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President Barack Obama Online With America
Aired March 26, 2009 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Employment is typically what's called a lagging indicator. Now, this is -- Dr. Bernstein, he's a Ph.D economist, so he'll correct me if I'm wrong here. But...
MODERATOR: I'm sure I can make this really confusing.
(LAUGHTER)
OBAMA: But historically, if you look at every recession, what happens is that when the economy starts getting in trouble, it takes a while before businesses decide: "You know what? This economy is in trouble. It's not bouncing back. We better start laying off workers."
So what we're seeing now is a lot of businesses have decided that, you know, our sales are way down, we've got to start shedding workers. And that's going to continue for a while.
Now, the reverse is true as well. When the economy starts recovering, when these businesses start being a little more confident that, you know what, we think we've bottomed out; the recovery package President Obama passed, you know, gives us some optimism about making investments in certain areas. It takes a while before they start hiring, even if they've started to make these investments.
So the reason I point that out is I don't want people to think that in one or two months, suddenly we're going to see net job increases. It's going to take some time for the steps that we've taken to filter in the fact that the housing market is starting to stabilize a little bit. There's still a lot of inventory out there before people are going to actually start building new homes.
At some point, people are going to start buying new cars again, but it's going to take a little bit of time for the automakers to get back on their feet.
So employment is something that, you now, we're going to have a difficult time for the next several months, maybe through the end of this year, but I'm confident that we're taking the steps that are required to create these new jobs of the future.
MODERATOR: After the last recession ended in 2001, the unemployment rate went up for another 19 months before it started coming back down. This next question is an area close to your heart -- health care reform. From Richard in California: Why can we not have a universal health care system like many European countries where people are treated based on need, rather than financial resources?
OBAMA: Well, first of all, I was in this room last month in what we called a health care forum. And we brought all the members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats who were interested in this issue. We brought together various constituency groups -- insurance companies, drug companies, you name it.
And my message to them was, now is the time to reform the health care system. Not four years from now, not eight years from now, not 20 years from now, now. And the reason...
(APPLAUSE)
The reason that I think it is so important is that the high costs of health care are a huge drag on our economy. OBAMA: It's a drag on our families. I can't tell you how many personal stories that I hear about people who are working -- maybe have two parents working and yet still don't have health care.
And the decisions that they have to make -- excruciating decisions about whether or not somebody goes to a doctor -- it makes them less productive, it makes them less mobile in terms of being able to take new jobs or start a new business, because they're worried about hanging on to their health care.
So it's a drag on families, but it's a drag on businesses, as well. There's not a small business or a large business out here who hasn't seen their health care costs skyrocket. And it cuts into their profits.
And it's a drag on the federal budget and state budgets. That's the thing that is going to potentially break the bank here in the United States. Medicare and Medicaid, if we don't get control of that, that is the biggest driver of our long-term deficit.
So when people -- when you hear this budget debate that's taking place right now and folks say, "Oh, you know, President Obama's budget, he's increasing money for veterans and he's increasing money for education and he's doing all these things, and that's going to bust the budget," what they don't understand is, is that if you add up the recovery package that we've already passed and you add up the various proposals I have to grow the economy through clean energy and all that stuff that we're doing, that amounts to a fraction of the long-term deficit and debt that we're facing. The lion's share of it has to do with Medicare and Medicaid and huge rising costs of health care.
So our attitude is, better to pay now and make an investment in improving the health care system rather than waiting and finding ourselves in a situation where we can't fix it.
OBAMA: Now, the question is, if you're going to fix it, why not do a universal health care system like the European countries?
I actually want a universal health care system. That is our goal. I think we should be able to provide health insurance to every American that they can afford and that provides them high quality.
So I think we can accomplish it. Now, whether we do it exactly the way European countries do or Canada does is a different question. Because there are a variety of ways of ways to get to universal health care coverage.
A lot of people think that, in order to get universal health care, it means that you have to have what's called a single-payer system of some sort.
And so Canada is the classic example. Basically, everybody pays a lot of taxes into the health care system, but if you're a Canadian, you're automatically covered.
And so you go in -- you know, England has a similar -- a variation on this same type of system. You go in and you just say, "I'm sick," and somebody treats you, and that's it.
The problem is that we have what's called the legacy (ph) set of institutions that aren't that easily transformed.
Let me just see a show of hands. How many people here have health insurance through your employer?
OK. So the majority of Americans, partly for a historical accident -- I won't go into -- you know, FDR had imposed wage controls during wartime in World War II.
People were -- companies were trying to figure out how to attract workers, and they said, well, maybe we'll provide health care as a benefit.
And so what evolved in America was an employer-based system. It may not be the best system, if we were designing it from scratch, but that's what everybody's accustomed to. That's what everybody's used to. It works for a lot of Americans.
