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President Obama Delivers White House Daily Briefing
Aired February 09, 2010 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, yes. All right, I'm Ali Velshi. I'm going to be with you for the next two hours. And for this two-hour block every day, every Monday to Friday, I'm going to try and break down the issues that you need to know about. Issues that can help you make decisions that will affect your money, your safety, your security, your politics.
And once again today, it's about the weather. There's a big winter storm bearing down on the Midwest right now. Take a look at this map. Across the country, we've got problems all over the place.
We're going to start in the Midwest, in Chicago, right now, where we've got delays at the major airports there. Major delays at both O'Hare and Midway. We are hearing Southwest has canceled most of its flights out of Midway -- all of its flights, in fact, until about tomorrow morning. Snow is expected to continue in Chicago through the evening.
I've been talking to some people in the Chicago area. They say that, in fact, it's four to five inches so far. Nothing too serious, but it's still coming down. It's coming down strong.
Let's go to Washington. That's another place that we've been covering. Our Reynolds Wolf is there. We'll talk to him in a couple of minutes. It doesn't look too bad out there. But the more -- there's more snow coming in. That storm in the Midwest is headed back in there, the nation's capital. Federal services are shut down after this weekend's storm.
And I want to take you out to the West Coast. Take a look at this. These mud slides in the West Coast -- California. Neighborhoods are trying to clean up, but more rain is expected in California at this hour. You have to be evacuated from your home if you live in these areas where the mud slides are. Five hundred and forty-one homes so far have been evacuated.
We got team coverage on this. Chad Myers is here with me at the CNN weather center. He's talking about it. Reynolds Wolf, as you know, has been in the Washington area for the last couple of days. Let's start here with the big picture of what we're looking at.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, I'm going to tell you what Reynolds is in for. I'm trying to get him out of that city, but it's not going that well. Every time I try to get him a flight, they say, oh, no, no more snow is coming. And there's going to be another one, possibly, on the weekend. The snow is now in the Midwest as you said. That's where the cold air is, the moisture coming out of the south, clashing with the cold air from the north. The north up by Detroit. Here we go, here's Windsor. There you go.
VELSHI: That's the view from Detroit.
MYERS: No, this the view from Windsor.
VELSHI: Oh, the view from Windsor into Detroit.
MYERS: Yes. This is the lovely shot. There's the old Ren Cen (ph). You know, the Geo (ph) --
VELSHI: You can tell me this is Cleveland, given how fuzzy it is.
MYERS: But I know that's the general area.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: And that's where the auto show is.
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: You can kind of see all this. And maybe if you're in Detroit you can look across and you can see that Seagram's sign over there.
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: Maybe that's a little bit lit up. Maybe you can see it. But visibility not doing so well in Detroit. I expect four to six in Detroit, I believe.
The story, I believe, at this is going to be how much snow maybe D.C. gets, because I'm looking at 5.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: It could be -- it could be the potential for a Philadelphia/New York City event --
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: -- where obviously millions more people are going to be affected. But you know, a 5-inch snowfall in D.C. on any other day --
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: -- shuts down the city.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: But the good news is it's already shut down.
VELSHI: Even this kind of --
MYERS: So if a tree falls --
VELSHI: This kind of snow is going to start to affect air traffic and commuting into these cities.
MYERS: No question about it. No question.
VELSHI: And once again, you're wrecking another flight for me.
MYERS: I know I am.
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: I know. Ever since I worked with you --
VELSHI: I haven't had a flight canceled in about a year, and I work with you, and they're canceled all over the place.
MYERS: You know what? They called me and said, you have too many frequent flyer miles.
VELSHI: Right. Keep Velshi in Atlanta. I'm getting to know Atlanta very well. We're going to stay on this story, keep people posted on what's going on.
Let's go out to Washington, D.C., where Reynolds Wolf is. It doesn't look bad around you, Reynolds, but -- but they're getting ready for more.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. You know, the big total (ph) that we have around here is white due to the snow, but it's also yellow because of this tape.
We've got a lot of roads that are blocked off because of falling trees. We've been talking about that over the last couple of days, Ali, about how the snow gets up in the trees, so does the ice, and it really causes the limbs to get really heavy and seem to break, and then we have obstructions in the roadways.
You look over here. We've got some guys here. They've been taking out the trees, putting them into the grinder and just really splitting the trees up. That's what they have to do.
And if you happen to look over here, here's some of the work they haven't done yet. All stuff that used to be way up there is now on the ground. And a lot of this was really impeding traffic a while ago, but now thankfully, they're beginning to clean things up. The problem is, as they move all this stuff up, we're going to see more snow back in the forecast.
Now, where I'm walking, you can see most of these roads are untreated. You've got a lot of slush here and there, some ice mixed in, too. And then even off in the distance, you see, again people just kind of weaving their way to and from, because a lot of the cars often kind of obstructions, too, because they're kind of locked in, frozen solid with the ice.
Let's look over here for just a moment. We've got CNN photojournalist Jeremy Harlan (ph). Jeremy's going to give you a shot down towards M Street, which is the major thoroughfare that we have here in Georgetown.
And down there it is really slow-and-go. If you look past the D.C. bureau live truck, CNN D.C. bureau live truck, it looks pretty clear. You see the lights are green, but even then it's kind of a slow-and-go kind of thing.
Now, in terms of other modes of travel like, say, Metro here in D.C., Ali, what we're seeing, the underground trains are working just fine. But, still, it's kind of -- kind of a slow-and-go. Thirty minutes or so, that's how long you'll have to wait for your train. By the way, we've got a guy here who's stuck. Straighten your wheels out! Make the wheels straight.
