. 34.7 we have. And 6.6 in the U.K. 183734 There are more than 60,000 ventilators at hospitals and other health care facilities that are not in use at this moment. They didn't need them. We got a lot of them out, and they didn't need them. And that's a good thing, that they didn't need them. A lot of good brainpower was involved in making a lot of fantastic decisions. I want to thank our vice president for the task force, and I want to thank all members of your task force on having done an incredible job. You really have done an incredible job. Thank you, Mike, very much. 183802 Through this new partnership with hospitals, unused ventilators will voluntarily lend th, where they have unused ventilators they will voluntarily lend them to other hospitals and other areas of greater need. Thin the last several days, more than 20 of our nation's largest health systems have already split more than 4000 ventilators, should we need them. 183833 I've been told that if they need more, there are more there. We are going to be helping very soon, when the supply really starts pouring in, we'll really start, in less than a month, we will be helping other countries, and they needed very badly. They have no chance without these ventilators. Tey have -- they have to have ventilators. 183858 As we continue our medical war against the virus, the FDA has now authorized the first test, developed by researchers from Rutgers University that can use saliva from patients, it's the first one. The tests can be self administered by patients in health care settings, which will reduce exposure for medical workers and save personal protective equipment. 183924 Rutgers will begin processing 10,000 tests daily. So by using saliva, that's the first, they will be able to do things in terms of speed and ease that we haven't A A Nbeen able to do before. So a lot of great innovation is taking place during this period of time, and that's, innovation -- I call it innovation under pressure. 183943 That's a big difference. Innovation under pressure. Right? Cleveland clinic knows all about that. As we prepare for the next phase of this great struggle, we must also do everything in our power to restore prosperity for the American worker. There's tremendous interest and excitement surrounding the administration's efforts to get the economy roaring once again, and I think it is going to roar once it gets open. I think it is going to go up tremendously. 184015 You see what's happening with the stock market already, because a lot of the very smart financial people, the great minds, they're looking at the stocks and they're saying, Wow.Because what they really -- what they're really seeing is how we are doing. If we weren't doing well, the market wouldn't be at the level that it is today. 184031 They have a lot of confidence that we are doing the right thing and that our country's going to be open soon, and that our country's going to be booming. We've had request to participate from the best in the world, as we share their enthusiasm to get our country going. So I thank them for wanting to contribute, and we look forward to speaking with many industry leaders, seeking their input on how we can return to what was until very recently the greatest economy anywhere in the world, and I can say, the greatest economy in the history of the world. 184108 There's never been an economy like we had, just a little bit more than a month ago. We set every record you could set. More people working than we've ever had working before. Almost 160 million. The best unemployment numbers we've ever had, and the best employment numbers we've ever had. Everybody was doing well. 184129 Stock market hit a record -- 142 days it hit a record. And I think we are going to top those records, ok? And I think we are going to top them soon, once we get rid of the invisible enemy, which will happen. 184143 The plans to reopen the country are close to being finalized, and we will soon be sharing details and new guidelines with everybody. I will be speaking to all 50 Governors very shortly, and of their state at a time and in a manner as most appropriate. 184223 The day will be very close because certain states, as you know, are in a much different condition, and in a much different place than other states. It's going to be very, very close -- maybe even before the date of May 1st. So, that will be for some states. Actually, there are over 20 that are an extremely good shape. 184252 And we think we're gonna be able to get them open fairly quickly, and then others will follow. 184258 The federal government will be watching them very closely, and we'll be there to help, we will be there to help in many different ways, as we've been, where we built hospital beds at a number that nobody's ever seen before, where we did the ventilators, that we just discussed at a level that nobody has seen before. Nobody can believe. 184319 Other foreign countries, even powerful countries can't believe what we were able to do with ventilators. Big, powerful countries, big producing countries, can't believe what we were able to do. We will hold the governors accountable, but again, we're gonna be working with them to make sure it works really well. Now, we have a list of people that I will be speaking to over the next very short period of time, in many cases tomorrow. We're going to have elected officials, and we'll be submitting that list to you within the next 24 hours. 184358 But we have a list of different industries that I will be discussing by -- meeting by telephone, because we don't want people traveling right now. The American farm bureau federation, (?) Duval, Cisco systems, Tyson foods, Purdue farms, Cargal, Archer Daniels, Midland company, Cortiva, tractor supply company, seaboard corporation, grimmway farms, Mount Air farms, and others in the agricultural business. 184436 In banking, it's bank of America, Brian Moynahan has been great, J.P. Morgan chase, Jamie Dimon, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank corps, Morgan Stanley, James Gorman, Grand Rapids, state bank, southern bank corps, all great institutions with lots to say and lots of good ideas. And if you look at how paycheck has been working out, the numbers are incredible, and I hope congress is goig to be able to supplement the amount of money going to our workers. 184510 I hope they are able to get that done very quickly, because it has been an incredible success, and many are already spending that money, and the money's been distributed at numbers that nobody believed possible for this short period of time. It was only a week ago, but a lot of money's been disturbed already. It's gonna keep our small businesses open. 184531 The construction labor workforce, international union of operating engineers, Jim Calahan, north American building trades union, Sean McGarvey, these are a lot of friends of mine. Laborer's international union of North America, Terry O'Sullivan, International brotherhood of teamsters, James Hoffa. National electrical contractors association, David Long. Beck Tell. Floor 184600 National association of homebuilders. Association of builders and contractors. Associated general contractors. Richard Trumka, af of L-cio. GH Palmer. So these are some of the unions, pretty much, almost all of the ones that will be on the line. In defense, we have Lockheed Martin, Honeywell, Northrop grumman, these are all top of each company, CEO's, chairmans, presidents. 184634 Raytheon, general dynamics. Energy, we had tremendous success recently with energy over the weekend. It finished with tremendous credit going to Russia and Saudi Arabia, and it could be as much as 20 million barrels a day a cut, so we can get rid of some of the tremendous excess oil that's been produced because of the fact that the virus just knocked out almost 50% of the business. 184704 It has been an amazing achievement, some people say one of the biggest oil deals ever made, maybe the biggest oil deal ever made, they are saying. I didn't know that. But we were involved in getting that done and it was very important. We're gonna save hundreds of thousands of jobs for our energy industry, Texas and North Dakota, Oklahoma, all of our different energy states. It's great. So we are very happy about it. 184727 I want to thank everybody. We had the -- it's called the Opec-plus, that's opec-plus, meaning some nations outside of OPEC. And I also want to thank the president of Mexico. Because he was, he was terrific. He showed great dexterity and flexibility in getting the deal done. We want to thank him very much. On the energy front, we had Exxon Mobil, Continental resources, Chevron, Southern company, Alabama power, conocophillips, oxendale petroleum, kindermorgan, Hess corporation, Pero group, and a few others, big ones, great ones. 184806 Financial services, we have Blackstone, Stephen Schwarzman; Paulson and Company, John Paulson; Citadel, Ken Griffin; Elliott Management, Paul Singer; Vista Equity partners, Robert Smith; Fidelity investments, Abigail Johnson; Mastercard, Visa, Chubb, Sequoia, Stevens -- Warren Stevens, great -- Charles Schwab, chuck Schwab will be here by phone. 184844 Food and beverage, national restaurant association; McDonald's, Darden restaurants, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Chik-fil-A, Subway, Bloomin' Brands, Yum Brands, papa John's, Wendy's, Waffle House, Starbucks, Wolfgang park, Thomas Keller, Jean Gorges -- my friend Jean-Georges, and Danielle. You know them. From the transportation world, FedEx, Fred Smith -- a legend. 184914 United airlines, Oscar Munos (?); UPS, David Abney; JB Hunt, YRCworldwide, Crowley, Maritime. Incredible -- big, powerful shippers and transportation companies In telecommunications, we have the legendary John Malone of Liberty media, Verizon, T-Mobile, Charter communications and Brian Roberts of Comcast, thank you all very much. 184948 Health care: New York Presbityrian, Jerry Spire -- a friend of mine -- HCA Health Care, Sam Hazen -- thank you, Sam. Just met with Sam; Ascension Health; Common Spirit Health, Community Health Systems, Trinity Health, Cardinal Health, McKisson. 3M -- Thank you Mike Roman for helping us with face masks. It worked out well for everybody. 185018 Procter & Gamble, Abbott laboratories, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Thermo fisher scientific -- they've been helping us incredibly with testing. 185031 Gilead sciences, abbvie, regeneron, biogen, Roche. And Roche has been fantastic on testing, and the job they have done, I have to call them out. They have really, they have stepped up like very few. 185047 Anthem, UnitedHealth group, Aetna, Cigna, and Humana -- all the big ones. The tech companies -- We have the right ones: Apple, we have Tim cook. Google, Sundar -- thank you, Sundar. Oracle -- Larry Ellison and Safra Catz. Salesforce, Mark Benioff. SAP, sap -- Jen Morgan. Microsoft -- Satya, great job he's done. 185118 Thank you, Satya. Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. IBM, Intel, Qualcomm, CISCO, Advanced Micro Devices, Broadcom -- incredible companies. Companies that no other country will catch, if they're smart. They have to be smart. But I've dealt with a lot of different countries, and I'll say that no -- the respect for silicon valley and our tech companies, there nobody even close to our tech companies. 185153 They can't catch them, so they try and buy them, but we sort of put an end to a lot of that. In sports -- we want to get our sports back. So importantly, these will be some separate calls -- some will be together, by the way -- lists (?) -- and some will be separate. But we have to get our sports back. I'm tired of watching baseball games that are 14 years old. But I haven't actually had too much time to watch. I would say, maybe, I watch one batter, and then I get back to work. 185223 The NBA, Adam Silver. The Major League Baseball -- we miss our baseball. This is baseball season right here. Rob Manfred, thank you very much. NFL, Roger Goodell. Thank you, Roger. UFC, Dana White. Great Dana White. PGA, Jay Moynahan. LPGA, Michael Wan. USTA, Patrick galbraith. Major league soccer, John Garber. WWE, the great Vince Mcmahon. 185259 NASCAR, Lisa Kennedy. Thank you, Lisa. NHL, Gary Bettman. From the New England Patriots, Bob Kraft. Dallas Cowboys, Jerry Jones. Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban. And some of the thought leaders that we are going have and there are some others that we are having -- we're just waiting to hear but everybody is saying yes, I must say. John Ellison, Heritage Foundation. Kay Cole James, great person, Hoover institute. 185330 Condoleezza rice, another great person. Art Laffer, Steve Moore. Steve Forbes. Larry Lindsey. Catherine Reynolds. Scott Gottlieb. Just spoke with Scott. Jim Demint. And Jim has been a terrific friend. Bill Haggerty and Ray Washington. And religious leaders will be coming. On Friday, we will be speaking to -- and we're gonna have a separate list, but we have tremendous enthusiasm to meet by our great religious leaders. 185407 We have incredible people, and they want to -- they want to be a part. And we will be talking about churches, and we will be talking about opening, and we'll be talking about things that are very important to a lot of people, including me. We're gonna find out how we are doing in that regard. So those are the names we have on our list, they're the names that are, I think, the best and smartest, the brightest, and they're gonna give us some ideas. But we're all set. As I said, the governors will be opening up their states. 185442 They're gonna declare when -- they're gonna know when. Some can open very, very shortly, if not almost immediately. We will give a date, but the date's gonna be in the very near future. So we will get it open. Individual states, the governors will be held accountable. 185458 If they need things, we will help them get those things, but we want them to do their testing. We want them -- because they're equipped to do testing. We've created incredible testing. We've done more testing than anybody's ever done in the world right now, and we had a broken system. And now we have a great system. We have a system where other countries are coming to us, and saying we want to get some of those tests. I want to thank Abbott.Cause Abbott came up with the first simpler test. The first one was rough, if you were, I think it was more of an operation than a test. 185529 The first one was for anyone who took it, it was not easy. But now we have a very simple test with Abbott. Now we have saliva. We have lots of other things that are happening. But we have millions of tests. 185545 The governors are responsible. They have to take charge. They have to do a great job, and we're going to suggest that they check people through tests or otherwise coming into their states, and they run their states very strong. 185558 Eventually, we won't have to do that. Eventually, this will be gone, but for a while we are going to do it, so they are going to take charge at their borders. They are going to take charge of people coming in, and maybe to an extent, depending on what they work out with a nearby state, maybe also people leaving. And they'll be able to do that very shortly. 185617 We will be announcing a date, but it will be very short and, frankly, it will be at a time that will be earlier than the deadline that we imposed, the end of April. So we think that some of the Governors will be in really good shape to open up even sooner than that. We'll speak to that, but we are all set. We're counting on the governors to do a great job. 185641 Others are going to have to take a longer period of time until they are in a position to say "we are ready to go." And that's okay. We understand that. Some of the governors have a very tough situation. But in almost all cases, it's all starting to come down. We're very proud of the job everybody has done. 185702 And if you look at the numbers, so the minimum as you -- as portrayed, Deborah is here, Dr. Birx has been fantastic. The minimum was 100,000 deaths, and I hope to be substantially under the minimum. Meaning we all hope -- Mike, right, we all hope to be substantially under. We did the right thing, because otherwise it would have been -- the projections were two million people, the actual projection was 2.2 million people, and if you cut it in half, that would be 1.1 million people. 185738 That's many more, that's double the civil war. And if you cut that in half, you are talking 5 or 600,000 people. That's what we lost in the civil war, and that is cutting it, cutting it, cutting it. And we're not gonna -- that would not be acceptable. That would not be acceptable. Nothing's accept -- One life isn't acceptable, but we weren't given that option. 185800 So I am confident that these respected people that I just read from the list will give us some great ideas, in addition to what the governors have learned. The governors have learned a lot. I've spoken to governors that, at the beginning it was a contentious relationship, and now it's a very friendly relationship, a great relationship, and I am proud to say that some of them, I think are friends. In some cases they are Democrats, but I think they like me, and I actually like them, some of them. I'll tell you who they are someday. 195830 But we are all getting along, and we all want to do the right thing, and I think they will do a great job of leading their individual states. It will be a beautiful thing to watch. They'll go and rely on their mayors and their local town officials. They bring it right now, and Washington shouldn't be doing that. We can't be thinking about a Walmart parking lot that's 2000 miles away, where we are doing testing, but a governor of the state can and a mayor can. And -- right there on the line. So it's gonna be -- I think it's gonna be a terrific system. 185901 And if we are unhappy with the state, we're going to let them know we are unhappy. And if they are not doing the job and they can't get the job done -- and for some reason things are happening that we aren't going to like, like the numbers are heading in the wrong direction, we will have to do something that's very serious -- very serious. We'll have to maybe close them up and start all over again. But I don't think we're gonna have to do that. I think the governors are going to come out at a time -- and these will be individual dates -- and the governors are gonna come out at a time when they're ready. 185931 Some can come out very, very shortly, and we look forward to watching that process. I think it's gonna be a very beautiful process. Our discussions will focus with the people that we are dealing with on rejuvenating the economy, and always health, always health. Health and life. Living is number one. But the rejuvenated economy, and I think it's going to go quickly. We will be utilizing our robust testing capacity for the Governors. 190002 We'll be giving them what they need if they don't have it themselves. We hope by now they will be able to have it themselves. We were hoping they would have had it themselves early on, but they weren't. But such great advances have been made. So we'll be dealing with them on that, and we -- They can rely on us very strongly. They're gonna be relying on us, I think, for some help, and we are there. Whether it's building hospital beds, which I don't think they're going to need. You look at Javits Center -- a great, great job that the Army Corp of Engineers did. FEMA got involved. 190034 We actually ended up sending our medical people. That was not a Covid-19 center. And they asked, "could you do that?", and even after we did that, it was not used very much, meaning they did not have to use it nearly to the extent that they thought when they conceived it. It wasn't that they made a mistake. Nobody made a mistake. We built it. I would rather have too much than too little -- err on the side of caution. And it's really incredible what they did, including the two ships -- the great ships. 190104 And I just want to thank a lot of really great people, a lot of politicians. And again, we're gonna be announcing the political list tomorrow and, on there, we're gonna have a lot of Senators. And we're going to be having a meeting with the governors probably on Thursday, a meeting by teleconference. And A lot of things will be discussed, and some of the details will be discussed. But we want them to do an incredible job of running their states. I think they will do an incredible job too. 190135 After having gotten to know so many of them, I think each one of them will do an incredible job. And again, the government is there. We have ventilators, if they need them. We have beds if they need them. We have hospitals if they need them. We have a testing capacity that is, now, second to none. We're -- again, other countries are calling us -- countries that you thought were doing well are calling us for help with testing. 190200 So we're there to help. And with that, if you have a few questions, we'll take them, and if not, that would be ok too. Yeah, go ahead. Please, Jeff. Q>> Mr. President, two questions. First on your announcement about the WHO. I understand your grievances with them, but can you address why it is the correct time to do this now, in the middle of a pandemic? 190222 TRUMP>> Well, we're going to be dealing with countries and we're gonna be dealing with leaders of different parts of the world. We spend 500 million a year. We have for many years. -- far more than anybody else, including China. And I mean, I read off a long list of problems that we have and we have had problems with them for years. It doesn't m-- We are looking at a term of 60 to 90 days. We are doing a thorough investigation right now, as we speak. But this should have been done by previous administrations a long time ago. 190253 And when you look at the mistakes that were made -- all of the mistakes that were made, it's just something we have to look at. And it is very china-centric. I told that to President Xi. I said, "The World Health Organization is very China-centric," meaning whatever it is, China was always right. You can't do that, can't do that. Not right, and we we spend -- again, it's not a question of money. But when we are spending $500 million and China is spending 38 million, 34 million, 40 million, 42 million in a case. 190330 It's, again, not money, but it's not right. So we will see. This is an evaluation period but, in the meantime, we are also putting a hold on all funds going to World Health. We will be able to take that money and channel it to the areas that most need it, and that's another way of doing it. But we have not been treated properly. Yeah, please. Q>> Mr. President, you mentioned you will be speaking with all of the governors tomorrow. TRUMP>> Yes. Q>> Make recommendations -- TRUMP>> Or, probably Thursday. 190358 Q>> What if don't' they don't listen to you take your advice? Will you consider taking away federal funding? TRUMP>> I don't want to say that. They'll listen. They'll be fine. I think we're gonna have a good relationship. They need the federal government not only for funding, and I'm not saying take it away, but they need it for advice. They'll need maybe equipment that we have. We have a tremendous stockpile that we're in the process of completing. We're in a very good position. Again, the cupboard was bare when I got here. Nobody ever thought a thing -- in all fairness to previous administrations, nobody ever thought anything like this was going to happen, but it did happen. 190435 No, the governors will be very very respectful of the presidency. Again, this isn't me, this is the presidency. The presidency has such a great importance in terms of what we're doing. And you can talk about constitution, you can talk about federalism, you can talk about whatever you want. But the best way, I'm talking now from a managerial standpoint, is to let individual governors run individual states and come to us if they have difficulty, and we will help them. 190506 Q>> You talk about having testing and tracing equipment and the facility for that in place to open up the government. Dr. Fauci said this morning that that critical test and tracing ability does not currently exist. TRUMP>> Well, I -- I don't know, look, I don't know. John, I don't know what he said. Q>> My question is -- TRUMP>> Nobody knows. Q>> My question is, will it exist by may 1?

TVU 20 ANDREW YANG LONDONDERRY NH TOWN HALL ABC UNI 011220 2020 NO MAJOR NEWS AT ALL HIGHLIGHTS Someone asked a question about how to deal with coal miners and balancing the need to help the climate change problem. Yang circled back to UBI as a solution, but then slipped into the "coal miners" can't become "coders" speech - a possible jab at Joe Biden from when he made the suggestion: 161617 So one of the jokes I tell is that anyone who thinks a coal miner should become a coder is generally neither of those things. Because if you talked to coders, they're not like "yeah, you should definitely jump into this." I mean, coding is like a sophisticated foreign language. Would you suggest that, like coal miners all become Russian translators like, doesn't make any sense. (laughs) Oh, yeah, sure. I'll just. I was just venting a little bit. Yang also took a jab at Trump for the way he has handled trade with China, saying he thinks the trade war has been counterproductive, but yet not offering specific solutions of his own: 161756 You have to try to create paths for them to be able to look good for their people in a way that, that meets our goals and ends. So, I'm very much against the way that Trump has run the China trade war. Because I've seen the victims in America of that trade war, and as far as I can tell, it has not really remedied the abuses that it was, it was meant to. Unprompted, Yang started talking about why climate change was so important to him, and how his hopes to fix people's income would help create a path to fixing the climate faster: 162552 I'm, I'm going to throw one last thing that's hopefully will tie this together. In a country where 78% of us are living paycheck to paycheck, and almost half of us can't afford an unexpected 500 dollar bill, if you go to that person, say "We need to worry about climate change" what is a natural response? How much is it going to cost me? I can't pay next month's rent. I'm worried about this week, not like years from now. 162616 We have to get the boot off of our people's throats and then we will be able to make much more rapid progress on climate change. We're gonna find that out in my administration. A light moment came when someone's phone interrupted the room. Only highlighting this moment because it demonstrates how quick Yang is on his feet, making a specific joke based on the exact way the ring tone sounded: 160625 (PHONE RINGS) No, it's fine, it's the Russians always trying to interrupt my events. I'm totally kidding. That was, that was very operatic, though. It was like with those Academy Awards where like the speech goes on too long and it's like the rising music and then I'm like, I just want to thank -- I just wanna thank three more people. HIGHLIGHTS Coders/Coal Miners 161250 Q: Those coal miners that we're putting out of work and we need to put out of work, they have a real strong sense of place, but something must be done to combat climate change...Talk to me about how you would deal with that issue? 161333 YANG>> Thank you, and this is the crux of my campaign in many ways. So, I'll tell you what I would not do. I would not say that we're gonna turn coal miners into coders because that's, essentially, ridiculous, and talking about it is a waste of time and immensely counterproductive for a society. So, the question is what are the roles of the future? For starters, if you put $1,000 a month into a community, let's say in West Virginia...let's say there's a town of 10,000 people in West Virginia. 161404 They're getting an additional 10 million dollars a month in buying power. Then, the money will flow to local non-profits and religious organizations and local businesses that will each need to hire, accessibly, right there in that community. One of the messages, I think, is a loser for Americans everywhere, and it's the subtext of a lot of what's going on, is that you have to move and leave your home and leave your family if you want to live a good life. 161435 That's a losing message. [FEED FREEZES] 161445 We're the richest, most abundant country in the history of the world. We're up to twenty one trillion dollars and counting, and we can easily put the resources into that town so that people are more able to do the kind of work that they want to do, and can reconstitute organizations and businesses that serve the needs of their community. 161505 One of the biggest farces in American life right now is that we don't have the resources to get things done. I'm the numbers guy. Does anyone here remember voting for the 4 trillion dollar bailout of Wall Street? Does anyone remember anyone there being like, "Where are we gonna get the money? Where are we gonna get the money?" No. they had a choice between nailing out the banks and keeping Americans in their homes. 161529 And they chose the banks. I was so disgusted by this decision I found it so corrupt that I quit my job, started a nonprofit, ran it for seven years to create several thousand jobs because I thought that would be generative and productive. And that's the kind of choice that we're making where towns are concerned, too. We're saying, "hey, your coal mine has been stripped bare. Now you're dead. Now you have no value. Your furniture manufacturing plant closes. You're also dead." 161558 What we have to say instead is that this is the richest country in the history of the world. We can easily put resources into the hands of every single American to help those communities have a path forward that will work for them. (applause) 161617 So one of the jokes I tell is that anyone who thinks a coal miner should become a coder is generally neither of those things. Because if you talked to coders, they're not like "yeah, you should definitely jump into this." I mean, coding is like a sophisticated foreign language. Would you suggest that, like coal miners all become Russian translators like, doesn't make any sense. (laughs) Oh, yeah, sure. I'll just. I was just venting a little bit. trump-trade war 161645 Q>> Are tariffs a policy that you think would help equalize our relation with China and other rising economies? Or are there other solutions that you propose that would be more productive? 161656 YANG>> Thanks for the question. I like it. Tariffs are a tool that sometimes can be handy and useful. I think initiating a trade war is counterproductive and I, I wa sin Iowa and their people are very angry because they've had their prices change and had to fire people and disinvest and do all these nasty things for things they had nothing to do with. 161729 Which are the Chinese piracy of intellectual property. So to me, tariffs are there as a tool, you'd want to use them very very judiciously. You'd want to use them with a lot of transparency and lead time so that if, if you are going to use them, you'd say, "hey, in 2 years time, if you don't change these practices these tariffs are going to go up" And actually use them as an instrument to push people in a direction you want to go. You don't want to put other adminst-- country's governments in a position where they feel like they're going to like win or lose. 161756 You have to try to create paths for them to be able to look good for their people in a way that, that meets our goals and ends. So, I'm very much against the way that Trump has run the China trade war. BEcause I've seen the victims in America of that trade war, and as far as I can tell, it has not really remedied the abuses that it was, it was meant to. PHONE RINGS 160625 (PHONE RINGS) No, it's fine, it's the Russians always trying to interrupt my events. I'm totally kidding. That was, that was very operatic, though. It was like with those Academy Awards where like the speech goes on too long and it's like the rising music and then I'm like, I just want to thank -- I just wanna thank three more people. Climate Change 162552 I'm, I'm going to throw one last thing that;s hopefully will tie this together. In a country where 78% of us are living paycheck to paycheck, and almost half of us can't afford an unexpected 500 dollar bill, if you go to that person, say "We need to worry about climate change" what is a natural response? How much is it going to cost me? I can't pay next month's rent. I'm worried about this week, not like years from now. 162616 We have to get the boot off of our people's throats and then we will be able to make much more rapid progress on climate change. We're gonna find that out in my administration. TRINT yang londonderry.wav [15:42:29] No, I no. It is incredible. [15:42:35] It is. [15:42:45] In 1992, they had to be back to speak about seven months ago. And I said, I haven't been back since I graduated because I didn't have a lot of time with the school and the student body then erupted in applause. [15:43:00] Now they go. No, I wasn't my intended reaction. I went to college not so far from here in Rhode Island and Brown University. [15:43:10] And then I went to Yale Law School at York City, became known to have a lawyer for five months, and then I left to start a company. How many of you have started a business or organization or club or mailing list? Raise your hand. [15:43:23] So if you put your hand up, you know a couple things. You know, number one, it's much harder than anyone ever lets on. And number two, when someone asks you how it's going, what do you say? Great. My business was great, too, until it failed. My parents told people I was still a lawyer because they're Asian. Among other things, I'd been bitten by the bug and I worked at a small company and then another. And then I became the CEO of an education company that grew to become number one in the US, was bought by a big company in 2009, and 2009 was a very tough time in much of the country because of the financial crisis. How many of you were here in New Hampshire in 2009? [15:44:05] Eleven years ago. How was that time? Here in this part of the state? [15:44:12] Not very good. I don't like to think about it. [15:44:15] I ask the same question in another part of the state. And this 14 year old boy raised his hand and said it was very, very hard. I looked and I said this before years old. How do you remember? [15:44:26] And he said, My parents had to sell the house. And that's all I remember. And I was like, oh, he would remember that. And that's the kind of thing you don't forget. It was such a tough time and so much of the country. And I had this sense, I had an insight as to why our economy crashed. And it crashed in large part because some of the wannabe whiz kids I'd go into eggs, Aaron Brown and Columbia with had gone straight to Wall Street and come up with mortgage backed securities, exotic financial instruments and derivatives. So I thought what a disaster that is. What a train wreck. Let's try to have people do the opposite of that. So I thought the opposite of that would be to head to a place like Detroit or Baltimore or Birmingham or St.. [15:45:10] Lewis to create businesses that would then create jobs in those communities. I left my job to start a nonprofit. How did you all work at non-profits now? [15:45:19] How many of you volunteer a nonprofit? [15:45:23] You also delis just pretend that allows one. And it's like, are you a good person? Yes, I am. So one time I think so. [15:45:34] When I started this nonprofit, the way I started the nonprofit was I put some of our savings into this Bible and see through that I created. And then I started calling rich friends with this question, Do you love America? This heart abundance said, What does it mean if I say yes? And then I said, Are these ten thousand dollars? And so I told them that I love America for 10000. I thought you did. So I raised a couple hundred thousand that grew to the billions. And over the next seven years running this nonprofit helped create several thousand jobs in 15 cities around the country, was honored by the Obama administration multiple times. So I got to bring my wife to meet the president. My in-laws are very excited about me that week. [15:46:16] It's like she