And so I don't think the best way to fix our health care system is to suddenly completely scrap what everybody is accustomed to and the vast majority of people already have.
OBAMA: Rather, what I think we should do is to build on the system that we have and fill some of these gaps.
And I'm looking to Congress to work with me to find that optimal system. I made some proposals during the campaign about how we can lower costs through information technologies, how we can lower costs through reforms in how we reimburse doctors so that they're not getting paid just for the number of operations they're doing, but for whether there are quality outcomes.
Investing in prevention so that kids with asthma aren't going to the emergency room, but they're getting regular checkups.
So there are a whole host of things that we can do to cut costs, use that money that we're saving then to provide more coverage to more people.
And my expectation is, is that I will have a health care bill to sign this year. That's what we're going to be fighting for, that's what we're going to be striving for.
Can I just interrupt, Jared, before you ask the next question, just to say that, you know, we -- we took -- we took votes about which questions were going to be asked, and I think 3 million people voted or...
(CROSSTALK)
OBAMA: ... 3.5 million people voted. I have to say that there was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high, and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation.
(LAUGHTER)
And I don't know what this says about the online audience...
(LAUGHTER)
... but I just want -- I don't want people to think that -- this was a fairly popular question. We want to make sure that it was answered.
OBAMA: The answer is, no, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy. So -- all right...
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
QUESTION: Thank you for clearing that up.
(LAUGHTER)
This next question comes from Columbia, South Carolina. The unemployment rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is higher than the national unemployment rate.
Our veterans are a national treasure. How can you, the V.A., and I ensure our veterans are successfully transitioning into civilian life?
OBAMA: That's a great question. You know, I had just an extraordinary honor. Yesterday was Medal of Honor Day. And I went to Arlington National Cemetery, and we had a ceremony in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with a collection of Medal of Honor winners from all our various wars. And a special place of honor was a guy named John Flynn (ph) who had been present the day Pearl Harbor was bombed. He was on one of the ships. Was shot by (inaudible) by the fire from the planes coming in, and yet still had the presence of mind to shoot down a plane and won -- won the Medal of Honor -- or was awarded the Medal of Honor for that.
And it just reminds you that we wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for the sacrifices of earlier veterans. We would not...
(APPLAUSE)
We would not enjoy the same safety and security and liberty that we do.
So when our veterans come home from Iraq and Afghanistan -- and they have performed brilliantly, they have done everything that's been asked of them -- regardless of what your views are on these wars, they have earned these benefits that all too often we fail to give them.
OBAMA: And that's why in my budget, we are increasing veterans' funding by more than anytime in the last 30 years. We're going to make sure that we deal with...
(APPLAUSE)
We're going to make sure that we deal with the backlog that too many veterans experience in terms of getting benefits. We're going to make sure that homeless veterans are receiving housing and services. You know, the homeless rate for veterans is multiple times higher than it is for non-veterans. That's inexcusable.
It means that we're going to provide services for post-traumatic stress disorder, that we're going to provide services for traumatic brain injury that are the signature injuries of these recent wars. So we are going to significantly increase veterans spending.
Now, just as is true generally, government alone can't do it. So all of us individually are going to have roles. If you're a business owner, hiring a veteran, not discriminating against somebody who's a veteran, is going to be absolutely critical. In your communities, in your churches, in your neighborhoods, making sure that there's outreach and celebration of veterans when they come home, that's going to be critical.
I think we've done a much better job during these wars than we did during Vietnam, where in many cases our treatment of veterans was inexcusable. But we can always do more. Government is going to do its role, and then we've got to make sure that our communities do their role as well.
MODERATOR: Mr. President, the next video will be our last Internet question before we turn to the audience for Q&A for followup. Let me also note that this question from Alex in Ohio happens to be about the same topic that the middle class task force is focusing on this month.
Let's turn to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: Hi, Mr. President.
QUESTION: My name is Alex.
QUESTION: My name is Kristen (ph)
QUESTION: And I'm Mallory.
QUESTION: We're all sophomores at Kent State University in Ohio.
QUESTION: We really like the emphasis you've put on education so far in your administration but we're concerned about higher education.
QUESTION: Our question is, what proposals do you have to make college more affordable and to make student loans easier to get?
QUESTION: And when will your national service program be available so we can take advantage of the scholarship?
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: That was pretty well done.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
Well, I am very excited about the possibility that we may be able to get national service done in the next few weeks. National service was a priority for me during the campaign, partly because of my own biography.
I found my calling when I became a community organizer working in low-income neighborhoods when I was 22, 23 years old. And it gave me a sense of direction, a sense of service. It helped me grow. It helped me give back.
And I think there are young people all across America who are eager for that opportunity. And so what we said during the campaign was, let's set up a situation where every young person who is so inspired can take advantage of service, and in exchange they will help be able to finance their educations.