VELSHI: Now he's giving advice to people.
WOLF: Go straight. Let's see what we can do here. Trying to. Trying to. There we go. Probably going to take more than one person. And this is nothing new. This is probably about the third car we've worked with today. Front-wheel drive not exactly -- not really helping this thing.
MYERS: Tell them not to floor it.
VELSHI: He needs to be -- he needs to be in low gear.
WOLF: Yes, I know.
MYERS: He must be from Georgia.
WOLF: We've got a few guys coming over. Maybe we can -- must be.
VELSHI: OK. Well, let's -- let's get these -- let's get this car out of here. OK, we've got some people there.
WOLF: Absolutely. Yes, we're going to get a team up and we're going to get him going.
But back to the transportation, again, we've seen a lot of this play out. If you happen to try to catch a train today, the above- ground trains, there are few that are working, but again, as I mentioned, few and far between. Not a whole lot of them. And as more snow enters the picture, and Chad is going to give you the exact amount you can anticipate, we might have more backups, more problems.
Got another person trying to come on through right here. One thing they're trying -- one big message they're trying to get to people also, Ali, is snow up on the roofs of the cars. They'd like people to try to scrape that off before they go out, because as you're driving down the freeway --
VELSHI: Yes.
WOLF: -- and the wind kicks over the top of your vehicle, guess where the snow goes? It goes to the people traveling behind you --
VELSHI: Yes.
WOLF: -- obscures their vision on a slippery roadway, and then -- then you have issues like that.
VELSHI: We've seen that. You know how many times you've been behind somebody with snow on their roof.
WOLF: So we're going to go help this guy dig out, and we'll send it back to you.
VELSHI: All right, good. We'll keep on doing it.
So many times I've seen this, where I was in Toronto, where you'd be driving behind somebody and it smacks you right up there. We're going to --
MYERS: I hate the tractor-trailers --
VELSHI: Right, right.
MYERS: -- where it's just a sheet. A big sheet just hits you.
VELSHI: We're going to in a minute go down to Ed Lavandera in New Orleans, where it's some great news. They've got the parade. The Saints back home.
MYERS: There you go.
VELSHI: What are you looking at, weather-wise, there? They OK?
MYERS: Yes. I've got 50 degrees. Even -- I have Kenner (ph) there a little bit. I have Belle Chase at probably around 60 degrees.
VELSHI: It's -- it's perfect.
MYERS: Hey, the rain gone.
VELSHI: Clear?
MYERS: Do you know what? It could be 30. They still would have fun.
VELSHI: Let's take a -- that's true. Let's take a look at the pictures in New Orleans, getting ready for that Super Bowl parade. And there's Ed. We're going to come back to him in a second. Look at that. He's got a sweater on. Life is looking good for Ed Lavandera right now. Ed, stay right there. We're coming back in a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MYERS: If there is a reporter who exemplifies CNN, it's Eddie Lavandera. Ed has been involved in some of the most serious coverage we've ever done, including a lot of hurricanes and Hurricane Katrina. And he's also our feel-good guy. He's been at some of the most fun stories we've ever done. Wherever Ed is, there is action. And that's why we're going to New Orleans.
There's Eddie Lavandera, downtown New in Orleans. And he is getting ready for a parade that we are going to bring you. But it's not just folks in New Orleans feeling good about this, Ed. The whole country is kind of happy for New Orleans right now.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Ali. You know, it's -- a lot of Saints' fans have still been pinching themselves. They can't believe they're experiencing this moment. I'm kind of been doing the same with this assignment.
After so many tough years in here New Orleans, to be able to kind of watch the people here enjoy this moment. It's going to be an exciting day.
We are at -- toward the beginning of this parade, which will start at 5 p.m. Central Time. And what's interesting, Ali, is there here in a couple of hours, businesses will be shutting down. Schools are closing down so everyone can come out here and enjoy this moment.
You can see people starting to line up here for the parade. The parade will kind of wind its way from downtown, start at the Superdome, the home of the Saints, of course. Come down here on Poidrus (ph) down through the central business district, along St. Charles Avenue, the historic street there, as well. That's where the players and the coaches will be able to talk to fans. And then they will continue to wind their way through the downtown area, wrapping up at the convention center.
So spend the day with us here, Ali. We're going to have an incredible amount of fun getting to know the people who are showing up here. People already starting to line up. They're going to be starting to close off the streets here shortly, as well.
And then there's a great truck here that we'll get to know the folks over here. They've been cooking food for folks around here this afternoon, as well. So, we're about to have a heck of a time, Ali.
VELSHI: Well, we're looking forward to watching it, and we're looking forward to -- once again, you're the perfect guy to be there to share that with the folks of New Orleans. We'll keep an eye on this.
And by the way, you're going to watch this at 6 p.m. Eastern on CNN today. We're going to bring you that parade that -- that Eddie's just talking about. And we'll drop in to get some of that mood. We'll tell you how it's looking. So keep your TV on CNN, starting at 6 p.m. Eastern for the parade.
All right. Listen, take a look. You can't really see it right now, because we've got weather going on that we're keeping you alerted of. But the Dow is actually up. We've been talking for a number of days about how it's been down and what you have to do with your portfolio.
Well, what you can see that -- look at that, almost 200 points higher. It's volatile. So you need to take a look at how your 401(k) is allocated. And we're going to get an expert in here in just a minute to tell you exactly what you need to do. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: A lot of folks have been talking about the stock market. They've been asking me about it for the last several days. Take a look at the Dow, up about 193 points. It was up very, very strongly up above 10,000.
But for the last few weeks we've had some days with big, big drops in the Dow, and that's got people wondering about their 401(k)s after having, you know, a year where they haven't been too worried about it.
