give it up for her being here again. you guys keep the blood flowing. i'm very much pro that form of life. i have been an mc here in the past. i'm the cofounder of jack and jill politics one of the top black political blogs. thank you. thank you. i also work at the onion and would be ri missed not to talk about the science channel. the feature. get cable and get t.v. and watch me. we'll host a conversation based on questions you submitted first. i'll introduce mrs. jarrod and then we'll exmain what we did. first i'll take a seat and give you a guy as little bit of background information on valerie jarrod. you ready. buckle up. she is the senior advisor and assistant to the president for inner governmental affairs and public engagement. she was born in iran and spends the first five years of her life working with president candidate and senator president barack obama. she ran to the senior advisor of the senior campaign and worked on the 2004 senate oral campaign. she has a lot of experience in chicago. she was a deputy corporation counsel for finance and development and deputy chief-of-staff. commission of the department of planning and development. chairman of the university of chicago medical board of trustees and chicago 2016 olympic committee. trustee of the chicago science and industry and board of the chicago stock exchange and oh, yeah director of the federal reserve bank from chicago. not only do we have one of the trusted advisors of the president of the united states, we also have the president of chicago. commander and chief of chicago right here ya'll. i'll talk all kinds of smack about daily when he's not here. she's someone that barack obama has referred as family and she's been described as his most trusted advisor. thanks for sending someone so high up to make the time to be here with us. valerie jarrod.
thank you.
now a few weeks ago we asked for questions and we received a lot of questions on jack and jill politics and daily coast, face book, twitter and a few people that still use e-mail also send those in directly. two of those. so we found the people still using 20th century technology the question break-out into to three faces. a lot of people are not quite familiar with valerie's work and how her relationship with president barack obama did. we'll establish who she is and what she does. she's inside the white house and it's all about transparency so we'll combine those two things and see if we can get her to be transparent from our public aspect perspective and bulk of questions lend on healthcare. equal rights, housing so we'll do a big round of those. for those of you in the room, at home on c-span, what's up c-span? that's my network. that's hot. anyone can throw up your question paced on what we're talking about or not talking about. face book.com/net roots nation. click on the live tab and you'll be able to throw your question up there if you didn't get a chance and think i'm being a terrible irresponsible moderator. you have that option. on twitter. /tag, n 09. are we clear how this will work? two people are clear. are we clear about how this will work? all right. then let us begin. wikipedia describes your office in the white house as the front door through which everyone can participate and inform the president. we want to understand your job and how you came to know the obama's and i'll take a line from the movie office space. you'll recognize this. what was a would you say you do here valerie?
i don't have a stapler. so what do i do? fair question. a variety of different things. my title describe as few things. i head the office of public engagement. that is really the front door of the white house where every possible constituency group can interface with the white house. president obama's entire campaign was based on inclusion and working with the american people and giving them a venue to have an on-going dialogue to serve that purpose. it's headed by tina chen. i have to find out if she's twittering. i was probably one of the people that sent an e-mail. exactly. trying stack the deck here. office of public engagement. we've had over 3300 different groups come through the white house since we've been there and whole purpose is to be available and transparent and accessible. and inclusive. that's one office. secondly, i succeed in the government affairs office. we work with elected officials not in congress. the mayor's, governors. county board. state legislators. everyone outside of washington and i'm particularly comfortable because i'm not from washington and don't know congress. my area is the city of chicago and local politics and i understand what it's like, in fact i'll tell you this to digress for a second my biggy frustration working for the city of chicago was the federal government therefore i'm uniquely qualified to give the people at the local level a voice inside the white house and all of the other federal agencies as well and that leads me to two other responsibilities. one is office of urban affairs. president obama created that and we coordinate all the federal agencies that have an impact to be urban centers around the country. so part of our frustration and the president shared this is you have all these different federal programs that are confusing and there's no way of looking at neighborhoods in a come prohen save way from the federal perspective so our office of affairs is to do just that. in addition, thank you.
applause is cool.
so in a ticks to that the president asked me to share the white house council on women and girls. tina chen, shout out to that office. saw men clapping out there too. obviously, um... women are still earning less than men and we have inequities but we did pass lynny ledbetr. shout out for that. laying around dormant for a while but we got it done and that's one step. part of the what the council on women is girls is doing is a task force made up of prep tenthives from off the agencies and we're looking at all the programs and we have a report due this month to describe every program that touches women and girls and looking for ways to improve their qualities of life and house on the house and senate side to see if there's further legislation we can do. in addition, we have a business council made up of various federal agencies that touch business from the small business to commerce and federal, energy department, u.s. trade representative and we meet often to see whether or not we're creating the kind of environment and this is important, where business can expand and grow and create jobs to get the economy going again and i probably, what e else can i tell you about?