And I'm confident that we're about to get legislation passed. And once that legislation is passed, I think that, before the end of the year, potentially, we can get something implemented on that front.
In addition, what we are also doing is to try to make the student loan and student grant programs that are already in place work better.
So just to give you one example, right now, a lot of the student loan programs run through banks. But a lot of them go directly to students from the government, with so-called direct loans.
The banks make several billion dollars worth of profits off managing these student loans, which would be OK except for the fact that these loans are guaranteed by the federal government.
So, you know, the reason banks are able to make money lending you is because there's some risk that you might not pay it back, plus, you know, you're giving up the use of your money for -- they're giving up the use of their money for a while.
If, on the other hand, this is the government's money and they're just a pass-through, it doesn't seem very sensible that banks should be making money that way.
So what we've said is let's make all these direct loans as opposed to having bank intermediaries or -- and not just banks. Financial services organizations. They can make profits on other things. But let's not have them make profits on this. Let's take those billions of dollars.
And that then allows us to either lower student loan rates or expand grants. And one of the things that we want to do is on the Pell Grant program, for example, we want to increase the amount of the Pell Grant so that it catches up with inflation, and we want -- we want more young people to be eligible for the Pell Grant program.
And that's particularly important because anybody who's financed their educations understands that grants are a lot better than loans.
(LAUGHTER)
And when I was going to college about -- and this was typical for, I think, college students -- the average student who needed financial assistance, about 70 percent of it came in grants, and about 30 percent of it came in loans.
Today it's reversed: 30 percent come in grants, 70 percent come in loans.
And so students are loaded up with $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 worth of debt, this is just for their undergraduate education. That doesn't even start counting their higher ed.
And, you know, if you come out of college with $50,000 worth of debt, it's hard for you to then start making a decision about wanting to be a teacher or wanting to go into social work or wanting to be a scientist and, you know, research to find the next innovation. You know, you may decide, well, the only thing I can do is to work on Wall Street or work in -- in a big corporation that's not doing cutting- edge research.
And we want people -- all that's fine. I mean, those are good career choices. But we want our young people have more flexibility, not to mention we want them to be able to, if they choose to get married, to be able to buy a home and start a family without already having a -- essentially a mortgage that they're carrying with them out of college before they even buy a house.
So we're going spend -- this is another area where we devote a considerable amount of money in our budget.
And I just want to remind you of this because we're having this budget debate in Washington right now. And, again, everybody says -- you know, a lot of the critics out there are saying, "How is it that you're going to be spending all this money? We've got to worry about the deficit," et cetera.
I just want to remind you that the money that we are spending on education, on health care and on energy, if you add it up, all of that increased money that we're spending, it still is not what's driving our long-term deficits.
What's driving it is Medicare, Medicaid, a structural gap that we have because of the Bush tax cuts over the last several years that left us spending a lot more than we were saving. And it's going to take us awhile to dig our way out of that problem. But the way to dig our way out of that problem is not to shortchange investments in our people.
You know, a lot -- I'll bet there are a bunch of families here who are making some tough choices right now. And who are scrimping a little bit and saving.
Now, somebody could make the same argument to you that folks are making to us with respect to the budget, which is, "You can't afford to be sending your kids to college right now. That's fiscally irresponsible. You're taking out debt for your kids to get an education. It's better for you to just put them to work right now at Mickey -- at a fast food place and they'll be bringing in a little bit of income, and (inaudible) maybe later they can go to college."
Well, most of us don't make that decision, because we understand that making the investment now will lead to greater opportunity, greater economic advancement later.
Well, the same thing is true in our economy. We can't short- change the investments that will allow us to grow in the future. We're going to have to impose discipline and eliminate programs that don't work, and we're doing that. We're cutting this budget by $2 trillion, and we're cutting the deficit in half by the end of my first term.
But what we can't short-change are those things that are going to allow us to grow long term. I don't want us to constrict and reduce our ambitions and our, you know, set our sights lower for our kids and the next generation because we weren't willing to make those investments now. That's not how America works. All right.
(APPLAUSE)
So now -- you know, the folks here have been very patient, so all of you who are watching this live-streaming online, we're actually going to have some live stuff, instead of some virtual stuff. We're going to ask some -- get some questions or comments from the audience. And I'm going to go boy-girl-boy-girl.
(LAUGHTER)
To avoid anybody being mad at me.
We'll start right there. Yes?
And we've got some microphones so everybody can hear you.
QUESTION: Mr. President, my name is Ellie (ph). I'm from Maryland, but I'm originally from Michigan. I have family members who work for GM and Ford. I know the top executives have made -- of the auto companies -- have made a lot of bad moves over the years, but I can't imagine the suffering that we would see in the Midwest if these companies went under.
So my question to you is: What specific steps do you see your administration taking about the health of the auto industry?
OBAMA: OK. It -- it is a very topical question because I'm going to be making some announcements over the next several days about the auto industry.