Remember this. Go back to -- to January 1. We were at 10,428. And it was still going up after going up in 2009. And then we've seen a lot of dropping. We're back down here to the 10,100 area. So it's not that drastic, but we want to talk to you a little bit about your 401(k)s.
Eighty percent of the companies that had stopped matching their 401(k)s, their workers' 401(k) contributions -- maybe you work for one of those companies -- are planning to reinstate them in 2010. And remember, that is free money for you. When you put money into your 401(k), your company matches it. So, this is a very, very important development. But, you know, it's just one of those things that you need to -- need to think about in terms of how you invest properly.
Let me just show you some of those companies -- we reported on them -- that had actually stopped investing in -- in their workers' 401(k)s and then restored them. American Express, FedEx, JPMorgan and, believe it or not, AARP. So, these are companies that are bringing back their 401(k) matches or have brought back their 401(k) matches.
Anyway, how about you? What is it that you're supposed to do with all of this volatility in the stock market, because you've got a 401(k) or an IRA? Let's bring in my good friend, Doug Flynn. He's a certified financial planner with Flynn Zito Capital Management. You can find them at FlynnZito.com.
Doug, good to see you. Thanks for being with us today. I've been asked by a lot of people. What are we supposed to do? They've seen a -- sort of a steady upswing in the market in 2009, beginning of 2010, and all of a sudden volatility is back again, reminding us of the old days. What are you recommending to your clients?
DOUG FLYNN, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER: Well, a lot of people did get to the sidelines or stopped contributing last year when the market was in turmoil, and they started going back in early this year, when things seemed to settle down. But now they're questioning that again, because the market is taking a little bit of a breather. But just like you mentioned the companies that are starting back up their contributions, you also want to start up your contributions if you've stopped. One of the single best things you can do is continue to add, compounding all those shares off your paycheck.
VELSHI: Now, should people be doing what they're doing? Should they be changing the way their 401(k) is allocated, that pie chart, just because we've had this volatility in the market?
FLYNN: I don't think so. I think that, if you have a -- the proper allocation to begin with -- and, of course, we always talk about the one that you can check at CNNmoney.com/Ali.
VELSHI: Well, thank you for the promo.
FLYNN: If you have the right one -- you're welcome. The right allocation there is so important, because if you think about it, people keep acting like speculators, and you have to think like an investor.
A 401(k) is a long-term investing program. It's not only going to be with you your entire working career, which could be decades, but also, it's going to be with you for the rest of your life, throughout retirement. So if you're 40 years old, you might have this money for 50 years. So you don't want to be too knee jerk in your reactions. You want to take a long-term plan and think about, "Do I have the right allocation? The best thing I can do is keep pummeling that money in there and try to accumulate as much as I can."
VELSHI: All right. So you're not concerned about what we've seen in the last month as a bit of a pullback in the market? You don't think people should be sitting here saying, "It's the second coming and I should take my money out"?
FLYNN: Well, if it is the second coming, and it is a 40- or 50- year time horizon that you have with your retirement money, that's exactly what you want to have happen, because you're going to be adding into it while the shares get cheaper.
If you could script it, how you want it to go is "I want the shares to be low while I'm adding, and I want them to be very high when I cash out."
But if cashing out is decades away, you want it to be down while you're accumulating.
Now, we're talking about people who have time and are putting money away on a regular basis. If you're already retired or you're close to retirement, well, the way you avoid that is you use some of the other safer investments inside the 401(k) plan. You don't have to use the aggressive ones.
But if you're a long-term investor and you have time, this is exactly what you want to have happen, in terms of in the near term, taking advantage of the short-term drop that we are experiencing and may continue for the rest of this year. It's going to be a volatile year. That's how you take advantage of the volatility.
VELSHI: OK. So it's got to do with your time horizon. Doug, thanks for pointing out the calculator that you can use that we designed. It's at CNNmoney.com/Ali. Doug, good to see you.
Doug Flynn of Flynn Zito Capital Management.
Let's take a look at the headlines now.
A new worldwide recall from Toyota. We've been talking about this for a while. That has now happened. This one covers more than 400,000 hybrids, mostly 2010 model year Priuses. Also involved, the Lexus hybrid. Toyota's president has apologized for the, quote, "inconvenience and concerns," end quote. He vowed to do everything possible to regain customers' trust.
In Los Angeles County, an order to people in more than 500 homes threatened by mud slides: get out. Today's mandatory evacuation comes as the area braces for more rain. Torrential over the weekend, last weekend, triggered massive mud slides that damaged hundreds of homes.
In Washington, how to create more jobs ASAP. That's the topic of President Obama's meeting with a group of bipartisan lawmakers today. Good timing, because a new report shows competition for new jobs is easing just a little bit. The Labor Department says there are about six job seekers fighting for each job opening. Now, that might seem pretty grim, but that's down from an average of 6 1/2 job seekers for every job last month.
All right. When we come back, yesterday, Elizabeth Cohen told us about a mumps outbreak in New York. Well, the number of people affected by that has now doubled. We're going to tell you about that when we come back.
And you heard about Congressman Jack Murtha, how he died. Well, that's kind of interesting to you, too. Apparently, it was something that went wrong during routine surgery. Elizabeth is going to tell us about that when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: All right. We're continuing to follow severe weather across this country. A storm that is bearing down in the Midwest right now. Let's go back to the severe weather center. Chad Myers has the latest.
What do you got, Chad?
MYERS: Well, what I'm seeing, Ali, is that D.C. is not in the bull's-eye of this storm. And that's good. Notice the guy walking on the White House roof right now. He does that all the time, back and forth, back and forth.
