Tag Archives: BarackObama

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A Better Bargain for Responsible, Middle Class Homeowners


In his weekly address, President Obama notes that while college education has never been more important, it has also never been more expensive — which is why he proposed major new reforms this week to make college more affordable for middle class families and those fighting to get into the middle class.

A Better Bargain for Students: President Obama hit the road on Thursday for a two-day bus tour in New York and Pennsylvania to share his plan to make college more affordable. The President stressed the importance of ensuring that higher education pays off for students and their families:

“Too many students are facing a choice that they should never have to make:  Either they say no to college and pay the price for not getting a degree — and that’s a price that lasts a lifetime — or you do what it takes to go to college, but then you run the risk that you won’t be able to pay it off because you’ve got so much debt.”

President Obama also shared his own story about college loans in an email to White House subscribers. If you didn’t receive it, be sure to sign up for future updates.

Meet Sunny: The Obamas welcomed a new member of their family, a Portuguese water dog named Sunny! The new puppy is settling into the White House and is expected to take on many family projects, just like her big brother Bo.

Administration Officials Answer Your Education Questions: On Thursday, the White House hosted office hours with Deputy Communications Director Katie Beirne-Fallon and Deputy Director of Domestic Policy Council James Kvaal. You can check out many of questions asked on Storify.

On Friday, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan joined Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, to discuss how we can innovate in American education.

“At a time when going to college has never been more important, unfortunately it has never been more expensive,” Duncan said. “And so we have to work together to drive down costs. We have to have much greater transparency and help young people and their families make better choices.”

Mental Health and the Affordable Care Act: On Wednesday, health leaders and mental health advocates came to the White House to talk about how health reform will help Americans gain access to mental health coverage if they need. Because of the Affordable Care Act, 71 million privately insured Americans have gained improved coverage for preventive services.

We the (Immigrant) Geeks: Friday’s edition of We the Geeks highlighted prominent immigrants who are breaking ground in their professional fields. In a Google+ Hangout moderated by Todd Park, U.S. Chief Technology Officer, and Doug Rand, Assistant Director of Entrepreneurship at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, participants discussed why immigration reform is necessary to keep bringing innovators to the United States.

Hosting the 1973 Super Bowl Champion Miami Dolphins: On Tuesday, the undefeated 1972-1973 Miami Dolphins visited the White House. President Obama congratulated the team for their legacy both on the field and in their communities.

“I know that some people may be asking why we’re doing this after all these years. And my answer is simple: I wanted to be the young guy up here for once,” President Obama joked about the team’s visit 40 years after they earned their Super Bowl rings.

One Year of Open Source Code for We The People: One year ago on Friday, the White House published its source code for We the People. To mark this anniversary, we updated readers about our new web development projects and how you can get involved.

Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Strategy: On Monday, the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force released its final report. The Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Strategy provides recommendations to rebuild and reinvigorate Sandy-impacted areas. Over the past six months, FEMA has provided $12 billion to individuals and communities in need.

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We ~~~ have a moral obligation to deal with climate change:


Republicans (and a few Democrats) may have killed the president’s plan for a comprehensive climate change bill in 2010, but he made clear during his second inaugural speech that we have a moral obligation to deal with climate change:

We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms. The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries – we must claim its promise. That’s how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure – our forests and waterways; our croplands and snowcapped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That’s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.

During a long and wide-ranging speech today, the president laid out the moral, economic, and scientific case for tackling the problem and the latest steps his administration is taking to address it.

(You can watch the entire speech HERE.)

The major elements of the president’s plan include carbon pollution limits for new and existing power plants, an increase in renewable energy generated on public lands, enhanced fuel efficiency standards for heavy-duty vehicles, a variety of energy efficiency measures, and both domestic and global cuts in super pollutants like HFCs, and an expanded commitment to international leadership on a wide variety of climate-change related issues.

(You can read the entire plan HERE.)