I don't want to make all the news here today.
(LAUGHTER)
So I'm not going to be as specific as you'd like, but I guarantee you, in the next few days, you will have a very extensive answer on -- on what we need to do.
Let me give you my general philosophical approach. And that is that we need to preserve a U.S. auto industry. I think that's important. I think it's important not just symbolically; it's important because there -- the auto industry is a huge employer, not just the people who work for GM or Ford or Chrysler, but all the suppliers, all the ripple effects that are created as a consequence of our auto industry.
But my job is also to protect taxpayers. And you're right. There's been a lot of mismanagement of the auto industry over the last several years.
Now, right now, we are in such a bad crisis that even Toyota is losing a whole lot of money. So, typically, you're looking at $14 million -- or 14 million new cars are sold every year -- is that right? -- in an average year for our population.
It's gone down to 9 million. Everybody's pulled back, partly because of the credit crunch. People couldn't get auto loans. People were worried about, am I going to keep my job, so they decided, let's put off buying the new car.
The point is that you've seen this huge drop-off. So every automaker is getting killed right now.
I think it is appropriate for us to say, are there ways that we can provide help for the U.S. auto industry to get through this very difficult time, but the price is that you've got to finally restructure to deal with these long-standing problems.
And that means that everybody's going to have to give a little bit. Shareholders. Workers. Creditors. You know, all -- suppliers, dealers. Everybody is going to have to recognize that the current model, economic model of the U.S. auto industry is unsustainable. Even if sales go back to 14 million, which eventually they will, it's still a model that doesn't work. You know, just trying to build more and more SUVs and counting on gas prices being low and that's your own profit margin, that's just not a model that's going to work.
So what we're expecting is that the automakers are going to be working with us to restructure. We will provide them some help. I know that it is not popular to provide help to auto workers -- or to auto companies -- but my job is to measure the costs of allowing these -- these auto companies just to collapse versus us figuring out, can they come up with a viable plan?
If they're not willing to make the changes and the restructurings that are necessary, then I'm not willing to have taxpayer money chase after bad money. And so a lot of it's going to depend on their willingness to make some pretty drastic changes.
And some of those are still going to be painful, because I think you're not going to see a situation where the U.S. automakers are gaining the kind of share that they had back in the 1950s. I mean, we just didn't have any competition when -- you know, back then, you know, Japan was in rubble, Europe was in rubble. We were the only players, you know, around. And that's not going to be true. There's going to be a competitive global market. We have to make those adjustments.
All right? OK.
It's gentleman's turn. This gentleman right here. We got a microphone behind.
QUESTION: Good afternoon, Mr. President. My name is Carlos del Tora (ph). I served in the Navy for 26 years, retired four years ago and started a small business. So I first want to thank you for all the efforts that you and your administration has done on behalf of veterans and also on behalf of small businesses here recently.
Well, we appreciate your service. Thank you. Thank you, sir.
My question is, one of the things that I have experienced over the last four years as a small business trying to do business in the federal procurement business essentially as a small engineering company, is the challenge of the bundling of contracts, which has made it increasingly difficult for service (inaudible) businesses, all small businesses across the nation, to compete, basically, within the federal procurement system.
I know that you believe in fair and open competition on a broad basis. I would suggest to you -- and my question to you is, will your administration look at this issue and try to unbundle these contracts that make it more competitive for small businesses to work in the federal marketplace?
OBAMA: It's a great question. It's an issue that I'm familiar with.
Just by way of background for people who aren't as familiar with federal purchasing -- you know, the federal government is such a big customer that sometimes for administrative convenience, what they do is they just say, "Here, Halliburton, here's a contract for $20 billion to do all these various things," and then you sort of figure out how you're going to divvy it up.
Well, it may be that -- I'm sorry, what was your name?
QUESTION: Carlos.
OBAMA: It may be that Carlos has a better product to sell...
(LAUGHTER)
... you know, for -- for a segment of that contract but he can't bid on the entire thing, right? And so what ends up happening is he -- the taxpayer loses the benefit of a better product at a better price because everything's bundled into this huge contract with a giant general contractor who then divvies up the business.
So one of the things that we're trying to figure out is, are there ways that we can unbundle and unpackage some of these goods and services that the government purchases. It'll save taxpayers money, it'll promote more competition.
He's -- Carlos is still going to have to bid. He's still going to have to prove that his price is better and his product is better, but at least he's got a chance.
Now, we're not going to be able to do that on everything, because there are some things that, frankly, you -- you need some economies of scale, right?
But what we want to do is make sure that we're looking for every opportunity to unbundle to give everybody a chance to compete so that we don't just have one or two or three major contractors who are getting every contract.
Because at a certain point what ends up happening is those contractors get so much clout in Washington, they're getting such huge contracts, then they start spending $1 million on lobbyists to make sure that the contracts keep going the same way. You start seeing the system distorted in ways that aren't healthy.
