Obama Press Conference

President Obama will hold a press conference at 11:00 AM ET. The president is expected to discuss his budget, which the White House unveiled yesterday. Scroll down for live video and updates from the press conference.

UPDATE: The press conference has ended. Click here for more.

Comments

[Viper]

02:29 PM on 02/15/2011

Repugs have blocked anything that would change the speculation that they unleashed on us in 2001 when they deregulated the Commodoties markets (helping to kill our economy in 2007/8 with a 300% increase in energy).

Well, 17 bucks in the price of every barrel of oil is now storage, because our inventories are at their highest level in history as yet oil and gas prices go up.

You cant fix broblme if you keep the things the way they were that caused the problems.

Thye dont want banks regulated, markets regulated they dont want reindustruialization or cheaper healthcare like our competitors that are winning. Thye complain about our educatio0nal system whihc is decentralized and gets beat by centrailzied education system , but want more decentralization. We have 1 trillion trade deficts and they want more free trade...

Pls somebody list the repug policies for fixing our countrys jobs problems that are not the ones that failed under Bush and reagan.

Regards

[saveourplanet]

07:31 PM on 02/15/2011

Again, another GREAT post Viper!

[magedfoxx]

02:03 PM on 02/15/2011

When Obama assumed the presidency, Obama became responsible for the problems left behind by his predecessor and all who came before.

THAT IS THE WAY IT IS!

Did Obama fail to notice that Bush had left the US in a mess?

Truman said ''the buck stops here,''
And he understood what that meant and was willing to take responsibility.

Those who blindly support Obama or anyone, YOU ARE PASSING THE BUCK.

[jsrl317]

02:19 PM on 02/15/2011

This is the most important concept Obama lovers need to get their head around, instead of putting up the GWBush effigy every time they hear negative and correct critique of the President.

HE, meaning Obama, is now President. Yes, he's dealing with things from prior admins, THAT IS HIS JOB. We know where the problems came from, that is not the problem. The problem is having the cajones and the leadership to MAKE the necessary corrections.

F&F, you're exactly right.

[magedfoxx]

02:34 PM on 02/15/2011

you are so right!

''THAT IS HIS JOB.''

and he works for us.
we are his employer.

and if he can't accept that fact, a fact every american worker knows, then he should resign or be fired.

[hardknocks]

01:21 PM on 02/15/2011

Why not make this easy or at the least transparent. Take the political party affiliations out of the equation.

Cut every federally tax funded budget item including wages 10 to 15 percent. This includes military, social security, medicare, education, all entitlements, pet earmark projects, federal employees, unemployment benefits, congressional wages/benefits etc etc etc. Let all understand that the money is not there. The days of calling it a budget cut just because you did not increase the budget from the previous year should be over.

How many of us in the private sector (those who have a job) have had wage increases or regained our previous salary prior to this recession? We tend to skirt the issue and think that certain items are taboo or cannot be cut………those days should be gone.

Tax us fairly, spend it responsibly and refund those tax dollars not used. Never forget it is our money, we the people, we fund all government activity, through our sweat, our risks, our creativity, our drive, our ingenuity, our time, our sacrifice, our love for country.

Government should be more humble and grateful to us the American tax revenue source.

[Viper]

01:35 PM on 02/15/2011

Unfiortunately.. Bush/repugs was handed a rose and he turned it into a weed... Under what he was handed if he had done nothing.. we were projected to be debt free now...Greenspan worried about that.

We need to redirect spending. We have a 3.5 trillion infrastructure that results when you spend 20 times more on military and 1/5th as much as other countries on infrastructure. That bill is comming do.

We have a job problem because there is a world wide surplus of skilled labor and there is automation and we outsourced. The rest of the world recoginizes this.. they have anti job cutting legislation, antioutsourcing and national industrializattion policies, shorter work weeks and helathcare that cost half as much.

There is no demand. So when you cut spending in areas that might reduce trade deficts /cash flowing out of the country or still pay for 750 foreign bases... the net result is that cuts can cause you to lose more tax revenue that you saved. So its not that simple. You will have more mortgage defaults, less people with health insuraNCE OR BUyING COMPUTERS...