We have a lot of weight on the roofs here across parts of D.C. and Philadelphia and Baltimore. And so I believe the snow is going to be a farther-north system than the last one. So here's the numbers, number by number. Starting very soon for D.C., right around now, probably five inches within the beltway. Ten inches would be the outermost toward Frederick and Gaithersburg and Germantown and on up toward -- toward Bowie (ph) maybe, a little bit less, a little bit to the north, on up toward Columbia, into that 10- inch range, same story for Baltimore.
Philadelphia, you're up into the 14-inch range here. And New York City could be a foot and a half.
So you see that the real focus of this is not down toward Richmond, not really into D.C., although five inches on a normal D.C. storm paralyzes the city. The only good news is, I guess, it's already paralyzed, so you know, five -- five more inches on top of that, maybe not so bad, except when you've been struggling now for a couple of days, and you're still shoveling with more coming down.
Milwaukee a couple of inches. Chicago, a few. Milwaukee actually doing OK. I would say Midway a little bit tough on the getting planes in and out of there today. O'Hare still has 100 and some planes in the air.
Columbus seeing snow right now, and it's going to be snowing across parts of the Midwest.
Here's how this storm shapes up for the northeast. Notice here. I'll kind of draw it. Here's New York City. A little bit to the west toward the water gap and Ridgewood and all the way back out to the west. That's where the heaviest one-foot snow totals will be. West of Philadelphia, King of Prussia and the like. And then north of Baltimore, even Timonium, Towson, more -- more weather, more snow than Baltimore or into Delaware and the D.C. kind of on the bottom half of this thing.
And then it redevelops here in the ocean, and then we could even -- I might have to raise those numbers up about four and six here on the map if you take a look. Everywhere that's pink -- see all that pink?
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: That's a foot of snow or more. So that's south of Scranton. That's Lehigh Valley. That's Allentown, Bethlehem, back toward Millersburg, Harrisburg, Norrisville (ph). And then -- so that's where -- that's where the heaviest snow is going to be this time, unless I change my mind, which I can do that.
VELSHI: You're entitled to do that, my friend, because you're -- you're often right about it. You're one the best in the business. All right, Chad, we'll continue to check in with you about airport delays and snow totals.
Listen, yesterday we told you about Congressman John Murtha, Jack Murtha, as he was referred to, a longtime congressman, dying as a result of a complication in what was otherwise routine surgery.
Our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, is here with more of that.
Elizabeth, what do we know about this?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ali, this is so -- it's so tough when someone who is so treasured dies. And then when you hear this, it makes it even worse.
What we're told by a source who was close to the late congressman, he said that he died as a result of a complication from the surgery that he had, very routine gallbladder surgery.
VELSHI: Right.
COHEN: Totally routine laparoscopic. They happen every day in hospitals around the country.
What this source says is that Murtha went in for a routine, minimally invasive surgery, was discharged, but they hit his intestines, meaning they nicked his intestines during the procedure. And he was taken to the hospital two days later and then died.
Now, we've gotten in touch with the folks at the Bethesda Naval Center where he had that surgery, and they said they can't comment because of privacy laws.
VELSHI: All right. Do we -- is this the kind of thing where routine surgery goes wrong because of nicking something? Is that something we hear a lot about?
COHEN: You know, it's a rare complication --
VELSHI: Yes.
COHEN: -- of gallbladder removal surgery.
VELSHI: Sure.
COHEN: Most people get through it just fine. But it does happen.
VELSHI: Yes.
COHEN: And if you look on any -- you know, Mayo Clinic, any Web site where they list the possible complications --
VELSHI: Right. It is --
COHEN: -- that is one of them. I mean, you've instruments in there in your gut.
VELSHI: Yesterday you told us about a very interesting story, this outbreak of mumps with more people in this -- in this community in New York, having -- getting mumps than we usually get across the country in one year. And I think the number was somewhere around 400 people yesterday. That's increased dramatically.
COHEN: Right. It's increased dramatically. So we're now looking at probably close to 1,000 cases --
VELSHI: Wow.
COHEN: So in the United States, you get maybe -- I don't know -- 200, 300 cases a year as a total in the country.
VELSHI: Yes.
COHEN: So to have more than 1,000 cases in one outbreak. It's an outbreak that has gone through New Jersey, in New York, in the city, and also upstate New York, in a relatively insular group of religious Jews --
VELSHI: Right, right.
COHEN: -- and who sort of stick together, and that virus just seems to have circulated.
VELSHI: Are these kids not vaccinated? Is that what it is?
COHEN: Most of them were vaccinated.
VELSHI: OK.
COHEN: So most of them were fully vaccinated. Some of them weren't.
VELSHI: I see.
COHEN: But it doesn't seem -- you know, some religious communities don't vaccinate.
VELSHI: Right.
COHEN: But this does not seem to be the case with this group.
VELSHI: I see. So for the moment, this isn't a reason for people, parents around the country to be panicking?
COHEN: Right. You don't need to be panicked. And if you're in this group --
VELSHI: Yes.
COHEN: -- you certainly want to be careful. Mumps usually doesn't kill kids.
VELSHI: Right.
COHEN: I mean, that's obviously good to hear. It can in rare cases. But if you're outside this community, you really don't have much to worry about.
VELSHI: All right, very good. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you very much for that update on a few stories that we've been following. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to check in with Ivan Watson on what is going on in Iran. This is a very, very important week in Iran. Ivan's got the update, and we're going to tell you how -- why it matters when we come back. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We all understand that there are legitimate and genuine differences between the parties. But despite the political posturing that often paralyzes this town, there are many issues upon which we can and should agree.