did. All right. [15:46:17] I take these pictures, but unfortunately, I had this sinking feeling while I was traveling the country, running a venture for America that things were getting worse, not better in many places. How many of you grew up in New England or upstate New York, like me, like this general vicinity? [15:46:34] How about that? Midwest, South, West Coast or mountain, west or Southwest? [15:46:42] Yeah, I have never been to Missouri or Alabama or Louisiana or Ohio even before running a venture for America. And I felt like when you flew between St. Louis and San Francisco or Michigan in Manhattan, you felt like you were crossing dimensions or decades or ways of life and not just a few times month. I don't know if you've had that experience yourselves going between parts of the country, but I was still stunned when Donald Trump became our president in 2016. Today, I know you all remember. [15:47:13] Well, how did you all react when you want to cry, crush someone in another man's head. [15:47:22] Berman To me. Trump's victory was a red flag where tens of. [15:47:40] As in friends and neighbors who celebrated his victory. Now, if you were to turn on cable news that night or any night since then, why would. [15:48:00] Facebook social media, for sure. James Cole, Mees Lines FBI. [15:48:11] Hillary Clinton emails complacency, turn out Electoral College, change, anti politician, all. [15:48:24] All these things kind of mixed together into some sort of cocktail or brew. But I'm a numbers guy and I love when looking in the numbers for an explanation. And I found it over the past number of months and years, we have blasted away four million manufacturing jobs in this country. And where were those jobs primarily? [15:48:48] Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, all the swing states that not all Donald Trump needed to win and did win. And you may know what this looks and feels like because this happened in New Hampshire a little bit earlier where you all lost 12000 manufacturing jobs, primarily in the northern part of the state. And when those plants or mills closed, then the shopping district closed and people started to leave and the schools shrank. And that community has never recovered. I have been to those towns in northern New Hampshire. I've been to towns that have had the exact same thing play out in Missouri, Ohio, Michigan, western Pennsylvania. [15:49:32] And what happened to those jobs is now shifting to other parts of the economy. How many of you have noticed stores closing around where you live here in Londonderry? And why are those stores closing? Amazon online. Amazon alone is soaking up 20 billion dollars in business every year. How much an Amazon pay in taxes last year? Zero. So that's the math. Londonderry 20 billion out 30 percent of your stores and malls close. You get zero back. Most common job in the economy is retail clerk, average retail clerks, a 39 year old woman making between eight to 10 dollars an hour. What is her next move going to be when the store closes? [15:50:17] We all see the self-service kiosks at the CBS and the grocery store and the fast food restaurant. But the changes are more pervasive in subtle. When you all call the customer service line of the big company and you get the bot or the software on the other end. I'm sure you do the exact same thing I do, which is you pound 0 0 0 say human, human, representative, representative, human, human until you get someone on the line. Right. Raise your hand if that's what you do. Oh yeah, we all do that. Well, Susan, you hear that software, you're like, oh no, I hope this company still employs a human that I will now get to. But in two or three short years, the software is going to sound like this. [15:50:57] Hey, Andrew, how's it going? What can I do for you? It'll be fast, efficient, peppy, delightful. You might not even know its software. What is this going to mean for the two and a half million Americans who work at call centers right now making 10 to 14 dollars an hour? [15:51:13] How many of you all know a truck driver here in New Hampshire? [15:51:17] It's the most common job in 29 states. There are three and a half million truck drivers in our country. My friends in California are working on trucks that can drive themselves. They say they're in 98 percent of the way there. And if you doubt that the robot trucks are coming. A robot truck just transported 20 tons of butter from California to Pennsylvania two weeks ago with no human intervention. [15:51:38] Why did they choose butter for this maiden voyage? I have no idea. [15:51:43] But if you Google robot butter truck, you will see. And then in Pennsylvania, there was a giant stack of pancakes. Now there were. [15:52:08] Our highway system has a circulatory system and the trucks are like blood cells carrying cargo, but they don't just carry what's inside the truck. They also carry economic vitality. Almost 10 percent of the jobs in the state of Nebraska. Support truckers and trucking. What will happen to all of those jobs when the robot truck does not need to stop in Nebraska anymore? We're in the midst of the greatest economic transformation in the history of our country, what experts are calling the fourth industrial revolution. When's the last time you heard a politician say fourth industrial revolution? Just now. Three seconds ago. And I'm barely a politician. My wife joked that I'd make a lousy politician because I'm a subpar liar. Sure, I could barely. Like I was trying to surprise her with a proposal, and I felt like I was like just like she knows, she knows we got to. [15:53:02] Yes, eventually. [15:53:06] So we're in the midst of this fourth industrial revolution. It's transforming our way of life in fundamental ways. [15:53:12] And I went to our leaders in Washington, D.C. I asked them in 2017. So Trump wins. I'm like, oh, my gosh. You know, here I am, Mr. Job Creator. Getting awards and accolades. And I feel like I'm pouring water into a bathtub that has a giant hole ripped in the bottom. The water's rushing out. Well, it helps get Donald Trump elected. We're scapegoating immigrants for things immigrants have nothing to do with. So I go to our leaders in D.C. and I say, what are we going to do to help our people manage this economic transformation? I had my facts and my figures. And what do you think the folks in D.C. said to me when I said, what are we going to do? Go home. Nothing. I didn't know that in New Hampshire. Someone made this Scooby Doo noise was like, woo, woo. [15:53:59] The main response I got out of D.C. were no one. Andrew, we cannot talk about this now. [15:54:05] It's verbatim. One was very reassuring. Number two, we should study this further. Number three, we must educate and retrain all Americans for the jobs of the future. How many of you heard that one before? Yeah, that one sounds somewhat responsible, but I'm the numbers guy. [15:54:21] So I said, hey, I looked at the studies. You all want to guess how effective the government funded retraining programs were for the manufacturing workers who lost their jobs. [15:54:32] I'm asking you very low and you're guessing low and you're guessing low in part because, you know, people you know that people aren't all just going to march out of the factory and be like, take me to the coding school now. Like, that's that's that's not the way people are. So the success rates were between zero and 15 percent. They're a total dud of the manufacturing workers in the Midwest who lost their jobs. [15:54:54] Almost half never worked again. And of that group, half filed for disability. You then saw surges and suicides and drug overdoses in those communities to the point where America's life expectancy has now declined for the last three years in a row. You know, the last time America's life expectancy declined for three years in a row worldwide 2 is a very good guess. Depression's a very good guess. It's earlier than both of those. It's the Spanish flu of 1918, the global pandemic that killed millions. You have to go back 100 years to a point where America's life expectancy declined three years in a row. [15:55:28] It is highly unusual for your life expectancy to ever decline in a developed country. It ordinarily just keeps going up and up because you're getting richer, stronger, healthier. But in the U.S., it's gone down and then down and then down again. [15:55:41] So when I said this to the folks in D.C., one of them said, well, I guess we'll get better at the programs. And another said something that brought me here to you all today, he said, Andrew, you're in the wrong town. No one here in D.C. will do anything about this because fundamentally this is a town of followers, not leaders. And the only way we will do something about it is if you were to create a wave in other parts of the country and bring that wave crashing down on our heads. And I said. Challenge accepted. I'll be back in two years with the wave. [15:56:13] As now, you may not know this, but you all are part of that wave. You all are among the most powerful people in our country today. I did the math. You know how many Californians each New Hampshire voter is worth? One thousand Californians of. So look around this cafeteria. How many of us are there today? I'm going to give a Trump an estimate. [15:56:46] There are eighteen hundred people here in the biggest room anyone's ever seen. [15:56:54] There are about 200 people here today, but two hundred people here in New Hampshire is the equivalent of five football stadiums full of Californians. That is the power you have to shape the future of this country. You all can do something that other Americans only dream about. Most of our fellow citizens look up and they see the government pipes just clogged full of lobbyist cash and they think there's nothing they can do about it. They are generally correct. There is next to nothing they can do. But you all can flush the pipes clean in 30 short days. That's the magic of this place. So I love campaigning here so much. [15:57:30] If you take a different message to the rest of the country, we can retake our own government and make it work for the people of this country. This campaign raised sixteen point five million dollars in the fourth quarter of last year with zero corporate PAC money. All grassroots donations. Average donation of only thirty five dollars each. So my fans are almost as cheap as Bernie's. We are fifth in the polls and rising to become the Democratic nominee. And this campaign is all about rewriting the rules of the 21st century economy. To work for us, to work for you, to work for your families. [15:58:16] This is the only way it's going to happen. We're in the midst of the greatest winner take all economy in the history of our country. You have trillion dollar tech companies like Amazon paying less in taxes than everyone here in this room today. Now, you may not know this, but this is what you're here to change. You are here to see to it that we get our fair share of all the value that's flowing out of your communities and bring it back, bring it back and then do what with it. Put it directly into your hands. Because when it's in your hands, what will you do with it? What does that trickle up economy look like? [15:58:49] How would you actually spend a thousand dollars a month if you were to get it? [15:58:57] Student loans, how much of it would stay right here in New Hampshire? Most all of it. Some of it would flow out. [15:59:09] You might get your own Netflix password, but most of it would stay right here in your communities. Now, I know that at some point you've seen that there's a man running for president who wants to give everyone 1000 dollars a month. And I know the first time you saw that, you thought that was too good to be true, a gimmick. That will never happen. But this is not my idea and it's not a new idea. [15:59:36] Thomas Paine was forward at the founding of the country. He called it the citizen's dividend for all Americans. Martin Luther King, whose birthday we celebrate every year, was fighting for this when he was killed in 1968. It's called a guaranteed minimum income for all Americans. I met with his son in Atlanta and he said this is what his dad was fighting for. A thousand economists, including Milton Friedman, one of the fathers of modern economic theory, endorsed this plan in the 60s, passed the U.S. House of Representatives twice in 1971 under Nixon. [16:00:10] It's called the Family Assistance Plan would have guaranteed an income floor for all Americans. And then 11 years later, one state actually passed a dividend where now everyone in that state gets between one and two thousand dollars a year. No questions asked. And what state is that and how do they pay for it? And what is the oil of the 21st century? Data technology, A.I., self-driving cars and trucks. A study just came out that said that our data is now worth more than oil. Billions of dollars a year, where's all that money going? [16:00:55] Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple. The trillion dollar. Jeff Bezos singled out individual downstream. Jeff Bezos is where the hundred fifteen billion dollars post divorce. [16:01:08] No judgment. I mean, it's just like a statement of fact. [16:01:14] We have to make sure that we're getting our fair share from the biggest winners of the 21st century economy. If we get our fair share of every Amazon sale, every Google search, every Facebook ad, eventually every robot truck mile and a I work unit, we can easily afford this thousand dollar dividend in our hands after we spend it in our communities. Creates all sorts of new economic growth right here in New Hampshire, actually creates an environment where your kids don't necessarily feel like they have to leave your town or your state to have the kind of life that they want to lead. [16:01:49] We say there was a corrections officer right here in New Hampshire who said to me we should pay people to stay out of jail because it costs so much more when they're in jail. This was a corrections officer. He got. He knows he needs like staring at it every day. So these are the things that we can do to build this trickle up economy that would actually pay for itself many times over. One estimate said that just by making us stronger, healthier, better educated, it would increase GDP by 700 billion dollars just based on better health and education outcomes for our people. [16:02:23] I've run several organizations and I know investing in people's what good organizations do here in America right now. Are we investing in our kids? Are we setting them up to actually succeed? Are we putting them in a position where they're going to lead a better life than we have led? I know Steve said some of the same things. Steve is a parent. I'm a parent. How many of you all are parents? If you're a parent, you've had this sinking feeling that we're leaving our kids a future that is less secure or less stable and less prosperous than the lives that we have led. We feel that way because that is the truth of it in the numbers. [16:02:57] I'm not running for president because I dreamt about being president. Those are not the conversations in the Yang household. I can guarantee you that it was more like your terrible clean up your room monthly. And it was this. [16:03:10] That's true. And now I now my moms like me. Like, how did you do it anyway? [16:03:19] I'm running for president because like those of you had your hands up, I'm a parent and a patriot and I have seen the future that lies ahead for our kids. It is not something I'm willing to accept for them. They deserve better. [16:03:30] Applause. [16:03:33] And you all, unlike anyone else in the country, can insure that they actually will do better. Every other family in the country wants that kind of power that you all have. And the question is how are you going to use it? In 30 days time? It's a really profound question, but it's an awesome one. [16:03:54] As Steve said, we get told how great things are by these headline economic measurements. They say corporate profits are at record highs, GDP figures are at record highs. GDP is actually GDP. GDP is at record highs. [16:04:07] Also at record highs, United States of America right now. Debt. Student loan debt. Financial insecurity. Americans living paycheck to paycheck. Stress. Anxiety. Mental illness. Depression, suicides, drug overdoses, again, of corporate profits are going up and life expectancy is going down, which do you listen to? We know which one D.C. is listening to. [16:04:35] D.C. can't even see people on life expectancy. D.C. is just staring at the dollar signs. Washington, D.C. today is the richest city in our country. [16:04:43] Think about that. What do they produce? [16:04:49] Whatever their producing business is very good. Donald Trump said he wanted to drain the swamp and that actually evoked a lot of support in the American people. I don't want to drain the swamp. I want to distribute the swamp. Why would you employ hundreds of thousands of workers in the most expensive metro area in the state, in the country? Why wouldn't you move some of those workers and jobs to Ohio, Michigan, New Hampshire, Missouri, much lower cost. You save billions of dollars right off the bat. [16:05:23] And I'd argue that the agency would make better decisions because they'd actually live someplace normal instead of a D.C. bubble where they look at each other all day. I'm for term limits for members of Congress. [16:05:40] The job of our representatives should be to head to D.C., get work done on our behalf and then come home. Their job should not be to go to D.C. and try and crouch there for as long as possible, being like. Let me stay. Let me stay as your president. After I do everything I can for us for eight years, you will never hear from me again. [16:06:05] And I'm certainly not going to stay in D.C. a day longer, and I have to, I'll be like, what's to help sort out? All right, I'm out. [16:06:15] One of the reasons why we're so confused as a country is that certain economic measurements are going up while our quality of life is going down. And when you have that kind of issue. No, it's fine. It's the Russians always trying to interrupt my events. I totally get it. That was that was very operatic, though. It was like what those Academy Awards were like. The speech goes on too long. It is like polarizing music. Best of luck. I just want to thank what I think three more people. [16:06:48] It's fine. I'd have to say that you have to be a. [16:06:54] So we have these measurements that are heading up even as our quality of life is going down. What we have to do is bring them together. And the most obvious way to do that is actually upgrade our measurements to tell us how we are doing instead of GDP and corporate profits that are going to go up when robot trucks come. We need things that actually tell us how we are going to be progressing. So instead of GDP, how about wellness and life expectancy? [16:07:21] Mental health and freedom from substance abuse. Clean air and clean water. Environmental sustainability. Proportion of Americans who can retire in quality circumstances. [16:07:31] Childhood success rates. These are the real measurements of our society. And as your president, it will be my pleasure to go to the Bureau of Economic Analysis and say, hey, GDP. A hundred years old, really out of date, kind of useless. Even the inventors had one hundred years ago. This is a terrible measurement of national well-being, and we should never use it as that. And here we are writing it off a cliff 100 years later. [16:07:55] I'm going to modernize it to this scorecard that highlights how we are actually doing in our communities. And I will present the real data to everyone every year at the State of the Union. I will be the first president to use a PowerPoint deck in the State of the Union. And I know how deeply flawed our economic measurements are because of my own family. My wife is at home with our two boys every day taking care of Christopher and Damien, one of whom is autistic. Our boys are 7 and 4. How much is her work included in our economic measurements every day or every year? [16:08:35] Zero evolution and all the stay at home parents around the country get a zero. All the caregivers taking care of ailing loved ones. Zero. Volunteers and activists zero. Coaches and mentors making people stronger. Zero. Ninety eight percent of artists, zero. [16:08:58] Increasingly, local journalists, we have put 2000 local newspapers out of business over the last number of months because all the classified ads disappeared to the Internet. You know, it doesn't function as well without local journalism, democracy. Because how the heck are you going to vote on what's going on in your community if there's no one telling you what's going on in your community? [16:09:20] These are some of the things that we claim to value most highly in our lives, our families, our communities, our democracy. And we are allowing them to get zeroed out one by one by one. I talked to my wife about this when I started the campaign and she said, how has America gotten so far to this side? And I said that we have allowed ourselves to get collectively confused, that economic value and human value are somehow the same things when they are not. The message you have to take to our fellow Americans in 30 days is that we all and our children all have intrinsic value as Americans, as citizens and as human beings ourselves. [16:10:05] We have to say that the machines work for us, and it's not that we all work for this giant capital efficiency machine. [16:10:20] This is the way we humanize our economy and get it working for us. This is how we're able to look our kids in the eyes and say that their country loves them, their country values them, and their country will invest in them for real. [16:10:40] I love New Hampshire because you golf can make this real in a heartbeat. I know I can feel it. Energy is rising. Everything is getting focused on February 11th right here in this state. Donald Trump is our president today because he had a very, very simple message. He said he was going to make America great again. What did Hillary Clinton say in response? [16:11:01] America's already great. Remember that? It's been a long three years, I know, but it's about to end. [16:11:14] Hillary's response did not go over well because the problems are real. [16:11:18] We have to acknowledge the depth and severity and reality of the problems in our community. But then we need real solutions that will actually help move the country forward. What we're Donald Trump's solutions. Build a wall. Turn the clock back. Bring the old jobs back. [16:11:37] Londonderry You know, we have to do the opposite of these things. We have to turn the clock forward. We have to accelerate our economy and society to rise to the real challenge. [16:11:54] Deal candidate for this job, because the opposite of Donald Trump is an Asian man who likes math. [16:12:01] Thank you very much, Londonderry. You may not know this, but math is an acronym. And what does it stand for? [16:12:10] Make America think harder. That's right. That is your job in 30 days. It is your job to move this country, not left now. Right. But forward. And I know that's just where you take us. [16:12:21] Let's go. Let's make history together. New Hampshire. Thank you. Thank you, Londonderry. [16:12:33] The greatest room of all time. [16:12:36] I also love to take some questions. I think Lacey has a mike and we'll select you at her discretion. But what lazy criteria are? [16:12:49] Wow. First question, I've spent a lot of time in West Virginia and I know this is New Hampshire and I'm from here, but those coal miners that we're putting out of work and we need to put out of work, they have a real strong sense of place. And this is something we understand here in New England. They want to make a living in the mountains that they love. Yet we need to move forward on a climate change issue, which is going to put them out of work. In some ways, it's like the furniture guys up in Grafton. Talk to me about how you would deal with that issue. [16:13:33] Thank you. And this is the crux of my campaign in many ways. So I'll tell you what I would not do. I would not say that we're going to turn coal miners into coders, because that's essentially ridiculous. And talking about it is a waste of time and immensely counterproductive for society. So the question is, what are the rules of the future? For starters, if you put a thousand dollars a month into a community, let's say in West Virginia, let's say there's a town of 10000 people in West Virginia. They're getting an additional 10 million dollars a month in buying power. Then the money will flow to local nonprofits and religious organizations and local businesses that will each need to hire excessively. [16:14:18] Right there in that community, one of the messages, I think is a loser for Americans everywhere. And it's the subtext of a lot of what's going on is that you have to move and leave your home and leave your family if you want to live a good life. That's a losing message. It's where the richest, most abundant country in the history of the world, where up to twenty one trillion dollars and counting. And we can easily put the resources into that town so that people are more able to do the kind of work that they want to do and can reconstitute organizations and businesses that serve the needs of their community. [16:15:05] One of the biggest farces in American life right now is that we don't have the resources to get things done. I'm the numbers guy. Does anyone here remember voting for the four trillion dollar bailout of Wall Street? Does anyone remember anyone there being like where we're going to get the money we're running? Get the money. [16:15:23] No. They had a choice between bailing out the banks and keeping Americans in their homes and they chose the banks. I was so disgusted by this decision. I found it so corrupt that I quit my job, started a nonprofit and random for seven years to create several thousand jobs because I thought that would be generative and productive. [16:15:42] And that's the kind of. [16:15:44] Choice that we're making where towns are concerned, too, we're saying, hey, your coal mine has been stripped bare. Now you're dead. Now you have no value. Your furniture manufacturing plant closes. You're also dead. Well, we have to say instead is that this is the richest country in the history of the world. We can easily put resources into the hands of every single American to help those communities have a path forward that will work for them. [16:16:16] So one of the jokes I tell is that anyone who thinks coal miners should become a coder is generally neither of those things because you talked to coders, they're like, yeah. Incidentally, you jump into this. I mean, coding is like a sophisticated foreign language. Would you suggest that, like coal miners all become Russian translators like this that make any sense? [16:16:39] Oh, yeah, sure. I'll just. I was just venting a little bit. [16:16:44] Hello. Our tariffs, a policy that you think would help equalize our relation with China and other rising economies. Are there other solutions that you propose that be more productive? [16:16:57] Thanks for the question. I like it. [16:17:03] Tariffs are a tool that sometimes can be handy and useful. [16:17:11] I think initiating a trade war is counterproductive. And I was in Iowa and there people are very angry because they've had their prices change and had to fire people and disinvest and do all these nasty things for things they had nothing to do with, which are the Chinese piracy of intellectual property. So to me, tariffs are there is a tool. You'd want to use them very, very judiciously. You'd want to use them with a lot of transparency and lead time. [16:17:39] So if you are going to use them, you'd say, hey, in two years time, if you don't change these practices, these tariffs are going to go up and actually use them as an instrument to push people in a direction you want to go. You don't want to put other countries, governments in a position where they feel like they're going to like win or lose. You have to try and create paths for them to be able to look good for their people in a way that that meets our goals and ends. So I'm very much against the way that Trump has run the China trade war, because I've seen the victims in America of that trade war. And as far as I can tell, it has not really remedied the abuses that it was it was meant to. [16:18:18] Thank you. Good question, though. Feel like you're studying economics at the high school level was your college. [16:18:25] So you've discussed about automation and lots of and how jobs have been increasingly taken over by machines. In your debates, as we've seen previously. But one issue that I'd like to discuss is immigration. So what are your plans for immigration reform? [16:18:46] Thanks for the question. [16:18:49] I'm the son of immigrants myself. I instinctively believe that immigrants make our country stronger and more dynamic. And I talk about my family's history. So my family, my parents met us graduate students at UC Berkeley. My father went on to get a P H D in physics. And when I was a kid, I thought that everyone's dad had a PGD. So I would go and be like, what's your dad's pitched in? And then eventually someone was like, here's what is pitched. He was in. And I was like, Oh, no. [16:19:15] It's like. [16:19:16] And then I learned then I got a little bit older and I found out that my dad generated patents for G.E. and IBM and it sounded very important. So I went to him and said, how much do you get paid when you generate a patent? I was waiting for him to say like, well, it's lots of money. And he was like, I get paid about two hundred dollars. And then I said, that does not sound like a lot. And he said, well, I also get paid a salary so I can feed, housing, clothe you and your brother with a message being like, shut up. [16:19:43] And then I was like, oh I see how that that bargain worked. So I raise the story because that was a huge win for my family, a game to this country. Create a better life for me and my brother. And I would argue that my father, generating sixty nine U.S. patents for G.E. and IBM was great for the United States to. So that's the kind of equation that we need to be running more of, where we need to stay magnet for people around the world who want to come here and innovate and drive value in various ways. Almost half of the Fortune 500 companies were founded by either immigrants or children of immigrants as one very big signal. So I'm pro immigrant. We do need to enforce the southern border and have real policies in place. [16:20:37] But I believe that the people who are here and trying to create a better life for themselves. We need to have a path to citizenship for people who are here and undocumented, because right now we're in a very, very bad situation for everyone where you can pretend you can deport 12 million plus people, which would destroy regional economies and destroy families and be inhumane and all this other. So they're very deeply problematic elements in real life. You can do what we're doing now, which is just not know what's going on. And then have people run into institutions when they get into a car accident or an emergency room or have a problem. [16:21:28] Is the right one. It's a path that Marco Rubio and other Republicans supported until they lost their political courage. [16:21:35] And and even when we put this new third path in effect, the fact is many or many people who are here will never actually trust the government anyway. And they'll try and stay in the shadows. So we have to actually create a path that has like a legitimate hope for them and can inspire and inspire in them that this is all a long term place for them and their families. Like above, like the shadows or out of the shadows. [16:22:10] So you were talking earlier about, like that robot butter trucks and like all those like technology stuff taking over jobs. But I'm I'm on the robotics team here at the school and I'm an aspiring engineer. So I'm just wondering how you're planning on still encouraging people to get active in these like plenty of opportunities in these jobs that are engineering, architecture, all those things and like still be able to compete with other nations and things like that. If we try to decrease the amount of people in those. [16:22:42] Oh, no. First, let me say, let's give her a round of applause for being all over the robots in the future. That's so cool. [16:22:51] I'm friends with a guy named Dean came in. Do you know Dean came in, as you might have done? I am the most pro progress, pro innovation guy around. I think I'm just also very pro human being. Like I want human beings to all be excited about progress and innovation. Right now, eight percent of Americans work in STEM fields, science, technology, engineering and math. So it's not realistic to say, hey, we're going to turn 92 percent of you and 8 percent. That's not realistic. But we do need to invest a lot in helping channel Americans towards fields and livelihoods that will be here for a long time to come. [16:23:27] So one massive opportunity here in the U.S. we are under investing in technical, vocational and trade programs from the high school level, up only 6 percent of American high school students are in technical or apprenticeship or trade programs in Germany. That's 59 percent. Think of that Gulf. You think we're missing something there. [16:23:48] So we need to invest in those jobs and those jobs will be with us for a long time to come. We have millions of unfilled roles in those in those industries. And one joke I tell, but it's true. Can you imagine what it would take to have a robot each back repair person come to your home or, you know, it's like impossible that they're going to be humans doing very important technical work for a long time. It's just right now we are not investing enough in those programs. I'm going to team up with Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs and go around saying like, these jobs are awesome and then like invest billions and trying to push Americans in that direction because that's what we need more of. So keep it up. You're awesome progressives, awesome inventions. Awesome. And I'm going to throw an A into stem for steam a is arts. We need to invest a lot more in arts education. [16:24:42] You see, you have another victim forum, and I'm actually all yours. [16:24:48] I guess that might be selfie time, is that what happened? It is selfie time. You never want the candidate to say, I can't take any more questions because I got to get in a flight to Des Moines. So you have somebody else do it for him. [16:24:59] So let me just say one thing, or we we close. So when I say I haven't talked that much about climate change, but how many of you are concerned about climate change? You should know that climate change is a top maybe the top priority for me and my administration. One of my first acts will be to put a price on pollution and carbon emissions so that the people that are actually speeding up climate change have to pay back into the system. And then we use all of that to move us towards renewable sources of energy. [16:25:33] So you should know I'm serious. [16:25:34] Like like I see how this is already endangering us, not just here in New Hampshire, but everywhere. We've all seen these horrific images out of Australia. How many of you seen them? Like it's like out of a science fiction nightmare movie. And we need to make progress as rapidly as possible. I'm going to throw one last thing that's hopefully a tie this together in a country where 70 percent of us are living paycheck to paycheck and almost half of us can't afford an unexpected five hundred dollar bill. If you go to that person, say we need to worry about climate change, what is a natural response? How much is going to cost me I can't pay next month's rent, I'm worried about this week, not like years from now. We have to get the boot off of our people's throats and then we will be able to make much more rapid progress on climate change. And we're gonna find that out. My administration. [16:26:32] OK, first of all, ladies and gentlemen, give it up one more time, New Hampshire. [16:26:36] Andrew yes. Yes. Yes.