i think that's all the jobs in the white house.
and then seniored a voi sore mean i serve whatever the president asks me to do in addition to that.
thank you. first question from daily coast. this is from when is it enough. if she's now in the office previously used by karl rose, has it been swept for bugs and more importantly, did you de contaminate it? good question. i tweaked it a little.
well, funny you say that, we actually did get mild amusement but it was counter balanced. it was also officed by secretary clinton before that so i'm hoping between secretary clinton she balanceed the office of karl. we did play calming music to level the playing field and give it that zen like quality.
yeah, okay. now you first met the obama's when you hired michelle in 1991. how did that turn into you being their most trusted friend and professional advisor? that's unique path. give insight to that. brief - but-
well, briefly, i was major daily's deputy chief-of-staff. i practiced law probably nine and a half years too long. i never loved it and iraqi left a law firm to work for mayor washington at that time. hey! [applause] that makes me feel so good. i tell you why that make please feel good because i was thinking to the interns or maybe a week ago i said i worked here at washington, blank faces. they had no idea who he was and i realized none of them were actually born at the time.
kids these days. how dare they not be born.
how dare they not know they're history is more the point. but any way, i left the law firm because, to be real honest with you i had my daughter. i got divorced and i was leaving her at home every day and going down to the sears tower with this beautiful view of lake michigan and i was sad and i was like i'm doing everything everybody thinks i should. i was fortunate my parents sent me to great schools and i had this great job and hated it. a good friend worked mayor washington and said, come and take a leap of faith. you can always come back. just come for six months and 8 years later i left city government but michelle was going through a similar experience at her law firm and felt she had so much more to give back and was interested in public service. the chief-of-staff today, worked in the corporation counsel's office and sent me michelle's rest may. terrific. i asked her to come in and we hit it off and through that, i was introduced to her fiance and they got married and our past's have been together every since and we've grown to be dear friends. i love them both dearly and i hope you do too.
president obama is calm. keeps his cool, somewhat disturbingly calm sometimes and you've known him well for a long time. have you seen him lost it. scream at people. does he lose his cool?
i will tell you the truth. since 1991 i've actually never heard him raise his voice. doesn't mean i haven't seen him angry but never heard him raise his voice. i would say when he's his quietest he's probably a little unsettled, but he has this very calming tempura meant. his highs are not high and his lows aren't low. and we encountered this in the campaign, when you needed it most you saw someone that managed to keep that calmness in the midst of chaos and we're in a chaotic time in our country and we want a leader that will stay calm and not fly off the handle. [applause]
the president said the following about you. quote, she's family. she combines the closeness of a family member with the savvy and objectivity of the a professional public policy expert. how difficult is it for you to play both roles the friend and expert advisor in the height house now?
i don't find it difficult at all. i get this question all the time and he's surrounded himself wit a team of people he trusts and respects and encourages to tell him what they think. his view is if you just agree with me, why are you here? i want somebody to push me and be honest with me and we have such challenges and i want to make sure i'm making smartest possible decision. so i think the team all has that philosophy. i have a unique rerakes ship because of the length but if we're watching a movie or something and i'm with their family i'm not asking about healthcare because he needs down time too and needs to know that when he's just trying relax and catch his breath i'm not trying to get him to focus on the pressing issues we have but on the other hand, in the oval office i treat him with due respect and call him mr. president as he deserves as the president of the united states. but the point is his whole team has that philosophy of being trusted and people he respects and people he wants to push him hard to make the right decisions. that goes for you guys too.
they don't need any pressing on that. i was promised a cage match between you and romin manual. when can we see that?
we had members to the white house for a picnic on the lawn. in the morning i said ron, your actually the number one person they want to see in the cage where you throw the ball and they fall down and get dunked, but i have known ron for a very long-time and we've always had a good relationship and i think what happens is the press, particularly the press in d.c. tries to stir up a little mess. i've never had a team of people whom i've worked with that i've had so much respect for and part of what president obama, that calm face. we all hear this all the time in the campaign. no drama obama. he believes if you start having chaos in your administration you can't focus on the american people and i give rom a lot of credit for bringing everybody together and addressing everyone's voice to be heard so when we go to the president we're giving him our best so there will be no fighting match between us. i strongly need him.
talking strong smack about rom. then the final question kind of about what your role is during the campaign, week saw you play an and with raise. encouraging philadelphia speech. president obama is black but most advisors are white. what is your presence doing for black americans, for women or anyone else tradition not represented.