That's what the American people are demanding of us. And I think they're tired of every day being election day in Washington. And at this critical time in our country, the people that sent us here expect a seriousness of purpose that transcends petty politics.
That's why I'm going to continue to seek the best ideas from either party as we work to tackle the pressing challenges ahead. I am confident, for example, that when one of -- one in ten of our fellow citizens can't work, we should be able to come together and help business create more jobs.
We ought to be able to agree on providing small businesses with additional tax credits and much-needed lines of credits. And we ought to agree on investments in crumbling roads and bridges. And we should agree on tax breaks for making homes more energy efficient, all of which will put more --
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We all understand that there are legitimate and genuine differences between the parties. But despite the political posturing that often paralyzes this town, there are many issues upon which we can and should agree.
That's what the American people are demanding of us. I think they're tired of every day being Election Day in Washington. And at this critical time in our country, the people who sent us here expect a seriousness of purpose that transcends petty politics.
That's why I'm going to continue to seek the best ideas from either party as we work to tackle the pressing challenges ahead.
I am confident, for example, that when one of -- one in 10 of our fellow citizens can't work, we should be able to come together and help business create more jobs. We ought to be able to agree on providing small businesses with additional tax credits and much-needed lines of credits. And we ought to agree on investments in crumbling roads and bridges, and we should agree on tax breaks for making homes more energy efficient, all of which will put more Americans to work.
Many of the job proposals that I've laid out have passed the House and are soon going to be debated in the Senate. We spent a lot of time in this meeting discussing a jobs package and how we can move forward on that. And if there are additional ideas, I will consider them as well.
What I won't consider is doing nothing in the face of a lot of hardship across the country.
We also talked about restoring fiscal responsibility. There are a few matters on which there is as much vigorous bipartisan agreement, at least in public, but unfortunately there's also a lot of partisan wrangling behind closed doors.
This is what we know for sure: For us to solve this extraordinary problem that is so many years in the making, it's going to take the cooperation of both parties. It's not going to happen in any other way.
I'm pleased that Congress supported my request to restore the pay-as-you-go rule, which was instrumental in turning deficits into surpluses during the 1990s. I've also called for a bipartisan fiscal commission.
Unfortunately, this measure, which originally had received the support of a bipartisan majority in the Senate and was co-sponsored by Senators Conrad and Gregg, Democrats and Republicans, was blocked there. So, I'm going to be creating this commission by executive order.
And during our meeting, I asked the leadership of both parties to join in this serious effort to address our long-term deficits, because when the politics is put aside, the reality of our fiscal challenge is not subject to interpretation. Math is not partisan.
There ought to be a debate about how to close our deficits. What we can't accept is business as usual. And we can't afford grandstanding at the expense of actually getting something done.
During our meeting, we also touched briefly on how we can move forward on health reform. I've already announced that in two weeks I'll be holding a meeting with people from both parties.
And, as I told the congressional leadership, I'm looking forward to a constructive debate, with plans that need to be measured against this test: Does it bring down costs for all Americans, as well as for the federal government, which spends a huge amount on health care? Does it provide adequate protection against abuses by the insurance industry? Does it make coverage affordable and available to the tens of millions of working Americans who don't have it right now? And does it help us get on a path of fiscal sustainability?
We also talked about why this is so urgent. Just this week, there was a report that Anthem Blue Cross, which is the largest insurer in the largest state, California, is planning on raising premiums for many individual policyholders by as much as 39 percent.
If we don't act, this is just a preview of coming attractions: Premiums will continue to rise for folks with insurance, millions more will lose their coverage altogether, our deficits will continue to grow larger. And we have an obligation -- both parties -- to tackle this issue in a serious way.
Now, bipartisanship depends on a willingness among both Democrats and Republicans to put aside matters of party for the good of the country.
I won't hesitate to embrace a good idea from my friends in the minority party, but I also won't hesitate to condemn what I consider to be obstinacy that's rooted not in substantive disagreements but in political expedience.
We talked about this as well, particularly when it comes to the confirmation process. You know, I respect the Senate's role to advise and consent, but for months, qualified, noncontroversial nominees for critical positions in government, often positions related to our national security, have been held up despite having overwhelming support.
My nominee for one important job, the head of the General Services Administration, which helps run the government, was denied a vote for nine months. When she finally got a vote on her nomination, she was confirmed 96 to nothing. That's not advise and consent. That's delay and obstruct.
One senator, as you all are aware, had put a hold on every single nominee that we had put forward, due to a dispute over a couple of earmarks in his state.
In our meeting, I asked the congressional leadership to put a stop to these holds in which nominees for critical jobs are denied a vote for months. Surely we can set aside partisanship and do what's traditionally been done to confirm these nominations.
If the Senate does not act -- and I made this very clear -- if the Senate does not act to confirm these nominees, I will consider making several recess appointments during the upcoming recess. Because we can't afford to allow politics to stand in the way of a well- functioning government.
My hope is that this will be the first of a series of meetings that I have with leadership of both parties in Congress. We've got to get past the tired debates that have plagued our politics and left behind nothing but soaring debt and mounting challenges, greater hardships among the American people and extraordinary frustrations among the American people.
Those frustrations are what led me to run for president, and as long as I'm here in Washington I intend to try to make this government work on their behalf.
So, you know, I'm going to take a couple of questions, guys.
QUESTION: Mr. President --
OBAMA: Nate (ph)?
QUESTION: After meeting with you, John Boehner came out and told us, "The House can't pass the health care bill it once passed. The Senate can't pass the health care bill it once passed. Why would we have a conversation about legislation that can't pass?" As a part of that, he said you and your White House and congressional Democrats should start over entirely from scratch on health care reform.