And the more players there are, the more Carloses there are who are out there scratching and striving to get it -- get some business, ultimately the better deal we'll get as taxpayers.
So, great. OK, here you go.
QUESTION: My name is Linda Bach (ph). I'm a registered nurse, just in Prince George's County, Maryland. Been there 34 years at a free senior health center. I'm here with my fellow nurses from SEIU.
First of all, thank you for listening to us, because as nurses we do listen to our patients all the time. We're their advocate. And so we appreciate this opportunity for you to hear from us.
One of the things we want to make sure is that nurses are represented in the health care reform -- reform committees, because we want to be there on behalf of our fellow nurses and on behalf of the patients that we sometimes have to speak up for.
So I really hope that we can be there so we can push the things like prevention and education that are so very important, so that we don't use our emergency rooms for their doctor visits.
OBAMA: Right.
QUESTION: And that we have more community-based health centers for those that are in need. And I just -- I really appreciate this opportunity to be heard.
OBAMA: Well, I appreciate that. I guarantee you, nurses were part of the health care summit, and they will be at the table in all these discussions.
I'm biased towards nurses. I just like nurses.
(LAUGHTER)
You know, when Michelle and I went in, and Malia was being born, you know, the OB/GYN was a close friend of ours, and so was much more attentive than the usual OB/GYN might be. But the fact is, we only saw her for, like, 15 minutes. The rest of the time, it was nurses who were doing everything.
You know, when Sasha, our little precious pea...
(LAUGHTER)
She got meningitis when she was three months old -- very dangerous. You know, the doctors did a terrific job, but, frankly, it was the nurses that were there with us when she had to get a spinal tap and all sorts of things that were just bringing me to tears.
And, you know, we've got a problem in this country, which is we have a shortage of nurses. It makes no sense given this unemployment rate. But the reason is, is because the pay of nurses, the hours of nurses, the quality of life of nurses, the fact that nurse professors are even worse-paid than the nurses themselves, so you get these huge bottle necks in terms of training as many nurses as we want.
I mean, all these issues are part of the inefficiency of the health care system that has to be fixed.
And the more we're emphasizing primary care, preventive care, wellness, all of which will save us money in the long term, the more that we can deploy nurses as the troops on the front lines in ultimately driving down some of these health care costs.
So I think it's very important that nurses are a part of this process.
Here, we've got a mike here. I'm hanging on to my mike.
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: Yes, sir.
(LAUGHTER)
OBAMA: I might not get it back.
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: Sir, you're the president. You always will get it back.
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: Sir, I'm Tom Sauner (ph). I'm a service-disabled veteran, a small-business owner in Arlington, Virginia. My company, Educational Options, works with public schools. We serve more than 200,000 at- risk kids within public schools, providing online content, partnering with teachers.
And I was honored to serve on your education platform committee (ph).
OBAMA: Wonderful.
QUESTION: Today, my question is, as a small-business owner, my company is still profitable. We're still growing. We're still hiring.
The money that I make as a profit I'm plowing right back in, and even the money that I pay to the bank for my business loans. Yet, under current tax laws, all of that counts as income to me before I ever see a penny of it.
Sir, could you please help small businesses by allowing some way, somehow, money we pay to the bank in principal to not count against our income and not put us in the, quote, "richest" before we ever see a dime and allow us to invest in this huge engine to drive economic recovery.
And a final question, as a veteran, would you please see if we can enforce the existing laws for veteran and other small-business set-asides?
Thank you, sir.
OBAMA: OK, good.
Well, thank you for the question. Obviously I'm not completely familiar with your circumstances or your tax status. But we want to do everything we can to relieve the tax burden on startups and small businesses. And as they grow, then their tax burden is going to grow accordingly.
So one of the things that we've already proposed and is reflected in our budget is that we are eliminating capital gains taxes for small businesses. That's something that we've already proposed and put in place.
Now, what'll happen is you won't see that reflected in an immediate benefit because it will kick in five years from now. The law starts now, but, you know, you have to have those capital gains accumulate over the course of five years before it counts, because we don't want people gaming the system.
But that's an example of the kinds of tools that we are already putting in place in the tax code to provide you relief so that as you're reinvesting that you are not penalized for that reinvestment.
And we will do everything we can to enforce the existing rules with regard to small businesses for veterans.
QUESTION: Thank you, sir.
OBAMA: OK?
This young lady back here.
QUESTION: Hi, Mr. President. Thank you so very much for having me, a public schoolteacher from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, here to be with you.
OBAMA: What's your name?
QUESTION: Bonnie Brees (ph).
OBAMA: Good to see you, Bonnie.
QUESTION: Thank you. From Overbrook High School. I have to say that...
OBAMA: OK.