The president took climate deniers and other opponents of action to task:

We don’t have time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society.  Sticking your head in the sand might make you feel safer, but it’s not going to protect you from the coming storm.

As it turns outs, even the Flat Earth Society, which actually believes the Earth is flat, thinks climate change is caused by human activity. This puts the Flat Earth Society ahead of many conservatives when it comes to acknowledging the reality of our warming planet.

The speech concluded with a call to action to all Americans:

What we need in this fight are citizens who will stand up, and speak up, and compel us to do what this moment demands.

Understand this is not just a job for politicians.  So I’m going to need all of you to educate your classmates, your colleagues, your parents, your friends.  Tell them what’s at stake.  Speak up at town halls, church groups, PTA meetings.  Push back on misinformation.  Speak up for the facts.  Broaden the circle of those who are willing to stand up for our future.

Convince those in power to reduce our carbon pollution.  Push your own communities to adopt smarter practices.  Invest.  Divest.  Remind folks there’s no contradiction between a sound environment and strong economic growth.  And remind everyone who represents you at every level of government that sheltering future generations against the ravages of climate change is a prerequisite for your vote.  Make yourself heard on this issue. 

BOTTOM LINE: We have an obligation to our children and future generations to tackle climate change and the additional steps the president announced today will put the U.S. in a position of global leadership to solve the climate crisis.

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Pelosi – House Dems and the Headlines : May 2013


Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 Pelosi Statement on LGBT Pride Month

“What emerged as a new chapter in the fight for civil rights at Stonewall in June 1969 continues today in the battle to secure basic, fundamental protections for LGBT families and workers everywhere – to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act; to reject discrimination in our immigration system against LGBT families and foreign-born partners and spouses; and to make marriage equality not just a cause of one community, but the law of the land. In LGBT Pride Month, that drive endures as we act to keep the doors of opportunity and equality open for LGBT Americans and all Americans.”
Friday, May 31, 2013
 
“There is no greater way to safeguard the future of our country than to invest in the education of our children. Yet if Congress fails to act by July 1, interest rates on student loans will double, putting a college education well out of reach for millions of American students. With hardworking families already carrying $1 trillion in student loan debt, we must do more to ease – not exacerbate – that burden.
Friday, May 31, 2013
 

“As we mark another Memorial Day, we recommit to addressing the challenges of military families in our time: to ensure timely access to benefits; to end the claims backlog at the VA; to secure quality health care and good-paying jobs for our service members.  On this day and every day, we must reaffirm our solemn promise: just as the military leaves no one behind on the battlefield, we will leave no veteran behind at home.”Friday, May 24, 2013

 
“Thanks to the cooperation and commitment of California’s medical community, our health insurance marketplace will expand competitiveness, improve health care, protect the economic security of the middle class, and transform millions of lives.  I am proud to see that California is leading the way in establishing the bright and healthy future that the Affordable Care Act is meant to ensure.”
Thursday, May 23, 2013
 
“President Obama’s address reaffirmed our nation’s firm commitment to preserving our security while upholding our civil liberties.  As elected officials, we have no greater responsibility than protecting the American people; with the President’s statement today, we have a broad framework to meet that duty and maintain our commitment to our country’s highest ideals.”
Thursday, May 23, 2013
 
“Instead of working to enact a budget, or to create jobs, today the House Republicans will vote on the “Make College More Expensive Act.”  This is really stunning.  I hope you pay attention to the debate with the charts and the rest.  It clearly demonstrates how damaging this is to college affordability, to those who want to go to college, to their families who want to help them to do so…”
Thursday, May 23, 2013
 
“As we approach Memorial Day, the challenge to our conscience of that – meeting the needs of our veterans is heightened.  It is with us every day.  But it’s heightened on Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day, and other times of the year.  As we say in our meetings all the time on the battlefield, the military says: ‘on the battlefield, we will leave no soldier behind.’  And all of us say together, in a bi-partisan way: ‘and when they come home, we will leave no veteran behind.’  And so, it is in that spirit that this backlog is a challenge to the conscience of our country…”
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
 
