Archive for June, 2009:
The President and Health Care Reform on Prime Time TV
Last night, President Obama played host to ABC News and a 164 Americans from around the country at a special prime time White House in prime. The hour long program was dedicated to Buy Cialis answering tough questions and concerns on the President’s proposals to reduce health care costs and provide quality health care for all Americans. The conversation then continued for an additional hour on Nightline, where the President discussed how the choice of a public option will affect you and your family.
We'll have more on last night's event later on, but you can watch clips from the program on ABC's website.
Message from the First Lady: “Serving together”
From First Lady Michelle Obama:
National and community service has been a cornerstone of my life, as I know it has been for many Americans. And with the daily struggles now confronting so many families, it's especially important for us to reach out to one another and offer a helping hand.
I've just launched United We Serve, a national initiative to tackle our toughest problems by working hand-in-hand in communities across the country. We aim to make a real difference right now and bring more and more Americans into a tradition of life-long service to make an even greater difference down the road.
I'd like to invite you to be a part of it by joining Organizing for America's National Health Care Day of Service this weekend. You can join up with other local OFA supporters to help improve health care services in your community and make a difference as we work to reform America's health care system.
Sign up now to participate in a National Health Care Day of Service event this Saturday, June 27th.
There's an old Thomas Edison quote I've always liked: "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." It's no secret that our country faces some enormous challenges right now, and meeting them will take a lot of hard work. But in that work lies an equally great opportunity -- a chance to serve. And I do believe the chance to serve is a precious gift indeed.
Service has played a transformative role in my life -- bringing me tremendous joy and helping me find the path that led to where I am today. As a parent, I believe service is a great way to demonstrate values and to teach our children firsthand what it means to commit to a purpose beyond ourselves.
It should be a part of everyone's life. From the moment someone can walk to the day they leave this planet, service should be a part of how we give back, how we say thank you, how we express our gratitude for the lives that we've been given.
So I'm deeply honored for this chance to support our United We Serve initiative and Order Generic Cialis Online without Prescription Organizing for America, and I hope you'll be able to participate this weekend.Please sign up now to volunteer at a local event.
Thank you,
First Lady Michelle Obama
Tonight: Health Care Town Hall with President Obama on ABC
“Clean Energy, Green Jobs and Climate”
From the Democrats.org blog:
The Obama Administration is dispatching cabinet secretaries and senior officials around the country this week to highlight the need for comprehensive Buy cheap online Provigil energy legislation that makes us more energy independent, reduces climate change-causing greenhouse gas emissions and creates millions of green jobs.
... In the lead up to the vote a diverse coalition of stakeholders have ramped up their efforts to build support for the bill. Late last week, the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, the Center for American Progress (CAP), Green for All and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released two reports that outline how investments in a clean-energy economy will produce significant economic and job creation benefits.
-- The Economic Benefits of Investing in Clean Energy: How the Economic Stimulus Program and New Legislation Can Boost U.S. Economic Growth and Employment: Report explains how the investment of $150 billion annually, through public spending and private investment, would produce a net gain of 1.7 million new jobs. CAP compiled state-by-state fact sheets of clean energy jobs creation.
-- Green Prosperity: How Clean-Energy Policies Can Fight Poverty and Raise Living Standards in the United States: Report shows that shifting from traditional fossil fuel to clean energy will improve the standard of living for millions of Americans across all skill and education levels, especially among lower-income families.
In Case You Missed It: Last week, the White House also released a new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) about the potential impact of climate change in the United States. The report lays out – in layman’s terms – how failure to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will result in significant changes to temperatures, rainfall patterns and sea level. Grist.org had a good round up.
Last month, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (also known as Waxman-Markey), cleared the Energy and Commerce Committee. Yesterday the bill was added to the schedule for the House of Representatives, and could come up for a vote by the end of the week.