ly say that the president has surrounded himself with a diverse and inclusive team. he said doing in and this was important if the transition to reflect the diversity of the country so we we're hearing all perspectives. he's fortunate to have several tough women advisors and african-american advisors. my chief-of-staff is here. raise your hand. don't be shy. and so i think we have a good team of people and that's again how to make the best decisions possible and i think he takes great pride and having that diversity in the white house and in administration throughout.
okay. on to phase two, all right. president obama said he could rely on you to monitor the dynamics in the white house. given this description and transparency mandate, describe both of those. we see things so often through the filter of the a media that could have other motives. what was the transition from campaign mode from wanting power to wielding it and what broadly speaking, more specifically what was most surprising about the transition?
interesting question. we talk about this a lot. it is very different campaigning to governing and the president wanted to make sure that we harness that energy you guys saw on the streets in all of the folks so involved in the campaign and wanted to make sure when they came into dpovpt they kept that sense of urgency and change, and that chance of willing to get in there and shake things up, but you have to have an order in government and you can't have everybody going off doing their own thing in the campaign, we encouraged people on the ground to go off and really develop relationships on the ground and we deferred enormously the people on the ground. i think when you're in the white house now the president has to really make sure the voices are still being heard and he's so good about bringing the very junior most staff person into a meeting and giving them an audience and letting them participate by working in a structure. that's been a bit of a challenge. the other dynamic where i've tried help is we've recruited a lot of terrific people who were not apart of the campaign or with other candidates and we want to make them feel they're on a level playing field and make them feel like family too so i spend a lot of time working with the people who aren't as well-known to everybody else, and give them a voice and a sense of belonging and this from time-to-time. it's worked so well, and we're not going to be able to keep all the energy and terrific part of the campaign unless we change government. that's the real challenge. this is all government. local level in chicago, i know this is the case throughout the country. you find so many people there that have been doing things the same way for a very long-time and you'll come in with a fresh idea, and they'll say, well we tried that in 1932 and it didn't work and your like what about this way? well, no i'm not sure. and you also find and i want to be really clear about this. people in government that have been hungering for change and all they wanted was fresh leadership because they didn't have a voice for their great ideas. harnessing that kind of energy is really important. let them clap for a while.
what is - this is a question from jack and jill policy. how has being in the white house fundamentally changed you, the first lady or president?
i don't think at this age, face it i'm 52 i don't find you change much and certainly they're not that much younger than i, but i think we all have this - just extraordinary awe of the opportunity. there's not a single day i come to work, that i don't stop and just pinch myself for this extraordinary opportunity to see our country change and to be right up there and have a front seat and an opportunity to participate in the process and so i think we're humbled by it in my wildest dreams it never occurred to me i would work in the white house or know the president of the united states as well as i know our president. so it's a very humbling feeling and you wake up and - i'm scared all the time. i'll tell you this. there isn't a day that goes by that we're not scared, we have to make the absolute best of this opportunity and we have to work really hard but you know you can't do what you did in the campaign working 18 hours a day and i'm going to tell you a bad story. we worked so hard the first couple of months we had this terrific event in the white house. poetry slam. we were all looking forward it to so i would go to the poetry slam and i couldn't find mike and i said what happened to him. he had gone in someone's office and put his head down and went sound asleep. so we were just exhausted. you can't do that because you're not making best decisions that exhausted so trying get people to take a breather for a moment and balance their lives but you know four and 8 years goes by quickly and so many people are counting on this president to change not just our country but the world, a lot of pressure.
all right. there have been some dramatic public moments, administration has gone through some wonderful, painful - can you talk about what the mood and process is like with tom dashle is?
it's very sad. the president is very close to tom and worked with him in the senate and thought he was uniquely qualified to head this healthcare initiative to it was on a personal note for the president a very sad day, and i think the good news is we've bounced back between nancy and secretary and the rest of the team working on health care, i think we're well represented and i think that's part of the president's strength is that even in the face of adversity he's extremely resilient and you want a president that bounces back. he's not going to say, now what do you do for about more than 30 seconds. he'll come up with another plan and team in place now i think is just terrific.