INT BROLL PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA TUMBLR EVENT / CUTS Tuesday, June 10, 2014 President Obama Remarks at Tumblr Event Stix DC Slug: 1600 WH TUMBLR STIX RS33 73 AR: 16x9 Disc# 071 NYRS: WASH3 (4523) 16:15:32 President Obama enters the room (Applause) 16:14:50 Hello, everybody. (Off-side conversation.) Good to see you. Hello, everybody. (Laughs.) Hey, you don't have to be so formal. (Laughter.) Sheesh. Come on now. DAVID KARP: This is unusual. Thank you! Thank you, everyone. And welcome to the White House. Thank you for having us, Mr. President. I'm David Karp, the founder of Tumblr, and it is my tremendous privilege to be here with President Obama today and joined by the Tumblr community. Thank you for joining us, everyone. Yesterday the president signed an executive order intended to curb the pain of student debt. Americans now hold more than a trillion dollars in student debt, one of the greatest expenses they'll incur in their lifetime. And the generation that's just reaching college age is beginning to wonder if it's even worth it. One-third of Americans who've applied for an educational loan this year also happen to use Tumblr. So last week we asked our audience if they had questions that they'd like to ask the president about the cost value and accessibility of higher education. Turns out they had quite a few. We're not going to be able to get through all of them today, but the president has been kind enough to give us some time at his house to answer some of those questions. (Laughter.) So again, huge thank you for making yourself available today. Anything you'd like to add before we start? 16:16:59 Well, first of all, this is a rental house. (Laughter.) I just want to be clear. My lease runs out in about 2 1/2 years. Second of all, I want to thank David and the whole Tumblr community for participating in this. We're constantly looking for new ways to reach audiences that are relevant to the things we're talking about. And obviously, you know, young people disproportionately use Tumblr. A lot of Tumblr users are impacted by student debt. So for you to be able to give us this forum to speak directly to folks is wonderful. And I'm looking forward to a whole bunch of good questions. MR. KARP: Thank you. All right, so everybody's clear on how the questions work. So since we closed for questions 5:00 p.m. yesterday, we brought together a team of influential Tumblr bloggers who helped us select some of the best questions. They're -- a few of them, anyway, are joining us in the audience of the State Dining Room here today. Neither the White House nor the president have seen any of these questions in advance. Should we get started? PRESIDENT OBAMA: Let's go. MR. KARP: All right. So first came in from Caitlin (sp). I appreciate your willingness to work with legislators to attempt to retroactively diffuse the cost of some student's loans by creating new repayment plans, but it seems to me like an attempt to put a band- aid on a broken leg. What are we doing to actually lower the cost of a college degree -- excuse me, of college tuition so these loans will no longer be necessary? 16:18:21 Well, it's a great question. And let me give people some context for what's happened over the last 20, 30 years. I graduated from college in '83; I graduated from law school in 1990. And although I went to a private school, through a combination of grants, loans and working, I had a fairly low level of debt that I was able to pay in one year without getting an incredibly well-paying job. I was able to keep my debt burden pretty low. 16:18:56 Folks who were 10 years younger than me, they probably paid even less. And if you went to a state school at the time, typically, would come out with almost no debt whatsoever. Today, the average debt burden, even for young people who are going to a public university, is about $30,000. And that gives you some sense of how much the cost has escalated for the average young person. Now, you mentioned earlier some people are wondering, is this a good investment? It absolutely is. 16:19:28 The difference between a college grad and somebody with a high school diploma is about $28,000 a year in income. So it continues to be a very smart investment for you to go to college. But we have to find ways to do two things. One is, we have to lower the costs on the front end, and then, if you do have to supplement whatever you can pay with borrowing, we've got to make sure that that is a manageable debt. And we -- about 12 months ago -- maybe 16 months ago, I convened college and university presidents around the country to start working with them on how we could lower debt or lower tuition, rather. 16:20:08 The main reason that tuition has gone up so much is that state legislatures stopped subsidizing public universities as much as they used to, in part because they started spending money on things like prisons and other activities that I think are less productive. And so schools then made up for the declining state support by jacking up their tuition rates. What's also happened is, is that the cost of things like health care that a university community with a lot of personnel has to shoulder, those costs have gone up faster than wages and incomes. The combination of those things has made college tuition skyrocket faster than health care costs have. There are ways that we can bring down those costs, and we know that because there's some colleges who've done a very good job in keeping tuition low. 16:21:03 We also have to do a better job of informing students about how to keep their debt down, because frankly, universities don't always counsel young people well when they first come in. They say, don't worry about it, you can pay for it, not realizing that you're paying for it through borrowing that you're going to end up having to shoulder once you graduate. MR. KARP: What is that -- what does that help -- what does that support look like? So Chelsea (ph) sent in a very similar question from Portland. So she asks: Colleges help students get into debt. They don't often help offer financial planning services before school, after they graduate. Do you guys have a plan to help students make sound financial decisions? I mean, these are teenagers who are making decisions sometimes amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars that are going to follow them through their entire lives. Hopefully, they have parents who can help them navigate those decisions. But if they don't, are they on their own? 16:21:53 Well, we are already doing something we called "know what you owe." And the idea is to work with every college, university, community college out there so that when you come into school -- ideally even before you accept an admission from a school -- you are given a sense of what your annual loans might be, what your financial package is going to translate into in terms of debt, assuming you through a four-year degree on schedule, and what your monthly payments are likely to be afterwards. 16:22:37 And so just that one step alone, making sure that schools are obliged to counsel you on the front end when you come in as opposed to just on the exit interview once you've already accumulated the debt, that in and of itself can make a big difference. MR. KARP: Understood. We didn't get first names for everybody, so HaikuMoon (sp) asks -- (laughter) -- it was -- PRESIDENT OBAMA: That might -- that might be the first name. That's a cool name. (Laughter.) MR. KARP: It wasn't until after I graduated college that I realized what I wanted to do with my life. Now I have a degree that has very little to do with that goal and a mountain of debt. I can't help but wonder if I wasn't pressured to go to college and was better prepared to make that decision -- and if I was better prepared to make that decision, then I might be in a better place to pursue my dream today. How can we change the public education system to better prepare and support young people making this huge decision? I mean, again, teenagers are deciding what they want to do for the rest of their lives. 16:23:29 Yeah. Well, one of the things that HaikuMoon -- (laughter) -- is alluding to is that high school should be a time in which young people have a greater exposure to actual careers, as opposed to just classroom study. And you know, I went to a wonderful school in New York called P-Tech, went there for a visit. What they've done is they have collapsed high school basically into a three-year program. You can then extend for another two years and get an associate's degree. IBM is working with them so that if, in fact, they complete the curriculum that IBM helped to design, they know they've got a job at IBM on the back end. 16:24:15 And that's just one example of what I'd like to see a lot more high schools, do, which is give young people in high school more hands-on experience, more apprenticeships, more training. If you are a graphic -- somebody who's interested in graphic design, I'd rather have you work at a company doing graphic design your senior year or junior year to see if you actually like it to get a sense of the training you need. You may not need a four-year degree. You might only need a two-year degree. You might be able to work while getting that degree. All that can save you money. 16:24:48 So that can -- that can make a really big difference for high school kids. At the same time, one of the things that we initiated several years back is something called income-based repayments. And that's something I really want to focus on -- IBR for short -- income-based repayments. 16:25:08 What we did in 2011 was to say, all student loans going forward, if you have a debt and you decide you want to go into a job that -- like teaching or social work that doesn't necessarily pay a lot, you shouldn't be hampered from making that choice just because you've got such a significant debt load. So what we said was that we will cap your repayments of your loans at 10 percent of your income above $18,000. 16:25:39 And by doing that, that gives people flexibility. It doesn't eliminate your debt, but what it does is it makes it manageable each month so that the career that you choose may not be constrained. And we then have additional programs so that if you go into one of the helping professions -- public service, law enforcement, social work, teaching -- then over time that debt could actually be forgiven. 16:26:05 Now, the problem with it was that we passed this law in 2011; it only applied going forward. It didn't apply retroactively. So yesterday, what I did was sign an executive action saying that the Department of Education is going to be developing rules so that going backwards, anybody can avail themselves of this income-based repayments, because I get a lot of letters from who took out loans in 2005 or 2000; they're also in a situation where they're making regular payments, but it's very hard for them to make ends meet, and we want to ideally finish what's called the rulemaking process -- nothing's easy around here -- hopefully by the time -- say the end of next year, the rules will be in place, that will be the law, and then, everybody and not just folks who borrowed after 2011 can take advantage of that. But there's not a lot of knowledge of this, and I hope that the Tumblr community helps to spread the word that this is something already available for loans that you took out after 2011, and hopefully, by next year, it'll be available for people even if you took out your loans before 2011. MR. KARP: Where do we find information about it? 16:27:20 You should go to whitehouse.gov -- the White House website -- it will then link you to ed.gov, which is the Education Department website, but whitehouse.gov I figure is easier to remember. (Laughter.) MR. KARP: Can you elaborate real quick on the -- you know, encouraging public service? Josh from Oak Park sent in a really good question about this. The U.S. has a long history of encouraging college-age men and women to give back to their larger communities through organizations like the Peace Corps, through organizations like Teach for America. Couldn't we make a larger commitment to that by creating tuition and loan forgiveness programs for those students who agree to work in those fields or work in those geographic areas in need of skilled employees? So you can imagine family practice doctors, you can imagine public defenders. 16:27:59 I mean, right now we have some programs like this in place, but they're typically relatively small, relatively specialized. So there are some loan forgiveness programs for primary care physicians who are going out to rural communities or inner cities or underserved communities. There are some programs that are available through the AmeriCorps program for people who are engaged in public service. 16:28:28 They are not as broad based and widespread as I would like. And we have tried to work with Congress, so far unsuccessfully, to be able to get, you know, an expansion of these areas. And I'll -- let's take health care as an example. We know that the population's aging. We know that we are -- have a severe shortage of primary care physicians. A lot of young doctors are going into specialized fields like dermatology or plastic surgery because you can make a relatively large profit, you don't end up having a lot of liability. And that's not really what we need more of. 16:29:12 And so my hope is, is that over time Congress recognizes that young people are our most precious asset. We -- there are some areas that we know we need, you know, people to get into the field, our best and brightest. And right now, the financial burdens are precluding them from doing it. And we could open up those fields, a huge influx of talent, if we were a little smarter with it. MR. KARP: Yeah, OK. So you've touched on health care and public service and health care in general. You talk a lot about STEM fields. So how do we promote -- this is one Orta (sp) asked -- how can we promote roles in STEM fields without putting humanities on the back burner? 16:29:53 Well, first of all, I want to say I was a humanities major. So -- (laughter) -- so you know, I -- I majored in political science. I majored in -- and I minored in English. And you know, I was pretty good in math, but in high school I -- I actually loved math and science until I got into high school and then I misspent those years. (Laughter.) And the thing about the humanities was you could kind of talk your way through classes -- (laughter) -- which you couldn't do in math and science, right? (Laughter.) (Chuckles.) (Laughter.) 16:30:32 So -- so a -- a -- a great liberal arts humanities education is still critically important because in today's global economy, one of the most important skills you have is your ability to work with people and communicate clearly and effectively. Having said that, what is also true is that technology is going to continue to drive innovation. And just to be a good citizen, you need some background in STEM. 16:31:04 And we are not producing enough engineers, enough computer scientists, enough math teachers and science teachers and enough researchers. And so I'm putting a big emphasis on STEM in part because we have a shortage, not because I'm privileging one over the other, but because we don't have as many people going into -- into the STEM fields. 16:31:32 And it starts early. Part of the -- what we're trying to do is work with public schools to take away some of the intimidation factor in math and science. Part of what we're trying to do is make sure that we are reaching to demographics that are very underrepresented. And yes, I mean you, women. You know, we -- girls are still more likely to be discouraged from pursuing math, science, technology degrees. You see that imbalance in Silicon Valley. You see it in a lot of high-tech firms. 16:32:10 And so, you know, we're trying to lift up curriculums that are interesting for kids, work with schools in terms of best practices. One of the things that we're also discovering is that young people who have an interest in math and science, when they go to college, oftentimes they're steered into finance, because that's been perceived as the more lucrative option. And we're trying to work with universities and departments of engineering, for example, to help mentor young people to understand that if you look at the top one hundred companies in the country, you've got a lot more engineers running companies than you do folks who have a finance background. 16:32:57 And so, you know, there are great opportunities. And, you know, one of the things that every young person should be thinking about is, A, what's their passion, what do they care about. But they should also be taking a look at where's there -- where is there a demand. And frankly, if you've got a science or engineering background, the likelihood of you being unemployed is very low, because there's always going to be a need, and it doesn't preclude you from, you know, writing a haiku at some point -- (laughter) -- and, you know, figuring out, you know, some creative outlet, but having that discipline and that skill set is still going to be invaluable. MR. KARP: What you just described is really hard to navigate -- again, a teenager making the decision between passion or an industry that's going to have demand for them. So great question: At this point, I'm stuck between majors. I know the field I have a passion for has a limited number of jobs, all of which pay very little. Assuming I get the job, the low income will make it difficult to pay the substantial debt I'll most likely be in from that education. Are there other fields -- excuse me -- there are other fields I know I could succeed in and receive a higher salary, but I'm afraid that one day I'll realize I hate what I do. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Right. Q: The question was, how did you decide on your career, and what advice do you have for somebody who's coming up, trying to navigate that marketplace; with demand or their passions? PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well -- Q: By the way, one vote for keeping kids of finance (completely ?), yes. (Laughter.) Yes. 16:34:25 Or the law, by the way, because -- (laughter) -- we have -- we have enough lawyers, although it's a fine profession. (Laughter.) You know, I can say that because I'm a lawyer. I think everybody's different. But I do think that -- first of all, when I first got out of school, I worked for a year in a job that I wasn't interested in because I wanted to pay off my loans. Now, I had the luxury, as I said, that my loan burden was only -- was small enough that I could pay it off in a year. 16:35:01 But, you know, work's not always fun, and you can't always follow your bliss right away. And so I think the young people should be practical. I know a lot of young people who worked for five years in a field that they may not be interested in but it gives them the financial stability and the base from which to do what they want. And there's nothing wrong with that. 16:35:23 I do -- the main advice I would give young people starting off, though, is --- ultimately you are going to do best at something you care deeply about. And some people have probably heard this said before, but if you really enjoy what you do, then it's -- the line between work and play starts vanishing a little bit. You know, you still have to grind it out, but you can get into the mindset where the creativity or the effort and the sweat that you're putting into what you do doesn't feel like a burden; it feels like an expression of -- of what you care about. And -- and so I think your career's not going to be straight line all the time. 16:36:16 You know, I think there may be times where you got to take a detour and you got to do something practical to pay the bills. There are going to be times where you see an opportunity and you're making a calculated risk that I'm going to start some wacky company called Tumblr. (Laughter.) And -- and how you balance the practical with your -- your -- your highest aspirations is something that'll be different for each person. Everybody's going to have different circumstances. MR. KARP: What do you say to kids right now who ask you -- you know, they see their passion. They want to build big stuff for the Internet. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Right. MR. KARP: They want to build the next big app -- PRESIDENT OBAMA: Right. MR. KARP: -- next big social network. What do you tell them when they say, hey, look, David, Zuckerberg, Jobs, Gates, all these guys -- PRESIDENT OBAMA: (Inaudible.) MR. KARP: -- who I don't necessarily deserve to be in the company of, but dropped out of school? 16:37:06 Yeah. I mean, you wouldn't know it, looking at you, but you're like LeBron or Durant. (Laughter.) You know, the -- I mean, you guys don't have the same physiques -- (laughter) -- but -- but there are only going to be so many Zuckerbergs or, you know -- well, you know, Gateses who -- who are able to short-circuit the traditional path. 16:37:38 If you can, more power to you. But let me put it this way. Had you not -- let's say Tumblr had been a bust, right, or Facebook had just ended up being, you know, some dating site that nobody was really interested in. MR. KARP: We'd be in a hard place. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, but the truth is also you had the foundation where you could go back to school, right? I mean, it wasn't as if you were suddenly operating without a net. I'm assuming that you would have been readmitted to whatever institution you were in, and if not, then you would go to another school, and you'd do fine. 16:38:16 So the issue is not whether you may not want to take a risk at some point. The point is that for the average young person, an investment in college is always going to be a smart investment. Making sure you know what it is that you're investing in is important. 16:38:35 You know, one of the biggest areas where we see a problem is young people who are going, let's say, to technical schools or community colleges or some of these for-profit universities -- they're promised a lot, but they haven't done the research to see, OK, does, typically, a graduate coming out of one of these schools get a job in the occupation? Are they actually making money? If you're going to have $50,000 worth of debt, you'd better have factored in, you know, what are the employment prospects coming out. And -- and so I think it's good for young people -- not only good, it's imperative for young people to be good consumers of education and don't just assume that there's one way of doing things. We tell our daughters -- you know, Malia's now -- she'll be 16 next month, and she's going to be in the college process. And we tell her, you know, don't assume that there are 10 schools that you -- that you have to go to, and if you didn't go to those 10 that somehow things are going to be terrible. There are a lot of schools out there. 16:39:47 There are a lot of options, and you should do your research before you -- you decide to exercise one of those options. Having said that, the -- the overwhelming evidence is that a college education is the surest, clearest path into the middle class for most Americans. MR. KARP: Is the White House right now offering any of those tools to be a good consumer, to navigate all the choices out there? 16:40:15 Yes. Yes, so the -- so if you go -- again, go to whitehouse.gov, which will link you to the Department of Education. One of the things that we're doing is to -- we're starting to develop a score card for colleges and universities so you have just a general sense of what's the typical graduation rate? What's the typical debt that you carry once you get out? You know, what is the employment rate for graduates five years afterwards? And over time, one of the things that we're trying to do is develop a ranking system that is not exactly the same as the typical college ranking systems that you see in U.S. News and World Report, for example. 16:40:57 Part of the problem with the traditional ranking systems of schools is that, for example, high cost is actually a bonus in the ranking system. It indicates prestige. And so there -- there may be some great schools that are expensive, but what you're missing is a great school that may give you much better value, particularly in the field that you're in. Now, there's some controversy, I -- I want to confess, about that. A lot of colleges and universities say, you know, if you start ranking just based on cost and employability, et cetera, you're missing the essence of higher education and so forth. What we're really trying to do is just identify, here are some good bargains. Here are some really bad deals. Then there's going to be a bunch of schools in the middle that, you know, there's not going to be a huge amount of differentiation. But what we are trying to do is make sure that students have enough information going into it that they don't end up in a school that is pretty notorious for piling a lot of debt on their students but not really delivering a great education. MR. KARP: Back to the debt, which is top of mind for everybody here today, Silmae (ph) from Tulsa asked an interesting question: Of my $220,000 in student loan debt -- PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yikes. MR. KARP: -- from college and law school -- there you go -- less than half is receiving the benefit of loan forgiveness. Why is there no discussion on the mounting private student loan debt? 16:42:21 Well, there is a discussion. The problem is we just end up having less leverage over that. I mean, the truth is, is that both legislatively and administratively, we have some impact on federal loans. Private loans, if you take -- you know, if you go to a private company and you're taking out a loan, we have the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau that is trying to regulate this area and make sure that you have full information about what you're getting yourself into. It's another version of "know before you owe." 16:42:54 But it's harder for us to restructure some of that debt. Now, one thing that I think is really important for everybody to know here, because this is actual action you can take, as opposed to just listening to me blather on -- this week there will be a vote in the United States Senate on a bill sponsored by Elizabeth Warren, the senator from Massachusetts. And what this bill would do would allow students to refinance their existing loans at today's rates. 16:43:29 The reason that's important is because rates have been low, and typically there's going to be a pretty big spread between the -- the rates that a lot of students -- the interest rates that a lot of students have on their debt right now versus what they could do if they refinanced, the same way that a lot of people refinanced their mortgages to take advantage of historically low rates. 16:43:55 And so this vote is coming up. It will come up this week. I think everybody on Tumblr should be contacting their -- their senators and finding out where they stand on the issue because -- and by the way, this is something that will not add to the deficit because the way we pay for it is we say that we're going to eliminate some loopholes right now that allow millionaires and billionaires to pay lower rates of taxes than secretaries and teachers. And so it would pay for itself. It's a good piece of legislation. It directly affects folks in their 20s and 30s, and in some cases their 40s and 50s and 60s. But particularly the young people who use Tumblr, this is something that you should pay a lot of attention to. Make sure that you are pushing your senators around this -- around this issue. MR. KARP: Particularly important if you know you're facing that debt already or you're -- you are already today facing that debt. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Right. MR. KARP: What's the best way, though -- people who are -- again, they're thinking about higher education. They're in school today. (Inaudible) -- a thoughtful question: What is the best way for students to have a voice in their own education? So much education today, I think, really -- I don't know, I mean, so many teenagers who feel like education is happening to them, right? They're going through the motions. They know that this is what they're supposed to do, and so they follow along. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yeah. MR. KARP: How do we make sure kids are driving? 16:45:25 Well, look. At some point it's going to be up to the young person to drive that education. It's not inevitable that you just fasten your seat belt and just go on a ride for four years or two years or whatever it is. I mean, I have to say that in my own college experience, I think the first two years I was there thinking I'm just happy to be here and I'm having fun and I'll just sort of go through the motions. 16:45:51 My last two years was when I really became much more serious about what I was doing and much more intentional about what I was doing. Too many young people see -- and I'm -- I'm grossly generalizing now, so excuse me, but I'm -- you know, I use myself as an example as well. I think too many of us see college as a box to check or a place to have fun and extend adolescence -- (laughter) -- as opposed to a opportunity each of us to figure out what is it that we're good at? What is that we care about? What is that we're willing to invest a lot of time and effort and energy into? How do we hone some skills or interests or, you know, attributes that we already have? 16:46:44 And as a consequence, I think young people waste a lot of time in school. Now, again, I'm generalizing because there are a whole bunch of folks who are working while going to school, while helping out their parents, in some cases they're already parents themselves. And so everything I just said does not apply to you. (Laughter.) You are -- and a lot of -- it's interesting, you know, one of the reasons I think I did well in law school was because I had worked for three and a half years so that by the time I got to law school I actually knew why I was studying the law, and I knew exactly what I wanted to get out of it. Not to mention, the fact that the idea of just going to class for three hours a day and then reading didn't seem particularly oppressive to me, whereas young people who had come straight out of college thought this is horrible. 16:47:34 You get -- try working for a while, and then you realize, this is pretty good deal. (Laughter.) Yeah. So -- but I think that part -- part of what we as adults have to do goes back to what I said about high schools. Education is not a passive thing. You know, you don't tip your head and somebody pours it into your ear. It is an active process of you figuring out the world and your place in it. And the earlier we can help young people -- not lock them in. Look, nobody expects that somebody who's 16 automatically knows exactly what they want to do, and people may change their kinds repeatedly. But what we can do is expose young people to enough actual work and occupations that they start getting a feel for what they would be interested in. And, you know, I really want to work with more school districts, and I've asked Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to work with more school districts, and we're actually giving grants to school districts that are thinking creatively about how high school can be used more effectively. 16:48:49 I don't want a young person who knows that they want to go into the trades to just waste four years of high school and then they've got to go through two years of apprenticeship and class work before they become a contractor. I'd rather have them doing contracting while also getting some other educational, you know, exposure, so that they're getting a jump on the things that they want to do. And they can save a lot of money in the process. Q: So Beth asked a question close to that. So instead of -- close to that point. Instead of pushing all students into college, shouldn't we focus on the other side, increasing the minimum wage and making it viable, livable to enter the workforce straight out of high school? Should we be doing both? 16:49:37 Absolutely. Well, here's what I would say. There are very few jobs now where you're not going to need some advanced training. One of the great things about being president is I get to visit companies and work sites and factories, and if you go into the average auto company today, for example, first of all, it's not at all what you'd imagine. It is spotless and it is quiet and it is humming because it is all mechanized and computerized at this point. And even if you have a, you know, four football-field sized assembly line, most of the people there are working with machines and they're working on computer keyboards. 16:50:29 So having some basic training in math, some familiarity with computers, some familiarity with programming and code, all that is a huge advantage if you are trying to get a line on an assembly line. Now, if that's true for assembly line work, that's certainly going to be true for any other trade that you're interested in. We do have to do a better job of giving young people who are interested an effective vocational education. And there are tons of opportunities out there for people -- you know, here's an interesting statistic. 16:51:00 The average trade person in Wisconsin -- and what I mean by that is an electrician, a plumber, a carpenter, a machine tool worker. The average age in Wisconsin is 59-years old, all right? Now, these jobs typically pay 25, 30 bucks and hour, potentially, with benefits. You can make a really good living doing that. And there are a lot of folks who love doing it. It's really interesting work and highly skilled work. So I don't want somebody to find out about that when they're 30, after they've already taken a bunch of classes and stuff that they ended up not using. Now they've got a bunch of debt. I'd rather, if they've got that inclination, to figure that out early and be able to go straight into something that helps them get that job. MR. KARP: So one question we heard a lot from our community that I wanted to make sure to mention today, recently I think you've been following the Department of Ed's Office of Civil Rights and the DOJ have extended Title IX protections to trans students. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Right. MR. KARP: What do you see as the next steps to ensure equal treatment of trans people in schools in America? 16:52:25 Well, you know, Title IX is a powerful tool. It's interesting. Yesterday I had the University of Connecticut men's and women's basketball teams here. This is only the second time that the men's and women's basketball teams won the national championship in the same year. The previous year was 2004, and it was UConn again. 16:52:45 But what was interesting about it is that the men were kind of a surprise. It was nice. The women were dominant. I mean, the UConn Husky women's program, they rule, and they are incredible athletes. And talking to these young women, you know, they're poised and they're beautiful and some of them are 6'6" and they're wearing high heels and, you know, supremely confident and competitive. And that's a huge shift from even 20 years ago or 30 years ago. 16:53:25 The reason for that was Title -- you know, Title IX was applied vigorously in schools, and it gave opportunities. It's not like women suddenly became athletes. They were athletic before. Michelle, when I work out with her, she puts me to shame. (Laughter.) But it had more to do with restrictions in opportunity. So the point I'm making is, is that Title IX is a very powerful tool. The fact that we are applying it to transgender students means that they are going to be in a position to assert their rights if and when they see that they are being discriminated on their college campuses, and that could manifest itself in a whole variety of ways. MR. KARP: Brilliant. This one was sent in a few days ago. Mr. President, my name is Nick Deneen (sp), and I attend the school -- excuse me -- I attend school at the University of California in Santa Barbara. I was the RA for the floor that George Chen lived at -- lived on -- excuse me -- last year as a first-year college student. I knew him. Elliot Rodger killed him and five more of my fellow students. Today another man has shot and killed at least one person and injured three others at a private Christian school in Seattle. What are you going to do? What can we all do? And of course another mass shooting this morning. 16:54:42 I -- I have to say that people often ask me, you know, how it's been being president and, you know, what are my -- you know, what am I proudest of and what are my biggest disappointments? And you know, I've got 2 1/2 years left. My biggest frustration so far is the fact that this society has not been willing to take some basic steps to -- to keep guns out of the hands of, you know, people who, you know, can -- can do just unbelievable damage. 16:55:32 We're -- we're the only -- we're the only developed country on earth where this happens. And it happens now once a week. And it -- it's a one-day story. There's no place else like this. A couple of decades ago Australia had a mass shooting similar to Columbine or -- or Newtown, and Australia just said, well, that's it. We're not doing -- we're not seeing that again - and basically imposed very severe, tough gun laws, and they've -- they haven't had a mass shooting since. 16:56:16 I mean, our levels of gun violence are off the charts. There's no advanced, developed country on earth that would put up with this. Now, we have a different tradition. We have a Second Amendment. We have historically respected gun rights. I respect gun rights. But the idea that, for example, we couldn't even get a background check bill in to make sure that if you're going to buy a weapon you have to actually go through a fairly rigorous process so that we know who you are, so you can't just walk up to a store and buy a semi-automatic weapon, it makes no sense. 16:57:06 And I don't know if anybody saw the brief press conference from the father of the young man who had been killed at Santa Barbara -- and as a father myself I just -- I couldn't understand the pain he must be going through and just the primal scream that he gave out. Why -- why aren't we doing something about this? And I will tell you that -- I have been in Washington for a while now and most things don't surprise me. The fact that 26-year-olds were gunned down in the most violent fashion possible and this town couldn't do anything about it was stunning to me. 16:58:00 And so the question then becomes, what can we do about it? The only thing that's going to change is -- is public opinion. If public opinion does not demand change in Congress, it will not change. We have -- I've initiated over 20 executive actions to try to tighten up some of the rules and the laws, but the bottom line is, is that we don't have enough tools right now to really make as big of a dent as we need to. And most members of Congress -- and I have to say to some degree this is bipartisan -- are terrified of the NRA. The combination of, you know, the NRA and gun manufacturers are very well financed and have the capacity to move votes in local elections and congressional elections. And so if you're running for office right now, that's where you feel the heat. 16:59:04 And people on the other side may be generally favorable towards things like background checks and other common-sense rules, but they're not as motivated, so that's not -- that doesn't end up being the issue that a lot of you vote on. 16:59:20 And until that changes, until there is a fundamental shift in public opinion in which people say, enough; this is not acceptable; this is not normal; this isn't sort of the price we should be paying for our freedom; that we can have respect for the Second Amendment, and responsible gun owners and sportsmen and hunters can have, you know, the ability to possess weapons, but that we are going to, you know, put some common-sense rules in place that make a dent, at least, in what's happening -- until that is not just the majority view -- because that's already the majority view, even the majority of gun owners believe that -- but until that's a view that people feel passionately about and are willing to go after folks who don't, you know, vote reflecting those values -- until that happens, sadly, not that much is going to change. Last thing I'll say -- a lot of people will say that -- you know, well, this is a mental health problem. You know, it's not a gun problem. 17:00:30 You know, the United States does not have a monopoly on crazy people. (Laughter.) It -- it -- it's not the only country that has psychosis. And yet, we kill each other in these -- in these mass shootings at rates that are exponentially higher than any place else. Well, what's the difference? 17:01:03 The difference is, is that these guys can stack up a bunch of ammunition in their houses and -- and that's sort of par for the course. So the country has to do some soul searching about this. This is becoming the norm. And we take it for granted in -- in ways that, as a parent, are terrifying to me. And -- and I -- I am prepared to work with anybody, including responsible sportsmen and gun owners, to craft some solutions. But right now, it's -- it's not even possible to get even the mildest restrictions through Congress. And that's -- we should be ashamed of that. MR. KARP: Thank you for taking the time to answer that one, obviously an incredibly difficult and disappointing conversation to have. Looks like we have time for one more question. So let's switch over to a lighter one. There are plenty of young people out there today who are watching your career incredibly closely. They're thinking about their futures, their careers, their educations that they're going off to pursue. Astonishment (sp) asked: Where do you see yourself in 10 years? (Laughter.) 17:02:27 Well, you know, I -- I haven't projected out 10 years. I -- I -- I'm really focused on making sure that I -- I make every day in the next 2 1/2 years count because it's an incredible privilege to be in this office. 17:02:43 And even when I'm frustrated with Congress or I'm frustrated with the press and how it's reporting things and Washington generally, I also know that there's something I can do every single day that's helping somebody and that, sometimes without a lot of fanfare, you know, we're making it easier for a business to get a loan, and we're making it easier for a young person to get an education, and we're making it easier for a family to get health care, and -- and -- and making sure that each day, I come away with something that we've done to make it a little easier for folks to work their way into the middle class, to stay in the middle class, to save for retirement, to finance their kids' college educations. That's a good day for me. 17:03:38 I know what I'll do, like, right after the next president's inaugurated. You know, I'll be on a beach somewhere -- (laughter) -- drinking a -- out of a coconut. (Laughter.) But that probably won't last too long. And you know, that -- one of the things that Michelle and I have talked a lot about is we're really interested in developing young people and working with them and -- and creating more institutions to promote young leadership. 17:04:16 I'm so impressed when I meet young people around the country. They're full of passion. They're full of ideas. I think they're much wiser and smarter than I was. Part of it maybe is because of Tumblr; I don't know. (Laughter.) And so there's just huge potential. And the challenge is, they're also fed a lot of cynicism. You guys are fed a lot of cynicism every single day about how nothing works and big institutions stink and government's broken, and so you channel a lot of your passion and energy into various private endeavors. 17:04:53 But this country has always been built both through an individual initiative but also a sense of some common purpose. And if there's one message I want to deliver to young people like a Tumblr audience is, don't get cynical. Guard against cynicism. I mean, the truth of the matter is, is that for all the challenges we face, all the problems that we have, if you had to be -- if you had to choose any moment to be born in human history not knowing what your position was going to be, who you were going to be, you'd choose this time. The world is less violent than it has ever been. It is healthier than it has ever been. It is more tolerant than it has ever been. It is better-fed than it's ever been. It is -- you know, it is more educated than it's ever been. 17:05:52 Terrible things happen around the world every single day, but the trend lines of progress are unmistakable. And the reason is because each successive generation tries to learn from previous mistakes and pushes the course of history in a better direction. And the only thing that stops that is if people start thinking that they don't make a difference and they can't make changes. And that's fed in our culture all the time. It's fascinating to me; I don't consume a lot of television, but generally, the culture right now is inherently in a cynical mood, in part because we went through a big trauma back in 2007, 2008 with the financial crisis, and we went through a decade of wars that were really tough, and that's the era in which you were born. 17:06:48 But I look out on the horizon, and there's a lot of opportunity out there. And that's what I'd like to do after the presidency, is make sure that I help young people guard against cynicism and do the remarkable things they can do. R. KARP: Beautiful. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good. MR. KARP: Mr. President, thank you so much for taking time to answer our questions today. Really, thank you. PRESIDENT OBAMA: We had a great time. Appreciate it. It was great. Thank you. (Applause.) MR. KARP: Was that OK? I've never talked to a president before. 17:07:18 He's a natural. He could have gone into journalism. (Laughter.) MR. KARP: I've never talked to a president before. Thank you so much. (Laughter.) Hey, real quick, guys, before we go, I would really like to thank the president for having us over to his rental property today. It really does mean a lot to our community to know that America's leader is listening to us. I hope we've all come away with a clearer picture as to the issues that we're facing. Please make sure to follow whitehouse.tumblr.com, and lastly, please wish Sasha a happy 13th birthday today. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yeah, it's Sasha's birthday today. (Applause.) MR. KARP: Now that she's 13, guys -- now that she's 13, according to our terms of services, she's officially old enough to use Tumblr. (Laughter.) Let us know - PRESIDENT OBAMA: So she wasn't before that? (Laughter.) MR. KARP: She wasn't, I'm sorry. We can let this one slide. (Laughter.) PRESIDENT OBAMA: I'm going to have to -- I'm going to have to talk to somebody about that. (Laughter.) All right. Thank you guys. MR. KARP: Thank you -- (inaudible) - PRESIDENT OBAMA: Have a great time. (Applause.) President Obama on Student Loan Plan President Obama answered questions about student loan reforms and his new "Pay As You Earn" plan on the social media platform Tumblr.