Streaming Live at 12:30: The President’s News Conference
From Cheap Accutane >WhiteHouse.gov:
The President will be holding a news conference today at 12:30 in the White House Rose Garden. He will be discussing topics ranging from the energy legislation moving through Congress, to Iran, to health care and the economy. As always, watch it streamed at WhiteHouse.gov/live, or go to our "White House Live" Facebook application where you can watch and discuss it with others.
President Obama to Sign Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act
President Obama will sign an historic bill into law this afternoon, giving the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco for the first time. The Huffington Post reported:
The law allows the FDA to reduce nicotine in tobacco products, ban candy flavorings and block labels such "low tar" and "light." Tobacco companies also will be required to cover their cartons with large graphic warnings.
The law won't let the FDA ban nicotine or tobacco outright, but the agency will be able to regulate what goes into tobacco products, make public the ingredients and prohibit marketing campaigns, especially those geared toward children.
Anti-smoking advocates looked forward to the bill after years of attempts to control an industry so fundamental to the U.S. that carved tobacco leaves adorn some parts of the Capitol.
You can watch the signing live from the Rose Garden at WhiteHouse.gov/live, starting at 2:00 PM Eastern.
UPDATED: From the President's remarks at the signing:
The legislation I'm signing today represents change that's been decades in the making. Since at least the middle of the last century, we've known about the harmful and often deadly effects of tobacco products. More than 400,000 Americans now die of tobacco-related illnesses each year, making it the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. More than 8 million Americans suffer from at least one serious illness caused by smoking. And these health problems cost us all more than $100 billion a year.
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What's even worse are the effects on our children. One out of every five children in our country are now current smokers by the time they leave high school. Think about that statistic: One out of every five children in our country are now current smokers by the time they leave high school. Each day, 1,000 young people under the age of 18 become new, regular, daily smokers. And almost 90 percent of all smokers began at or before their 18th birthday.
I know -- I was one of these teenagers, and so I know how difficult it can be to break this habit when it's been with you for a long time. And I also know that kids today don't just start smoking for no reason. They're aggressively targeted as customers by the tobacco industry. They're exposed to a constant and insidious barrage of advertising where they live, where they learn, and where they play. Most insidiously, they are offered products with flavorings that mask the taste of tobacco and make it even more tempting.
We've known about this for decades, but despite the best efforts and good progress made by so many leaders and advocates with us today, the tobacco industry and its special interest lobbying have generally won the day up on the Hill. When Henry Waxman first brought tobacco CEOs before Congress in 1994, they famously denied that tobacco was deadly, nicotine was addictive, or that their companies marketed to children. And they spent millions upon millions in lobbying and advertising to fight back every attempt to expose these denials as lies.
Fifteen years later, their campaign has finally failed. Today, thanks to the work of Democrats and Republicans, health care and consumer advocates, the decades-long effort to protect our children from the harmful effects of tobacco has emerged victorious....When I ran for President, I did so because I believed that despite the power of the status quo and the influence of special interests, it was possible for us to bring change to Washington.
Read the text of the full remarks . . .
A Father’s Day Message from the President
Today's issue of PARADE magazine includes a special Father's Day article written by President Obama, reflecting on the importance and responsibility of fatherhood. "On this Father’s Day, I think back to the day I drove Michelle and a newborn Malia home from the hospital nearly 11 years ago," the President writes, "I think about the pledge I made to her that day: that I would give her what I never had—that if I could be anything in life, I would be a good father."
As the father of two young girls who have shown such poise, humor, and patience in the unconventional life into which they have been thrust, I mark this Father’s Day—our first in the White House—with a deep sense of gratitude. One of the greatest benefits of being President is that I now live right above the office. I see my girls off to school nearly every morning and have dinner with them nearly every night. It is a welcome change after so many years out on the campaign trail and commuting between Chicago and Capitol Hill.