when the stimulus started hitting the country we saw the eruption of tea parties. lots of protests, how seriously does the president take what a lot of people in this room know to be somewhat manipulated situation? what's his reaction when they first started coming out?
look, you guys the reason he ran for president was because we wanted to move away from that kind of tone and the reason i think so many people got on board and were supportive of this unlikely candidate. if you think about two years back, who knew we would be where we are today and i think if you ask the vast majority of american people they were tired of that manipulation and we're seeing it now in the healthcare debate with a small segment trying scare people particularly elderly people and i have elderly parents. why are they trying scare my parents? [applause] so, i think it's an example of what we're fighting against, but it is there and i think, i think frankly to tell you the truth they under estimate the american people. i think they're a lot smarter than that and media has been focusing particularly on some of the town hall meetings that have been where people's voices are drowned out but what they have not covered near enough is the thousands of meetings around the country where people like you want to have an honest and clear debate about healthcare and want to be informed and express they're ideas and that's not where the media likes to focus. they like the sensationalism and this is one way, and we were talking about doing pitchs to the office or audience. one way you guys can be helpful is making sure you get accurate information out on the ground. becaus a lot of people are depending on that sound bite on the evening news or morning show for their news and that's not where they'll be informed. this is back to a retail effort. block by block, person by person and that's where you guys can be useful in this process.
final question on phase two, very important issue. do all the black advisors and staffers in the white house eat lunch at the same table?
[laughs]
is there a black table in the white house cafeteria. transparency.
there's not a black table because most people don't even eat lunch. a few of us went out to dinner and normally i have serial for dinner. my mother would be so pleased. we rarely. if i can grab lunch by four in the afternoon. that's good. so there's no black table in the cafeteria.
good job. you ready for phase three? i see the twitter feed. i know your chomping at the bit. according to the president, you are trusted quote, to speak for me. particularly, when we're dealing delicate issues. so i ask you president obama, on this transitional tro sees in government. this we got on twitter. how many of the 300 resumes sent to the white house received many serious reviews?
many, many, many. i cannot tell you the people working in the transition day and night going through the resumes and we've received some amazing resumes. there are many, many people working in administration on the campaign and many had absolutely nothing to do with the campaign but are so talented and everything from senior staff to the most junior people and we are constantly looking for new people and we take those resumes very, very seriously. we made it available to come on-line and send in your resume and we encourage people to do it. our personnel office takes this seriously. yes, we look at all of those.
question from face book about lobbyist influence. administration set strict rules on who could work and not. how do you feel about that decision 7 months in, for the concern your limiting the quality of candidates?
i think there's so many talented people out there that didn't lobby that it has not been an disadvantage at all. we've made a few exceptions for those uniquely qualified but what we ran on in the campaign and in government we have to stay focused on the american people and what's important for them and we can't let special interests that have a hold on washington dictate. this gives you a flavor of the white house. lobbyist were used to be the ones bringing in clients and i'll meet with just about anybody but what frustrates lobbyist is when i call the principal directly and i hear the lobbyist wanted to bring the person in and i'm like i don't need somebody else to do that and i don't see why they should have to pay you to have access to my office responsible for giving them service. [applause] so i'm not very popular a bong lobbyists and that's okay with me.
probably a good thing.
this question is from face book from martha elizabeth. is the president going to call all the blue dogs in his office and give each a piece of paper with the amount of stimulus money and say i want your vote on healthcare. if you're a democrat get in line otherwise any time you want money in juror district you can ask jim de mint for it? wow. mary elizabeth!
mary, elizabeth. she has a fan club.
i was going to say. i'm jealous. i haven't got that kind of applause yet. my goodness. the fact of the matter is i know obviously that's hit a note here, and i know that there is a lot of frustration here and around the country, and i'm telling you, i am convinced this president has it right and he is going to continue to go along the way he's going. he is not one to punish or do any of the kinds of things that perhaps you might want to do in a moment of span the mayty or anger but he'll count on the american people to put the pressure on their elected representatives because that's way the system works the best. it doesn't work for him to punish from the oval. when you guys get out there - and it's hard work but when you organize and when you, and not just form letters but when you call and - i met a person right as i came in going and having 60 meetings on the hill in the next few weeks with they're elected representatives. meet them in the district. go to the town hall meetings and make phone calls and organize your block and audiences and bloggers and put the pressure on them that way. that's how we'll get healthcare done this year. not quite as much applause, but trust me. it will work.
this question has a flip side and because healthcare is so - the thing right now. when i ask you, from face book from adam. the republican senate from house leadership has said they have no interest in bipartisan ship or creating a good healthcare bill. you can read they're tweets. given that they've shown such animosity in governing why attempt to placate them at all? can't you get a good plan done with democrat as loan. it worked them, why can't it work for us?