So unless you can make up that demand in the private sector (by reindustrialization)... you cut will be offset by less tax revenue.

Regards.



MILitary IS A LOW RETURN AND SPENING MONEY OUTSIDE TH COUNTRY IS A PROBLEM.

You can not solve our jobs problem or deficts problem if we dont reindustrialize

[jsrl317]

02:16 PM on 02/15/2011

Reasoned and rational. I hate it all the way around, but it is a good start. I'll give you a F&F for being bold and fearless and at least making sure that the plan would be hated by all which means it would probably be very successful in it's goals.

Good thinking. F&F!

[Viper]

01:02 PM on 02/15/2011

When reagan took over , things were bad, but nothing like what reagan and bush left those that came after. Under reagan unemplyment went to 10.5%. he had soc sec surpluses like Bush that offset their actual deficits by 2.5 trillion and now add to Obamas. Reagan did not inherit 2 wars or a wiped out financial system or shrinking economy.

Under Carter we created in 4 years 12 million jobs and under Bush... ZIP. Under reagan 16 million jobs were created Lsoer rate than under Carter), but mostly government related resulting from his trippling of the debt. At least when his tax cuts failed he raised the taxes 4 times or his debt would have been more than double and of course the next 2 presidents had to raise taxes to straighten out his mess, the reesulting bubble and bust, the S&L bailout and major recession just like Bush. Whats different this time is that the repugs will kill this country before raising taxes. Thier beleifs are more important than the country.


And the Military industrail complex has become most of whats left of our industry ( thats socialism) and is the Red states job program as we lost 80% of our industry. We now make less computer equipment than when the PC was invented.

Repugs officially are against roads, bridges, dams, high wages and benefits, education, science, vacation and even weekends. Just like the days of the robber barons and no middleclass.

Regards

[Amondale]

01:15 PM on 02/15/2011

{{{{{{{{{{{{ APPLAUSE }}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

[jsrl317]

01:23 PM on 02/15/2011

Indeed, most job creation, historically has occurred under Democrats. Using that metric alone, Obama is underperforming.

Maybe his lot will improve in 2 years. I doubt it. His policies stink...

http://currencythoughts.com/2008/08/19/how-the-us-economy-performed-under-democrat-and-republican-presidents/

[Viper]

02:11 PM on 02/15/2011

You dont undertsand the mess he was handed.. a deindustrialized country.. already with massive debt. problems no one else has ever faced

Our major corporations for the first time are not ours, they invested elsewhere because unlike the rest of the world they were allowed to and then ship product back. They will fight any reindustrialization here that will devalue their newer foreign investments and the countries they are in whether China or the EU .. dont allow production to movbe back here or us to sell into their markets..and yet inspite of the free market BS repugs supported.. and trillion dollar trade deficts.. they remain dedicated to their ideaology

A healthcare problem.. no other country has.. they went to national care. Its better at half the cost and allows you to MFG competively.

A Miltary industrial compex which has been a welfare program for the red states for 50 years where we spend 20 times more than any other country , but 1/5th on infrastructure.

We talk about rasing soc sec retirement age when we are already 7 years later than in the EU when people over 55 cant get jobs now , our benefits are lower..

No private sector jobs created in 8 years even as population increased by 30 million.

A country that nolonger feeds itself, cloths itself and import more hightech than it exports and has for the first time in history declining wages.

[murphthesurf3]

12:54 PM on 02/15/2011

BUSH VS. OBAMA: No Comparison.

Remember the Bush budget press conference­s?

There were not many of them. They were short. Bush rarely alluded to anything specific in his budgets and would not answer questions about specific line items. When he did, fact checkers found error after error. At the end of his conference­s, the consensus among financial reporters was that he did not provide any additional help in understand­ing his budgetary priorities­.

Let's remember what Bush did with his budgets.

He destroyed the U.S. economy.

The damage to the economy done by deregulati­­on of the financial sector, by the two largest tax cuts in U.S. history which failed to generate growth/job­s in the economy, two unfunded wars, the largest expansion of medicare since its inception (also unfunded), the unfunded creation of Homeland Security, and an overall expansion in the size of government by 11 percent from 2000 through 2008 put everything on the credit card. That was his budgetary philosophy­: deficits do not matter as long as the economy is growing- but when it doesn't?