INT BROLL PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA TUMBLR EVENT / HEAD ON Tuesday, June 10, 2014 President Obama Remarks at Tumblr Event Stix DC Slug: 1600 WH TUMBLR STIX RS33 73 AR: 16x9 Disc# 071 NYRS: WASH3 (4523) 16:15:32 President Obama enters the room (Applause) 16:14:50 Hello, everybody. (Off-side conversation.) Good to see you. Hello, everybody. (Laughs.) Hey, you don't have to be so formal. (Laughter.) Sheesh. Come on now. DAVID KARP: This is unusual. Thank you! Thank you, everyone. And welcome to the White House. Thank you for having us, Mr. President. I'm David Karp, the founder of Tumblr, and it is my tremendous privilege to be here with President Obama today and joined by the Tumblr community. Thank you for joining us, everyone. Yesterday the president signed an executive order intended to curb the pain of student debt. Americans now hold more than a trillion dollars in student debt, one of the greatest expenses they'll incur in their lifetime. And the generation that's just reaching college age is beginning to wonder if it's even worth it. One-third of Americans who've applied for an educational loan this year also happen to use Tumblr. So last week we asked our audience if they had questions that they'd like to ask the president about the cost value and accessibility of higher education. Turns out they had quite a few. We're not going to be able to get through all of them today, but the president has been kind enough to give us some time at his house to answer some of those questions. (Laughter.) So again, huge thank you for making yourself available today. Anything you'd like to add before we start? 16:16:59 Well, first of all, this is a rental house. (Laughter.) I just want to be clear. My lease runs out in about 2 1/2 years. Second of all, I want to thank David and the whole Tumblr community for participating in this. We're constantly looking for new ways to reach audiences that are relevant to the things we're talking about. And obviously, you know, young people disproportionately use Tumblr. A lot of Tumblr users are impacted by student debt. So for you to be able to give us this forum to speak directly to folks is wonderful. And I'm looking forward to a whole bunch of good questions. MR. KARP: Thank you. All right, so everybody's clear on how the questions work. So since we closed for questions 5:00 p.m. yesterday, we brought together a team of influential Tumblr bloggers who helped us select some of the best questions. They're -- a few of them, anyway, are joining us in the audience of the State Dining Room here today. Neither the White House nor the president have seen any of these questions in advance. Should we get started? PRESIDENT OBAMA: Let's go. MR. KARP: All right. So first came in from Caitlin (sp). I appreciate your willingness to work with legislators to attempt to retroactively diffuse the cost of some student's loans by creating new repayment plans, but it seems to me like an attempt to put a band- aid on a broken leg. What are we doing to actually lower the cost of a college degree -- excuse me, of college tuition so these loans will no longer be necessary? 16:18:21 Well, it's a great question. And let me give people some context for what's happened over the last 20, 30 years. I graduated from college in '83; I graduated from law school in 1990. And although I went to a private school, through a combination of grants, loans and working, I had a fairly low level of debt that I was able to pay in one year without getting an incredibly well-paying job. I was able to keep my debt burden pretty low. 16:18:56 Folks who were 10 years younger than me, they probably paid even less. And if you went to a state school at the time, typically, would come out with almost no debt whatsoever. Today, the average debt burden, even for young people who are going to a public university, is about $30,000. And that gives you some sense of how much the cost has escalated for the average young person. Now, you mentioned earlier some people are wondering, is this a good investment? It absolutely is. 16:19:28 The difference between a college grad and somebody with a high school diploma is about $28,000 a year in income. So it continues to be a very smart investment for you to go to college. But we have to find ways to do two things. One is, we have to lower the costs on the front end, and then, if you do have to supplement whatever you can pay with borrowing, we've got to make sure that that is a manageable debt. And we -- about 12 months ago -- maybe 16 months ago, I convened college and university presidents around the country to start working with them on how we could lower debt or lower tuition, rather. 16:20:08 The main reason that tuition has gone up so much is that state legislatures stopped subsidizing public universities as much as they used to, in part because they started spending money on things like prisons and other activities that I think are less productive. And so schools then made up for the declining state support by jacking up their tuition rates. What's also happened is, is that the cost of things like health care that a university community with a lot of personnel has to shoulder, those costs have gone up faster than wages and incomes. The combination of those things has made college tuition skyrocket faster than health care costs have. There are ways that we can bring down those costs, and we know that because there's some colleges who've done a very good job in keeping tuition low. 16:21:03 We also have to do a better job of informing students about how to keep their debt down, because frankly, universities don't always counsel young people well when they first come in. They say, don't worry about it, you can pay for it, not realizing that you're paying for it through borrowing that you're going to end up having to shoulder once you graduate. MR. KARP: What is that -- what does that help -- what does that support look like? So Chelsea (ph) sent in a very similar question from Portland. So she asks: Colleges help students get into debt. They don't often help offer financial planning services before school, after they graduate. Do you guys have a plan to help students make sound financial decisions? I mean, these are teenagers who are making decisions sometimes amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars that are going to follow them through their entire lives. Hopefully, they have parents who can help them navigate those decisions. But if they don't, are they on their own? 16:21:53 Well, we are already doing something we called "know what you owe." And the idea is to work with every college, university, community college out there so that when you come into school -- ideally even before you accept an admission from a school -- you are given a sense of what your annual loans might be, what your financial package is going to translate into in terms of debt, assuming you through a four-year degree on schedule, and what your monthly payments are likely to be afterwards. 16:22:37 And so just that one step alone, making sure that schools are obliged to counsel you on the front end when you come in as opposed to just on the exit interview once you've already accumulated the debt, that in and of itself can make a big difference. MR. KARP: Understood. We didn't get first names for everybody, so HaikuMoon (sp) asks -- (laughter) -- it was -- PRESIDENT OBAMA: That might -- that might be the first name. That's a cool name. (Laughter.) MR. KARP: It wasn't until after I graduated college that I realized what I wanted to do with my life. Now I have a degree that has very little to do with that goal and a mountain of debt. I can't help but wonder if I wasn't pressured to go to college and was better prepared to make that decision -- and if I was better prepared to make that decision, then I might be in a better place to pursue my dream today. How can we change the public education system to better prepare and support young people making this huge decision? I mean, again, teenagers are deciding what they want to do for the rest of their lives. 16:23:29 Yeah. Well, one of the things that HaikuMoon -- (laughter) -- is alluding to is that high school should be a time in which young people have a greater exposure to actual careers, as opposed to just classroom study. And you know, I went to a wonderful school in New York called P-Tech, went there for a visit. What they've done is they have collapsed high school basically into a three-year program. You can then extend for another two years and get an associate's degree. IBM is working with them so that if, in fact, they complete the curriculum that IBM helped to design, they know they've got a job at IBM on the back end. 16:24:15 And that's just one example of what I'd like to see a lot more high schools, do, which is give young people in high school more hands-on experience, more apprenticeships, more training. If you are a graphic -- somebody who's interested in graphic design, I'd rather have you work at a company doing graphic design your senior year or junior year to see if you actually like it to get a sense of the training you need. You may not need a four-year degree. You might only need a two-year degree. You might be able to work while getting that degree. All that can save you money. 16:24:48 So that can -- that can make a really big difference for high school kids. At the same time, one of the things that we initiated several years back is something called income-based repayments. And that's something I really want to focus on -- IBR for short -- income-based repayments. 16:25:08 What we did in 2011 was to say, all student loans going forward, if you have a debt and you decide you want to go into a job that -- like teaching or social work that doesn't necessarily pay a lot, you shouldn't be hampered from making that choice just because you've got such a significant debt load. So what we said was that we will cap your repayments of your loans at 10 percent of your income above $18,000. 16:25:39 And by doing that, that gives people flexibility. It doesn't eliminate your debt, but what it does is it makes it manageable each month so that the career that you choose may not be constrained. And we then have additional programs so that if you go into one of the helping professions -- public service, law enforcement, social work, teaching -- then over time that debt could actually be forgiven. 16:26:05 Now, the problem with it was that we passed this law in 2011; it only applied going forward. It didn't apply retroactively. So yesterday, what I did was sign an executive action saying that the Department of Education is going to be developing rules so that going backwards, anybody can avail themselves of this income-based repayments, because I get a lot of letters from who took out loans in 2005 or 2000; they're also in a situation where they're making regular payments, but it's very hard for them to make ends meet, and we want to ideally finish what's called the rulemaking process -- nothing's easy around here -- hopefully by the time -- say the end of next year, the rules will be in place, that will be the law, and then, everybody and not just folks who borrowed after 2011 can take advantage of that. But there's not a lot of knowledge of this, and I hope that the Tumblr community helps to spread the word that this is something already available for loans that you took out after 2011, and hopefully, by next year, it'll be available for people even if you took out your loans before 2011. MR. KARP: Where do we find information about it? 16:27:20 You should go to whitehouse.gov -- the White House website -- it will then link you to ed.gov, which is the Education Department website, but whitehouse.gov I figure is easier to remember. (Laughter.) MR. KARP: Can you elaborate real quick on the -- you know, encouraging public service? Josh from Oak Park sent in a really good question about this. The U.S. has a long history of encouraging college-age men and women to give back to their larger communities through organizations like the Peace Corps, through organizations like Teach for America. Couldn't we make a larger commitment to that by creating tuition and loan forgiveness programs for those students who agree to work in those fields or work in those geographic areas in need of skilled employees? So you can imagine family practice doctors, you can imagine public defenders. 16:27:59 I mean, right now we have some programs like this in place, but they're typically relatively small, relatively specialized. So there are some loan forgiveness programs for primary care physicians who are going out to rural communities or inner cities or underserved communities. There are some programs that are available through the AmeriCorps program for people who are engaged in public service. 16:28:28 They are not as broad based and widespread as I would like. And we have tried to work with Congress, so far unsuccessfully, to be able to get, you know, an expansion of these areas. And I'll -- let's take health care as an example. We know that the population's aging. We know that we are -- have a severe shortage of primary care physicians. A lot of young doctors are going into specialized fields like dermatology or plastic surgery because you can make a relatively large profit, you don't end up having a lot of liability. And that's not really what we need more of. 16:29:12 And so my hope is, is that over time Congress recognizes that young people are our most precious asset. We -- there are some areas that we know we need, you know, people to get into the field, our best and brightest. And right now, the financial burdens are precluding them from doing it. And we could open up those fields, a huge influx of talent, if we were a little smarter with it. MR. KARP: Yeah, OK. So you've touched on health care and public service and health care in general. You talk a lot about STEM fields. So how do we promote -- this is one Orta (sp) asked -- how can we promote roles in STEM fields without putting humanities on the back burner? 16:29:53 Well, first of all, I want to say I was a humanities major. So -- (laughter) -- so you know, I -- I majored in political science. I majored in -- and I minored in English. And you know, I was pretty good in math, but in high school I -- I actually loved math and science until I got into high school and then I misspent those years. (Laughter.) And the thing about the humanities was you could kind of talk your way through classes -- (laughter) -- which you couldn't do in math and science, right? (Laughter.) (Chuckles.) (Laughter.) 16:30:32 So -- so a -- a -- a great liberal arts humanities education is still critically important because in today's global economy, one of the most important skills you have is your ability to work with people and communicate clearly and effectively. Having said that, what is also true is that technology is going to continue to drive innovation. And just to be a good citizen, you need some background in STEM. 16:31:04 And we are not producing enough engineers, enough computer scientists, enough math teachers and science teachers and enough researchers. And so I'm putting a big emphasis on STEM in part because we have a shortage, not because I'm privileging one over the other, but because we don't have as many people going into -- into the STEM fields. 16:31:32 And it starts early. Part of the -- what we're trying to do is work with public schools to take away some of the intimidation factor in math and science. Part of what we're trying to do is make sure that we are reaching to demographics that are very underrepresented. And yes, I mean you, women. You know, we -- girls are still more likely to be discouraged from pursuing math, science, technology degrees. You see that imbalance in Silicon Valley. You see it in a lot of high-tech firms. 16:32:10 And so, you know, we're trying to lift up curriculums that are interesting for kids, work with schools in terms of best practices. One of the things that we're also discovering is that young people who have an interest in math and science, when they go to college, oftentimes they're steered into finance, because that's been perceived as the more lucrative option. And we're trying to work with universities and departments of engineering, for example, to help mentor young people to understand that if you look at the top one hundred companies in the country, you've got a lot more engineers running companies than you do folks who have a finance background. 16:32:57 And so, you know, there are great opportunities. And, you know, one of the things that every young person should be thinking about is, A, what's their passion, what do they care about. But they should also be taking a look at where's there -- where is there a demand. And frankly, if you've got a science or engineering background, the likelihood of you being unemployed is very low, because there's always going to be a need, and it doesn't preclude you from, you know, writing a haiku at some point -- (laughter) -- and, you know, figuring out, you know, some creative outlet, but having that discipline and that skill set is still going to be invaluable. MR. KARP: What you just described is really hard to navigate -- again, a teenager making the decision between passion or an industry that's going to have demand for them. So great question: At this point, I'm stuck between majors. I know the field I have a passion for has a limited number of jobs, all of which pay very little. Assuming I get the job, the low income will make it difficult to pay the substantial debt I'll most likely be in from that education. Are there other fields -- excuse me -- there are other fields I know I could succeed in and receive a higher salary, but I'm afraid that one day I'll realize I hate what I do. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Right. Q: The question was, how did you decide on your career, and what advice do you have for somebody who's coming up, trying to navigate that marketplace; with demand or their passions? PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well -- Q: By the way, one vote for keeping kids of finance (completely ?), yes. (Laughter.) Yes. 16:34:25 Or the law, by the way, because -- (laughter) -- we have -- we have enough lawyers, although it's a fine profession. (Laughter.) You know, I can say that because I'm a lawyer. I think everybody's different. But I do think that -- first of all, when I first got out of school, I worked for a year in a job that I wasn't interested in because I wanted to pay off my loans. Now, I had the luxury, as I said, that my loan burden was only -- was small enough that I could pay it off in a year. 16:35:01 But, you know, work's not always fun, and you can't always follow your bliss right away. And so I think the young people should be practical. I know a lot of young people who worked for five years in a field that they may not be interested in but it gives them the financial stability and the base from which to do what they want. And there's nothing wrong with that. 16:35:23 I do -- the main advice I would give young people starting off, though, is --- ultimately you are going to do best at something you care deeply about. And some people have probably heard this said before, but if you really enjoy what you do, then it's -- the line between work and play starts vanishing a little bit. You know, you still have to grind it out, but you can get into the mindset where the creativity or the effort and the sweat that you're putting into what you do doesn't feel like a burden; it feels like an expression of -- of what you care about. And -- and so I think your career's not going to be straight line all the time. 16:36:16 You know, I think there may be times where you got to take a detour and you got to do something practical to pay the bills. There are going to be times where you see an opportunity and you're making a calculated risk that I'm going to start some wacky company called Tumblr. (Laughter.) And -- and how you balance the practical with your -- your -- your highest aspirations is something that'll be different for each person. Everybody's going to have different circumstances. MR. KARP: What do you say to kids right now who ask you -- you know, they see their passion. They want to build big stuff for the Internet. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Right. MR. KARP: They want to build the next big app -- PRESIDENT OBAMA: Right. MR. KARP: -- next big social network. What do you tell them when they say, hey, look, David, Zuckerberg, Jobs, Gates, all these guys -- PRESIDENT OBAMA: (Inaudible.) MR. KARP: -- who I don't necessarily deserve to be in the company of, but dropped out of school? 16:37:06 Yeah. I mean, you wouldn't know it, looking at you, but you're like LeBron or Durant. (Laughter.) You know, the -- I mean, you guys don't have the same physiques -- (laughter) -- but -- but there are only going to be so many Zuckerbergs or, you know -- well, you know, Gateses who -- who are able to short-circuit the traditional path. 16:37:38 If you can, more power to you. But let me put it this way. Had you not -- let's say Tumblr had been a bust, right, or Facebook had just ended up being, you know, some dating site that nobody was really interested in. MR. KARP: We'd be in a hard place. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, but the truth is also you had the foundation where you could go back to school, right? I mean, it wasn't as if you were suddenly operating without a net. I'm assuming that you would have been readmitted to whatever institution you were in, and if not, then you would go to another school, and you'd do fine. 16:38:16 So the issue is not whether you may not want to take a risk at some point. The point is that for the average young person, an investment in college is always going to be a smart investment. Making sure you know what it is that you're investing in is important. 16:38:35 You know, one of the biggest areas where we see a problem is young people who are going, let's say, to technical schools or community colleges or some of these for-profit universities -- they're promised a lot, but they haven't done the research to see, OK, does, typically, a graduate coming out of one of these schools get a job in the occupation? Are they actually making money? If you're going to have $50,000 worth of debt, you'd better have factored in, you know, what are the employment prospects coming out. And -- and so I think it's good for young people -- not only good, it's imperative for young people to be good consumers of education and don't just assume that there's one way of doing things. We tell our daughters -- you know, Malia's now -- she'll be 16 next month, and she's going to be in the college process. And we tell her, you know, don't assume that there are 10 schools that you -- that you have to go to, and if you didn't go to those 10 that somehow things are going to be terrible. There are a lot of schools out there. 16:39:47 There are a lot of options, and you should do your research before you -- you decide to exercise one of those options. Having said that, the -- the overwhelming evidence is that a college education is the surest, clearest path into the middle class for most Americans. MR. KARP: Is the White House right now offering any of those tools to be a good consumer, to navigate all the choices out there? 16:40:15 Yes. Yes, so the -- so if you go -- again, go to whitehouse.gov, which will link you to the Department of Education. One of the things that we're doing is to -- we're starting to develop a score card for colleges and universities so you have just a general sense of what's the typical graduation rate? What's the typical debt that you carry once you get out? You know, what is the employment rate for graduates five years afterwards? And over time, one of the things that we're trying to do is develop a ranking system that is not exactly the same as the typical college ranking systems that you see in U.S. News and World Report, for example. 16:40:57 Part of the problem with the traditional ranking systems of schools is that, for example, high cost is actually a bonus in the ranking system. It indicates prestige. And so there -- there may be some great schools that are expensive, but what you're missing is a great school that may give you much better value, particularly in the field that you're in. Now, there's some controversy, I -- I want to confess, about that. A lot of colleges and universities say, you know, if you start ranking just based on cost and employability, et cetera, you're missing the essence of higher education and so forth. What we're really trying to do is just identify, here are some good bargains. Here are some really bad deals. Then there's going to be a bunch of schools in the middle that, you know, there's not going to be a huge amount of differentiation. But what we are trying to do is make sure that students have enough information going into it that they don't end up in a school that is pretty notorious for piling a lot of debt on their students but not really delivering a great education. MR. KARP: Back to the debt, which is top of mind for everybody here today, Silmae (ph) from Tulsa asked an interesting question: Of my $220,000 in student loan debt -- PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yikes. MR. KARP: -- from college and law school -- there you go -- less than half is receiving the benefit of loan forgiveness. Why is there no discussion on the mounting private student loan debt? 16:42:21 Well, there is a discussion. The problem is we just end up having less leverage over that. I mean, the truth is, is that both legislatively and administratively, we have some impact on federal loans. Private loans, if you take -- you know, if you go to a private company and you're taking out a loan, we have the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau that is trying to regulate this area and make sure that you have full information about what you're getting yourself into. It's another version of "know before you owe." 16:42:54 But it's harder for us to restructure some of that debt. Now, one thing that I think is really important for everybody to know here, because this is actual action you can take, as opposed to just listening to me blather on -- this week there will be a vote in the United States Senate on a bill sponsored by Elizabeth Warren, the senator from Massachusetts. And what this bill would do would allow students to refinance their existing loans at today's rates. 16:43:29 The reason that's important is because rates have been low, and typically there's going to be a pretty big spread between the -- the rates that a lot of students -- the interest rates that a lot of students have on their debt right now versus what they could do if they refinanced, the same way that a lot of people refinanced their mortgages to take advantage of historically low rates. 16:43:55 And so this vote is coming up. It will come up this week. I think everybody on Tumblr should be contacting their -- their senators and finding out where they stand on the issue because -- and by the way, this is something that will not add to the deficit because the way we pay for it is we say that we're going to eliminate some loopholes right now that allow millionaires and billionaires to pay lower rates of taxes than secretaries and teachers. And so it would pay for itself. It's a good piece of legislation. It directly affects folks in their 20s and 30s, and in some cases their 40s and 50s and 60s. But particularly the young people who use Tumblr, this is something that you should pay a lot of attention to. Make sure that you are pushing your senators around this -- around this issue. MR. KARP: Particularly important if you know you're facing that debt already or you're -- you are already today facing that debt. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Right. MR. KARP: What's the best way, though -- people who are -- again, they're thinking about higher education. They're in school today. (Inaudible) -- a thoughtful question: What is the best way for students to have a voice in their own education? So much education today, I think, really -- I don't know, I mean, so many teenagers who feel like education is happening to them, right? They're going through the motions. They know that this is what they're supposed to do, and so they follow along. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yeah. MR. KARP: How do we make sure kids are driving? 16:45:25 Well, look. At some point it's going to be up to the young person to drive that education. It's not inevitable that you just fasten your seat belt and just go on a ride for four years or two years or whatever it is. I mean, I have to say that in my own college experience, I think the first two years I was there thinking I'm just happy to be here and I'm having fun and I'll just sort of go through the motions. 16:45:51 My last two years was when I really became much more serious about what I was doing and much more intentional about what I was doing. Too many young people see -- and I'm -- I'm grossly generalizing now, so excuse me, but I'm -- you know, I use myself as an example as well. I think too many of us see college as a box to check or a place to have fun and extend adolescence -- (laughter) -- as opposed to a opportunity each of us to figure out what is it that we're good at? What is that we care about? What is that we're willing to invest a lot of time and effort and energy into? How do we hone some skills or interests or, you know, attributes that we already have? 16:46:44 And as a consequence, I think young people waste a lot of time in school. Now, again, I'm generalizing because there are a whole bunch of folks who are working while going to school, while helping out their parents, in some cases they're already parents themselves. And so everything I just said does not apply to you. (Laughter.) You are -- and a lot of -- it's interesting, you know, one of the reasons I think I did well in law school was because I had worked for three and a half years so that by the time I got to law school I actually knew why I was studying the law, and I knew exactly what I wanted to get out of it. Not to mention, the fact that the idea of just going to class for three hours a day and then reading didn't seem particularly oppressive to me, whereas young people who had come straight out of college thought this is horrible. 16:47:34 You get -- try working for a while, and then you realize, this is pretty good deal. (Laughter.) Yeah. So -- but I think that part -- part of what we as adults have to do goes back to what I said about high schools. Education is not a passive thing. You know, you don't tip your head and somebody pours it into your ear. It is an active process of you figuring out the world and your place in it. And the earlier we can help young people -- not lock them in. Look, nobody expects that somebody who's 16 automatically knows exactly what they want to do, and people may change their kinds repeatedly. But what we can do is expose young people to enough actual work and occupations that they start getting a feel for what they would be interested in. And, you know, I really want to work with more school districts, and I've asked Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to work with more school districts, and we're actually giving grants to school districts that are thinking creatively about how high school can be used more effectively. 16:48:49 I don't want a young person who knows that they want to go into the trades to just waste four years of high school and then they've got to go through two years of apprenticeship and class work before they become a contractor. I'd rather have them doing contracting while also getting some other educational, you know, exposure, so that they're getting a jump on the things that they want to do. And they can save a lot of money in the process. Q: So Beth asked a question close to that. So instead of -- close to that point. Instead of pushing all students into college, shouldn't we focus on the other side, increasing the minimum wage and making it viable, livable to enter the workforce straight out of high school? Should we be doing both? 16:49:37 Absolutely. Well, here's what I would say. There are very few jobs now where you're not going to need some advanced training. One of the great things about being president is I get to visit companies and work sites and factories, and if you go into the average auto company today, for example, first of all, it's not at all what you'd imagine. It is spotless and it is quiet and it is humming because it is all mechanized and computerized at this point. And even if you have a, you know, four football-field sized assembly line, most of the people there are working with machines and they're working on computer keyboards. 16:50:29 So having some basic training in math, some familiarity with computers, some familiarity with programming and code, all that is a huge advantage if you are trying to get a line on an assembly line. Now, if that's true for assembly line work, that's certainly going to be true for any other trade that you're interested in. We do have to do a better job of giving young people who are interested an effective vocational education. And there are tons of opportunities out there for people -- you know, here's an interesting statistic. 16:51:00 The average trade person in Wisconsin -- and what I mean by that is an electrician, a plumber, a carpenter, a machine tool worker. The average age in Wisconsin is 59-years old, all right? Now, these jobs typically pay 25, 30 bucks and hour, potentially, with benefits. You can make a really good living doing that. And there are a lot of folks who love doing it. It's really interesting work and highly skilled work. So I don't want somebody to find out about that when they're 30, after they've already taken a bunch of classes and stuff that they ended up not using. Now they've got a bunch of debt. I'd rather, if they've got that inclination, to figure that out early and be able to go straight into something that helps them get that job. MR. KARP: So one question we heard a lot from our community that I wanted to make sure to mention today, recently I think you've been following the Department of Ed's Office of Civil Rights and the DOJ have extended Title IX protections to trans students. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Right. MR. KARP: What do you see as the next steps to ensure equal treatment of trans people in schools in America? 16:52:25 Well, you know, Title IX is a powerful tool. It's interesting. Yesterday I had the University of Connecticut men's and women's basketball teams here. This is only the second time that the men's and women's basketball teams won the national championship in the same year. The previous year was 2004, and it was UConn again. 16:52:45 But what was interesting about it is that the men were kind of a surprise. It was nice. The women were dominant. I mean, the UConn Husky women's program, they rule, and they are incredible athletes. And talking to these young women, you know, they're poised and they're beautiful and some of them are 6'6" and they're wearing high heels and, you know, supremely confident and competitive. And that's a huge shift from even 20 years ago or 30 years ago. 16:53:25 The reason for that was Title -- you know, Title IX was applied vigorously in schools, and it gave opportunities. It's not like women suddenly became athletes. They were athletic before. Michelle, when I work out with her, she puts me to shame. (Laughter.) But it had more to do with restrictions in opportunity. So the point I'm making is, is that Title IX is a very powerful tool. The fact that we are applying it to transgender students means that they are going to be in a position to assert their rights if and when they see that they are being discriminated on their college campuses, and that could manifest itself in a whole variety of ways. MR. KARP: Brilliant. This one was sent in a few days ago. Mr. President, my name is Nick Deneen (sp), and I attend the school -- excuse me -- I attend school at the University of California in Santa Barbara. I was the RA for the floor that George Chen lived at -- lived on -- excuse me -- last year as a first-year college student. I knew him. Elliot Rodger killed him and five more of my fellow students. Today another man has shot and killed at least one person and injured three others at a private Christian school in Seattle. What are you going to do? What can we all do? And of course another mass shooting this morning. 16:54:42 I -- I have to say that people often ask me, you know, how it's been being president and, you know, what are my -- you know, what am I proudest of and what are my biggest disappointments? And you know, I've got 2 1/2 years left. My biggest frustration so far is the fact that this society has not been willing to take some basic steps to -- to keep guns out of the hands of, you know, people who, you know, can -- can do just unbelievable damage. 16:55:32 We're -- we're the only -- we're the only developed country on earth where this happens. And it happens now once a week. And it -- it's a one-day story. There's no place else like this. A couple of decades ago Australia had a mass shooting similar to Columbine or -- or Newtown, and Australia just said, well, that's it. We're not doing -- we're not seeing that again - and basically imposed very severe, tough gun laws, and they've -- they haven't had a mass shooting since. 16:56:16 I mean, our levels of gun violence are off the charts. There's no advanced, developed country on earth that would put up with this. Now, we have a different tradition. We have a Second Amendment. We have historically respected gun rights. I respect gun rights. But the idea that, for example, we couldn't even get a background check bill in to make sure that if you're going to buy a weapon you have to actually go through a fairly rigorous process so that we know who you are, so you can't just walk up to a store and buy a semi-automatic weapon, it makes no sense. 16:57:06 And I don't know if anybody saw the brief press conference from the father of the young man who had been killed at Santa Barbara -- and as a father myself I just -- I couldn't understand the pain he must be going through and just the primal scream that he gave out. Why -- why aren't we doing something about this? And I will tell you that -- I have been in Washington for a while now and most things don't surprise me. The fact that 26-year-olds were gunned down in the most violent fashion possible and this town couldn't do anything about it was stunning to me. 16:58:00 And so the question then becomes, what can we do about it? The only thing that's going to change is -- is public opinion. If public opinion does not demand change in Congress, it will not change. We have -- I've initiated over 20 executive actions to try to tighten up some of the rules and the laws, but the bottom line is, is that we don't have enough tools right now to really make as big of a dent as we need to. And most members of Congress -- and I have to say to some degree this is bipartisan -- are terrified of the NRA. The combination of, you know, the NRA and gun manufacturers are very well financed and have the capacity to move votes in local elections and congressional elections. And so if you're running for office right now, that's where you feel the heat. 16:59:04 And people on the other side may be generally favorable towards things like background checks and other common-sense rules, but they're not as motivated, so that's not -- that doesn't end up being the issue that a lot of you vote on. 16:59:20 And until that changes, until there is a fundamental shift in public opinion in which people say, enough; this is not acceptable; this is not normal; this isn't sort of the price we should be paying for our freedom; that we can have respect for the Second Amendment, and responsible gun owners and sportsmen and hunters can have, you know, the ability to possess weapons, but that we are going to, you know, put some common-sense rules in place that make a dent, at least, in what's happening -- until that is not just the majority view -- because that's already the majority view, even the majority of gun owners believe that -- but until that's a view that people feel passionately about and are willing to go after folks who don't, you know, vote reflecting those values -- until that happens, sadly, not that much is going to change. Last thing I'll say -- a lot of people will say that -- you know, well, this is a mental health problem. You know, it's not a gun problem. 17:00:30 You know, the United States does not have a monopoly on crazy people. (Laughter.) It -- it -- it's not the only country that has psychosis. And yet, we kill each other in these -- in these mass shootings at rates that are exponentially higher than any place else. Well, what's the difference? 17:01:03 The difference is, is that these guys can stack up a bunch of ammunition in their houses and -- and that's sort of par for the course. So the country has to do some soul searching about this. This is becoming the norm. And we take it for granted in -- in ways that, as a parent, are terrifying to me. And -- and I -- I am prepared to work with anybody, including responsible sportsmen and gun owners, to craft some solutions. But right now, it's -- it's not even possible to get even the mildest restrictions through Congress. And that's -- we should be ashamed of that. MR. KARP: Thank you for taking the time to answer that one, obviously an incredibly difficult and disappointing conversation to have. Looks like we have time for one more question. So let's switch over to a lighter one. There are plenty of young people out there today who are watching your career incredibly closely. They're thinking about their futures, their careers, their educations that they're going off to pursue. Astonishment (sp) asked: Where do you see yourself in 10 years? (Laughter.) 17:02:27 Well, you know, I -- I haven't projected out 10 years. I -- I -- I'm really focused on making sure that I -- I make every day in the next 2 1/2 years count because it's an incredible privilege to be in this office. 17:02:43 And even when I'm frustrated with Congress or I'm frustrated with the press and how it's reporting things and Washington generally, I also know that there's something I can do every single day that's helping somebody and that, sometimes without a lot of fanfare, you know, we're making it easier for a business to get a loan, and we're making it easier for a young person to get an education, and we're making it easier for a family to get health care, and -- and -- and making sure that each day, I come away with something that we've done to make it a little easier for folks to work their way into the middle class, to stay in the middle class, to save for retirement, to finance their kids' college educations. That's a good day for me. 17:03:38 I know what I'll do, like, right after the next president's inaugurated. You know, I'll be on a beach somewhere -- (laughter) -- drinking a -- out of a coconut. (Laughter.) But that probably won't last too long. And you know, that -- one of the things that Michelle and I have talked a lot about is we're really interested in developing young people and working with them and -- and creating more institutions to promote young leadership. 17:04:16 I'm so impressed when I meet young people around the country. They're full of passion. They're full of ideas. I think they're much wiser and smarter than I was. Part of it maybe is because of Tumblr; I don't know. (Laughter.) And so there's just huge potential. And the challenge is, they're also fed a lot of cynicism. You guys are fed a lot of cynicism every single day about how nothing works and big institutions stink and government's broken, and so you channel a lot of your passion and energy into various private endeavors. 17:04:53 But this country has always been built both through an individual initiative but also a sense of some common purpose. And if there's one message I want to deliver to young people like a Tumblr audience is, don't get cynical. Guard against cynicism. I mean, the truth of the matter is, is that for all the challenges we face, all the problems that we have, if you had to be -- if you had to choose any moment to be born in human history not knowing what your position was going to be, who you were going to be, you'd choose this time. The world is less violent than it has ever been. It is healthier than it has ever been. It is more tolerant than it has ever been. It is better-fed than it's ever been. It is -- you know, it is more educated than it's ever been. 17:05:52 Terrible things happen around the world every single day, but the trend lines of progress are unmistakable. And the reason is because each successive generation tries to learn from previous mistakes and pushes the course of history in a better direction. And the only thing that stops that is if people start thinking that they don't make a difference and they can't make changes. And that's fed in our culture all the time. It's fascinating to me; I don't consume a lot of television, but generally, the culture right now is inherently in a cynical mood, in part because we went through a big trauma back in 2007, 2008 with the financial crisis, and we went through a decade of wars that were really tough, and that's the era in which you were born. 17:06:48 But I look out on the horizon, and there's a lot of opportunity out there. And that's what I'd like to do after the presidency, is make sure that I help young people guard against cynicism and do the remarkable things they can do. R. KARP: Beautiful. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good. MR. KARP: Mr. President, thank you so much for taking time to answer our questions today. Really, thank you. PRESIDENT OBAMA: We had a great time. Appreciate it. It was great. Thank you. (Applause.) MR. KARP: Was that OK? I've never talked to a president before. 17:07:18 He's a natural. He could have gone into journalism. (Laughter.) MR. KARP: I've never talked to a president before. Thank you so much. (Laughter.) Hey, real quick, guys, before we go, I would really like to thank the president for having us over to his rental property today. It really does mean a lot to our community to know that America's leader is listening to us. I hope we've all come away with a clearer picture as to the issues that we're facing. Please make sure to follow whitehouse.tumblr.com, and lastly, please wish Sasha a happy 13th birthday today. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yeah, it's Sasha's birthday today. (Applause.) MR. KARP: Now that she's 13, guys -- now that she's 13, according to our terms of services, she's officially old enough to use Tumblr. (Laughter.) Let us know - PRESIDENT OBAMA: So she wasn't before that? (Laughter.) MR. KARP: She wasn't, I'm sorry. We can let this one slide. (Laughter.) PRESIDENT OBAMA: I'm going to have to -- I'm going to have to talk to somebody about that. (Laughter.) All right. Thank you guys. MR. KARP: Thank you -- (inaudible) - PRESIDENT OBAMA: Have a great time. (Applause.) President Obama on Student Loan Plan President Obama answered questions about student loan reforms and his new "Pay As You Earn" plan on the social media platform Tumblr.