it didn't work for them because they're not there anymore so it didn't work for them. thank you. i like you. i mean the whole reason why we're here is american people got tired of that kind of politics and i think that, when you talk about by party son and i know it has a bad name right now. it's not so much working with the elected officials on all sides of the aisle but working with the american people who might be republican or independent or democrat. that's who we're trying reach and let's face it, i get a little worked up about the healthcare issue and it's because michelle and i worked at the healthcare facility and know how hard it is for people struggling right now and even those who aren't struggling may be struggling one day. all the people healthy and fine today may have a pre-existing condition and when they get dropped by insurance, it will have an impact on their lives so the way we look at it if we want to reach across the country, that's why the president was in montana yesterday in a community not considered typically democrat. he's reaching everywhere to engage the american people because there's not person in this country that isn't touched by healthcare or who right now is not adversely effected by the current healthcare system and it's growing worse every day. that's really the effort to reach out that we're talking about. [applause]
okay. this question, kind of touches on the seriousness of the debates happening. there's a feeling there's a substance and a lot of noise taking up air time. from jack and jill politics. do you believe the birthers are a, crazy b, racist or,c both. those are your options. [laughs]
interesting options. i mean come on you guys. this is ridiculous. of course he was born in the united states. unless they don't want to think of hawaii as the united states and maybe some people don't view that. but i think that, i mean the good thing about our country is everybody crazy or not is allowed to have a voice. that's what we do and i wasn't calling them crazy, i was just saying everybody gets to have a voice.
she's good.
yeah, i thought about that. seriously. of course one person is crazy and another person is sane, i get back to my point from a few minutes ago. i think in all that noise, eventually and the good news is that this week everybody was at least talking about healthcare and not other issues, so i think that, and it's hard to be patient at a time like this when every day is so important, but i do believe that people - because they're so personally vested will take the time to get informed and i also believe that all of this miss information that's going out there, where as everything from the allegation about the uf nicing. all of this becomes martianized and cast a side and i'm confident that will happen now. we have to take the time to educate people and when seniors are scared to death and they're told the president did a town hall meeting with a aarp, and people were saying, well you know, we don't like socialized medicine and in the next line they said, don't do anything to disturb our medicare so trying educate people about what really is in the various bills that are being looked at by the committees is so important and we've got to get into the details.
okay. this is about public option. there are related questions. there's a lot of tweet action going on. oddly, fdl on twitter. will the president for regional co-op for bipartisan vote on healthcare reform and is the president prepared to veto a bill without a public option? [applause]
well. let me be very clear and i talked to the president yesterday about this knowing i was coming here and i said i want to make sure, this is what i'm going to say and i know this is what you believe. the president wants the public option. he has made that clear everywhere he has gone. but - let's go one step further too. he wants the public option because there needs to be some competition. we have looked where there's two or three insurance carriers compared to multiples and competition works. prices come down when you have competition. he says that from the very beginning. i don't want to fast forward to the end of the process and talk about what he will detail down the line but he did it yesterday and every day making case as to why he believes the public option is the right thing to do and i can tell, you guys do too.
cnn director said a majority of americans over the age of 50 appose the proposed obama healthcare plan. those under 50 support it. very widespread in aim and reflects some of the trends we saw during the campaign who was supportive of obama and not. how does the white house handle that knowing seniors have more time and investment in the system as it is?
that's part of why the president wanted to do the town hall meeting. he did one with a aarp where we had literally thousands of members on the phone new jersey the audience able to ask questions directly to the president. he recognizes and if you look at the miss information out there, it's no wonder the seniors would be concerned about the plan. he wants to be sure we're talking to every possible age group so they understand what's in the plan. again, this is a place you guys could be helpful. if they understood what was in the plan, they would see how this is going to help them. the whole goal is to make healthcare more affordable and the quality of hair, this is something particularly interesting to seniors is better. we're spending so much money on subsidies of the insurance. have anyone ever gotten a medical bill you understood. i haven't. shouldn't there be a uniform bill so everybody can understand what they're getting? wouldn't it be nice if your parents are traveling and something happens to be having technology so to physician can look and have medical records and transport them back and forth? there's so much wrong with our system. i tell you can with a quick story. cleveland. we went there because it's a good model of what works. their physicians are paid a salary and get a three year contact. at the end of the year it's renewed based not on the outcome of their patients. are they actually healthier. i mean, shouldn't that be a test? it's absolutely no wonder that people are ordering multiple tests. often times physicians own the equipment they're using for the testing so let's get the incentives and reward physicians when the outcomes are goond people are actually healthier. let's have a system encouraging people to have primary care physicians where they're having all kinds of this in place. i could talk about the importance of what healthcare will do for our country but the real challenge is to educate everybody. many times seniors with fixed incomes dependent on medicare are the ones feeling most vulnerable but we have to pierce through the noise and implicate them about the opportunities of healthcare reform.