That often cited Obama financial team projection that a stimulus bill would keep unemployme­nt at 8% was based upon early data, most of it generated by the Bush administra­­tion, and it was too optimistic­­. So the Obama folks are paring back the optimism. Please note that the Bush administra­­tion predicted a 3.7% unemployme­­nt rate for 2009 and economic growth at 4.1%.

Talk about being wrong.

Imagine McCain as president. Remember his "deer in the headlights" look at the meeting with Bush, Obama and himself where TARP was endorsed. Imagine having someone as inept as Bush or as wrong headed as McCain in the WH.

Every major economist agrees that in January 2008 trends showed us moving to a 20 percent plus unemployme­nt level; the collapse of the auto industry; continuing decline in the NYSE (by as much as another 6 percent); trade deficit pushing up another 14 percent; meltdown in virtually all public services and so much more. Obama has actually been right most of the time.

The economy has grown (for the first time since the second quarter of 2008) and the financial sector has stabilized­.

[Viper]

01:07 PM on 02/15/2011

Yes, but Obama does not have a planted male president named jeff gannon in the press corp asking him planned softball questions..


Regards

[murphthesurf3]

01:43 PM on 02/15/2011

Quite so. Obama actually likes tough questions. He likes the verbal dueling.

[jsrl317]

01:10 PM on 02/15/2011

He has done nothing, but use tax dollars to stabilize an untenable situation. In fact the markets are not stable, they are in flux, due to the repeal of glass-steagal the one thing you have gained is volatile markets. Obama and the Democrats mode no systemic changes. As such this deterioration and the redistribution of wealth,upward, mandated by Obama, will continue.

Imagine McCain as President fallacy he's not Obama is. Stay on point. Obama is no less deer int he headlights, he has done nothing bold, and done absolutely NOTHING to reign in Wall Street. In fact, many of his programs, be it HAMP or any of the things designed to help the unemployed have indeed done the exact opposite. Massive numbers of foreclosures, suspicious and poor practices within the banking industry, which is still running amok, along with increases in insurance rates since healthcare passed. Your Obama simply said he trusts the financial sector to work out the mess they made? On the back of people no less.

I know to hear harsh criticism of a guy you love is hard, but he is not helping and is in fact putting his boot on the poor and middle class, JUST LIKE BUSH. Wake up. Or I guess it just has to be done right? And who better to do it to after all, correct?

WHERE ARE THE MILITARY CUTS AND THE CUTS TO SUBSIDIES FOR MEGA CORPS? Anything? Crickets?

[saveourplanet]

02:02 PM on 02/15/2011

78 Billion in the first cut to defense and ending ALL tax loop holes for corporations that ship jobs over seas adds up to significant savings.

[murphthesurf3]

02:04 PM on 02/15/2011

Here is a current article that pretty well represents my thinking:
http://blo­gs.wsj.com­/economics­/2011/02/1­5/feds-pia­nalto-econ­omy-recove­ry-but-sti­ll-struggl­ing/ 

The headline captures it: Fed’s Pianalto: Economy Recovering but Still Struggling

As to federal regs and the financial sector. There is a reason why "Wall Street" is still screaming about the (admittedl­y) limited reforms that have been made and why their lobbyists are hard at work getting GOP reps to unfund the regulatory agencies charged with oversight. Not perfect by any means but a movement in the right direction. Glass Steagal and the Volcker Rule and a score of others are being worked back into the system.

The issue of the transfer of wealth is a real one and it has taken us 30 years to get to this point. It will not get undone overnight. The continuati­on of the tax cuts was across the board- with most benefiting the middle class. The GOP was clear- all or nothing- and they could block it in the Senate. Further, s­-  without them there would have been a disastrous lameduck session- no unemployme­­nt extension, no DADT, no START, no 911 responders care bill and a dozen other initiative­­s

Obama "passed" nothing. Congress passed a healthcare bill which was a compromise (which means neither side likes it, but the GOP really hates it). There is a reason. It take us in a direction which will result in an effective model. It has been that way with every government program in its first days.