But I observe this Father’s Day not just as a father grateful to be present in my daughters’ lives but also as a son who grew up without a father in my own life. My father left my family when I was 2 years old, and I knew him mainly from the letters he wrote and the stories my family told. And while I was lucky to have two wonderful grandparents who poured everything they had into helping my mother raise my sister and me, I still felt the weight of his absence throughout my childhood.
As an adult, working as a community organizer and later as a legislator, I would often walk through the streets of Chicago’s South Side and see boys marked by that same absence—boys without supervision or direction or anyone to help them as they struggled to grow into men. I identified with their frustration and disengagement—with their sense of having been let down.
In many ways, I came to understand the importance of fatherhood through its absence—both in my life and in the lives of others. I came to understand that the hole a man leaves when he abandons his responsibility to his children is one that no government can fill. We can do everything possible to provide good jobs and good schools and safe streets for our kids, but it will never be enough to fully make up the difference.
That is why we need fathers to step up, to realize that their job does not end at conception; that what Provigil online No prescription makes you a man is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise one.
As fathers, we need to be involved in our children’s lives not just when it’s convenient or easy, and not just when they’re doing well—but when it’s difficult and thankless, and they’re struggling. That is when they need us most.
And it’s not enough to just be physically present. Too often, especially during tough economic times like these, we are emotionally absent: distracted, consumed by what’s happening in our own lives, worried about keeping our jobs and paying our bills, unsure if we’ll be able to give our kids the same opportunities we had.
Our children can tell. They know when we’re not fully there. And that disengagement sends a clear message—whether we mean it or not—about where among our priorities they fall.
So we need to step out of our own heads and tune in. We need to turn off the television and start talking with our kids, and listening to them, and understanding what’s going on in their lives.
We need to set limits and expectations. We need to replace that video game with a book and make sure that homework gets done. We need to say to our daughters, Don’t ever let images on TV tell you what you are worth, because I expect you to dream without limit and reach for your goals. We need to tell our sons, Those songs on the radio may glorify violence, but in our house, we find glory in achievement, self-respect, and hard work.
We need to realize that we are our children’s first and best teachers. When we are selfish or inconsiderate, when we mistreat our wives or girlfriends, when we cut corners or fail to control our tempers, our children learn from that—and it’s no surprise when we see those behaviors in our schools or on our streets.
But it also works the other way around. When we work hard, treat others with respect, spend within our means, and contribute to our communities, those are the lessons our children learn. And that is what so many fathers are doing every day—coaching soccer and Little League, going to those school assemblies and parent-teacher conferences, scrimping and saving and working that extra shift so their kids can go to college. They are fulfilling their most fundamental duty as fathers: to show their children, by example, the kind of people they want them to become.
It is rarely easy. There are plenty of days of struggle and heartache when, despite our best efforts, we fail to live up to our responsibilities. I know I have been an imperfect father. I know I have made mistakes. I have lost count of all the times, over the years, when the demands of work have taken me from the duties of fatherhood. There were many days out on the campaign trail when I felt like my family was a million miles away, and I knew I was missing moments of my daughters’ lives that I’d never get back. It is a loss I will never fully accept.
But on this Father’s Day, I think back to the day I drove Michelle and a newborn Malia home from the hospital nearly 11 years ago—crawling along, miles under the speed limit, feeling the weight of my daughter’s future resting in my hands. I think about the pledge I made to her that day: that I would give her what I never had—that if I could be anything in life, I would be a good father. I knew that day that my own life wouldn’t count for much unless she had every opportunity in hers. And I knew I had an obligation, as we all do, to help create those opportunities and leave a better world for her and all our children.
On this Father’s Day, I am recommitting myself to that work, to those duties that all parents share: to build a foundation for our children’s dreams, to give them the love and support they need to fulfill them, and to stick with them the whole way through, no matter what doubts we may feel or difficulties we may face. That is my prayer for all of us on this Father’s Day, and that is my hope for this nation in the months and years ahead. -- President Barack Obama
PARADE magazine also featured a special behind the scenes look on how today's article from the President came about.