President Barack Obama LinkedIn event in Mountain View, California - STIX. (Applause.) 14:01:46 PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Thank you. Everybody, please, have a seat. Thank you. Thank you very much. That's a nice crowd. (Laughter.) And I have to say, Jeff, you warmed them up very well. JEFF WEINER: Thank you, Mr. President. PRESIDENT OBAMA: I thank you so much for your hospitality. And -- and let me begin by just saying how excited I am to be here. Every time I come to Silicon Valley, every time that I come to this region, I am excited about America's future. And -- and no part of the country better represents, I think, the essence of America than here because what you see is entrepreneurship and dynamism, a forward orientation, an optimism, a belief that if you've got a good idea and you're willing to put in the sweat and -- and blood and tears to make it happen that not only can you succeed for yourself, but you can grow the economy for everybody. And it's that driving spirit that has made America an economic superpower. 14:02:57 But obviously, we're in a period of time right now where the economy is struggling and a lot of folks all across the country are struggling. And so part of what I hope to do is to have a conversation with all of you about how can we continue to spark the innovation that is going to ensure our economic success in the 21st century; how can we prepare our workforce to be able to plug into this new economy; how do we recognize that, in this competitive environment, there are all kinds of opportunity that LinkedIn presents for interconnectedness and -- and -- and people being able to work together and spread ideas around the world and -- and create value, but at the same time understanding that there are some perils as well. If our kids aren't properly educated, if we don't have an infrastructure that is world-class, if we are not investing in basic research and science, if we're not doing all the things that made us great in the past, then we're going to fall behind. 14:04:07 And we've got a short-term challenge, which is how do we put people back to work right now. And so as you mentioned, I put forward a proposal, the American Jobs Act, that would put thousands of teachers back into the classrooms who've been laid off due to downturns in state and local budgets; that would make sure that we are rebuilding our infrastructure, taking extraordinary numbers of construction workers who've been laid off when the -- the housing bubble went bust and -- and -- and putting them to work rebuilding our roads and our airports and our schools and laying broadband lines and all the things that help us make a success, and also make sure that we're providing small businesses the kinds of tax incentives that will allow them to hire and allow them to succeed. And you know, I have said to Congress I understand that there's an election 14 months away, and it's tempting to say that we're not going to do anything until November of 2012, but the American people cannot afford to wait. The American people need help right now. And all the proposals we've put forward in the American Jobs Act will not help us now but will also help us in the future, will lay the foundation for our long-term success. Last point I'll make -- and then I want to get to questions -- it's all paid for. And it's paid for in part by building on some very tough cuts in our budget to eliminate waste and things we don't need that we've already made, a trillion dollars over the next 10 years. We've proposed an additional half a trillion dollars over the next 10 years of spending cuts and adjustments on programs that we want to keep intact but haven't been reformed in too long. But what I've also said is, in order to pay for it and bring down the deficit at the same time, we're going to have to reform our tax code in a way that's fair and makes sure that everybody is doing their fair share. I've said this before. I'll say it again. Warren Buffett's secretary shouldn't be paying a lower (sic) tax rate than Warren Buffett. Somebody who's making $50,000 a year as a teacher shouldn't be paying a higher effective tax rate than somebody like myself or Jeff, who have been incredibly blessed -- I don't -- I don't know what you make, Jeff, but I'm just guessing -- (laughter) -- you know, who've been blessed by the incredible opportunities of this country. And I say that because whenever America's moved forward, it's because we've moved forward together. And we're going to have to make sure that we are laying the foundation for the success of future generations, and that means that each of us are doing our part to make sure we're investing in our future. So with that, thank you so much for the terrific venue. I look forward to a bunch of great questions both live and through -- through whatever other linkages that we've got here. (Laughter.) MR. WEINER: You've got it. So we're going to be going back and forth between folks in the audience -- members, and some previously generated questions from the LinkedIn group. So we're going to start. Our first question is from LinkedIn member Chuck Painter (sp). And Chuck, we're going to get your a mic. Q: Good morning, Mr. President. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good morning. Q: I'm from Austin, Texas. I've been in sales in the plastics industry for 20 years. I lost my job in 2009 and been fortunate enough to have found another position, become reemployed. My question is, what can we do as American citizens to unite ourselves and help the economy? 14:07:32 PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, first of all, are you a native of Austin? Because that's one of my favorite cities in the country. Q: Actually, I'm a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, but just relocated to Austin and I love it there. So -- PRESIDENT OBAMA: Austin's great. Charlotte's not bad. Q: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. (Laughter.) PRESIDENT OBAMA: That's the reason why I'm having my convention in Charlotte, because I love North Carolina as well. But the -- how long did it take you to -- to find a new job after you got laid off? Q: It took nine months. PRESIDENT OBAMA: It took nine months. Q: Yes, sir. PRESIDENT OBAMA: And that's one of the challenges that a lot of folks are seeing out there. You've got skilled people with experience in an industry, that industry changes, and you were fortunate enough to be able to move some folks -- because of the decline in the housing industry are having trouble with mobility and finding new jobs and relocating in pursuit of opportunity. Q: Yes, sir. PRESIDENT OBAMA: The most important thing that we can do right now is to help jump-start the economy, which has stalled, by putting people back to work. And so, not surprisingly, I think the most important thing we can do right now is pass this jobs bill. Think about it. Independent economists have estimated that if we pass the entire package, the American Jobs Act, we would increase GDP by close to 2 percent, we would increase employment by 1.9 million persons, and that is the kind of big, significant move in the economy that could have ripple effects and help the recovery take off. Now, there's been a lot of dispute about the kind of impact that we had right after the financial crisis hit, but the fact is the vast majority of economists who've looked at it have said that the recovery act, by starting infrastructure projects around the country, by making sure that states had help on their budgets so they didn't have to lay off teachers and firefighters and others, by providing tax cuts to small businesses -- and by the way, we've cut taxes about 16 times since I've been in office for small businesses to give them more capital to work with and more incentives to hire -- all those things made a big difference. 14:10:06 The American Jobs Act is specifically tailored to putting more of those folks back to work. It's not going to solve all our problems. We've still got a housing situation in which too many homes are underwater. And one of the things that we've proposed as part of the American Jobs Act is -- is that we're going to help reduce the barriers to refinancing so that folks can get record-low rates. That'll put more money into people's pockets. It'll provide tax cuts to not only small businesses, but almost every middle-class family. That means they've got more money in their pockets, and that means that they're going to be able to spend it on products and services, which provide additional incentives for businesses to hire folks like you. So it's the right step to take right now. Long-term we're going to have to pull together around making sure our education system is the best in the world, making sure our infrastructure is the best world, continuing to invest in science and technology. We've got to stabilize our -- our finances, and we've got to continue to drive down health care costs, which are a drag on our whole economy. And we've got to continue to promote trade but make sure that that trade is fair and that intellectual property protection, for example, is available when we're doing business in other countries like China. So there are a lot of long-term agendas that we've got to pursue. Right now, though, the most important thing I can do for you, even if you already have a job, is to make sure that your neighbors and your friends also have jobs because those are ultimately the customers for your products. Q: Yes, sir. Yes, thank you, Mr. President. MR. WEINER: Great. Thank you, Chuck (sp). We'd now like to take a question from the audience. So anyone interested? PRESIDENT OBAMA: This young lady right here. MR. WEINER: OK. Could we get a mic over there, please? Thank you. Q: Hi. I have a question, actually, for my mother, who's going to be 65 next March. And she lives in Ohio, which has a very high unemployment rate. She has a GED, and she's always worked in food service. She's currently unemployed, just got approved for Section 8 housing, gets Social Security and food stamps. And she wants to know, when can she get a job, and what's going to happen to Social Security and Medicare? PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, first of all, where does your mom live in Ohio? Q: Mentor. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Mentor. What part of Ohio is that? Q: It's the east side of Cleveland. 14:12:18 PRESIDENT OBAMA: OK. Well, tell Mom hi. (Laughter.) You get points for being such a good daughter and using your -- using your question to tell me what's on her mind. Q: Oh, you have no idea. (Laughs.) (Laughter.) PRESIDENT OBAMA: You know, I've -- my mother-in-law lives at home, and so I -- in the White House, so I've got some idea. (Laughter.) First of all, let me talk about Social Security and Medicare, because this has obviously been an issue that has been discussed a lot in the press lately as we think about our long-term finances. You can tell your mom that Medicare and Social Security will be there for her. Guaranteed. There are no proposals out there that would affect folks that are about to get Social Security and Medicare, and she'll be qualifying -- you know, she already is starting to qualify for Medicare, and she'll be qualifying for Social Security fairly soon. Social Security and Medicare together have lifted entire generations of seniors out of poverty -- our most important social safety net -- and they have to be preserved. Now, both of them have some long-term challenges that we've got to deal with, but they're different challenges. Social Security is actually the easier one. It's just a pure, simple math problem, and that is that right now the population's getting older, so more people are going on Social Security, you've got fewer workers supporting more retirees, and so if we don't do anything, Social Security won't go broke, but in a few years what will happen is that more money will be going out than coming in, and over time, people who were on Social Security would only be getting about 75 cents on every dollar that they thought they'd be getting. 14:14:01 And so the Social Security system is not the big driver of our deficits, but if we don't want -- if we want to make sure that Social Security is there for future generations, then we've got to make some modest adjustments. And -- and when I say modest, I mean, for example, right now Social Security contributions are capped at a little over a hundred thousand dollars of earnings, and that means the vast majority of people pay Social Security taxes on everything they earn. But if you're earning a million dollars, you know, only one- tenth of your income is taxed for Social Security. And we could make that modification. That would solve a big chunk of the problem. Medicare is a bigger issue, because not only is the population getting older and more people are using it, but health care costs have been going up way too fast. And that's why part of my health care reform bill two years ago was: Let's start changing how our health care system works, to make it more efficient. For example, if your mom goes in for a test, she shouldn't have to then, if she goes to another specialist, take the same test all over again and have Medicare pay for two tests. That first test should be emailed to the doctor who's the specialist, but right now that's not happening. So what we've said is: Let's incentivize providers to do a more efficient job, and over time we can start reducing those costs. I've made some suggestions about how we can reform Medicare, but what I'm not going to do is what, frankly, the House Republicans proposed, which was to voucherize the Medicare system -- which would mean your mom might pay an extra $6,000 every year for her Medicare. Q: Which she doesn't have. PRESIDENT OBAMA: I'm assuming she doesn't have it. Q: Yeah. PRESIDENT OBAMA: So we are going to be pushing back against that kind of proposal. And that raises the point I made earlier. You know, if people like myself aren't paying a little more in taxes, then the only way you balance the budget is on the backs of folks like your mom who end up paying a lot more in Medicare, and they can't afford it, whereas I can afford to pay a little more in taxes. So that's on -- on Medicare and Social Security. 14:16:34 In terms of her finding a job, the most important thing we can do right now is to pass the American Jobs Act, get people back to work. Because think about it: If she's been in the food service industry, you know, that industry is dependent on people spending money on food, you know, whether it's at a restaurant or a cafeteria or, you know, buying more groceries. And if a construction worker and a teacher or a veteran have a job because of the programs that we proposed in the American Jobs Act, they're going to be spending more money in food services, and that means that those businesses are going to have to hire more and your mom's going to be more likely to be hired. All right? Q: Yeah. And one of the other issues, though, is just a matter that there's, you know, a big age gap between her and the other folks who are willing to come in and work for less money and have less experience. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, that -- that is -- that is a challenge, that, you know, it is tough being unemployed if you're in your 50s or early 60s, before retirement. That's the toughest period of time to lose your job. Obviously it's never fun to lose your job, and it's always hard in this kind of really deep recession, but it's scariest for folks who are nearing retirement and may also be worrying about whether they've got enough saved up to ever retire. So that's part of the reason why one of the things that we're also proposing, separate and apart from the jobs bill, is we've got to do a better job of retraining workers so that they, in their second or third or fourth careers, are able to go back to a community college, maybe take a short six-month course or a one-year course that trains them on the kinds of skills that are going to be needed for jobs that are actually hiring or business that are actually hiring right now. We've done some great work working with community colleges to try to make sure that businesses help design the training programs so that somebody who enrolls, like your mom, if she goes back to school, she knows that after six months she will be trained for the particular job that this business is looking for. All right? Thanks so much. Tell her I said hi. Q: Great. Thank you. OK. (Chuckles.) MR. WEINER: Thank you. We're going to go to the group -- the LinkedIn group. We had thousands of questions submitted. And here's one of them from a LinkedIn member, Marla Hughes (sp). Marla (sp) is from Gainesville, Florida. She's the owner of Meticulously Clean home and apartment cleaning service. And her question is: As a small-business owner, regulation and high taxes are my worst enemies when it comes to growing my business. What are you going to do to lessen the onerous regulations and taxation on small businesses? 14:19:19 PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, you know, it's hard to say exactly what regulations or taxes she may be referring to because obviously it differs in different businesses. But as I said, we've actually cut taxes for small businesses 16 times since I've been in office. So taxes for small businesses are lower now than they were when I came into office. Small businesses are able to get tax breaks for hiring. They're able to get tax breaks for investment in capital investments. They are able to get tax breaks for hiring veterans. They're able to get tax breaks for a whole host of areas, including, by the way, a proposal that we put forward that says that there should be no capital gains tax on a startup, to encourage more small businesses to go out there and -- and -- and create -- create a business. In terms of regulations, most of the regulations that -- that we have been focused on are ones that affect large businesses, like utilities, for example, in terms of how they deal with safety issues, environmental issues. 14:20:48 We have been putting forward some tough regulations with respect to the financial sector because we can't have a repeat of what happened in 2007. And the fact of the matter is that if what happened on Wall Street ends up having a spill-over effect to all of Main Street, it is our responsibility to make sure that we have a dynamic economy, we have a dynamic financial sector but, you know, we don't have a mortgage broking -- brokerage operation that ends up providing people loans that can never be repaid and end up having ramifications throughout the system. So, you know, you're going to hear from, I think, Republicans over the next year and a half that somehow if we just eliminated pollution controls or if we just eliminated basic consumer protections, that somehow that in and of itself would be a spur to growth. I disagree with that. 14:22:14 What I do agree with is, is that there are some regulations that have outlived their usefulness. And so what I've done is I've said to all the agencies in the federal government, number one, you have to always take costs as well as benefits into account when you're proposing new regulations. Number two, don't just be satisfied with applying that analysis to new regulations. Look back at the old regulations to see if there are some that we can start weeding out. And we've initiated the most aggressive what we call look-back provisions when it comes to regulations, where we say to every agency: Go through all the regulations that you have on your books that flow through your agencies, and see if some of them are still necessary. And it turns out that a lot of them are no longer necessary. Well, let's get rid of them if they've outlived your -- their usefulness. I think that there were some regulations that had to do with the transportation for -- sector for example, that didn't take into account the fact that everybody operates on GPS now. Well, you've got to adjust and adapt to how the economy's changing and how technology -- how technology has changed. And we've already identified about $10 billion worth of savings just in the initial review, and we anticipate that that's only going to be a fraction of some of the paperwork and bureaucracy and red tape that we're going to be able to eliminate. 14:23:17 But I -- I will never apologize for making sure that we have regulations in place to ensure that your water is clean, that your food is safe to eat, you know, that the peanut butter you feed your kids is not going to be contaminated; making sure that if you take out a credit card, there's some clarity about what it exactly is going to do and you're not seeing a whole bunch of hidden fees and hidden charges that you didn't anticipate. You know, that's always been part of what makes the marketplace work, is if you have smart regulations in place, that means the people who are providing good value, good products, good services -- those businesses are going to succeed. We don't want to be rewarding folks who are gaming the system or cheating consumers. And -- and I think that's how most American(s) feels about regulations as well. They don't want more than is necessary, but they know that there's some things that we've got to do to protect ourselves and our environment and our children. MR. WEINER: Thank you for your question, Marla (sp). Now we're going to take a question from LinkedIn member Esther Abeja (sp). Esther's an IT analyst from Chicago, Illinois. PRESIDENT OBAMA: There you go. Chicago's all right, too! (Laughter.) MR. WEINER: Esther, what is your question for the president? Q: (Laughs.) Good morning, Mr. President. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good morning. Q: As Jeff said, I'm from Chicago, recently unemployed. And my fear is that the longer I'm unemployed, the harder it is going to be for me to get employed. It seems that nowadays employers are hiring people who are currently employed because they're in touch with their skill set. What programs do you think should be in place for individuals such as myself to keep in touch with our skills, be in demand, marketable, and eventually get hired? PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, the -- first of all, you obviously are thinking ahead about how to keep your skills up. And the most important thing you can do is to make sure that, whether it's through classes or online training or what-have-you, that you're keeping your skill set sharp. We, as part of the American Jobs Act, are actually supporting legislation in Congress that says employers can't discriminate against somebody just because they're currently unemployed, because that -- that doesn't seem fair. That doesn't -- that doesn't make any sense. But the most important thing, probably, we can do for you is just make sure that the unemployment rate generally goes down, the mark -- that the labor market gets a little tighter, so that, you know, employers start looking beyond just the people who are currently employed to folks who have terrific skills and just have been out of the market for a while. So passing the American Jobs Act is going to be important. There is legislation in there that says you can't be discriminated against just because you don't have a job. The one other thing that we can do is, during this interim, as you're looking for a job, making it easier for you to be able to go back to school if you think there's some skill sets that you need, making it economical for you to do it. 14:26:14 One of the things that we did during the last two and a half years -- it used to be the student loan program was run through the banks, and even though the federal government guaranteed all these loans, so the banks weren't taking any risks, they were taking about $60 billion out of the entire program, which meant that there was less money to actually go directly to students. We ended that. We cut out the middleman, and we said let's use that money to expand the availability of Pell grants, to increase the amount that Pell grants -- each Pell grant student could get. And through that process you've got millions of people all across the country who are able to actually go back to school without incurring the huge debt loads that -- that they had in the past, although, you know, obviously the cost of a college education is still really high. But if we can do more to make it easier for you to keep your skills up even when you're not already hired, hopefully that will enhance your marketability to employers in the future. All right. But just looking at you, I can tell you're going to do great. Q: That's -- thank you. PRESIDENT OBAMA: All right. Thank you. MR. WEINER: Thanks, Esther (sp). Our next question is from LinkedIn member Wayne Kulick. Wayne is from Phoenix, Arizona. He spent 25 years flying aircraft for the U.S. Navy and is now program director for American Express. Wayne? Q: Good morning, Mr. President. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good morning, sir. Q: I'm from Phoenix, Arizona, where I'm a program director, as Jeff had said. I retired in 2007. When I retired, networking was essentially how I got all my jobs after retirement. How do you envision the government's role in integrating networking tools to aid veterans that are leaving the service and getting jobs? PRESIDENT OBAMA: It's a great question. And first of all, let me thank you for your service. Q: (Inaudible.) PRESIDENT OBAMA: We are very grateful to you for that. (Applause.) Thank you. But you know, you were extraordinarily skilled. And even then, it sounds like you had to rely on informal networks rather than a formal set of processes for veterans in order for you to find a job that used all your skills. We have not done as good of a job in the past in helping veterans transition out of the armed services as we should have. I'll give you an example. I actually had lunch with a group of veterans from the Iraq and Afghan wars up in -- up in Minnesota. And the young man I was talking to had just gone back to school. He was getting his nursing degree. He had worked in emergency medicine in Iraq multiple deployments, had probably dealt with the most incredible kinds of medical challenges under the most extreme circumstances, had received years of training to do this. 14:29:47 But when he went back to nursing school, he had to start as if he had never -- you know, never been involved in medicine at all. And so -- so he had to take all the same classes and take the same -- take the same debt burdens from taking those classes as if I had just walked in and, you know, could barely put a Band-Aid on myself. But -- but he had to go through the same processes. Well, that's an example of a failure on the part of both DOD and the VA -- Department of Defense and Veterans Administration -- to think proactively, how can we help him make the transition? So what we've started to say is, let's have a -- sort of a reverse boot camp. As folks are thinking about retiring, as folks are thinking about being discharged, let's work with them while they're still in the military to say, is there a way to credential them so that they can go directly into the job and work with state and local governments and employers, so that if they've got a skill set that we know is applicable to the private sector, let's give them a certification, let's give them a credential that helps them do that right away. We've also then started to put together a network of businesses. And I actually asked for a pledge from the private sector, and we've got a commitment now that a hundred thousand veterans will be hired over the next several years. And that creates a network, and maybe they'll end up using LinkedIn; I don't know. But what we want to do is to make sure that, whether it's the certification process, whether it's the job search process, whether it's resume preparation, whether it's using electronic networking, that we're using the huge capacity of the Veterans Administration and the Department of Defense and all the federal agencies to link up together more effectively, because not only is the federal government, obviously, a big employer itself, and we've significantly increased the hiring of veterans within the federal government, including, by the way, disabled veterans and wounded warriors, but we're -- you know, the federal government's also a big customer of a lot of businesses. 14:31:59 And there's nothing wrong with a big customer saying to a business, you know what? We're not going to tell you who to hire, but here's a list of extremely skilled veterans who are prepared to do a great job and have shown incredible leadership skills. Now, you think of these -- you've got 23, 24, 25-year-olds who are leading men into battle, who are, you know, handling multi-million dollars pieces of equipment, and they do so flawlessly. And those leadership skills, those technical skills should be able to translate directly into jobs. And last thing I'll say is, obviously, the American Jobs Act also would be helpful because it provides additional tax incentives for companies to hire our veterans. Q: Thank you. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you. (Applause.) MR. WEINER: Thank you, Wayne, and thank you again for your service. Let's turn to the audience now. Oh, a lot of hands going up. Mr. President, want to pick someone? PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, you know, they -- you kind of put me on the spot here. That -- the guy in the glasses right back -- right in the back there. Why not? Q: Thank you, Mr. President. I don't have a job, but that's because I've been lucky enough to live in Silicon Valley for a while and work for a small start-up down the -- down the street here that did quite well. So I'm unemployed by choice. My question is, would you please raise my taxes? (Laughter, applause.) I would -- I would like very much to have the country to continue to invest in things like Pell grants and infrastructure and job training programs that made it possible for me to get to where I am. And it kills me to see Congress not supporting the expiration of the tax cuts that have been benefitting so many of us for so long. I think that needs to change, and I hope that you'll stay strong in doing that. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, I -- well, I appreciate it. What -- what was the start-up, by the way? You want to give me a little hint? 14:34:35 Q: It's a -- it's a search engine. (Laughter.) PRESIDENT OBAMA: Worked out pretty well, huh? (Laughter.) Q: Yeah. Yeah. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well -- well, look, the -- let -- let me just talk about taxes for a second. I -- I've made this point before, but I want to reiterate this. So often, the tax debate gets framed as class warfare. And, look, I'm -- as I said at the outset, America's success is premised on individuals, entrepreneurs, having a great idea, going out there and pursuing their dreams and making a whole lot of money in the process. And that's great! That's part of what makes America so successful. But as you just pointed out, we're successful because somebody invested in our education, somebody built schools, somebody created incredible universities. I went to school on scholarship. Michelle -- you know, her dad was a -- what's called a -- a stationary engineer at the water reclamation district; never owned his own home, but he always paid his bills; had multiple sclerosis, struggled to get to work every day, but never missed a day on the job; never went to college, but he was able to send his daughter to Princeton and on to Harvard Law School. We benefited from somebody somewhere making an investment in us. And I don't care who you are, that's true of all of us. And look -- look at this room. I mean, look at the diversity of the people here. You know, a lot of us are -- you know, parents came from someplace else or grandparents came from someplace else. They benefited from a public school system or a(n) incredible university network or the infrastructure that allows us to move products and services around the globe or the scientific research that -- you know, Silicon Valley is built on research that no individual company would have made on their own because you couldn't necessarily capture the value of the nascent Internet. So -- so the question becomes if we're going to make those investments, how do we pay for it? Now, you know, the -- the income of folks at the top has gone up exponentially over the last couple -- couple of decades, whereas the incomes and wages of the middle class have flat-lined over the last 15 years. 14:37:40 So you know, this young lady's mom, who's -- you know, who's been working in food services, she doesn't have a lot of room to spare. Those of us who've been fortunate, we do. And we're not talking about going to punitive rates that would somehow inhibit you from wanting to be part of a startup or work hard to -- to be successful. We're talking about going back to the rates that existed as recently as in the '90s when, as I recall, Silicon Valley was doing pretty good and -- and well-to-do people were doing pretty well. And it turns out, in fact, during that period, the rich got richer, the middle class expanded, people rose out of poverty because everybody was doing well. So this is not an issue of do we somehow try to punish those who've done well. That's the last thing we want to do. It's a question of how can we afford to continue to make the investments that are going to propel America forward? If we don't improve our education system, for example, we will all fall behind. We will all fall behind. That's just -- that's a fact. And the truth is, is that on every indicator, from college graduation rates to math and science scores, we are slipping behind other developed countries. And that's going to have an impact in terms of if you're a start-up, are you going to be able to find enough engineers? It's going to have an impact in terms of, is the infrastructure here good enough that you can move products to market? It's going to have an impact on your ability to recruit top talent from around the world. And so, you know, we all have an investment in improving our education system. Now, money is not going to solve the entire problem. That's why we've initiated reforms like Race to the Top that says we're going to have higher standards for everybody. We're going to not just have kids taught to the test, but we're going to make sure that we empower teachers, but we're also going to hold them accountable and improve how we train our principals and our teachers. So we're willing to make a whole bunch of reforms. But at some point money makes a difference. If we don't have enough science teachers in the classroom, we're going to have problems. Somebody's got to pay for it. And -- and -- and right now we've got the lowest tax rates we've had since the 1950s. And some of the Republican proposals would take it back -- as a percentage of GDP, back to where we were back in the 1920s. But you can't have modern industrial economy like that. So -- so I appreciate your sentiment. I -- I appreciate the fact that you recognize we're in this thing together. We're not on our own. And those of us who have been successful, we've always got to remember that. Q: I know a lot of people in that same situation, and every one of them has said to me that they would support an increase in their taxes. So, you know, please -- (soft laughter) -- PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, the -- (applause) -- we're going to get to work. Thank you. MR. WEINER: Thank you. Thank you for your question. Next question was submitted to the LinkedIn Group, actually comes from a LinkedIn employee named Teresa Sullivan (sp). It's a two-part question. First, do you think our public education system and our unemployment rates are related? And second, what if any overhaul in education is necessary to get Americans ready for the jobs of tomorrow, rather than the jobs of 20 years ago? PRESIDENT OBAMA: There's no doubt that there's a connection long-term between our economic success, our productivity and our education system. That's indisputable. I mean, when we were at our peak in terms of growth back in the '60s and the '70s, in large part it was because we were doing a better job of training our workforce than anybody else in the world. Now the rest of the world's caught up or is catching up. They're hungry. And as I said before, we are slipping behind a lot of developed countries. So, you know, our proportion of college graduates has not gone up while everybody else's has gone up. Our proportion of high school graduates has not gone up whole everybody else's has gone up. And if you've got a billion Chinese and Indians and Eastern Europeans, all who are entering into a labor force and are becoming more skilled, and we are just sitting, you know, on the status quo, we're going to have problems. Now, what can we do? This is a decade-long project, it's not a -- it's not a one-year project. And we've been pushing since we came into office to look at the evidence to base reforms on what actually works. The single most important ingredient in improving our schools is making sure we've got great teachers in front of the -- in front of every classroom. And so what we've said is, let's make sure that we've hired enough teachers; let's train them effectively; let's pay them a good wage; let's make sure that we're putting special emphasis on recruiting more math and science teachers, where -- you know, STEM education is an area where we've fallen significantly behind. Let's make sure they're accountable, but let's also give them flexibility in the classroom so that they don't have to do a cookie- cutter, teach-to-the-test approach that squashes their creativity and prevents them from engaging students. But at the end of the year let's make sure that they're doing a good job, and if there are teachers out there who are not doing a good job, let's work to retrain them, and if they're not able to be retrained, then, you know, we should probably find them a different line of work. We've got to have top-flight principles and leadership inside the schools. That makes a big difference. We've also got to focus on -- you know, there are some schools that are just drop-out factories, where less than half of the kids end up graduating. A lot of them, the students are black and brown. 