QUESTION: ... because I know all the children are watching. (LAUGHTER)
OBAMA: All right.
Hello, Overbrook.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
QUESTION: Thank you. Two questions in reference of education since this is a major part of your budget plan and platform: definitions of charter schools and definitions of effective teachers: How do you plan to define those two categories?
And are you willing to have teachers on the platform in the committees as a part of developing those plans?
OBAMA: Oh, absolutely. Well, as I said, the teachers are the most important person in the education system. So if we don't have teacher buy-in; if they're not enthusiastic about the reforms that we're initiating, then ultimately they're not going to work. So we've got to have teacher participation in developing these approaches.
The definition of charter schools is pretty straightforward. And that is that, in most states, you now have a mechanism where you set up a public school -- you know, this is not private schools. These are public schools, receiving public dollars. But they have a charter that allows them to experiment and try new things. And typically, they're partnering up with some sort of not-for-profit institution.
And so, in Chicago, you've got charter schools that are affiliated with a museum or they're affiliated with an arts program. And, you know, they may have a particular focus. It may be a science charter school or it may be a language academy.
They are still going to have to meet all the various requirements of the state-mandated curriculum. They're still subject to the same rules an regulations and accountability. But they've got some flexibility in terms of how they design it. Oftentimes they are getting parents to participate in new ways in the school. So they become laboratories of new and creative learning.
Now, there are some charter schools that are doing a great job, and you are seeing huge increases in student performance.
And by the way, one last point I want to make about these charters, they're non-selective. So it's not a situation where they're just pick -- you know -- cherry picking the kids who are already getting the highest grades. They've got to admit anybody, and typically there are long waiting lines, so they use some sort of lottery to admit them.
Some of them are doing great work, huge progress and great innovation. And there are some charters that haven't worked out so well, and just like bad or regular schools, they need to be shut down if they're not doing a good job.
But what charters do is they give an opportunity for experimentation, and then duplication of success. And we want to encourage that. So that's the definition of charters.
In terms of teachers, how we measure performance, as I said before, I have been a critic of measuring performance just by the administering of a single high-stakes standardized test during the year, and then the teacher is judged. And that was, I think, the biggest problem with No Child Left Behind. It basically said that you just go in...
(APPLAUSE)
You know, here's the standardized test, and we'll see how the kids are doing. And because it doesn't even measure progress, you could have a very good teacher or a very good school in a poor area where test scores have typically been low, and they are still punished even though they're doing heroic work in a difficult situation.
The other problem is that you started seeing curriculums and teachers teaching to the test -- not because they want to, but because there's such a huge stake in doing well on these tests, that suddenly, you know, the science curriculum, instead of it being designed around sparking people's creativity and their interest in science, it ends up just being "here's the test, here's what you have to learn," which, you know, the average kid is already squirming enough in their seat. Now, they're thinking, well, this is completely dull. This is completely uninteresting. And they get turned off from science or math or all these wonderful subjects that potentially they could be passionate about.
So what we want to do is not completely eliminate standardized tests. There's a role for standardized tests. All of us have taken them. And they serve a function. We just don't want it to be the only thing.
So we want to work with teachers to figure out how do we get peer review, how do we have evaluation.
I was just talking to Bill Gates yesterday, and he was talking about the use of technology where you can use videos to look at really successful teachers and how they interact with their students, how they're monitoring students, et cetera, and then you bring in the teachers at the end of the day.
And, you know, just like a coach might be talking to his players about how, "You see how on that play you should have been here and you could have done that?" -- same thing with teachers.
But they don't get that feedback. Usually especially beginning teachers are completely isolated. They're in this classroom, they're sort of just thrown in to sink or swim. Instead, let's use a variety of mechanisms to assess and constantly improve teacher performance.
Now, one thing I have to say, I know you'll admit this, although maybe you can't on T.V., but in private I'll bet you'd admit that during the -- how long have you been teaching?
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
OBAMA: Fifteen years. OK. So you've been teaching for 15 years. I'll bet you'll admit that during those 15 years, there have been a couple of teachers that you've met -- you don't have to say their names...
(LAUGHTER)
... who you would not put your child in their classroom.
(LAUGHTER)
See?
(APPLAUSE)
Right? You're not saying anything. You're taking the Fifth.
(LAUGHTER)
My point is that if we've done everything we can to improve teacher pay and teacher performance and training and development, some people just aren't meant to be teachers, just like some people aren't meant to be carpenters, some people aren't meant to be nurses. At some point they've got to find a new career.
And it can't be impossible to move out bad teachers, because that brings -- that makes everybody depressed in a school if there are some folks -- and it makes it harder for the teachers who are inheriting these kids the next year for doing their job.
So there's got to be some accountability measures built into this process. But I'm optimistic that we can make real progress on this front, but it's going to take some time.
All right?
MODERATOR: Mr. President, we have...
OBAMA: How many times...