want to go to equal rights, civil rights issue. we've got this question in a lot of different forms but a hot point on twitter. how will the obama administration regain it's promise to be an advocate for,lbt americans example by reenforcing the don't ask don't tell policy in the defensive marriage act.
this is something i care about and so does the president and he's been clear and said this during the campaign and i've been with him in meeting after meeting in administration where he's so crystal clear. he believes don't ask, don't tell is wrong and seeks repeal in congress. absolutely. he believes defensive marriage act discriminates and a lot of people were upset by the brief written by the department of justice and i've talked to eric holder about having to defend a law on the books. they're they have to defend their law. the only way to get out of that is to repeal the law and that takes an act of congress. we're committed to getting both laws repealed but we can't do it without the support of the american people. put pressure on congress to repeal both of those laws and partner with us. [applause]
we got a lot of questions i would put under the header of not enough change for candidates that ran on this massive platform of change and also could be put under category of a little too much like bush. why has president obama continues so many of jorge bush's policies. signing statements. prolonged detention policies, keeping the defense department largely in tact? what is, back to this inside assessment and dynamic, why? why is the president continuing so many of these policies, many of which he criticized as a candidate?
well, look. it's affair question but also i think you have to look at what has he done. from the very beginning he signed an executive order saying we're not using terrorist torture anymore and give him credit for it that because he did it immediately. it should have never have been done and put our country i think more at risk than if we'd never done it in the first place. he memos talking about the justifying of torture in the transition of transparency. everybody knows what's in the pictures. i think the - this is where he gets very delicate and i know it's touchy for this audience but what he's trying balance as president is keeping us safe, not giving ammunition to people that already had am new nix to be adverse to us. he's trying change the tone around the country. this is why he went to cairo and reached out to the people of iran and traveled to turkey and went to normandie. he's trying set a different international tone and it'll be one to lead to a more safe countr and that requires some balance. i can't - hear you. you know what you got to do is figure out how to get your question on here. we're not going to have shout-outs here.
this is not a town hall like that. ya'll know what i mean. obviously an important question. he asked is why does he continue to give black water 150- million dollars?
listen. well we're certainly trying get rid of the no bid contract. the defense department has actually cut the portions of their budget. secretary gates came in with suggestions on how to cut waste and he's taking his responsibility seriously. so i think, i hear the frustration and you don't have to insist, settle down over there, i hear you, but i think the point of the matter is that you also have to say, we're six months in. i think you have to accept the fact that some things take time and that you have to follow a process where you get some buy in from the people your counting on. do not forget we have men and women who are at risk every day overseas doing the best they can to defend our country. so the president has to balance putting them at further risk with having kind of transparent and open and clear availability of information that you so desperately want. he has to balance national security with transparency and i bet with him. i bet with him and i'm asking you to trust him and i know that's hard because i know how pure you are to the cause, but he also has to keep in mind that he has to keep those folks safe.
thank you. thank you. [applause]
just a note on tone. like hissing is just not cool. we're definitely getting questions and she's here answering them. you may not like the answer but you're going to get that everywhere. thank you for your home training. immigration reform? this question came via e-mail at america's voice. during 2008, latino voters played and historic role turning four stage from red to blue. it's a defining issue for latino voters and president obama campaigned on a promise for this. how is he going to get comprehensive immigration reform done now. we've seen the dates flip a bit. what's doing on?
what the president said throughout the campaign and in office is we have to have comprehensive immigration reform. my top person who is head of international governmental affairs, the question she asked before joining the administration is, is the president committed this and he absolutely is and he's pulled together members of congress, those who are supported of immigration reform and those who are not, brought them together in the white house and began to dialogue. we have someone working hard on the hill to see what measures we can do in the short-term but the real solution is long-term immigration reform. you mentioned the date has slipped. obviously there's a full plate but i think the president multi-tasks and he is moving forward with the immigration reform strategy that will lead to immigration reform. the process is underway.
thank you. from twitter. some progressives feel it's important to challenge o a bah ma from the left. how will this president respond to that pressure from the left?
well, i think he responds well to pressure period. when you say pressure what you mean is engaged american people who want to participate in their government and he's all for that. and so, when you say pressure from the left, what he's looking for is ideas. and i think that's what you mean when you say pressure. so if you have suggestions and you have constructive ideas how to move healthcare reform faster and ideas how to move energy reform faster than we have, ideas for better educating our children to compete in a global marketplace, we're open to that and if that's what you mean by pressure, bring the pressure on.