How do you respond? Are you willing to do that?
OBAMA: Well, here's how I responded to John in the meeting, and I've said this publicly before.
There are some core goals that have to be met. We've got to control costs, both for families and businesses, but also for our government. Everybody out there who talks about deficits has to acknowledge that the single biggest driver of our deficits is health care spending. We cannot deal with our deficits and debt long term unless we get a handle on that. So that has to be part of a package.
Number two, we've got to deal with insurance abuses that affect millions of Americans who've got health insurance.
And number three, we've got to make health insurance more available to folks in the individual market, as I just mentioned in California, who are suddenly seeing their premiums go up 39 percent. That applies to the majority of small businesses, as well as sole proprietors. They are struggling.
So I've got these goals.
Now, we have a package as work through the differences between the House and the Senate -- and we'll put it up on a Web site for all to see over a long period of time -- that meets those criteria, meets those goals. But when I was in Baltimore talking to the House Republicans, they indicated, "We can accomplish some of these goals at no cost."
And I said, "Great. Let me see it."
And, you know, I have no interest in doing something that's more expensive and harder to accomplish, if somebody else has an easier way to do it.
So I am going to be starting from scratch in the sense that I will be open to any ideas that help promote these goals.
What I will not do, what I don't think makes sense and I don't think the American people want to see, would be another year of partisan wrangling around these issues, another six months or eight months or nine months worth of hearings in every single committee in the House and the Senate in which there's a lot of posturing.
Let's get the relevant parties together. Let's put the best ideas on the table. My hope is that we can find enough overlap that we can say, "This is the right way to move forward, even if I don't get every single thing that I want."
But here's the point that I made to John Boehner and Mitch McConnell: Bipartisanship can't be that I agree to all of the things that they believe in or want and they agree to none of the things I believe in or want, and that's the price of bipartisanship, right? But that's sometimes the way it gets presented.
Mitch McConnell said something very nice in the meeting about how he supports our goals on nuclear energy and clean coal technology and more drilling to increase oil production. Well, of course he likes that. That's part of the Republican agenda for energy, which I accept.
And I'm willing to move off some of the preferences of my party in order to meet them halfway, but there's got to be some give from their side as well. That's true on health care; that's true on energy; that's true on financial reform. That's what I'm hoping gets accomplished at this summit.
QUESTION: Would you agree that the House and Senate bills can't pass (inaudible)?
OBAMA: What I agree with is that the public has soured on the process that they saw over the past year. I think that actually contaminates how they view the substance of the bills. I think it's important for all of these issues to be aired, so that people have confidence if we're moving forward on such a significant part of the economy as health care that there is complete transparency and all of these issues have been adequately vetted and adequately debated.
And this gives an opportunity not just for Democrats to say, "Here's what we think we should do," but it also gives Republicans a showcase before the entire country to say, "Here's our plan. Here's why we think this'll work."
And, you know, one of the things that John Boehner and Mitch McConnell both said is they didn't think that the status quo was acceptable.
And that's, right there, promising. That indicates that if all sides agree that we can't just continue with business as usual, then maybe we can actually get something done.
QUESTION: Mr. President, one of the reasons Anthem said -- Anthem Blue Cross says that it's raising premiums is because so many people are dropping out of individual coverage because the economy is so bad.
OBAMA: Yes.
QUESTION: And that leaves the people in the pool who are people who need medical care driving up costs.
One of the reasons why businesses are not expanding right now, in addition to some of the credit issues you talked about, at least according to business leaders, is they say there's an uncertainty of what they need to plan for because of the energy bill, because of health care.
That's what they say. I'm not saying it's true or not. But that's what they say.
What do you say when you hear that?
OBAMA: Well, the -- I think that the biggest uncertainty has been we just went through the worst recession since the Great Depression, and people weren't sure whether the financial system was going to melt down and whether we were going to tip into a endless recession.
So let's be clear about the sources of uncertainty in terms of business investment over the last several years: a huge contraction, trillions of dollars of losses in people's 401(k)s, people have a lot of debt coming out of the previous decade that they still haven't worked out, the housing market losing a whole bunch of value.
So the good news is that where we were contracting by 6 percent, the economy is now growing by 6 percent. The CEOs I talk to are saying they are now making investments, and I anticipate that they're going to start hiring at a more rapid clip.
What I've also heard is them saying that, "We would like to feel like Washington is working and able to get some things done."
There are two ways of interpreting the issue of uncertainty.
One way would be to say, "Well, you know what? We'll just go back to what we were doing before on, let's say, the financial markets. We won't have the regulations that we need. We won't make any changes in terms of too-big-to-fail."
That will provide certainty until the next financial crisis. That's not the kind of certainty I think that the financial markets need.
The kind of certainty they need is for us to go ahead and agree on a bipartisan effort to put some rules of the road in place so that consumers are protected in the financial markets, so that we don't have banks that are too big to fail, that we have ways of winding them down and protecting the overall system without taxpayer bailouts.
That requires legislation. The sooner we can get that done, the better.
The same would be true when it comes to health care. A lot of CEOs I hear from will say, "Boy, we'd like you to get health care settled, one way or another," but they will acknowledge that, when they open up their latest invoice for their premiums and they find out that those premiums have gone up 20 percent or 25 percent, that's the kind of uncertainty that also tamps down business investment.
So -- so I guess my answer would be this. The sooner the business community has a sense that we've got our act together here in Washington and can move forward on big, serious issues in a substantive way, without a lot of posturing and partisan wrangling, I think the better off the entire country's going to be. I absolutely agree on that.