(CROSSTALK)
MODERATOR: One more question please.
OBAMA: Oh, one more question.
(CROSSTALK)
OBAMA: Well, not yelling. Just saying, "Right here," is not going to get you the question.
(LAUGHTER) OBAMA: You know -- you know what I'm going to do is -- is I hope I don't seem biased here. I'm going to go with a young person here. Last question -- at least younger than me.
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President.
My name is Sergio Sanrun (ph). I want to find out about health care.
In this society, a lot of times we have to step back and ask ourselves if what we're doing in principle, not in practice, is right.
And so when we think about health care, I want to know from you if the things like preexisting conditions and preventive medicine, if they are a symptom of what's going on in our health care system, then what is the problem and how do you address it?
OBAMA: I'll talk to you about preexisting conditions because this is something that I talked about during the campaign. It's something that touched on me personally.
My mother contracted ovarian cancer when she was 53. And she died six months later. It's one of those cancers that typically is diagnosed at late stages. It's hard to catch early.
She was, at the time, working as an independent contractor. She was working for an international assistance organization. And so she had insurance but when she was diagnosed and she started -- the medical bills started mounting up, some of -- or this insurance company started saying that this is a preexisting condition so maybe we don't have to reimburse you.
And we had to spend a bunch of time fighting with these insurance companies about this issue.
Now, eventually, we were lucky, we got these costs approved. Because the point was she didn't know, nobody had diagnosed it, and if you start having a -- the standard of preexisting condition is you might have had that illness some time at some point before you -- or you were genetically predisposed to it, potentially none of us would ever get any insurance.
So -- but I still remember watching her. You know, she's sick. She's gone through chemotherapy and she's on the phone arguing with insurance companies. And she's lucky. She had insurance. There are tons of people out there who, once they've had one heart attack, once they've been diagnosed with diabetes, once they've got some form of chronic illness, but that point forward, it is almost impossible for them to get health insurance.
And if their employer, especially if it is a small employer, wants to give them health insurance, it's -- the costs are so prohibitive that they can't do it even if the employer wants to help them. I mean, if Carlos has got a small business, if, you know, I don't know how many employees he has, but if has 10 employees, 22 employees, then if one of them got a serious illness like leukemia, it would send his insurance rates skyrocketing to a point where he, you know, he just couldn't operate.
So this is why any reform of the health care system I think has to address this issue, and to say we are going to allow anybody to get health insurance, and if you've got a preexisting condition, you're not going to excluded, but you are going to be able to obtain health insurance. And if you can't obtain it through a private plan, then there is going to be a public plan that is available in some way to give you insurance. Or insurers are obligated to provide you with insurance in some way.
Now, that's a principle. You know, that's a -- what are the details of how we're going to do that? There are a lot of different approaches. We have seen some progress with the insurance companies where they have said, we are willing to take everybody in, but only if everybody's required to be in. That's the position that they're taking right now.
So the idea is you combine a rule that eliminates preexisting condition exclusions, with mandatory health insurance just like auto insurance is mandatory.
That's a proposal they've put forward. Now, that's progress, in the sense that they've acknowledged that this preexisting condition situation is a real problem.
Whether that ends up being the best mechanism -- you know, during the campaign, I was skeptical of mandates only because my attitude was the reason people don't have health insurance is not because they don't want it; it's because they can't afford it, and if we drive down costs, then people will have it.
But that's part of the debate that's going to be taking place over the next several months, as we try to develop a health care plan for the future. OK?
Listen, I know that there were other people who had questions, both here in the live audience as well as in our virtual audience, but we're out of time.
I just want to say thank you for participating. Thanks for paying attention.
(APPLAUSE)
And we need you guys to keep paying attention in the months and years to come. Thank you, everybody.
(APPLAUSE)
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: There's the president. You see he turns to the Internet to tackle your questions and get answers from you, or at least from him, and get his message out. The president just wrapped up an online town hall meeting, fielding questions from the Internet and also from the audience right there where he was.
Standing by is Christine Romans. Also standing by, our Josh Levs.
Christine and Josh, I want to read some of the things that I've gotten here. A lot of people -- you know, the president talking a lot about health care, job growth, what have you. And then he made a joke about marijuana here. Here's what one guy said. "Man, imagine that, folks would be going to the gas station to grab doobies instead of cigarettes."
That's from Keith Boyd (ph). "How are the banks really helping homeowners revise mortgages? Seems like they took the billions and it's business as usual." "What are the president's plans for racial profiling?"
And, they said, "I would like him to please fix health care. There's a reason why GM spends more on health care than steel."
Turning now to Christine and Josh as well.
The president is still talking there. But anyhow, I want to turn now to Christine and Josh.
Christine, health care really ate up a lot of his time. A lot of questions about health care. That was the important topic there it seems today.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And he, you know, it almost felt a little bit like a campaign event, right?