you heard it. bring it on. what's the status, this is from jack and jill politics. what's the status on the women's forum that we haven't heard much about since. when will the plans be announced to the purpose and mission.
i don't know what your talking about. we are planning - we have an on-going of white house women and girls, an on-going engagement with women's organizations around the country and i would be interested in having a women's forum. we had some and we're hope open to more but i'm not sure what your talking about. whoever wrote, follow up with that absolutely.
we'll get more clarification. collectively ya'll are smarter than me and that's why we're doing it this way. overseas on foreign policy. in 2004 obama said genocide is on the way and we cannot set by and let this continue. the only concrete action seems to be special energy zoi. what steps has the president taken to end the long running genocide and war by displacement and starvation.
president has spoken clear about what's going on in dare 4. it's atrocious. he's on the ground and whole purpose being there is to come back with concrete steps we can take and it should not be just the united states but an international effort. we need everybody focused on dar f or. and it's a top priority of the administration.
does president have a plan to work towards passage of paycheck fairness.
absolutely. we're committed paychecks fairness and in the process of working through, there's a lot of support for that in congress. particularly among the women and men as well. more easy one.
we'll bounce around. during his campaign he repeatedly made the commitment to establish a global education fund capitalized with 2 billion dollars, the purpose of which to close a financial gap to have universal education in developing countries. will he honor his commitment for this fund and will education be recognized as an essential element with the african continent?
let me ask or answer the second question first. absolutely. clinton came back from a very successful, she's on or was on a trip to africa and education is absolutely essential not just here but overseas as well. the president highlighted this not so long ago and obviously, we are better than a lot of countries around the world in education but we still have a long way to go here to allow our children to be competitive on a global stage, and i'll digress for the second as i talk to business leaders around the country. they always raise the fact that we're trying so hard to compete and so hard to create jobs right here and at home and most companies would rather have people right here at home, and yet, we're seeing our education standards dropping. the secretary of education who i think i've known for his entire life is so completely committed improve the standards of excellence and it's not just something the schools can do alone. parents need to be involved as well. we need to get our act together here and we have a relationship and a responsibility as well around the world.
segway to economy questions talking jobs and education. this is from curtis on face book. what's the cost-benefit analysis, actually before i launch the question, i want to let folks know, you're the only closed an visor to the president that's actually run a multi-million dollar business. a lot of these questions have that knowledge built in so we're expecting some great answers. what's the cost-benefit analysis of trying control dangero industries like health insurance, too big to fail businesses, how do we regulate the huge pieces of our economy during a bad recession?
it's a very good question. i think it's more important than ever to regulate them during a bad recession. what we're trying do here is we're not just trying reset the clock back to where we were when the economy was booming a year or two back. that was based on a bubble, a false economy. dependent on credit cards and businesses going kind of out of control, out of the checks and balances they need. be clear, this comes up when i get pressure from the business community. pressure from the progressives as well. and of course they're pushing back and i say look, if fact of the matter the united states had to come in and take unprecedented action to help support the banks in this country not because we wer trying just support the banks but we realize the small businesses and the companies throughout the country are so totally dependent on the banks to survive and the capital they need to breathe and hire people to expand and grow is dependent on the banking industry. the reason it got completely out of control is you frankly didn't have the checks and balances you needed and we just let things run amuck and it was based on a false economy that's not sustainable over the long haul the president had to step in literally from day one and continue what's begun under bush administration giving banking administration the support needed to pull us back from the presipis. we look at the g.d.p and it's been revised. 6 point 4 percent negative growth and now negative one so we've come a long way. the president want as proper foundation and pillars to have an economy sustainable over the long haul, so that's why we pass the recovery bills to give us a quick jump start to create jobs over the next couple of years but in addition to that, healthcare reduction of cost is a number one way to get our economy going. renewable energy, passing reform to invest in clean energy and economy we need. green jobs of the future. and then back to education, back to education again. what the president is really trying do is create a framework where businesses can expand and grow and compete in a global marketplace, but we need a regulatory framework so the next initiative coming working it's way through congress and there's already a lot circulating is to provide the checks and balances. the president is calling for a consumer financial manage built. it gets to trying to say we're here to protect you and american people need to have a voice and kinds of regulations that will not just keep us from dangling on the presipis the way we were when the president came in, but where you know you're not going to be taken advantage of. isn't that the kind of simplistic way of putting it but shouldn't you know when you sign for a credit card the terms are not going to change on you. that you're not going to have exorbitant rates of interest? you know payday loan people will not take advantage when your living paycheck to paycheck. these are simple things the american people have a right to demand. regulatory reform is something we'll ask for your support through congress and will create framework to have a sustainable economy. [applause] . . .no carrierringconnect 1200
will insure less discrimination in health care process? we don't have a lot of people talking about that.