14:44:02 But that's also the demographic that's growing the fastest in this country. So if we don't fix those schools, we're going to have problems. So we've said to every state, you know what? Focus on the lowest-performing schools, and tell us what your game plan is to improve those schools' performance. And it may be that we've got to also, in some cases, rethink how we get students interested in learning. You know, the -- IBM is -- is engaged in a -- a really interesting experience in -- in New York, where they're essentially setting up schools similar to the concept I was talking about with community colleges, where they're saying to kids pretty early on, I think as -- as early as eighth grade, you know what, we're going to design a program -- IBM worked with the New York public schools to design a program. And this is not for the kids who are in the top 1 percent. This is for ordinary public-school kids. 14:45:08 You follow this program, you work hard, IBM will hire you at the end of this process. And it suddenly gives kids an incentive. They say, oh, you know, the reason I'm studying math and science is there is a practical outcome here: I will have a job, and there are practical applications to what I'm doing in the classroom. And that's true at high-end jobs, but it's also true -- you know, we -- we want to do more to train skilled workers even if they don't have a four-year degree. It may be that the more the concept of apprenticeship and the concept of a -- a rigorous vocational approach is incorporated into high schools so that kids can actually see a direct connection between what they're learning and a potential career -- they're -- they're less likely to drop out, and we're going to see more success. So one last point I'll make about this is George Bush actually was sincere, I think, in trying to improve the education system across the country through something called No Child Left Behind that said we're going to impose standards; there's going to be accountability. If schools don't meet those standards, we're going to label them as failures and they're going to have to make significant changes. The intent was good. It wasn't designed as well as it could have been. In some cases, states actually lowered their own standards to make sure that they weren't labeled as failures. There wasn't enough assistance given to these schools to meet the ambitious goals that had been set. So what we've said is: Look, we'll provide states some waivers to get out from under No Child Left Behind, if you can provide us with a plan to make sure that children are going to be college and career ready; and we'll give you more flexibility, but we're still going to hold you accountable; and we will provide you the tools and best practices that allow you to succeed. So the last point I'll make on this: There is also a cultural component to this, though. We as a country have to recognize that all of us are going to have to up our game. And we as parents have to instill in our kids a sense of educational excellence. We've got to turn off the TV set. I know that it's dangerous to say in -- in Silicon Valley, but put away the video games sometimes -- (laughter) -- you know, and all the electronics and -- unless it's school- related. And we've just got to get our kids more motivated and internalizing that sense of the importance of learning. And if we don't do that, we're -- we're going to continue to slip behind, even if some of these school reform approaches that we're taking are successful. Yeah. MR. WEINER: Thank you, Teresa (sp). Our next question comes from LinkedIn member Robert Holly (sp), who is joining us from Charlotte, North Carolina. After a promising career in financial services, Robert was unfortunately recently laid off. Robert, what is your question? Q: Good morning, Mr. President. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good morning. Q: As Jeff mentioned, I had a 22-year very successful career in IT management, but I find myself displaced. And not only that, I look at the statistics for unemployment, 16.7 percent for African- Americans, and my question would be -- and not just for the African- Americans, but also for other groups that are also suffering -- what would be your statement of encouragement for those who are looking for work today? 14:48:56 PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, what I would say is just, given your track record, given your history, seeing you stand here before this group, you're going to be successful. You've got a leg up on a lot of folks. You've got skills, you've got experience, you've got a track record of success. Right now your challenge is not you, it's the economy as a whole. And by the way, this is not just an American challenge. This is happening worldwide. So I hope everybody understands. Our biggest problem right now, part of the reason that this year, where, at the beginning of the year, economists had estimated and financial analysts had estimated that the economy was going to be growing at about 3.5 percent -- and that has not happened -- in part has to do with what happened in the Middle East and the Arab Spring which disrupted energy prices and caused consumers to have to pull back because gas was getting so high; what's happening in Europe, which, you know, they have not fully healed from the crisis back in 2007 and never fully dealt with all the challenges that their banking system faced. 14:50:14 It's now being compounded with what's happening in Greece. So they're going through a financial crisis that is scaring the world. And they're trying to take responsible actions, but those actions haven't been quite as quick as they need to be. So the point is, is that economies all around the world are not growing as fast as they need to. And since the world's really interconnected, that affects us, as well. The encouraging thing for you is that when the economy gets back on track in the ways that it should, you are going to be prepared to be successful. The challenge is making sure that you hang in between now and then. That's why things like unemployment insurance, for example, are important. And part of our jobs act is to maintain unemployment insurance. It's not a(n) end-all, be-all, but it helps folks, you know, meet their basic challenges. And by the way, it also means that they're spending that money and they're recirculating that into the economy, so it's good for businesses generally. Some of the emergency measures that we've been taking and we've proposed to take help to bridge the gap to where the economy is more fully healed. And historically after financial crises, recessions are deeper and they last longer than after the usual business cycle recessions. So -- so I guess the main message I have for you is, the problem is not you, the problem's the economy as a whole. You are going to be well-equipped to succeed and compete in this global economy once it's growing again. My job is to work with everybody I can, from the business community to Congress to not-for-profits, you name it, to see if we can, you know, speed up this process of healing and this process of recovery. 14:52:15 And in the meantime we will make sure that, you know, things like unemployment insurance that are there to help people during tough times like this are going to continue to be available. And if there are -- since you're in IT, if there are areas where you need to be sharpening your skills, as the young lady here mentioned, you know, we are going to make sure that there are resources available for you to be able to go back to school and do that. All right. Thank you. MR. WEINER: Thank you. That was our last question. We're going to begin to wrap it up. And before I turn it over to you for some concluding remarks, I just want to say thank you and let you know how much we appreciate the work that you're doing. I know I speak for a lot of people when I say I can't think of anything more important than creating economic opportunity when it comes to profoundly and sustainably improving the quality of an individual's life, the lives of their family members, the lives of the people that they in turn can create jobs for, and in hard-hit American cities and developing countries around the world, these folks are creating role models for the next generation of entrepreneurs and professionals that didn't even know it was possible. So on behalf of myself; on behalf of our visionary founder, Reid Hoffman, without whom none of this would have been possible; on behalf of our employees, of course our members; on behalf of our country, thank you, Mr. President. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, the -- (applause) -- thank you so much. I -- thank you. Well, let me just say these have been terrific questions. And I so appreciate all of you taking the time to do this. I appreciated LinkedIn helping to host this. And for those of you who are viewing not in this circle, but around the country, maybe around the world, I appreciate the chance to share these ideas with you. 14:54:39 Look, we're going through a very tough time. But the one thing I want to remind everybody is that we've gone through tougher times before. And the trajectory, the trend of not just this country but also the world economy is one that's more open, one that's more linked, one that offers greater opportunity, but also one that has some hazards. If we don't prepare our people with the skills that they need to compete, we're going to have problems. If we don't make sure that we continue to have the best infrastructure in the world, we're going to have problems. If we're not continuing to invest in basic research, we're going to have challenges. If we don't get our fiscal house in order in a way that is fair and equitable so that everybody feels like they have responsibilities to not only themselves and their -- and their family, but also to the country that's given them so much opportunity, we're going to have problems. And so I am extraordinarily confident about America's long-term future. But we are going to have to make some decisions about how we move forward. And you know, what's striking to me is when we're out of Washington and I'm just talking to ordinary folks -- I don't care whether they're Republicans or Democrats -- you know, people are just looking for common sense. The majority of people agree with the prescriptions I just offered. The majority of people, by a wide margin, think we should be rebuilding our infrastructure. The majority of folks, by a wide margin, think that we should be investing in education. The majority of people, by a wide margin, think we should be investing in science and technology. And the majority of people think, by a wide margin, that we should be maintaining programs like Social Security and Medicare to provide a basic safety net. The majority of people, by a significant margin, think that the way we should close our deficit is a balance of cutting out those things that we don't need but also making sure that we've got a tax code that's fair and everybody's paying their fair share. So the problem is not outside of Washington. The problem is, is that things have gotten so ideologically driven and everybody's so focused on the next election and putting party ahead of country that we're not able to solve our problems, and that's got to change. 14:57:08 And that's why your voices are going to be so important. The reason I do these kinds of events is I want you to hear from me directly, I want to hear from you directly; but I also want your voices heard in the halls of Congress. I need everybody here to be, you know, speaking out on behalf of -- of the things that you care about and the values that made this country great, and -- and to say to -- to folks who you've elected -- say to them: We expect you to act responsibly, and not act in terms of short-term political interests; act in terms of what's going to be good for all of us over the long term. If that spirit, which all of you represent, starts -- starts asserting itself all across the country, then I'm absolutely confident the 21st century is going to be the American century just like the 20th -- 20th century was. So, thank you very much, everybody. God bless you. (Applause.) MR. WEINER: Thank you. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you. (Applause.) END. WH TVL: President Barack Obama LinkedIn event in Mountain View, California - TVL POOL CUTS 15:08:11 LinkedIn event begins 15:09:23 Obama enters room 15:17:02 cu of audience members 15:17:57 ws of room 15:20:25 audience members applaud 15:24:57 event ends WH TVL: President Barack Obama departs San Jose, CA and arrives San Diego, CA 16:27:20 AF1 seen in distance, comes in for landing, taxis 16:39:00 President exits AF1, is greeted on tarmac by: San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders Congressman Bob Filner MajGen Anthony Jackson (Commanding General for Marine Corps Installations West) MajGen Andrew W. O'Donnell Jr. (3rd. Marine Air Wing Commander - used to be CO for HMX) Colonel Frank A. Richie (Base Commander) 16:41:12 President glad hands at rope line 16:44:52 President departs in limo 16:55:34 Obama at steps of Air Force One taking photo with family 16:56:02 Obama jogs up steps of Air Force One 16:56:14 Obama waves and enters Air Force One 16:56:23 Obama waves and jogs down steps of Air Force One 16:56:34 Obama glad hands 16:57:42 Obama glad hands 16:58:40 Obama walks over to gathered crowd as they cheer 16:58:57 Obama glad hands with crowd 17:01:51 Obama jogs up steps of Air Force One 17:02:04 refeed

President Barack Obama LinkedIn event in Mountain View, California - STIX. (Applause.) 14:01:46 PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Thank you. Everybody, please, have a seat. Thank you. Thank you very much. That's a nice crowd. (Laughter.) And I have to say, Jeff, you warmed them up very well. JEFF WEINER: Thank you, Mr. President. PRESIDENT OBAMA: I thank you so much for your hospitality. And -- and let me begin by just saying how excited I am to be here. Every time I come to Silicon Valley, every time that I come to this region, I am excited about America's future. And -- and no part of the country better represents, I think, the essence of America than here because what you see is entrepreneurship and dynamism, a forward orientation, an optimism, a belief that if you've got a good idea and you're willing to put in the sweat and -- and blood and tears to make it happen that not only can you succeed for yourself, but you can grow the economy for everybody. And it's that driving spirit that has made America an economic superpower. 14:02:57 But obviously, we're in a period of time right now where the economy is struggling and a lot of folks all across the country are struggling. And so part of what I hope to do is to have a conversation with all of you about how can we continue to spark the innovation that is going to ensure our economic success in the 21st century; how can we prepare our workforce to be able to plug into this new economy; how do we recognize that, in this competitive environment, there are all kinds of opportunity that LinkedIn presents for interconnectedness and -- and -- and people being able to work together and spread ideas around the world and -- and create value, but at the same time understanding that there are some perils as well. If our kids aren't properly educated, if we don't have an infrastructure that is world-class, if we are not investing in basic research and science, if we're not doing all the things that made us great in the past, then we're going to fall behind. 14:04:07 And we've got a short-term challenge, which is how do we put people back to work right now. And so as you mentioned, I put forward a proposal, the American Jobs Act, that would put thousands of teachers back into the classrooms who've been laid off due to downturns in state and local budgets; that would make sure that we are rebuilding our infrastructure, taking extraordinary numbers of construction workers who've been laid off when the -- the housing bubble went bust and -- and -- and putting them to work rebuilding our roads and our airports and our schools and laying broadband lines and all the things that help us make a success, and also make sure that we're providing small businesses the kinds of tax incentives that will allow them to hire and allow them to succeed. And you know, I have said to Congress I understand that there's an election 14 months away, and it's tempting to say that we're not going to do anything until November of 2012, but the American people cannot afford to wait. The American people need help right now. And all the proposals we've put forward in the American Jobs Act will not help us now but will also help us in the future, will lay the foundation for our long-term success. Last point I'll make -- and then I want to get to questions -- it's all paid for. And it's paid for in part by building on some very tough cuts in our budget to eliminate waste and things we don't need that we've already made, a trillion dollars over the next 10 years. We've proposed an additional half a trillion dollars over the next 10 years of spending cuts and adjustments on programs that we want to keep intact but haven't been reformed in too long. But what I've also said is, in order to pay for it and bring down the deficit at the same time, we're going to have to reform our tax code in a way that's fair and makes sure that everybody is doing their fair share. I've said this before. I'll say it again. Warren Buffett's secretary shouldn't be paying a lower (sic) tax rate than Warren Buffett. Somebody who's making $50,000 a year as a teacher shouldn't be paying a higher effective tax rate than somebody like myself or Jeff, who have been incredibly blessed -- I don't -- I don't know what you make, Jeff, but I'm just guessing -- (laughter) -- you know, who've been blessed by the incredible opportunities of this country. And I say that because whenever America's moved forward, it's because we've moved forward together. And we're going to have to make sure that we are laying the foundation for the success of future generations, and that means that each of us are doing our part to make sure we're investing in our future. So with that, thank you so much for the terrific venue. I look forward to a bunch of great questions both live and through -- through whatever other linkages that we've got here. (Laughter.) MR. WEINER: You've got it. So we're going to be going back and forth between folks in the audience -- members, and some previously generated questions from the LinkedIn group. So we're going to start. Our first question is from LinkedIn member Chuck Painter (sp). And Chuck, we're going to get your a mic. Q: Good morning, Mr. President. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good morning. Q: I'm from Austin, Texas. I've been in sales in the plastics industry for 20 years. I lost my job in 2009 and been fortunate enough to have found another position, become reemployed. My question is, what can we do as American citizens to unite ourselves and help the economy? 14:07:32 PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, first of all, are you a native of Austin? Because that's one of my favorite cities in the country. Q: Actually, I'm a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, but just relocated to Austin and I love it there. So -- PRESIDENT OBAMA: Austin's great. Charlotte's not bad. Q: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. (Laughter.) PRESIDENT OBAMA: That's the reason why I'm having my convention in Charlotte, because I love North Carolina as well. But the -- how long did it take you to -- to find a new job after you got laid off? Q: It took nine months. PRESIDENT OBAMA: It took nine months. Q: Yes, sir. PRESIDENT OBAMA: And that's one of the challenges that a lot of folks are seeing out there. You've got skilled people with experience in an industry, that industry changes, and you were fortunate enough to be able to move some folks -- because of the decline in the housing industry are having trouble with mobility and finding new jobs and relocating in pursuit of opportunity. Q: Yes, sir. PRESIDENT OBAMA: The most important thing that we can do right now is to help jump-start the economy, which has stalled, by putting people back to work. And so, not surprisingly, I think the most important thing we can do right now is pass this jobs bill. Think about it. Independent economists have estimated that if we pass the entire package, the American Jobs Act, we would increase GDP by close to 2 percent, we would increase employment by 1.9 million persons, and that is the kind of big, significant move in the economy that could have ripple effects and help the recovery take off. Now, there's been a lot of dispute about the kind of impact that we had right after the financial crisis hit, but the fact is the vast majority of economists who've looked at it have said that the recovery act, by starting infrastructure projects around the country, by making sure that states had help on their budgets so they didn't have to lay off teachers and firefighters and others, by providing tax cuts to small businesses -- and by the way, we've cut taxes about 16 times since I've been in office for small businesses to give them more capital to work with and more incentives to hire -- all those things made a big difference. 14:10:06 The American Jobs Act is specifically tailored to putting more of those folks back to work. It's not going to solve all our problems. We've still got a housing situation in which too many homes are underwater. And one of the things that we've proposed as part of the American Jobs Act is -- is that we're going to help reduce the barriers to refinancing so that folks can get record-low rates. That'll put more money into people's pockets. It'll provide tax cuts to not only small businesses, but almost every middle-class family. That means they've got more money in their pockets, and that means that they're going to be able to spend it on products and services, which provide additional incentives for businesses to hire folks like you. So it's the right step to take right now. Long-term we're going to have to pull together around making sure our education system is the best in the world, making sure our infrastructure is the best world, continuing to invest in science and technology. We've got to stabilize our -- our finances, and we've got to continue to drive down health care costs, which are a drag on our whole economy. And we've got to continue to promote trade but make sure that that trade is fair and that intellectual property protection, for example, is available when we're doing business in other countries like China. So there are a lot of long-term agendas that we've got to pursue. Right now, though, the most important thing I can do for you, even if you already have a job, is to make sure that your neighbors and your friends also have jobs because those are ultimately the customers for your products. Q: Yes, sir. Yes, thank you, Mr. President. MR. WEINER: Great. Thank you, Chuck (sp). We'd now like to take a question from the audience. So anyone interested? PRESIDENT OBAMA: This young lady right here. MR. WEINER: OK. Could we get a mic over there, please? Thank you. Q: Hi. I have a question, actually, for my mother, who's going to be 65 next March. And she lives in Ohio, which has a very high unemployment rate. She has a GED, and she's always worked in food service. She's currently unemployed, just got approved for Section 8 housing, gets Social Security and food stamps. And she wants to know, when can she get a job, and what's going to happen to Social Security and Medicare? PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, first of all, where does your mom live in Ohio? Q: Mentor. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Mentor. What part of Ohio is that? Q: It's the east side of Cleveland. 14:12:18 PRESIDENT OBAMA: OK. Well, tell Mom hi. (Laughter.) You get points for being such a good daughter and using your -- using your question to tell me what's on her mind. Q: Oh, you have no idea. (Laughs.) (Laughter.) PRESIDENT OBAMA: You know, I've -- my mother-in-law lives at home, and so I -- in the White House, so I've got some idea. (Laughter.) First of all, let me talk about Social Security and Medicare, because this has obviously been an issue that has been discussed a lot in the press lately as we think about our long-term finances. You can tell your mom that Medicare and Social Security will be there for her. Guaranteed. There are no proposals out there that would affect folks that are about to get Social Security and Medicare, and she'll be qualifying -- you know, she already is starting to qualify for Medicare, and she'll be qualifying for Social Security fairly soon. Social Security and Medicare together have lifted entire generations of seniors out of poverty -- our most important social safety net -- and they have to be preserved. Now, both of them have some long-term challenges that we've got to deal with, but they're different challenges. Social Security is actually the easier one. It's just a pure, simple math problem, and that is that right now the population's getting older, so more people are going on Social Security, you've got fewer workers supporting more retirees, and so if we don't do anything, Social Security won't go broke, but in a few years what will happen is that more money will be going out than coming in, and over time, people who were on Social Security would only be getting about 75 cents on every dollar that they thought they'd be getting. 14:14:01 And so the Social Security system is not the big driver of our deficits, but if we don't want -- if we want to make sure that Social Security is there for future generations, then we've got to make some modest adjustments. And -- and when I say modest, I mean, for example, right now Social Security contributions are capped at a little over a hundred thousand dollars of earnings, and that means the vast majority of people pay Social Security taxes on everything they earn. But if you're earning a million dollars, you know, only one- tenth of your income is taxed for Social Security. And we could make that modification. That would solve a big chunk of the problem. Medicare is a bigger issue, because not only is the population getting older and more people are using it, but health care costs have been going up way too fast. And that's why part of my health care reform bill two years ago was: Let's start changing how our health care system works, to make it more efficient. For example, if your mom goes in for a test, she shouldn't have to then, if she goes to another specialist, take the same test all over again and have Medicare pay for two tests. That first test should be emailed to the doctor who's the specialist, but right now that's not happening. So what we've said is: Let's incentivize providers to do a more efficient job, and over time we can start reducing those costs. I've made some suggestions about how we can reform Medicare, but what I'm not going to do is what, frankly, the House Republicans proposed, which was to voucherize the Medicare system -- which would mean your mom might pay an extra $6,000 every year for her Medicare. Q: Which she doesn't have. PRESIDENT OBAMA: I'm assuming she doesn't have it. Q: Yeah. PRESIDENT OBAMA: So we are going to be pushing back against that kind of proposal. And that raises the point I made earlier. You know, if people like myself aren't paying a little more in taxes, then the only way you balance the budget is on the backs of folks like your mom who end up paying a lot more in Medicare, and they can't afford it, whereas I can afford to pay a little more in taxes. So that's on -- on Medicare and Social Security. 14:16:34 In terms of her finding a job, the most important thing we can do right now is to pass the American Jobs Act, get people back to work. Because think about it: If she's been in the food service industry, you know, that industry is dependent on people spending money on food, you know, whether it's at a restaurant or a cafeteria or, you know, buying more groceries. And if a construction worker and a teacher or a veteran have a job because of the programs that we proposed in the American Jobs Act, they're going to be spending more money in food services, and that means that those businesses are going to have to hire more and your mom's going to be more likely to be hired. All right? Q: Yeah. And one of the other issues, though, is just a matter that there's, you know, a big age gap between her and the other folks who are willing to come in and work for less money and have less experience. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, that -- that is -- that is a challenge, that, you know, it is tough being unemployed if you're in your 50s or early 60s, before retirement. That's the toughest period of time to lose your job. Obviously it's never fun to lose your job, and it's always hard in this kind of really deep recession, but it's scariest for folks who are nearing retirement and may also be worrying about whether they've got enough saved up to ever retire. So that's part of the reason why one of the things that we're also proposing, separate and apart from the jobs bill, is we've got to do a better job of retraining workers so that they, in their second or third or fourth careers, are able to go back to a community college, maybe take a short six-month course or a one-year course that trains them on the kinds of skills that are going to be needed for jobs that are actually hiring or business that are actually hiring right now. We've done some great work working with community colleges to try to make sure that businesses help design the training programs so that somebody who enrolls, like your mom, if she goes back to school, she knows that after six months she will be trained for the particular job that this business is looking for. All right? Thanks so much. Tell her I said hi. Q: Great. Thank you. OK. (Chuckles.) MR. WEINER: Thank you. We're going to go to the group -- the LinkedIn group. We had thousands of questions submitted. And here's one of them from a LinkedIn member, Marla Hughes (sp). Marla (sp) is from Gainesville, Florida. She's the owner of Meticulously Clean home and apartment cleaning service. And her question is: As a small-business owner, regulation and high taxes are my worst enemies when it comes to growing my business. What are you going to do to lessen the onerous regulations and taxation on small businesses? 14:19:19 PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, you know, it's hard to say exactly what regulations or taxes she may be referring to because obviously it differs in different businesses. But as I said, we've actually cut taxes for small businesses 16 times since I've been in office. So taxes for small businesses are lower now than they were when I came into office. Small businesses are able to get tax breaks for hiring. They're able to get tax breaks for investment in capital investments. They are able to get tax breaks for hiring veterans. They're able to get tax breaks for a whole host of areas, including, by the way, a proposal that we put forward that says that there should be no capital gains tax on a startup, to encourage more small businesses to go out there and -- and -- and create -- create a business. In terms of regulations, most of the regulations that -- that we have been focused on are ones that affect large businesses, like utilities, for example, in terms of how they deal with safety issues, environmental issues. 14:20:48 We have been putting forward some tough regulations with respect to the financial sector because we can't have a repeat of what happened in 2007. And the fact of the matter is that if what happened on Wall Street ends up having a spill-over effect to all of Main Street, it is our responsibility to make sure that we have a dynamic economy, we have a dynamic financial sector but, you know, we don't have a mortgage broking -- brokerage operation that ends up providing people loans that can never be repaid and end up having ramifications throughout the system. So, you know, you're going to hear from, I think, Republicans over the next year and a half that somehow if we just eliminated pollution controls or if we just eliminated basic consumer protections, that somehow that in and of itself would be a spur to growth. I disagree with that. 14:22:14 What I do agree with is, is that there are some regulations that have outlived their usefulness. And so what I've done is I've said to all the agencies in the federal government, number one, you have to always take costs as well as benefits into account when you're proposing new regulations. Number two, don't just be satisfied with applying that analysis to new regulations. Look back at the old regulations to see if there are some that we can start weeding out. And we've initiated the most aggressive what we call look-back provisions when it comes to regulations, where we say to every agency: Go through all the regulations that you have on your books that flow through your agencies, and see if some of them are still necessary. And it turns out that a lot of them are no longer necessary. Well, let's get rid of them if they've outlived your -- their usefulness. I think that there were some regulations that had to do with the transportation for -- sector for example, that didn't take into account the fact that everybody operates on GPS now. Well, you've got to adjust and adapt to how the economy's changing and how technology -- how technology has changed. And we've already identified about $10 billion worth of savings just in the initial review, and we anticipate that that's only going to be a fraction of some of the paperwork and bureaucracy and red tape that we're going to be able to eliminate. 14:23:17 But I -- I will never apologize for making sure that we have regulations in place to ensure that your water is clean, that your food is safe to eat, you know, that the peanut butter you feed your kids is not going to be contaminated; making sure that if you take out a credit card, there's some clarity about what it exactly is going to do and you're not seeing a whole bunch of hidden fees and hidden charges that you didn't anticipate. You know, that's always been part of what makes the marketplace work, is if you have smart regulations in place, that means the people who are providing good value, good products, good services -- those businesses are going to succeed. We don't want to be rewarding folks who are gaming the system or cheating consumers. And -- and I think that's how most American(s) feels about regulations as well. They don't want more than is necessary, but they know that there's some things that we've got to do to protect ourselves and our environment and our children. MR. WEINER: Thank you for your question, Marla (sp). Now we're going to take a question from LinkedIn member Esther Abeja (sp). Esther's an IT analyst from Chicago, Illinois. PRESIDENT OBAMA: There you go. Chicago's all right, too! (Laughter.) MR. WEINER: Esther, what is your question for the president? Q: (Laughs.) Good morning, Mr. President. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good morning. Q: As Jeff said, I'm from Chicago, recently unemployed. And my fear is that the longer I'm unemployed, the harder it is going to be for me to get employed. It seems that nowadays employers are hiring people who are currently employed because they're in touch with their skill set. What programs do you think should be in place for individuals such as myself to keep in touch with our skills, be in demand, marketable, and eventually get hired? PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, the -- first of all, you obviously are thinking ahead about how to keep your skills up. And the most important thing you can do is to make sure that, whether it's through classes or online training or what-have-you, that you're keeping your skill set sharp. We, as part of the American Jobs Act, are actually supporting legislation in Congress that says employers can't discriminate against somebody just because they're currently unemployed, because that -- that doesn't seem fair. That doesn't -- that doesn't make any sense. But the most important thing, probably, we can do for you is just make sure that the unemployment rate generally goes down, the mark -- that the labor market gets a little tighter, so that, you know, employers start looking beyond just the people who are currently employed to folks who have terrific skills and just have been out of the market for a while. So passing the American Jobs Act is going to be important. There is legislation in there that says you can't be discriminated against just because you don't have a job. The one other thing that we can do is, during this interim, as you're looking for a job, making it easier for you to be able to go back to school if you think there's some skill sets that you need, making it economical for you to do it. 14:26:14 One of the things that we did during the last two and a half years -- it used to be the student loan program was run through the banks, and even though the federal government guaranteed all these loans, so the banks weren't taking any risks, they were taking about $60 billion out of the entire program, which meant that there was less money to actually go directly to students. We ended that. We cut out the middleman, and we said let's use that money to expand the availability of Pell grants, to increase the amount that Pell grants -- each Pell grant student could get. And through that process you've got millions of people all across the country who are able to actually go back to school without incurring the huge debt loads that -- that they had in the past, although, you know, obviously the cost of a college education is still really high. But if we can do more to make it easier for you to keep your skills up even when you're not already hired, hopefully that will enhance your marketability to employers in the future. All right. But just looking at you, I can tell you're going to do great. Q: That's -- thank you. PRESIDENT OBAMA: All right. Thank you. MR. WEINER: Thanks, Esther (sp). Our next question is from LinkedIn member Wayne Kulick. Wayne is from Phoenix, Arizona. He spent 25 years flying aircraft for the U.S. Navy and is now program director for American Express. Wayne? Q: Good morning, Mr. President. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good morning, sir. Q: I'm from Phoenix, Arizona, where I'm a program director, as Jeff had said. I retired in 2007. When I retired, networking was essentially how I got all my jobs after retirement. How do you envision the government's role in integrating networking tools to aid veterans that are leaving the service and getting jobs? PRESIDENT OBAMA: It's a great question. And first of all, let me thank you for your service. Q: (Inaudible.) PRESIDENT OBAMA: We are very grateful to you for that. (Applause.) Thank you. But you know, you were extraordinarily skilled. And even then, it sounds like you had to rely on informal networks rather than a formal set of processes for veterans in order for you to find a job that used all your skills. We have not done as good of a job in the past in helping veterans transition out of the armed services as we should have. I'll give you an example. I actually had lunch with a group of veterans from the Iraq and Afghan wars up in -- up in Minnesota. And the young man I was talking to had just gone back to school. He was getting his nursing degree. He had worked in emergency medicine in Iraq multiple deployments, had probably dealt with the most incredible kinds of medical challenges under the most extreme circumstances, had received years of training to do this. 14:29:47 But when he went back to nursing school, he had to start as if he had never -- you know, never been involved in medicine at all. And so -- so he had to take all the same classes and take the same -- take the same debt burdens from taking those classes as if I had just walked in and, you know, could barely put a Band-Aid on myself. But -- but he had to go through the same processes. Well, that's an example of a failure on the part of both DOD and the VA -- Department of Defense and Veterans Administration -- to think proactively, how can we help him make the transition? So what we've started to say is, let's have a -- sort of a reverse boot camp. As folks are thinking about retiring, as folks are thinking about being discharged, let's work with them while they're still in the military to say, is there a way to credential them so that they can go directly into the job and work with state and local governments and employers, so that if they've got a skill set that we know is applicable to the private sector, let's give them a certification, let's give them a credential that helps them do that right away. We've also then started to put together a network of businesses. And I actually asked for a pledge from the private sector, and we've got a commitment now that a hundred thousand veterans will be hired over the next several years. And that creates a network, and maybe they'll end up using LinkedIn; I don't know. But what we want to do is to make sure that, whether it's the certification process, whether it's the job search process, whether it's resume preparation, whether it's using electronic networking, that we're using the huge capacity of the Veterans Administration and the Department of Defense and all the federal agencies to link up together more effectively, because not only is the federal government, obviously, a big employer itself, and we've significantly increased the hiring of veterans within the federal government, including, by the way, disabled veterans and wounded warriors, but we're -- you know, the federal government's also a big customer of a lot of businesses. 14:31:59 And there's nothing wrong with a big customer saying to a business, you know what? We're not going to tell you who to hire, but here's a list of extremely skilled veterans who are prepared to do a great job and have shown incredible leadership skills. Now, you think of these -- you've got 23, 24, 25-year-olds who are leading men into battle, who are, you know, handling multi-million dollars pieces of equipment, and they do so flawlessly. And those leadership skills, those technical skills should be able to translate directly into jobs. And last thing I'll say is, obviously, the American Jobs Act also would be helpful because it provides additional tax incentives for companies to hire our veterans. Q: Thank you. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you. (Applause.) MR. WEINER: Thank you, Wayne, and thank you again for your service. Let's turn to the audience now. Oh, a lot of hands going up. Mr. President, want to pick someone? PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, you know, they -- you kind of put me on the spot here. That -- the guy in the glasses right back -- right in the back there. Why not? Q: Thank you, Mr. President. I don't have a job, but that's because I've been lucky enough to live in Silicon Valley for a while and work for a small start-up down the -- down the street here that did quite well. So I'm unemployed by choice. My question is, would you please raise my taxes? (Laughter, applause.) I would -- I would like very much to have the country to continue to invest in things like Pell grants and infrastructure and job training programs that made it possible for me to get to where I am. And it kills me to see Congress not supporting the expiration of the tax cuts that have been benefitting so many of us for so long. I think that needs to change, and I hope that you'll stay strong in doing that. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, I -- well, I appreciate it. What -- what was the start-up, by the way? You want to give me a little hint? 14:34:35 Q: It's a -- it's a search engine. (Laughter.) PRESIDENT OBAMA: Worked out pretty well, huh? (Laughter.) Q: Yeah. Yeah. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well -- well, look, the -- let -- let me just talk about taxes for a second. I -- I've made this point before, but I want to reiterate this. So often, the tax debate gets framed as class warfare. And, look, I'm -- as I said at the outset, America's success is premised on individuals, entrepreneurs, having a great idea, going out there and pursuing their dreams and making a whole lot of money in the process. And that's great! That's part of what makes America so successful. But as you just pointed out, we're successful because somebody invested in our education, somebody built schools, somebody created incredible universities. I went to school on scholarship. Michelle -- you know, her dad was a -- what's called a -- a stationary engineer at the water reclamation district; never owned his own home, but he always paid his bills; had multiple sclerosis, struggled to get to work every day, but never missed a day on the job; never went to college, but he was able to send his daughter to Princeton and on to Harvard Law School. We benefited from somebody somewhere making an investment in us. And I don't care who you are, that's true of all of us. And look -- look at this room. I mean, look at the diversity of the people here. You know, a lot of us are -- you know, parents came from someplace else or grandparents came from someplace else. They benefited from a public school system or a(n) incredible university network or the infrastructure that allows us to move products and services around the globe or the scientific research that -- you know, Silicon Valley is built on research that no individual company would have made on their own because you couldn't necessarily capture the value of the nascent Internet. So -- so the question becomes if we're going to make those investments, how do we pay for it? Now, you know, the -- the income of folks at the top has gone up exponentially over the last couple -- couple of decades, whereas the incomes and wages of the middle class have flat-lined over the last 15 years. 14:37:40 So you know, this young lady's mom, who's -- you know, who's been working in food services, she doesn't have a lot of room to spare. Those of us who've been fortunate, we do. And we're not talking about going to punitive rates that would somehow inhibit you from wanting to be part of a startup or work hard to -- to be successful. We're talking about going back to the rates that existed as recently as in the '90s when, as I recall, Silicon Valley was doing pretty good and -- and well-to-do people were doing pretty well. And it turns out, in fact, during that period, the rich got richer, the middle class expanded, people rose out of poverty because everybody was doing well. So this is not an issue of do we somehow try to punish those who've done well. That's the last thing we want to do. It's a question of how can we afford to continue to make the investments that are going to propel America forward? If we don't improve our education system, for example, we will all fall behind. We will all fall behind. That's just -- that's a fact. And the truth is, is that on every indicator, from college graduation rates to math and science scores, we are slipping behind other developed countries. And that's going to have an impact in terms of if you're a start-up, are you going to be able to find enough engineers? It's going to have an impact in terms of, is the infrastructure here good enough that you can move products to market? It's going to have an impact on your ability to recruit top talent from around the world. And so, you know, we all have an investment in improving our education system. Now, money is not going to solve the entire problem. That's why we've initiated reforms like Race to the Top that says we're going to have higher standards for everybody. We're going to not just have kids taught to the test, but we're going to make sure that we empower teachers, but we're also going to hold them accountable and improve how we train our principals and our teachers. So we're willing to make a whole bunch of reforms. But at some point money makes a difference. If we don't have enough science teachers in the classroom, we're going to have problems. Somebody's got to pay for it. And -- and -- and right now we've got the lowest tax rates we've had since the 1950s. And some of the Republican proposals would take it back -- as a percentage of GDP, back to where we were back in the 1920s. But you can't have modern industrial economy like that. So -- so I appreciate your sentiment. I -- I appreciate the fact that you recognize we're in this thing together. We're not on our own. And those of us who have been successful, we've always got to remember that. Q: I know a lot of people in that same situation, and every one of them has said to me that they would support an increase in their taxes. So, you know, please -- (soft laughter) -- PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, the -- (applause) -- we're going to get to work. Thank you. MR. WEINER: Thank you. Thank you for your question. Next question was submitted to the LinkedIn Group, actually comes from a LinkedIn employee named Teresa Sullivan (sp). It's a two-part question. First, do you think our public education system and our unemployment rates are related? And second, what if any overhaul in education is necessary to get Americans ready for the jobs of tomorrow, rather than the jobs of 20 years ago? PRESIDENT OBAMA: There's no doubt that there's a connection long-term between our economic success, our productivity and our education system. That's indisputable. I mean, when we were at our peak in terms of growth back in the '60s and the '70s, in large part it was because we were doing a better job of training our workforce than anybody else in the world. Now the rest of the world's caught up or is catching up. They're hungry. And as I said before, we are slipping behind a lot of developed countries. So, you know, our proportion of college graduates has not gone up while everybody else's has gone up. Our proportion of high school graduates has not gone up whole everybody else's has gone up. And if you've got a billion Chinese and Indians and Eastern Europeans, all who are entering into a labor force and are becoming more skilled, and we are just sitting, you know, on the status quo, we're going to have problems. Now, what can we do? This is a decade-long project, it's not a -- it's not a one-year project. And we've been pushing since we came into office to look at the evidence to base reforms on what actually works. The single most important ingredient in improving our schools is making sure we've got great teachers in front of the -- in front of every classroom. And so what we've said is, let's make sure that we've hired enough teachers; let's train them effectively; let's pay them a good wage; let's make sure that we're putting special emphasis on recruiting more math and science teachers, where -- you know, STEM education is an area where we've fallen significantly behind. Let's make sure they're accountable, but let's also give them flexibility in the classroom so that they don't have to do a cookie- cutter, teach-to-the-test approach that squashes their creativity and prevents them from engaging students. But at the end of the year let's make sure that they're doing a good job, and if there are teachers out there who are not doing a good job, let's work to retrain them, and if they're not able to be retrained, then, you know, we should probably find them a different line of work. We've got to have top-flight principles and leadership inside the schools. That makes a big difference. We've also got to focus on -- you know, there are some schools that are just drop-out factories, where less than half of the kids end up graduating. A lot of them, the students are black and brown. 14:44:02 But that's also the demographic that's growing the fastest in this country. So if we don't fix those schools, we're going to have problems. So we've said to every state, you know what? Focus on the lowest-performing schools, and tell us what your game plan is to improve those schools' performance. And it may be that we've got to also, in some cases, rethink how we get students interested in learning. You know, the -- IBM is -- is engaged in a -- a really interesting experience in -- in New York, where they're essentially setting up schools similar to the concept I was talking about with community colleges, where they're saying to kids pretty early on, I think as -- as early as eighth grade, you know what, we're going to design a program -- IBM worked with the New York public schools to design a program. And this is not for the kids who are in the top 1 percent. This is for ordinary public-school kids. 14:45:08 You follow this program, you work hard, IBM will hire you at the end of this process. And it suddenly gives kids an incentive. They say, oh, you know, the reason I'm studying math and science is there is a practical outcome here: I will have a job, and there are practical applications to what I'm doing in the classroom. And that's true at high-end jobs, but it's also true -- you know, we -- we want to do more to train skilled workers even if they don't have a four-year degree. It may be that the more the concept of apprenticeship and the concept of a -- a rigorous vocational approach is incorporated into high schools so that kids can actually see a direct connection between what they're learning and a potential career -- they're -- they're less likely to drop out, and we're going to see more success. So one last point I'll make about this is George Bush actually was sincere, I think, in trying to improve the education system across the country through something called No Child Left Behind that said we're going to impose standards; there's going to be accountability. If schools don't meet those standards, we're going to label them as failures and they're going to have to make significant changes. The intent was good. It wasn't designed as well as it could have been. In some cases, states actually lowered their own standards to make sure that they weren't labeled as failures. There wasn't enough assistance given to these schools to meet the ambitious goals that had been set. So what we've said is: Look, we'll provide states some waivers to get out from under No Child Left Behind, if you can provide us with a plan to make sure that children are going to be college and career ready; and we'll give you more flexibility, but we're still going to hold you accountable; and we will provide you the tools and best practices that allow you to succeed. So the last point I'll make on this: There is also a cultural component to this, though. We as a country have to recognize that all of us are going to have to up our game. And we as parents have to instill in our kids a sense of educational excellence. We've got to turn off the TV set. I know that it's dangerous to say in -- in Silicon Valley, but put away the video games sometimes -- (laughter) -- you know, and all the electronics and -- unless it's school- related. And we've just got to get our kids more motivated and internalizing that sense of the importance of learning. And if we don't do that, we're -- we're going to continue to slip behind, even if some of these school reform approaches that we're taking are successful. Yeah. MR. WEINER: Thank you, Teresa (sp). Our next question comes from LinkedIn member Robert Holly (sp), who is joining us from Charlotte, North Carolina. After a promising career in financial services, Robert was unfortunately recently laid off. Robert, what is your question? Q: Good morning, Mr. President. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good morning. Q: As Jeff mentioned, I had a 22-year very successful career in IT management, but I find myself displaced. And not only that, I look at the statistics for unemployment, 16.7 percent for African- Americans, and my question would be -- and not just for the African- Americans, but also for other groups that are also suffering -- what would be your statement of encouragement for those who are looking for work today? 14:48:56 PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, what I would say is just, given your track record, given your history, seeing you stand here before this group, you're going to be successful. You've got a leg up on a lot of folks. You've got skills, you've got experience, you've got a track record of success. Right now your challenge is not you, it's the economy as a whole. And by the way, this is not just an American challenge. This is happening worldwide. So I hope everybody understands. Our biggest problem right now, part of the reason that this year, where, at the beginning of the year, economists had estimated and financial analysts had estimated that the economy was going to be growing at about 3.5 percent -- and that has not happened -- in part has to do with what happened in the Middle East and the Arab Spring which disrupted energy prices and caused consumers to have to pull back because gas was getting so high; what's happening in Europe, which, you know, they have not fully healed from the crisis back in 2007 and never fully dealt with all the challenges that their banking system faced. 14:50:14 It's now being compounded with what's happening in Greece. So they're going through a financial crisis that is scaring the world. And they're trying to take responsible actions, but those actions haven't been quite as quick as they need to be. So the point is, is that economies all around the world are not growing as fast as they need to. And since the world's really interconnected, that affects us, as well. The encouraging thing for you is that when the economy gets back on track in the ways that it should, you are going to be prepared to be successful. The challenge is making sure that you hang in between now and then. That's why things like unemployment insurance, for example, are important. And part of our jobs act is to maintain unemployment insurance. It's not a(n) end-all, be-all, but it helps folks, you know, meet their basic challenges. And by the way, it also means that they're spending that money and they're recirculating that into the economy, so it's good for businesses generally. Some of the emergency measures that we've been taking and we've proposed to take help to bridge the gap to where the economy is more fully healed. And historically after financial crises, recessions are deeper and they last longer than after the usual business cycle recessions. So -- so I guess the main message I have for you is, the problem is not you, the problem's the economy as a whole. You are going to be well-equipped to succeed and compete in this global economy once it's growing again. My job is to work with everybody I can, from the business community to Congress to not-for-profits, you name it, to see if we can, you know, speed up this process of healing and this process of recovery. 14:52:15 And in the meantime we will make sure that, you know, things like unemployment insurance that are there to help people during tough times like this are going to continue to be available. And if there are -- since you're in IT, if there are areas where you need to be sharpening your skills, as the young lady here mentioned, you know, we are going to make sure that there are resources available for you to be able to go back to school and do that. All right. Thank you. MR. WEINER: Thank you. That was our last question. We're going to begin to wrap it up. And before I turn it over to you for some concluding remarks, I just want to say thank you and let you know how much we appreciate the work that you're doing. I know I speak for a lot of people when I say I can't think of anything more important than creating economic opportunity when it comes to profoundly and sustainably improving the quality of an individual's life, the lives of their family members, the lives of the people that they in turn can create jobs for, and in hard-hit American cities and developing countries around the world, these folks are creating role models for the next generation of entrepreneurs and professionals that didn't even know it was possible. So on behalf of myself; on behalf of our visionary founder, Reid Hoffman, without whom none of this would have been possible; on behalf of our employees, of course our members; on behalf of our country, thank you, Mr. President. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, the -- (applause) -- thank you so much. I -- thank you. Well, let me just say these have been terrific questions. And I so appreciate all of you taking the time to do this. I appreciated LinkedIn helping to host this. And for those of you who are viewing not in this circle, but around the country, maybe around the world, I appreciate the chance to share these ideas with you. 14:54:39 Look, we're going through a very tough time. But the one thing I want to remind everybody is that we've gone through tougher times before. And the trajectory, the trend of not just this country but also the world economy is one that's more open, one that's more linked, one that offers greater opportunity, but also one that has some hazards. If we don't prepare our people with the skills that they need to compete, we're going to have problems. If we don't make sure that we continue to have the best infrastructure in the world, we're going to have problems. If we're not continuing to invest in basic research, we're going to have challenges. If we don't get our fiscal house in order in a way that is fair and equitable so that everybody feels like they have responsibilities to not only themselves and their -- and their family, but also to the country that's given them so much opportunity, we're going to have problems. And so I am extraordinarily confident about America's long-term future. But we are going to have to make some decisions about how we move forward. And you know, what's striking to me is when we're out of Washington and I'm just talking to ordinary folks -- I don't care whether they're Republicans or Democrats -- you know, people are just looking for common sense. The majority of people agree with the prescriptions I just offered. The majority of people, by a wide margin, think we should be rebuilding our infrastructure. The majority of folks, by a wide margin, think that we should be investing in education. The majority of people, by a wide margin, think we should be investing in science and technology. And the majority of people think, by a wide margin, that we should be maintaining programs like Social Security and Medicare to provide a basic safety net. The majority of people, by a significant margin, think that the way we should close our deficit is a balance of cutting out those things that we don't need but also making sure that we've got a tax code that's fair and everybody's paying their fair share. So the problem is not outside of Washington. The problem is, is that things have gotten so ideologically driven and everybody's so focused on the next election and putting party ahead of country that we're not able to solve our problems, and that's got to change. 14:57:08 And that's why your voices are going to be so important. The reason I do these kinds of events is I want you to hear from me directly, I want to hear from you directly; but I also want your voices heard in the halls of Congress. I need everybody here to be, you know, speaking out on behalf of -- of the things that you care about and the values that made this country great, and -- and to say to -- to folks who you've elected -- say to them: We expect you to act responsibly, and not act in terms of short-term political interests; act in terms of what's going to be good for all of us over the long term. If that spirit, which all of you represent, starts -- starts asserting itself all across the country, then I'm absolutely confident the 21st century is going to be the American century just like the 20th -- 20th century was. So, thank you very much, everybody. God bless you. (Applause.) MR. WEINER: Thank you. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you. (Applause.) END. WH TVL: President Barack Obama LinkedIn event in Mountain View, California - TVL POOL CUTS 15:08:11 LinkedIn event begins 15:09:23 Obama enters room 15:17:02 cu of audience members 15:17:57 ws of room 15:20:25 audience members applaud 15:24:57 event ends WH TVL: President Barack Obama departs San Jose, CA and arrives San Diego, CA 16:27:20 AF1 seen in distance, comes in for landing, taxis 16:39:00 President exits AF1, is greeted on tarmac by: San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders Congressman Bob Filner MajGen Anthony Jackson (Commanding General for Marine Corps Installations West) MajGen Andrew W. O'Donnell Jr. (3rd. Marine Air Wing Commander - used to be CO for HMX) Colonel Frank A. Richie (Base Commander) 16:41:12 President glad hands at rope line 16:44:52 President departs in limo 16:55:34 Obama at steps of Air Force One taking photo with family 16:56:02 Obama jogs up steps of Air Force One 16:56:14 Obama waves and enters Air Force One 16:56:23 Obama waves and jogs down steps of Air Force One 16:56:34 Obama glad hands 16:57:42 Obama glad hands 16:58:40 Obama walks over to gathered crowd as they cheer 16:58:57 Obama glad hands with crowd 17:01:51 Obama jogs up steps of Air Force One 17:02:04 refeed

President Barack Obama LinkedIn event in Mountain View, California - STIX. (Applause.) 14:01:46 PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Thank you. Everybody, please, have a seat. Thank you. Thank you very much. That's a nice crowd. (Laughter.) And I have to say, Jeff, you warmed them up very well. JEFF WEINER: Thank you, Mr. President. PRESIDENT OBAMA: I thank you so much for your hospitality. And -- and let me begin by just saying how excited I am to be here. Every time I come to Silicon Valley, every time that I come to this region, I am excited about America's future. And -- and no part of the country better represents, I think, the essence of America than here because what you see is entrepreneurship and dynamism, a forward orientation, an optimism, a belief that if you've got a good idea and you're willing to put in the sweat and -- and blood and tears to make it happen that not only can you succeed for yourself, but you can grow the economy for everybody. And it's that driving spirit that has made America an economic superpower. 14:02:57 But obviously, we're in a period of time right now where the economy is struggling and a lot of folks all across the country are struggling. And so part of what I hope to do is to have a conversation with all of you about how can we continue to spark the innovation that is going to ensure our economic success in the 21st century; how can we prepare our workforce to be able to plug into this new economy; how do we recognize that, in this competitive environment, there are all kinds of opportunity that LinkedIn presents for interconnectedness and -- and -- and people being able to work together and spread ideas around the world and -- and create value, but at the same time understanding that there are some perils as well. If our kids aren't properly educated, if we don't have an infrastructure that is world-class, if we are not investing in basic research and science, if we're not doing all the things that made us great in the past, then we're going to fall behind. 14:04:07 And we've got a short-term challenge, which is how do we put people back to work right now. And so as you mentioned, I put forward a proposal, the American Jobs Act, that would put thousands of teachers back into the classrooms who've been laid off due to downturns in state and local budgets; that would make sure that we are rebuilding our infrastructure, taking extraordinary numbers of construction workers who've been laid off when the -- the housing bubble went bust and -- and -- and putting them to work rebuilding our roads and our airports and our schools and laying broadband lines and all the things that help us make a success, and also make sure that we're providing small businesses the kinds of tax incentives that will allow them to hire and allow them to succeed. And you know, I have said to Congress I understand that there's an election 14 months away, and it's tempting to say that we're not going to do anything until November of 2012, but the American people cannot afford to wait. The American people need help right now. And all the proposals we've put forward in the American Jobs Act will not help us now but will also help us in the future, will lay the foundation for our long-term success. Last point I'll make -- and then I want to get to questions -- it's all paid for. And it's paid for in part by building on some very tough cuts in our budget to eliminate waste and things we don't need that we've already made, a trillion dollars over the next 10 years. We've proposed an additional half a trillion dollars over the next 10 years of spending cuts and adjustments on programs that we want to keep intact but haven't been reformed in too long. But what I've also said is, in order to pay for it and bring down the deficit at the same time, we're going to have to reform our tax code in a way that's fair and makes sure that everybody is doing their fair share. I've said this before. I'll say it again. Warren Buffett's secretary shouldn't be paying a lower (sic) tax rate than Warren Buffett. Somebody who's making $50,000 a year as a teacher shouldn't be paying a higher effective tax rate than somebody like myself or Jeff, who have been incredibly blessed -- I don't -- I don't know what you make, Jeff, but I'm just guessing -- (laughter) -- you know, who've been blessed by the incredible opportunities of this country. And I say that because whenever America's moved forward, it's because we've moved forward together. And we're going to have to make sure that we are laying the foundation for the success of future generations, and that means that each of us are doing our part to make sure we're investing in our future. So with that, thank you so much for the terrific venue. I look forward to a bunch of great questions both live and through -- through whatever other linkages that we've got here. (Laughter.) MR. WEINER: You've got it. So we're going to be going back and forth between folks in the audience -- members, and some previously generated questions from the LinkedIn group. So we're going to start. Our first question is from LinkedIn member Chuck Painter (sp). And Chuck, we're going to get your a mic. Q: Good morning, Mr. President. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good morning. Q: I'm from Austin, Texas. I've been in sales in the plastics industry for 20 years. I lost my job in 2009 and been fortunate enough to have found another position, become reemployed. My question is, what can we do as American citizens to unite ourselves and help the economy? 14:07:32 PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, first of all, are you a native of Austin? Because that's one of my favorite cities in the country. Q: Actually, I'm a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, but just relocated to Austin and I love it there. So -- PRESIDENT OBAMA: Austin's great. Charlotte's not bad. Q: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. (Laughter.) PRESIDENT OBAMA: That's the reason why I'm having my convention in Charlotte, because I love North Carolina as well. But the -- how long did it take you to -- to find a new job after you got laid off? Q: It took nine months. PRESIDENT OBAMA: It took nine months. Q: Yes, sir. PRESIDENT OBAMA: And that's one of the challenges that a lot of folks are seeing out there. You've got skilled people with experience in an industry, that industry changes, and you were fortunate enough to be able to move some folks -- because of the decline in the housing industry are having trouble with mobility and finding new jobs and relocating in pursuit of opportunity. Q: Yes, sir. PRESIDENT OBAMA: The most important thing that we can do right now is to help jump-start the economy, which has stalled, by putting people back to work. And so, not surprisingly, I think the most important thing we can do right now is pass this jobs bill. Think about it. Independent economists have estimated that if we pass the entire package, the American Jobs Act, we would increase GDP by close to 2 percent, we would increase employment by 1.9 million persons, and that is the kind of big, significant move in the economy that could have ripple effects and help the recovery take off. Now, there's been a lot of dispute about the kind of impact that we had right after the financial crisis hit, but the fact is the vast majority of economists who've looked at it have said that the recovery act, by starting infrastructure projects around the country, by making sure that states had help on their budgets so they didn't have to lay off teachers and firefighters and others, by providing tax cuts to small businesses -- and by the way, we've cut taxes about 16 times since I've been in office for small businesses to give them more capital to work with and more incentives to hire -- all those things made a big difference. 14:10:06 The American Jobs Act is specifically tailored to putting more of those folks back to work. It's not going to solve all our problems. We've still got a housing situation in which too many homes are underwater. And one of the things that we've proposed as part of the American Jobs Act is -- is that we're going to help reduce the barriers to refinancing so that folks can get record-low rates. That'll put more money into people's pockets. It'll provide tax cuts to not only small businesses, but almost every middle-class family. That means they've got more money in their pockets, and that means that they're going to be able to spend it on products and services, which provide additional incentives for businesses to hire folks like you. So it's the right step to take right now. Long-term we're going to have to pull together around making sure our education system is the best in the world, making sure our infrastructure is the best world, continuing to invest in science and technology. We've got to stabilize our -- our finances, and we've got to continue to drive down health care costs, which are a drag on our whole economy. And we've got to continue to promote trade but make sure that that trade is fair and that intellectual property protection, for example, is available when we're doing business in other countries like China. So there are a lot of long-term agendas that we've got to pursue. Right now, though, the most important thing I can do for you, even if you already have a job, is to make sure that your neighbors and your friends also have jobs because those are ultimately the customers for your products. Q: Yes, sir. Yes, thank you, Mr. President. MR. WEINER: Great. Thank you, Chuck (sp). We'd now like to take a question from the audience. So anyone interested? PRESIDENT OBAMA: This young lady right here. MR. WEINER: OK. Could we get a mic over there, please? Thank you. Q: Hi. I have a question, actually, for my mother, who's going to be 65 next March. And she lives in Ohio, which has a very high unemployment rate. She has a GED, and she's always worked in food service. She's currently unemployed, just got approved for Section 8 housing, gets Social Security and food stamps. And she wants to know, when can she get a job, and what's going to happen to Social Security and Medicare? PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, first of all, where does your mom live in Ohio? Q: Mentor. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Mentor. What part of Ohio is that? Q: It's the east side of Cleveland. 14:12:18 PRESIDENT OBAMA: OK. Well, tell Mom hi. (Laughter.) You get points for being such a good daughter and using your -- using your question to tell me what's on her mind. Q: Oh, you have no idea. (Laughs.) (Laughter.) PRESIDENT OBAMA: You know, I've -- my mother-in-law lives at home, and so I -- in the White House, so I've got some idea. (Laughter.) First of all, let me talk about Social Security and Medicare, because this has obviously been an issue that has been discussed a lot in the press lately as we think about our long-term finances. You can tell your mom that Medicare and Social Security will be there for her. Guaranteed. There are no proposals out there that would affect folks that are about to get Social Security and Medicare, and she'll be qualifying -- you know, she already is starting to qualify for Medicare, and she'll be qualifying for Social Security fairly soon. Social Security and Medicare together have lifted entire generations of seniors out of poverty -- our most important social safety net -- and they have to be preserved. Now, both of them have some long-term challenges that we've got to deal with, but they're different challenges. Social Security is actually the easier one. It's just a pure, simple math problem, and that is that right now the population's getting older, so more people are going on Social Security, you've got fewer workers supporting more retirees, and so if we don't do anything, Social Security won't go broke, but in a few years what will happen is that more money will be going out than coming in, and over time, people who were on Social Security would only be getting about 75 cents on every dollar that they thought they'd be getting. 