“On this Harvey Milk Day – on what would be his 83rd birthday – Harvey’s green light has opened doors for LGBT elected officials nationwide: from America’s first LGBT Senator in Tammy Baldwin to six LGBT Members of the House, each contributing their leadership to the most diverse Democratic Caucus in history.  These Members are a living testament to Harvey’s principle that LGBT people deserve a place at the table.”
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
 
“I am pleased that the more than 600,000 American citizens who reside in the District of Columbia will finally have a statue representing them in the U.S. Capitol.  While the District deserves to have two statues in the Capitol, like the states, since its residents pay federal taxes and have fought and died in every American war, a statue depicting Frederick Douglass could not be a more apt representative for the people of D.C.  Douglass fought for District residents to have self-government and Congressional representation, a fight our Caucus carries on today.”
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
 
Washington, D.C. – Today, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman Joe Crowley, Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Nita Lowey, and Congressman Rush Holt met with President U Thein Sein of Burma and his delegation.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
 
“So, I hope it is a comfort to the people of the region, that their loss is one that is shared, and mourned, by people across the world, certainly in our country, and definitely in this Congress of the United States.  Whatever it is in our power to be helpful to them, we will do, and we will do quickly.  And that most importantly, they will always, always, always, and ever, be in our prayers.”
Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Pelosi Statement on the Devastating Tornado in Oklahoma

“As rescue workers continue the search for survivors, Members of Congress stand ready to do what we can to support the communities in Oklahoma, the first responders, and state and local government in their efforts to recover, respond, and rebuild.”
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
 
Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and senior House Democrats have sent letters to nine separate U.S. retailers calling upon them to join a broadening global coalition supporting a May 12 Accord on Fire and Building Safety, developed by the Worker Rights Consortium and a number of key stakeholders.
Friday, May 17, 2013
 
“Here we are, 134 days into the 113th Congress, without one vote on a jobs bill.  Fifty-four days after the Senate passed its budget, we still haven’t moved forward to the budget process with this do nothing agenda that does not reflect the priorities of the American people.  It is an agenda that only the Republicans are interested in pursuing.  So, you see a series of subterfuges, job evasions.  Today’s job evasion is that the Republicans have decided to vote on the Patient’s Rights Repeal Act, their 37th attempt to repeal our country’s landmark reform bill.  That’s 37 votes, 43 days, $52 million – $52.4 million – on an obvious evasion of our responsibility to work on the priorities of the American people.”
Thursday, May 16, 2013
 
“…[W]e believe there is simply no substitute for tough, comprehensive, uncompromising government support for legislation and fully-resourced law enforcement and administrative action… that both empowers workers and prevents more accidents from happening,” write the lawmakers in the letter.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
 
“First of all, it is our job to come here and act for the good of the American people.  And right now the American people see that good as the creation of jobs.  What is it, 134 days into this Congress?  And the Republican majority has yet to put forth one bill, vote one bill out to create jobs, to have evasion.  Here we are today with yet another one of their subterfuges: ‘let’s not talk about jobs.  Let’s use up time.’  And that adds to – what has been up until now – $54 million dollars, 43, some days spent on this – the 37th effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.  What we should be doing is what the Republicans have asked for: regular order, to go to the budget table, to reconcile the differences between the House and the Senate, so that we can put forth a product, a budget that creates jobs, that reduces the deficit, that strengthens the middle class…”
Thursday, May 16, 2013
 
“…it’s about how it affects women specifically, that we are talking about today, but those women are part of the nearly 13 million Americans benefitting from $1.1 billion in rebates from health insurance companies last summer…”
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
 
Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi announced today that Catlin O’Neill, longtime aide and Chief of Staff in her Congressional office (CA-12), will be departing for the private sector.  Today, Leader Pelosi named Robert Edmonson, her current Legislative Director, as Ms. O’Neill’s successor.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
 