we are trying to create incentives for the good behavior. that is the simplest way to put it. but in terms of discrimination, the people least likely to have insurance are minorities in this country. we need to provide for people who do not have insurance. small businesses are having to drop their insurance because they cannot afford to make payroll and had insurance. the exchange will provide a mechanism so that people who do not have insurance currently can go in and buy it at a more competitive rate. the overall philosophy, let's make it affordable so that people can afford to buy insurance. the president said this during the campaign. it is not that people do not want have health insurance but they cannot afford it. let's figure out way to cut the waste out of the system and make it affordable and make it accessible to everyone around the country. you mention the fundamental underpinning.
green jobs. a couple of questions. [applause]
we love those green jobs. we like jobs in particular but we like green jobs. i'm sorry to interrupt. i don't know how many of you know dan jones? -- van johns? [cheers and applause] we had him at the white house. we have been watching him as long as he has been active in oakland and l of the ways that he has, but created ideas that he has. we have all of that energy and enthusiasm. i think green jobs are important because they are the jobs of the future. van as innovative ideas of working in urban areas to focus on training people who do not have jobs -- you can train someone who does not have a job, create an energy efficient technology, go in and try to insulate people songs and bring down their energy costs. it sounds so simple and doing that on a nationwide scale v is nationwidean is all about. -- and doing that on a nationwide scale is what van is all about. that is the direction that we need to go. [applause]
i want the audience to know that we are about five minutes shy of are in point. don't be shocked when we wrap up. we had the next question on the screen. this is from jeffrey feldman on twitter. does the president read the press of blogs -- progressive blogs? and if so, which ones?
talk about state secrets. he does read blocks. i am amazed by his ability to digest information. you never know what he is reading in the course of the day. he has articles all the times that he has read. and in addition to blogs, he reads these letters that people write him every day. i cannot tell you that probably not a day goes by that he does not mention something that a person said to him in one of those letters. a part of our small business initiative launched several months ago was in response to a small business person talking about their community bank not providing them alone said that they needed. they simply did not have the liquidity. the president talked to the secretary of the treasury and said, let's figure out how to help this person. this is what we did. we look to the american people. i will not tell you which blogs. but he does read them. he has a computer and i cannot tell you which kind. [laughter]
one more question popped up on the screen and one i already had from the office. the ""new york times"" front page today says that obama has a hard time activating his grassroots. what are your thoughts on that? how much of this ground force from the campaign is able to be activated for calls like health care?
we are just getting started. i have every confidence in the fact that we can activate the grass roots campaign. i know that those of you in this room have a lot to do with this. we'd need to energize our basing get them involved in the process. they are going to getting gates and -- keep in mind, this is august. we have had a lot on our plate for the first few months. we are determined as we push in the fall to get health care reform done this year. i will say that again and again, off because it is an uphill battle and it will not happen unless we energize our base. we're committed to that. that is where he is and he is taking these town hall meetings across the country and we are confident that we will get this done, we really are. [applause]
i hope so. i am sorry, this question just popped up. well the president promised to watch my show?
that is a perfect soft ball to you. we'll ask him.
the final question, you touched on it earlier, but i would like for you to expand if you can. what does the president and what do you want from this audience? you have an incredible group people gathered here. what would you ask of us?
i want to thank you guys for coming out this morning. 9:00 on a saturday mning on a beautiful day is a lot. i take your presence here as an indication of your interest on continuing the engagement over the course of this extraordinary last few years. we want to harness that energy and want you to -- we share your frustration, we share your sense of urgency. that is something that the president has been committed to. he ran for office and that is why he is doing what he is doing each and every day but he cannot do it without you. i cannot say to you how strongly we depend upon you and your out -- and your network to energize the people, not just for health care but for all the tough issues that lie ahead. we want you to feel that you have a voice. that is why he asked me to come here today, off to convey how important you all are to him, to his administration, and to this country. stay engaged, pus us, have a constructive conversation with us. but do not stop coming to the table. we need you, we need you out there, and we appreciate what you do. thank you very much. you have been terrific today.
thank you very much. bowery jarrett, public engagement right here. -- valerie jarrett, a public engagement right here. by read up? -- fire it up!
ready to go!
we are out of time.