But he is, as my producer and I were just discussing, he is sort of trying to sell his agenda about investing in the right now and part of that is health care investments. And he had that anecdote that we've heard before on the campaign trail. And since then, of course, about his mother suffering from cancer and being on the phone arguing with an insurance company, you know, while weakened from chemotherapy. And it's something that I think everything American family can relate to because this has happened to an awful lot of people.
I want to go back to that marijuana comment, can I?
LEMON: Yes.
ROMANS: Because I want to give a little bit of context about that. You know, so the way this was done is that people could put their questions out there and then vote on the questions they like the most. And suddenly, there were all these people voting for the, should we legalize marijuana to help the economy question. And it became kind of like a viral thing on the Internet that people were pushing this, you know, this -- sort of the pro pot question and the president finally addressed it and he said, look, you know, will it help the economy if we legalize marijuana? No.
LEMON: Yes. ROMANS: Everyone laughed and clapped. But -- so that was kind of the backdrop of that whole thing.
LEMON: There was something behind that I'm sure if folks were pushing it.
ROMANS: Right.
LEMON: Josh Levs. Hey, stand by, Christine, because Josh Levs is standing by.
Josh, most of the questions here, as far as the economy, came in the form of job growth. Not real specific questions focused on growing the economy. Mostly on growing jobs.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, look, that's the biggest concern we hear all the time, right, from so many Americans. Let me just lay out the big picture for everyone who was just watching this or if you joined in toward the end.
We don't know yet how many people were watching on whitehouse.gov. We'll find out those numbers.
But, Don, I want to point out something really important here. The White House was selling this as online town hall. Ninety-three thousand submitted 404,000 questions. The president answered six Internet questions. And -- well, though, one more. Seven total if you're going to include that he mentioned the marijuana question. And he gave about six-and-a-half to seven minute answers.
And let's zoom in here because these are the topics that people were invited to send questions about. And, Don, you'll see, jobs was one of the big one. Education, home ownership, health care reform, veterans, small business, auto industry, retirement security, green jobs, financial stability, jobs and budget.
So he didn't manage to get to Internet questions on all of them, but what he did in the areas where he did select written questions, there were four written questions that he used there, they were the most popular in that section. So, you know, we can't assume that people necessarily poured through all of the questions and voted on them. A lot of times the ones that were most popular are the first ones that you saw if you came in late in the game to add your question.
But he did, indeed, go by the ones that were most popular there. And that's what Christine was talking about. That under one section there was an area where people were asked about legalizing marijuana. It was indeed popular. So, boom, that explains how he got that one.
LEMON: Yes. And I don't think the question would be legalizing it, it would be more decriminalization. I don't think that would happen any time soon.
So Josh and Christine, we appreciate both of you for helping us with this. Thanks to both of you. LEVS: You got it. Thanks.
LEMON: All right. We're going to turn now to the weather. Let's go -- talk to floods in the north and but the south is dealing really with violent spring storms today.
Let's talk to meteorologist Chad Myers in the Extreme Weather Center.
Chad, I was waiting for that big boom, boom, boom weather. It didn't happen. But there's boom, boom, boom weather all over the country.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Right. There really is. From a blizzard in Denver, to this record flooding now in Grand Forks and Fargo. Had that blown-up ice jam yesterday in Bismarck that actually worked -- brought the water down there, but the ice is still coming up in some spots.
Everywhere that you see pink here, all those dots, those are the rivers that are still in major flood stage here all the way from the South Red River -- remember, the Red River goes the wrong way. It goes into Canada, into Lake Winnipeg here. And so all of these areas still going to see a rise in the river level. From 38 feet now, which is 20 feet above where flood starts in Fargo. Another three feet to go. That's as tall as a telephone pole. That's how much water you're going to see from where the flooding start -- not the bottom of the river -- where the flooding starts to where the flooding is going to end as the water goes overall many of those levees there.
And then you talked about the tornado. Now we know it was an EF- 3, possibly 165 miles per hour. There's an awful lot of damage in the town of McGee, Mississippi. There's Jackson. There's McGee. This happened in the middle of the night. The most dangerous types of tornadoes because you don't hear them coming, you don't see the alarm or hear the alarm on your TV. This is the reason why you need a NOAA weather radio. So it goes off automatically and wakes you up. So far -- so far there are injuries in the dozens but no fatalities yet - Don.
LEMON: Thank you very much, Chad, because I got my NOAA weather radio from you. I appreciate it.
Much more on this weather and also the president holding an online meeting -- town hall meeting. We will update you. New information after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: A very sad story to tell you about. A very accomplished person. He was a revered historian and a scholar on issues of race in the south. John Hope Franklin has died.
Franklin wrote the groundbreaking book "From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans." President Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995. John Hope Franklin was 94 years old.
The CNN NEWSROOM continues right now.