TARP rescued the financial sector (which was necessary even if it ended up rewarding bad conduct), Fed loans kept the auto industry from collapsing, the Stimulus held up state services, provided more tax cuts (targeted at the middle class and small business) and keeping essential state services operating.

The housing foreclosure crisis remains and that challenge has yet to be effectively addressed.

[Viper]

12:51 PM on 02/15/2011

The Economic numbers under Bush were way Off.

The decline in GDP and employment numbers were off by more than 50% that were given to Obama during the handover.. And when you plug the wrong numbers into the formulas to determine where employment will fall to and stimulus required... well you get the wrong results.

There is also the fact that while the population grew by 30 million under Bush... the recognized workforce was 5% less than under Clinton...they have slowly tried to correct that, but if you correct the falsehoods under Bush.. then the economy would go into a panic... Repugs would shout about increases in unemployment when in fact its correcting the false starting point.

40,000 plants closed under Bush.. The policies of reagan and Bush deindustrialized the country... Our largest industry left is the Socialist government military indusrtial complex.. a red state jobs program.. welfare. FDR built parks, roads, dams, colleges, bridges for a job program .. Bush/Repugs built the worlds largest emabassy in iraq. Regan did a defense jobs program also... we took 40 years old ships out of mothball, spent billions , then put them back into mothballs, star wars, the B1B and so on... He trippled the debt and doubled the size of government and like Bush no real economy, just created a bubble and doubling of government.

At least Reagan raised taxes 4 times after the cuts failed!

Regards

[Amondale]

01:18 PM on 02/15/2011

For this I stand and APPLAUD your comment. I agree wholeheartedly.

[fumes]

12:42 PM on 02/15/2011

i wish Mary Jane would just turn herself in..

i simply can't afford one more year of WAR ON POT!!!

[fumes]

12:39 PM on 02/15/2011

this BUDGET..

is bringing out the EGYPTIAN in me!

[ljc]

12:38 PM on 02/15/2011

I watched an interview with Doug Brinkley on cspan. President Obama has been meeting with Presidential Historians since he took office.

Brinkley said that when he asked the President what was the biggest surprise when he took office, he responded that what they had been told during the transition turned out to be much worse in all areas. Basically, they lied about everythin.

[Amondale]

12:40 PM on 02/15/2011

That's true, and they kept so much off the books. Back loaded billions. AyeYep.

[Viper]

12:45 PM on 02/15/2011

The decline in GDP and employment numbers were off by more than 50%. And when you plug the wrong numbers into the formulas to determine where employment will fall to and stimulus required... well you get the wrong results.

There is also the fact that while the population grew by 30 million under Bush... the recognized workforce was 5% less than under Clinton...they have slowly tried to correct that, but if you correct the falsehoods under Bush.. then the economy would go into a panic... Repugs would shout about increases in unemployment when in fact its correcting the starting point.

40,000 plants closed under Bush.. The polcies of reagan and Bush deindustrialized the country... Our largest industry left is the Socialist government military indusrtial complex.. a red state jobs program.. welfare.

Regards

[ljc]

12:57 PM on 02/15/2011

Thank you....fanned

[RRK70]

12:57 PM on 02/15/2011

interesting stuff, but how does it explain Obama's extension of the Bush Tax Cuts, or the war in Afghanistan, or the insurance based healthcare approach?  If you can't beat 'em, join 'em?

[Kane]

12:38 PM on 02/15/2011

You can disagree with the president on specific issues and still support the president. That's a concept that those on the right are unable to understand. And it's unfortunate. If those on the right would have held the previous administration to the same standards that they hold president Obama, the country wouldn't be in the current mess that we find ourselves in.

For those on the right, do you see now how those false arguments from republicans that it's unpatriotic to criticize the president in a time of war, and that criticizing the president emboldens the enemy were not only wrong, but wrongheaded? Do you see how you were manipulated into giving the extremists of your own political party unconditional authority to serve their own personal interests at the cost of the interest of the country? I sincerely hope that you've learned a lesson, because it has been a lesson the entire country is now paying for, and will continue to pay for years to come.

[imoverit]

12:40 PM on 02/15/2011

Excellent post. f/f

[Beachchick]

12:42 PM on 02/15/2011

It's all or nothing with the Right. The complexity of being human is beyond where they are willing to take their mind.