14:14:01 And so the Social Security system is not the big driver of our deficits, but if we don't want -- if we want to make sure that Social Security is there for future generations, then we've got to make some modest adjustments. And -- and when I say modest, I mean, for example, right now Social Security contributions are capped at a little over a hundred thousand dollars of earnings, and that means the vast majority of people pay Social Security taxes on everything they earn. But if you're earning a million dollars, you know, only one- tenth of your income is taxed for Social Security. And we could make that modification. That would solve a big chunk of the problem. Medicare is a bigger issue, because not only is the population getting older and more people are using it, but health care costs have been going up way too fast. And that's why part of my health care reform bill two years ago was: Let's start changing how our health care system works, to make it more efficient. For example, if your mom goes in for a test, she shouldn't have to then, if she goes to another specialist, take the same test all over again and have Medicare pay for two tests. That first test should be emailed to the doctor who's the specialist, but right now that's not happening. So what we've said is: Let's incentivize providers to do a more efficient job, and over time we can start reducing those costs. I've made some suggestions about how we can reform Medicare, but what I'm not going to do is what, frankly, the House Republicans proposed, which was to voucherize the Medicare system -- which would mean your mom might pay an extra $6,000 every year for her Medicare. Q: Which she doesn't have. PRESIDENT OBAMA: I'm assuming she doesn't have it. Q: Yeah. PRESIDENT OBAMA: So we are going to be pushing back against that kind of proposal. And that raises the point I made earlier. You know, if people like myself aren't paying a little more in taxes, then the only way you balance the budget is on the backs of folks like your mom who end up paying a lot more in Medicare, and they can't afford it, whereas I can afford to pay a little more in taxes. So that's on -- on Medicare and Social Security. 14:16:34 In terms of her finding a job, the most important thing we can do right now is to pass the American Jobs Act, get people back to work. Because think about it: If she's been in the food service industry, you know, that industry is dependent on people spending money on food, you know, whether it's at a restaurant or a cafeteria or, you know, buying more groceries. And if a construction worker and a teacher or a veteran have a job because of the programs that we proposed in the American Jobs Act, they're going to be spending more money in food services, and that means that those businesses are going to have to hire more and your mom's going to be more likely to be hired. All right? Q: Yeah. And one of the other issues, though, is just a matter that there's, you know, a big age gap between her and the other folks who are willing to come in and work for less money and have less experience. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, that -- that is -- that is a challenge, that, you know, it is tough being unemployed if you're in your 50s or early 60s, before retirement. That's the toughest period of time to lose your job. Obviously it's never fun to lose your job, and it's always hard in this kind of really deep recession, but it's scariest for folks who are nearing retirement and may also be worrying about whether they've got enough saved up to ever retire. So that's part of the reason why one of the things that we're also proposing, separate and apart from the jobs bill, is we've got to do a better job of retraining workers so that they, in their second or third or fourth careers, are able to go back to a community college, maybe take a short six-month course or a one-year course that trains them on the kinds of skills that are going to be needed for jobs that are actually hiring or business that are actually hiring right now. We've done some great work working with community colleges to try to make sure that businesses help design the training programs so that somebody who enrolls, like your mom, if she goes back to school, she knows that after six months she will be trained for the particular job that this business is looking for. All right? Thanks so much. Tell her I said hi. Q: Great. Thank you. OK. (Chuckles.) MR. WEINER: Thank you. We're going to go to the group -- the LinkedIn group. We had thousands of questions submitted. And here's one of them from a LinkedIn member, Marla Hughes (sp). Marla (sp) is from Gainesville, Florida. She's the owner of Meticulously Clean home and apartment cleaning service. And her question is: As a small-business owner, regulation and high taxes are my worst enemies when it comes to growing my business. What are you going to do to lessen the onerous regulations and taxation on small businesses? 14:19:19 PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, you know, it's hard to say exactly what regulations or taxes she may be referring to because obviously it differs in different businesses. But as I said, we've actually cut taxes for small businesses 16 times since I've been in office. So taxes for small businesses are lower now than they were when I came into office. Small businesses are able to get tax breaks for hiring. They're able to get tax breaks for investment in capital investments. They are able to get tax breaks for hiring veterans. They're able to get tax breaks for a whole host of areas, including, by the way, a proposal that we put forward that says that there should be no capital gains tax on a startup, to encourage more small businesses to go out there and -- and -- and create -- create a business. In terms of regulations, most of the regulations that -- that we have been focused on are ones that affect large businesses, like utilities, for example, in terms of how they deal with safety issues, environmental issues. 14:20:48 We have been putting forward some tough regulations with respect to the financial sector because we can't have a repeat of what happened in 2007. And the fact of the matter is that if what happened on Wall Street ends up having a spill-over effect to all of Main Street, it is our responsibility to make sure that we have a dynamic economy, we have a dynamic financial sector but, you know, we don't have a mortgage broking -- brokerage operation that ends up providing people loans that can never be repaid and end up having ramifications throughout the system. So, you know, you're going to hear from, I think, Republicans over the next year and a half that somehow if we just eliminated pollution controls or if we just eliminated basic consumer protections, that somehow that in and of itself would be a spur to growth. I disagree with that. 14:22:14 What I do agree with is, is that there are some regulations that have outlived their usefulness. And so what I've done is I've said to all the agencies in the federal government, number one, you have to always take costs as well as benefits into account when you're proposing new regulations. Number two, don't just be satisfied with applying that analysis to new regulations. Look back at the old regulations to see if there are some that we can start weeding out. And we've initiated the most aggressive what we call look-back provisions when it comes to regulations, where we say to every agency: Go through all the regulations that you have on your books that flow through your agencies, and see if some of them are still necessary. And it turns out that a lot of them are no longer necessary. Well, let's get rid of them if they've outlived your -- their usefulness. I think that there were some regulations that had to do with the transportation for -- sector for example, that didn't take into account the fact that everybody operates on GPS now. Well, you've got to adjust and adapt to how the economy's changing and how technology -- how technology has changed. And we've already identified about $10 billion worth of savings just in the initial review, and we anticipate that that's only going to be a fraction of some of the paperwork and bureaucracy and red tape that we're going to be able to eliminate. 14:23:17 But I -- I will never apologize for making sure that we have regulations in place to ensure that your water is clean, that your food is safe to eat, you know, that the peanut butter you feed your kids is not going to be contaminated; making sure that if you take out a credit card, there's some clarity about what it exactly is going to do and you're not seeing a whole bunch of hidden fees and hidden charges that you didn't anticipate. You know, that's always been part of what makes the marketplace work, is if you have smart regulations in place, that means the people who are providing good value, good products, good services -- those businesses are going to succeed. We don't want to be rewarding folks who are gaming the system or cheating consumers. And -- and I think that's how most American(s) feels about regulations as well. They don't want more than is necessary, but they know that there's some things that we've got to do to protect ourselves and our environment and our children. MR. WEINER: Thank you for your question, Marla (sp). Now we're going to take a question from LinkedIn member Esther Abeja (sp). Esther's an IT analyst from Chicago, Illinois. PRESIDENT OBAMA: There you go. Chicago's all right, too! (Laughter.) MR. WEINER: Esther, what is your question for the president? Q: (Laughs.) Good morning, Mr. President. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good morning. Q: As Jeff said, I'm from Chicago, recently unemployed. And my fear is that the longer I'm unemployed, the harder it is going to be for me to get employed. It seems that nowadays employers are hiring people who are currently employed because they're in touch with their skill set. What programs do you think should be in place for individuals such as myself to keep in touch with our skills, be in demand, marketable, and eventually get hired? PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, the -- first of all, you obviously are thinking ahead about how to keep your skills up. And the most important thing you can do is to make sure that, whether it's through classes or online training or what-have-you, that you're keeping your skill set sharp. We, as part of the American Jobs Act, are actually supporting legislation in Congress that says employers can't discriminate against somebody just because they're currently unemployed, because that -- that doesn't seem fair. That doesn't -- that doesn't make any sense. But the most important thing, probably, we can do for you is just make sure that the unemployment rate generally goes down, the mark -- that the labor market gets a little tighter, so that, you know, employers start looking beyond just the people who are currently employed to folks who have terrific skills and just have been out of the market for a while. So passing the American Jobs Act is going to be important. There is legislation in there that says you can't be discriminated against just because you don't have a job. The one other thing that we can do is, during this interim, as you're looking for a job, making it easier for you to be able to go back to school if you think there's some skill sets that you need, making it economical for you to do it. 14:26:14 One of the things that we did during the last two and a half years -- it used to be the student loan program was run through the banks, and even though the federal government guaranteed all these loans, so the banks weren't taking any risks, they were taking about $60 billion out of the entire program, which meant that there was less money to actually go directly to students. We ended that. We cut out the middleman, and we said let's use that money to expand the availability of Pell grants, to increase the amount that Pell grants -- each Pell grant student could get. And through that process you've got millions of people all across the country who are able to actually go back to school without incurring the huge debt loads that -- that they had in the past, although, you know, obviously the cost of a college education is still really high. But if we can do more to make it easier for you to keep your skills up even when you're not already hired, hopefully that will enhance your marketability to employers in the future. All right. But just looking at you, I can tell you're going to do great. Q: That's -- thank you. PRESIDENT OBAMA: All right. Thank you. MR. WEINER: Thanks, Esther (sp). Our next question is from LinkedIn member Wayne Kulick. Wayne is from Phoenix, Arizona. He spent 25 years flying aircraft for the U.S. Navy and is now program director for American Express. Wayne? Q: Good morning, Mr. President. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good morning, sir. Q: I'm from Phoenix, Arizona, where I'm a program director, as Jeff had said. I retired in 2007. When I retired, networking was essentially how I got all my jobs after retirement. How do you envision the government's role in integrating networking tools to aid veterans that are leaving the service and getting jobs? PRESIDENT OBAMA: It's a great question. And first of all, let me thank you for your service. Q: (Inaudible.) PRESIDENT OBAMA: We are very grateful to you for that. (Applause.) Thank you. But you know, you were extraordinarily skilled. And even then, it sounds like you had to rely on informal networks rather than a formal set of processes for veterans in order for you to find a job that used all your skills. We have not done as good of a job in the past in helping veterans transition out of the armed services as we should have. I'll give you an example. I actually had lunch with a group of veterans from the Iraq and Afghan wars up in -- up in Minnesota. And the young man I was talking to had just gone back to school. He was getting his nursing degree. He had worked in emergency medicine in Iraq multiple deployments, had probably dealt with the most incredible kinds of medical challenges under the most extreme circumstances, had received years of training to do this. 14:29:47 But when he went back to nursing school, he had to start as if he had never -- you know, never been involved in medicine at all. And so -- so he had to take all the same classes and take the same -- take the same debt burdens from taking those classes as if I had just walked in and, you know, could barely put a Band-Aid on myself. But -- but he had to go through the same processes. Well, that's an example of a failure on the part of both DOD and the VA -- Department of Defense and Veterans Administration -- to think proactively, how can we help him make the transition? So what we've started to say is, let's have a -- sort of a reverse boot camp. As folks are thinking about retiring, as folks are thinking about being discharged, let's work with them while they're still in the military to say, is there a way to credential them so that they can go directly into the job and work with state and local governments and employers, so that if they've got a skill set that we know is applicable to the private sector, let's give them a certification, let's give them a credential that helps them do that right away. We've also then started to put together a network of businesses. And I actually asked for a pledge from the private sector, and we've got a commitment now that a hundred thousand veterans will be hired over the next several years. And that creates a network, and maybe they'll end up using LinkedIn; I don't know. But what we want to do is to make sure that, whether it's the certification process, whether it's the job search process, whether it's resume preparation, whether it's using electronic networking, that we're using the huge capacity of the Veterans Administration and the Department of Defense and all the federal agencies to link up together more effectively, because not only is the federal government, obviously, a big employer itself, and we've significantly increased the hiring of veterans within the federal government, including, by the way, disabled veterans and wounded warriors, but we're -- you know, the federal government's also a big customer of a lot of businesses. 14:31:59 And there's nothing wrong with a big customer saying to a business, you know what? We're not going to tell you who to hire, but here's a list of extremely skilled veterans who are prepared to do a great job and have shown incredible leadership skills. Now, you think of these -- you've got 23, 24, 25-year-olds who are leading men into battle, who are, you know, handling multi-million dollars pieces of equipment, and they do so flawlessly. And those leadership skills, those technical skills should be able to translate directly into jobs. And last thing I'll say is, obviously, the American Jobs Act also would be helpful because it provides additional tax incentives for companies to hire our veterans. Q: Thank you. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you. (Applause.) MR. WEINER: Thank you, Wayne, and thank you again for your service. Let's turn to the audience now. Oh, a lot of hands going up. Mr. President, want to pick someone? PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, you know, they -- you kind of put me on the spot here. That -- the guy in the glasses right back -- right in the back there. Why not? Q: Thank you, Mr. President. I don't have a job, but that's because I've been lucky enough to live in Silicon Valley for a while and work for a small start-up down the -- down the street here that did quite well. So I'm unemployed by choice. My question is, would you please raise my taxes? (Laughter, applause.) I would -- I would like very much to have the country to continue to invest in things like Pell grants and infrastructure and job training programs that made it possible for me to get to where I am. And it kills me to see Congress not supporting the expiration of the tax cuts that have been benefitting so many of us for so long. I think that needs to change, and I hope that you'll stay strong in doing that. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, I -- well, I appreciate it. What -- what was the start-up, by the way? You want to give me a little hint? 14:34:35 Q: It's a -- it's a search engine. (Laughter.) PRESIDENT OBAMA: Worked out pretty well, huh? (Laughter.) Q: Yeah. Yeah. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well -- well, look, the -- let -- let me just talk about taxes for a second. I -- I've made this point before, but I want to reiterate this. So often, the tax debate gets framed as class warfare. And, look, I'm -- as I said at the outset, America's success is premised on individuals, entrepreneurs, having a great idea, going out there and pursuing their dreams and making a whole lot of money in the process. And that's great! That's part of what makes America so successful. But as you just pointed out, we're successful because somebody invested in our education, somebody built schools, somebody created incredible universities. I went to school on scholarship. Michelle -- you know, her dad was a -- what's called a -- a stationary engineer at the water reclamation district; never owned his own home, but he always paid his bills; had multiple sclerosis, struggled to get to work every day, but never missed a day on the job; never went to college, but he was able to send his daughter to Princeton and on to Harvard Law School. We benefited from somebody somewhere making an investment in us. And I don't care who you are, that's true of all of us. And look -- look at this room. I mean, look at the diversity of the people here. You know, a lot of us are -- you know, parents came from someplace else or grandparents came from someplace else. They benefited from a public school system or a(n) incredible university network or the infrastructure that allows us to move products and services around the globe or the scientific research that -- you know, Silicon Valley is built on research that no individual company would have made on their own because you couldn't necessarily capture the value of the nascent Internet. So -- so the question becomes if we're going to make those investments, how do we pay for it? Now, you know, the -- the income of folks at the top has gone up exponentially over the last couple -- couple of decades, whereas the incomes and wages of the middle class have flat-lined over the last 15 years. 14:37:40 So you know, this young lady's mom, who's -- you know, who's been working in food services, she doesn't have a lot of room to spare. Those of us who've been fortunate, we do. And we're not talking about going to punitive rates that would somehow inhibit you from wanting to be part of a startup or work hard to -- to be successful. We're talking about going back to the rates that existed as recently as in the '90s when, as I recall, Silicon Valley was doing pretty good and -- and well-to-do people were doing pretty well. And it turns out, in fact, during that period, the rich got richer, the middle class expanded, people rose out of poverty because everybody was doing well. So this is not an issue of do we somehow try to punish those who've done well. That's the last thing we want to do. It's a question of how can we afford to continue to make the investments that are going to propel America forward? If we don't improve our education system, for example, we will all fall behind. We will all fall behind. That's just -- that's a fact. And the truth is, is that on every indicator, from college graduation rates to math and science scores, we are slipping behind other developed countries. And that's going to have an impact in terms of if you're a start-up, are you going to be able to find enough engineers? It's going to have an impact in terms of, is the infrastructure here good enough that you can move products to market? It's going to have an impact on your ability to recruit top talent from around the world. And so, you know, we all have an investment in improving our education system. Now, money is not going to solve the entire problem. That's why we've initiated reforms like Race to the Top that says we're going to have higher standards for everybody. We're going to not just have kids taught to the test, but we're going to make sure that we empower teachers, but we're also going to hold them accountable and improve how we train our principals and our teachers. So we're willing to make a whole bunch of reforms. But at some point money makes a difference. If we don't have enough science teachers in the classroom, we're going to have problems. Somebody's got to pay for it. And -- and -- and right now we've got the lowest tax rates we've had since the 1950s. And some of the Republican proposals would take it back -- as a percentage of GDP, back to where we were back in the 1920s. But you can't have modern industrial economy like that. So -- so I appreciate your sentiment. I -- I appreciate the fact that you recognize we're in this thing together. We're not on our own. And those of us who have been successful, we've always got to remember that. Q: I know a lot of people in that same situation, and every one of them has said to me that they would support an increase in their taxes. So, you know, please -- (soft laughter) -- PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, the -- (applause) -- we're going to get to work. Thank you. MR. WEINER: Thank you. Thank you for your question. Next question was submitted to the LinkedIn Group, actually comes from a LinkedIn employee named Teresa Sullivan (sp). It's a two-part question. First, do you think our public education system and our unemployment rates are related? And second, what if any overhaul in education is necessary to get Americans ready for the jobs of tomorrow, rather than the jobs of 20 years ago? PRESIDENT OBAMA: There's no doubt that there's a connection long-term between our economic success, our productivity and our education system. That's indisputable. I mean, when we were at our peak in terms of growth back in the '60s and the '70s, in large part it was because we were doing a better job of training our workforce than anybody else in the world. Now the rest of the world's caught up or is catching up. They're hungry. And as I said before, we are slipping behind a lot of developed countries. So, you know, our proportion of college graduates has not gone up while everybody else's has gone up. Our proportion of high school graduates has not gone up whole everybody else's has gone up. And if you've got a billion Chinese and Indians and Eastern Europeans, all who are entering into a labor force and are becoming more skilled, and we are just sitting, you know, on the status quo, we're going to have problems. Now, what can we do? This is a decade-long project, it's not a -- it's not a one-year project. And we've been pushing since we came into office to look at the evidence to base reforms on what actually works. The single most important ingredient in improving our schools is making sure we've got great teachers in front of the -- in front of every classroom. And so what we've said is, let's make sure that we've hired enough teachers; let's train them effectively; let's pay them a good wage; let's make sure that we're putting special emphasis on recruiting more math and science teachers, where -- you know, STEM education is an area where we've fallen significantly behind. Let's make sure they're accountable, but let's also give them flexibility in the classroom so that they don't have to do a cookie- cutter, teach-to-the-test approach that squashes their creativity and prevents them from engaging students. But at the end of the year let's make sure that they're doing a good job, and if there are teachers out there who are not doing a good job, let's work to retrain them, and if they're not able to be retrained, then, you know, we should probably find them a different line of work. We've got to have top-flight principles and leadership inside the schools. That makes a big difference. We've also got to focus on -- you know, there are some schools that are just drop-out factories, where less than half of the kids end up graduating. A lot of them, the students are black and brown. 14:44:02 But that's also the demographic that's growing the fastest in this country. So if we don't fix those schools, we're going to have problems. So we've said to every state, you know what? Focus on the lowest-performing schools, and tell us what your game plan is to improve those schools' performance. And it may be that we've got to also, in some cases, rethink how we get students interested in learning. You know, the -- IBM is -- is engaged in a -- a really interesting experience in -- in New York, where they're essentially setting up schools similar to the concept I was talking about with community colleges, where they're saying to kids pretty early on, I think as -- as early as eighth grade, you know what, we're going to design a program -- IBM worked with the New York public schools to design a program. And this is not for the kids who are in the top 1 percent. This is for ordinary public-school kids. 14:45:08 You follow this program, you work hard, IBM will hire you at the end of this process. And it suddenly gives kids an incentive. They say, oh, you know, the reason I'm studying math and science is there is a practical outcome here: I will have a job, and there are practical applications to what I'm doing in the classroom. And that's true at high-end jobs, but it's also true -- you know, we -- we want to do more to train skilled workers even if they don't have a four-year degree. It may be that the more the concept of apprenticeship and the concept of a -- a rigorous vocational approach is incorporated into high schools so that kids can actually see a direct connection between what they're learning and a potential career -- they're -- they're less likely to drop out, and we're going to see more success. So one last point I'll make about this is George Bush actually was sincere, I think, in trying to improve the education system across the country through something called No Child Left Behind that said we're going to impose standards; there's going to be accountability. If schools don't meet those standards, we're going to label them as failures and they're going to have to make significant changes. The intent was good. It wasn't designed as well as it could have been. In some cases, states actually lowered their own standards to make sure that they weren't labeled as failures. There wasn't enough assistance given to these schools to meet the ambitious goals that had been set. So what we've said is: Look, we'll provide states some waivers to get out from under No Child Left Behind, if you can provide us with a plan to make sure that children are going to be college and career ready; and we'll give you more flexibility, but we're still going to hold you accountable; and we will provide you the tools and best practices that allow you to succeed. So the last point I'll make on this: There is also a cultural component to this, though. We as a country have to recognize that all of us are going to have to up our game. And we as parents have to instill in our kids a sense of educational excellence. We've got to turn off the TV set. I know that it's dangerous to say in -- in Silicon Valley, but put away the video games sometimes -- (laughter) -- you know, and all the electronics and -- unless it's school- related. And we've just got to get our kids more motivated and internalizing that sense of the importance of learning. And if we don't do that, we're -- we're going to continue to slip behind, even if some of these school reform approaches that we're taking are successful. Yeah. MR. WEINER: Thank you, Teresa (sp). Our next question comes from LinkedIn member Robert Holly (sp), who is joining us from Charlotte, North Carolina. After a promising career in financial services, Robert was unfortunately recently laid off. Robert, what is your question? Q: Good morning, Mr. President. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good morning. Q: As Jeff mentioned, I had a 22-year very successful career in IT management, but I find myself displaced. And not only that, I look at the statistics for unemployment, 16.7 percent for African- Americans, and my question would be -- and not just for the African- Americans, but also for other groups that are also suffering -- what would be your statement of encouragement for those who are looking for work today? 14:48:56 PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, what I would say is just, given your track record, given your history, seeing you stand here before this group, you're going to be successful. You've got a leg up on a lot of folks. You've got skills, you've got experience, you've got a track record of success. Right now your challenge is not you, it's the economy as a whole. And by the way, this is not just an American challenge. This is happening worldwide. So I hope everybody understands. Our biggest problem right now, part of the reason that this year, where, at the beginning of the year, economists had estimated and financial analysts had estimated that the economy was going to be growing at about 3.5 percent -- and that has not happened -- in part has to do with what happened in the Middle East and the Arab Spring which disrupted energy prices and caused consumers to have to pull back because gas was getting so high; what's happening in Europe, which, you know, they have not fully healed from the crisis back in 2007 and never fully dealt with all the challenges that their banking system faced. 14:50:14 It's now being compounded with what's happening in Greece. So they're going through a financial crisis that is scaring the world. And they're trying to take responsible actions, but those actions haven't been quite as quick as they need to be. So the point is, is that economies all around the world are not growing as fast as they need to. And since the world's really interconnected, that affects us, as well. The encouraging thing for you is that when the economy gets back on track in the ways that it should, you are going to be prepared to be successful. The challenge is making sure that you hang in between now and then. That's why things like unemployment insurance, for example, are important. And part of our jobs act is to maintain unemployment insurance. It's not a(n) end-all, be-all, but it helps folks, you know, meet their basic challenges. And by the way, it also means that they're spending that money and they're recirculating that into the economy, so it's good for businesses generally. Some of the emergency measures that we've been taking and we've proposed to take help to bridge the gap to where the economy is more fully healed. And historically after financial crises, recessions are deeper and they last longer than after the usual business cycle recessions. So -- so I guess the main message I have for you is, the problem is not you, the problem's the economy as a whole. You are going to be well-equipped to succeed and compete in this global economy once it's growing again. My job is to work with everybody I can, from the business community to Congress to not-for-profits, you name it, to see if we can, you know, speed up this process of healing and this process of recovery. 14:52:15 And in the meantime we will make sure that, you know, things like unemployment insurance that are there to help people during tough times like this are going to continue to be available. And if there are -- since you're in IT, if there are areas where you need to be sharpening your skills, as the young lady here mentioned, you know, we are going to make sure that there are resources available for you to be able to go back to school and do that. All right. Thank you. MR. WEINER: Thank you. That was our last question. We're going to begin to wrap it up. And before I turn it over to you for some concluding remarks, I just want to say thank you and let you know how much we appreciate the work that you're doing. I know I speak for a lot of people when I say I can't think of anything more important than creating economic opportunity when it comes to profoundly and sustainably improving the quality of an individual's life, the lives of their family members, the lives of the people that they in turn can create jobs for, and in hard-hit American cities and developing countries around the world, these folks are creating role models for the next generation of entrepreneurs and professionals that didn't even know it was possible. So on behalf of myself; on behalf of our visionary founder, Reid Hoffman, without whom none of this would have been possible; on behalf of our employees, of course our members; on behalf of our country, thank you, Mr. President. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, the -- (applause) -- thank you so much. I -- thank you. Well, let me just say these have been terrific questions. And I so appreciate all of you taking the time to do this. I appreciated LinkedIn helping to host this. And for those of you who are viewing not in this circle, but around the country, maybe around the world, I appreciate the chance to share these ideas with you. 14:54:39 Look, we're going through a very tough time. But the one thing I want to remind everybody is that we've gone through tougher times before. And the trajectory, the trend of not just this country but also the world economy is one that's more open, one that's more linked, one that offers greater opportunity, but also one that has some hazards. If we don't prepare our people with the skills that they need to compete, we're going to have problems. If we don't make sure that we continue to have the best infrastructure in the world, we're going to have problems. If we're not continuing to invest in basic research, we're going to have challenges. If we don't get our fiscal house in order in a way that is fair and equitable so that everybody feels like they have responsibilities to not only themselves and their -- and their family, but also to the country that's given them so much opportunity, we're going to have problems. And so I am extraordinarily confident about America's long-term future. But we are going to have to make some decisions about how we move forward. And you know, what's striking to me is when we're out of Washington and I'm just talking to ordinary folks -- I don't care whether they're Republicans or Democrats -- you know, people are just looking for common sense. The majority of people agree with the prescriptions I just offered. The majority of people, by a wide margin, think we should be rebuilding our infrastructure. The majority of folks, by a wide margin, think that we should be investing in education. The majority of people, by a wide margin, think we should be investing in science and technology. And the majority of people think, by a wide margin, that we should be maintaining programs like Social Security and Medicare to provide a basic safety net. The majority of people, by a significant margin, think that the way we should close our deficit is a balance of cutting out those things that we don't need but also making sure that we've got a tax code that's fair and everybody's paying their fair share. So the problem is not outside of Washington. The problem is, is that things have gotten so ideologically driven and everybody's so focused on the next election and putting party ahead of country that we're not able to solve our problems, and that's got to change. 14:57:08 And that's why your voices are going to be so important. The reason I do these kinds of events is I want you to hear from me directly, I want to hear from you directly; but I also want your voices heard in the halls of Congress. I need everybody here to be, you know, speaking out on behalf of -- of the things that you care about and the values that made this country great, and -- and to say to -- to folks who you've elected -- say to them: We expect you to act responsibly, and not act in terms of short-term political interests; act in terms of what's going to be good for all of us over the long term. If that spirit, which all of you represent, starts -- starts asserting itself all across the country, then I'm absolutely confident the 21st century is going to be the American century just like the 20th -- 20th century was. So, thank you very much, everybody. God bless you. (Applause.) MR. WEINER: Thank you. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you. (Applause.) END. WH TVL: President Barack Obama LinkedIn event in Mountain View, California - TVL POOL CUTS 15:08:11 LinkedIn event begins 15:09:23 Obama enters room 15:17:02 cu of audience members 15:17:57 ws of room 15:20:25 audience members applaud 15:24:57 event ends WH TVL: President Barack Obama departs San Jose, CA and arrives San Diego, CA 16:27:20 AF1 seen in distance, comes in for landing, taxis 16:39:00 President exits AF1, is greeted on tarmac by: San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders Congressman Bob Filner MajGen Anthony Jackson (Commanding General for Marine Corps Installations West) MajGen Andrew W. O'Donnell Jr. (3rd. Marine Air Wing Commander - used to be CO for HMX) Colonel Frank A. Richie (Base Commander) 16:41:12 President glad hands at rope line 16:44:52 President departs in limo 16:55:34 Obama at steps of Air Force One taking photo with family 16:56:02 Obama jogs up steps of Air Force One 16:56:14 Obama waves and enters Air Force One 16:56:23 Obama waves and jogs down steps of Air Force One 16:56:34 Obama glad hands 16:57:42 Obama glad hands 16:58:40 Obama walks over to gathered crowd as they cheer 16:58:57 Obama glad hands with crowd 17:01:51 Obama jogs up steps of Air Force One 17:02:04 refeed