“Today, the Pentagon’s civilian employees join the growing list of Americans bearing the brunt of the devastating sequester cuts.  As long as House Republicans refuse to replace the sequester, hard-working Americans will see crippling cuts to services in education, health, and national security.”
Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Boehner, Pelosi, Bipartisan Group of Members – Call for State Department to Address Plight of Chen Guangcheng & Family

Washington, D.C. – House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and a bipartisan group of members sent the following letter to Secretary of State John Kerry expressing concern about the harassment and abuse inflicted upon Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng and his family by local officials in the Shandong Province of China.  The letter makes a series of recommendations for actions the State Department could take in its discussions with the Chinese government.
Monday, May 13, 2013
 
“While we look forward to reviewing the Inspector General’s report this week, it is clear that the actions taken by some at the IRS must be condemned.  Those who engaged in this behavior were wrong and must be held accountable for their actions.  Regardless of political affiliation or bias, there is no place for this type of activity by the IRS or its employees.”
Monday, May 13, 2013
 
“This week we gave mothers not a very good gift.  More work, less pay.  Happy Mother’s Day?  I don’t think so.  The bill that gives less flexibility to working people, more discretion to their bosses.  Here’s what the bill really does: it ends the 40 hour work week, it ends, it cuts pay for women, undermines the economic security of the middle class, gives an interest free loan, paid for by workers’ wages and unused comp time to the company…”
Thursday, May 9, 2013
 
“We feel very, very hopeful that we will be able to move forward on this before the session of this Congress is out.  That we will indeed have passed comprehensive immigration reform.  It couldn’t happen without you.”
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
 
“On Cinco de Mayo, we remember the extraordinary victory of a poorly-armed Mexican militia over larger, stronger, better-equipped French forces in the Battle of Puebla.  For 151 years, this date has been a source of pride to the people of Mexico – and here in the United States, it has been an opportunity to honor the contributions, heritage, and rich history of Mexican Americans and all Hispanic Americans.”
Friday, May 3, 2013
 
“Today’s jobs report shows signs of progress for our workers and our middle class.  Yet it is also a reminder that Americans cannot afford more Republican political games that protect the sequester, slow our growth, inject uncertainty into our economy, and create instability for our working families.  Members of Congress must work together to put people to work, invest in American businesses and manufacturers, and build a lasting recovery.”
Friday, May 3, 2013

Pelosi Statement on Nominees for Secretary of Commerce, U.S. Trade Representative

“Today, President Obama nominated two effective, passionate leaders to guide our efforts to grow our economy, strengthen the hands of American businesses and workers, and keep our nation number one on the global stage.”
Thursday, May 2, 2013
 
“Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is an opportunity to celebrate the remarkable achievements, rich cultures, and extraordinary contributions of the AAPI community.  Americans from Asia and the Pacific Islands have risen above hardship, prejudice, and outright persecution to become an indelible part of the American story.”
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
“Jewish American Heritage Month is a time to honor and celebrate a community rich in achievement, central to American progress, bound together by the values of fairness and justice for all.”
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
“A proud son of North Carolina, Congressman Mel Watt has spent the last 20 years as a staunch and tireless advocate for the health, economic security, and prosperity of the people he represents.  As an economic development attorney and small business owner, he will bring the real-life expertise and unwavering dedication necessary to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency.”
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
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First Lady Speaks at the White House Forum on Military Credentialing and Licensing


First Lady Michelle Obama delivers remarks at the White House Forum on Military Credentialing and Licensing. April 29, 2013.

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The Veterans Full Employment Bill Signing


The First Lady joins Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley for a formal bill signing ceremony at the Maryland state house. The legislation will make it easier for military spouses to transfer their licenses when they move from state to state, and it will require licensing units and public institutions of higher education to consider relevant military experience and training for licenses, credentials and academic credit.