[ljc]

01:02 PM on 02/15/2011

I honestly thought I had fanned you long ago. !

#1305...

[Osmona]

01:40 PM on 02/15/2011

These people (TeaPubs) are NOT human.

[marywooo]

12:35 PM on 02/15/2011

The youth voted overwhelmingly for Obama, and they're the ones who will be paying the steepest price for his fiscal madness. Seems just fine to me..

[Greybeard53]

12:53 PM on 02/15/2011

vicious beeotch.

[RichPort]

12:54 PM on 02/15/2011

No, they are going to be paying for the can Reagan kicked down the road years ago...

[Mafdet]

12:30 PM on 02/15/2011

The thing is, the average American is suffering because every spare resource that we have as a nation has gone to doing damage control for a decade-long fraud that was perpetrated by a handful of people on Wall Street.  And those people, and their shills, some in the current Administration, have met with absolutely no discomfort although they have devastated this country.  Unless you count the hurt feelings that snake oil salesmen like Jamie Dimon complain of because he and his cohorts are reviled by decent people everywhere.
 
We need justice.  That's the first thing.  But besides that, the banks have to give what ground they can.  The obvious thing is that tens of millions of foreclosures have occurred that needn't have.  The obvious thing is that the banks could start lending to small manufacturing and professional service firms again, to spur hiring.
 
This president watched while the investment banks - Dimon, Blankfein, and friends - took $25b in bail out money apiece on their word that they would lend it back through the small banks in 2009, so that small banks could continue to fund America's business base while the big banks endlessly reel from the consequences of their fraud.  This would have bolstered employment because then, as now, all other market conditions were right for business growth.  But instead, these parasites sat on our money in order to drive the banks and the businesses that depend on them deeper into crisis so that they could leverage our $25b to the tune of $50b and snap up the assets of all these failed banks and businesses at a value of hundreds of billions.
 
Then they paid us back our $25b apiece.  They received hugs from the President.  And in their wake they left hundreds of failed banks, thousands of failed businesses, and relentlessly spiraling unemployment.
 
The reason why every headline that you read says we won't return to normal employment levels for a decade is that it takes that long to re-build a small manufacturing and professional services sector.  These people have almost killed the existing business base in this country.  And all to their enrichment.

[lornejl 2]

12:30 PM on 02/15/2011

I don't want the discussion ever to be that Obama is better than Sarah.

Projectile vomiting is better than Sarah.

[Osmona]

12:31 PM on 02/15/2011

ROTFLMAO

Faved.

[marywooo]

12:31 PM on 02/15/2011

sarah rent free 24/7 in another lib head

[Amondale]

12:37 PM on 02/15/2011

who?

[Beachchick]

12:39 PM on 02/15/2011

Bah

You guys are obsessed with President Obama -- OBSESSED.

[marywooo]

12:30 PM on 02/15/2011

This was supposed to be the moment we were all waiting for. After three years of historic deficits that have added almost $4.5 trillion to the national debt, President Obama was finally going to get serious about fiscal discipline. Instead, what landed on Congress's doorstep on Monday was a White House budget that increases deficits above the spending baseline for the next two years. Hosni Mubarak was more in touch with reality last Thursday night.

WSJ

[Beatriz09]

12:37 PM on 02/15/2011

In fact, his first budget already had a lower deficit than the previous one, something that didn't happen for 8 long years ... .
 
And his new budget will stabilize the situation, which means: not spend more than what comes in, during the next year. Which of course won't solve the longterm problem of ever rising debt and the interests we pay on it ... .
 
The only thing we know is that instead of stabilizing it, the GOP did exactly the opposite when they had the WH and Congress: they increased the yearly deficit with $1.3 trillion. So compared to that, and knowing that we're still in the aftermath of the worst recession since the Great Depression, me thinks that he's clearly being much more responsible than the GOP, when it comes to our fiscal problems.

[china6]

12:54 PM on 02/15/2011

best you cancel messnbc from your cable package

[saveourplanet]

02:14 PM on 02/15/2011

Quoting from the Wall Street Journal, a bastion of left wing liberalism.