What I think is important is not to buy into this notion that is perpetrated by some of the business interests that got a stake in this, who are fighting financial reform, for example, to say, "Boy, we'd be doing fine if we just didn't try to regulate the banks." That, I think, would be a mistake.
QUESTION: But just to play devil's advocate on that, a small business, let's say -- not somebody who's going to be affected by the regulatory reform, a small business -- you have proposed, you would acknowledge, a bold agenda, and a small business might wonder, "I don't know how the energy bill is going to affect me. I don't know how the health care reform bill is going to affect me. I better hold off on hiring."
OBAMA: Yes, the small businesses that I talk to -- and I've been talking to a lot of them as I've been traveling around the country over the last several months -- their biggest problem is right now they can't get credit out of their banks, so they're uncertain about that. And they're still uncertain about orders. You know, do they just have enough customers to justify them doing more?
It's looking better at this point, but that's not the rationale for people saying, "I'm not hiring."
Let me put it this way. Most small businesses, right now -- if they've got enough customers to make a profit and they can get the bank loans required to boost their payroll, boost their inventory and sell to the customers, they will do so, OK?
Let's see. Let's get -- let's get a print guy here.
QUESTION: You heard McConnell talk about nuclear power, offshore drilling, free trade. That's a lot of Republican stuff. Is your party going to go for that if you decide to support that kind of thing?
OBAMA: You know, I -- I think that on energy, there should be a bipartisan agreement that we have to take a both/and approach rather than either/or approach.
What do I mean by that? I am very firm in my conviction that the country that leads the way in clean energy -- solar, wind, biodiesel, geothermal -- that country is going to win the race in the 21st- century global economy. So we have to move in that direction.
What is also true is that, given our energy needs in order to continue economic growth, produce jobs, make sure our businesses are competitive around the world, that we're going to need some of the old traditional energy sources as we're developing these new ones and ramping them up. So we can't overnight convert to an all-solar or an all-wind economy. That just can't happen. We're going to have needs in these traditional sources.
And so the question then is are we going to be able to put together a -- a package that includes safe, secure nuclear power, that includes new technologies so that we can use coal -- which we have in abundance and it's very cheap, but often is -- is adding to our greenhouse gases? Can we find sequestration technologies that clean that up?
Look, can we identify opportunities to increase our oil and natural gas production in a way that is environmentally sustainable? And that should be part of a package with our development of clean energy.
And, you know, my hope is that when my Republican friends, but also Democrats, say to themselves, "Let's be practical, and let's do both, let's not just do one or the other, let's do both," over time I think the transition is going to be more and more clean energy, and over time fossil fuels become less prominent in our overall energy mix.
But we've got to do both.
QUESTION: How confident are you that there will be that kind of consensus for that double-edged approach?
OBAMA: Well, I am just a eternal optimist.
(LAUGHTER)
And so, it's the right thing to do. And -- and all I can do is just to keep on making the argument about what's right for the country and assume that over time people, regardless of party, regardless of their particular political positions, are going to gravitate toward the truth.
OK?
I'm going to take two more. Let's see.
(CROSSTALK)
OBAMA: Well, I just wanted to make sure that I was getting a balance here, you know. So --
(CROSSTALK)
OBAMA: Go ahead, Jack (ph).
(CROSSTALK)
OBAMA: Why is everybody blowing their top?
QUESTION: He's too good. His questions are too precise. (LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: Iran: We got the news today that they're doing more of these -- trying to enhance (inaudible) this uranium even more. Obviously, Secretary Gates today in Paris today was quoted as saying basically that the dialogue seems to be over; now the question is sanctions.
Where -- where are we on sanctions? How close is this? I know you had sort of an end-of-the-year deadline when you stood up there with -- with Sarkozy and Brown. It's now February. How quickly is this moving along?
OBAMA: Well, it's moving along fairly quickly.
I think that we have bent over backwards to say to the Islamic Republic of Iran that we are willing to have a constructive conversation about how they can align themselves with international norms and rules and reenter as full members of the international community.
The most obvious attempt was when we gave them an offer that said we are going to provide the conversion of some of the low-enriched uranium that they already have into the -- into the isotopes that they need for their medical research and for hospitals that would serve up to a million Iranian citizens.
They rejected it. Although one of the difficulties in dealing with Iran over the last several months is it's not always clear who's speaking on behalf of the government, and we get a lot of different, mixed signals.
But what's clear is is that they have not said yes to an agreement that Russia, China, Germany, France, Great Britain and the United States all said was a good deal and that the director of the IAEA said was the right thing to do and that Iran should accept.
That indicates to us that, despite their posturing that their nuclear power is only for -- for civilian use, that they, in fact, continue to pursue a course that would lead to weaponization, and that is not acceptable to the international community, not just to the United States.
So what we've said from the start was, we're moving on dual tracks. If you want to accept the kinds of agreements with the international community that lead you down a path of -- of being a member of good standing, then we welcome you.
QUESTION: Haven't they --
OBAMA: If not --
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: -- responded, though? I mean, by deciding to do what they did with these -- (CROSSTALK)
OBAMA: Well, I'm getting to that.
QUESTION: OK.
OBAMA: And if not, then the next step is sanctions.
They have made their choice so far, although the door is still open. And what we are going to be working on over the next several weeks is developing a significant regime of sanctions that will indicate to them how isolated they are from the international community as a whole.
QUESTION: What do mean by "regime of sanctions"?
OBAMA: Well, meaning that there's going to be a --
QUESTION: Some will be U.N., then some will be --
OBAMA: We are going to be looking at a variety of ways in which countries indicate to Iran that their approach is unacceptable. And it will -- the U.N. will be one aspect of that broader effort.
QUESTION: China will be there, you're confident?
OBAMA: Well, the -- we are confident right now that the international community is unified around Iran's misbehavior in this area. How China operates at the Security Council as we pursue sanctions is something that we're going to have to see.
One thing I'm pleased about is to see how forward-leaning the Russians have been on this issue. I think they clearly have seen that Iran hasn't been serious about solving what is a solvable dispute between Iran and the international community.
All right, I'm going -- I'm going to make this the last question, and I'll take somebody from back --
QUESTION: Me?
OBAMA: Yes.
QUESTION: Thanks for doing this. It's been a while.
(LAUGHTER)
On health care, the Republicans are asking whether the February 25th session will include economists and public interest groups and people supporting your side, or will it just be the members of Congress.
And on Anthem Blue Cross, do you have the authority to go in and tell a private company they can't charge that? How will you stop them? OBAMA: Well, I don't have the authority, as I understand it. I can't simply issue an executive order lowering everybody's rates. If I could, I would have done that already and saved myself a lot of grief on Capitol Hill. That's why reform is so important. That's why the status quo is unacceptable.
But, you know, there is no shortcut in dealing with this issue. You know, I know the American people get frustrated in debating something like health care, because you get a whole bunch of different claims being made by different groups and different interests.
It is a big complicated, tough issue, but what is also true is that, without some action on the part of Congress, it is very unlikely that we see any improvement over the current trajectory. And the current trajectory is premiums keep on going up 10, 15, 20, 30 percent. The current trajectory is more and more people are losing health care.
I don't know if people noted, because, during the health care debate, everybody was saying, "The president's trying to take over -- a government takeover of health care." I don't know if anybody noticed that, for the first time this year, you saw more people getting health care from government than you did from the private sector; not because of anything we did, but because more and more people are losing their health care from their employers. It's becoming unaffordable.
That's what we're trying to prevent. We want people to be able to get health care from their employers, but we also understand that you've got to fix the system so that people are able to get it at affordable rates and small businesses can afford to give their employees insurance at an affordable rate. And that's not happening right now.
To your question about the 25th, you know, my hope is that this doesn't end up being political theater, as I think some of you have phrased it. I want a substantive discussion.
You know, we haven't refined exactly how the agenda's going to go that day. We want to talk with both Democratic and Republican leaders to find out what they think would be most useful.
I do want to make sure that there are some people like the Congressional Budget Office, for example, that are considered nonpartisan, who can answer questions.
I'm -- in this whole health care debate, I am reminded of the story that was told about Senator Moynihan, who was, I guess, in an argument with one of his colleagues, and his colleague was losing the argument. So he got a little flustered and said to Senator Moynihan, "Well, I'm entitled to my own opinion." And Senator Moynihan said, "Well, you're entitled to your own opinion, but you're not entitled to your own facts."
I think that's the key to a successful dialogue on the 25th around health care. Let's establish some common facts. Let's establish what the issues are, what the problems are, and let's test out in front of the American people what ideas work and what ideas don't. And, you know, if we can establish that -- that factual accuracy about how different approaches would work, then I think we can make some progress.
And it may be that some of the facts that come up are ones that make my party a little bit uncomfortable. So, you know, if -- if it's established that by working seriously on medical malpractice and tort reform that we can reduce some of those costs, I've said from the beginning of this debate I'd be willing to work on that.
On the other hand, if I'm told that that is only a fraction of the problem and that is not the biggest driver of health care costs, then I'm also going to insist, "OK, let's look at that as one aspect of it, but what else are we willing to do?"
And this is where it gets back to the point I was making earlier. Bipartisan cannot mean simply that Democrats give up everything that they believe in, find the handful of things that Republicans have been advocating for and we do those things, and then we have bipartisanship. That's -- that -- you know, that's not how it works, you know, in -- in any other realm of life. That's certainly not how it works in my marriage with Michelle, although I usually do give in, most of the time, but the --
(LAUGHTER)
There's got to be some give and take, and that's what I'm hoping can be accomplished. And I'm confident that's what the American people are looking for.
So, all right?
(CROSSTALK)
OBAMA: OK. Since there wasn't a jobs question, I'll make this the last one.
Jobs question?
QUESTION: At the stakeout, the Republicans were saying, "Well, the jobs package we've seen is not really ready yet, we're a little worried about the cost." Are you satisfied that there is something that can be quickly moved through Congress on jobs?
OBAMA: Well, my understanding is, first of all, the House has moved forward a jobs package that has some good elements in it. My understanding is is that there is bipartisan talks taking place as we speak on the Senate side about some elements of a package.
I think there's some things that a lot of people agree on. Just to give you an example, the idea of eliminating capital gains for small businesses; something we can all agree on. I talked about it at the State of the Union address.
My hope would be that we would all agree on a mechanism to get community banks who are lending to small businesses more capital, because that is something that I keep on hearing is one of the biggest problems that small businesses have out there.
So I think that it's realistic for us to get a package moving quickly that may not include all the things I think need to be done, and it may be that that first package builds some trust and confidence that Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill can work together, and then we move on to the next aspect of the package, and so forth.
You know, it may take a series of incremental steps, but the one thing I'm absolutely clear about is, is that we've got an economy that's growing right now, a huge boost in productivity. That's the good news.
The bad news is, is that companies still haven't taken that final step in actually putting people on their payroll full time. We're seeing an increase in temporary workers, but they haven't yet taken on that -- that full-time worker.
And so providing some additional impetus to them, right as the economy is moving in a positive direction, I think can end up yielding some good results.
All right?
(CROSSTALK)
OBAMA: Thank you, guys. That was pretty good.
