Remarks by the President on the Status of Debt Ceiling Negotiations

Release Time: 
For Immediate Release

Diplomatic Reception Room

10:36 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Good morning, everybody.  I want to speak about the ongoing and increasingly urgent efforts to avoid default and reduce our deficit.

Right now, the House of Representatives is still trying to pass a bill that a majority of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have already said they won’t vote for.  It’s a plan that would force us to re-live this crisis in just a few short months, holding our economy captive to Washington politics once again.  In other words, it does not solve the problem, and it has no chance of becoming law.  

What’s clear now is that any solution to avoid default must be bipartisan.  It must have the support of both parties that were sent here to represent the American people -– not just one faction.  It will have to have the support of both the House and the Senate.  And there are multiple ways to resolve this problem.  Senator Reid, a Democrat, has introduced a plan in the Senate that contains cuts agreed upon by both parties.  Senator McConnell, a Republican, offered a solution that could get us through this.  There are plenty of modifications we can make to either of these plans in order to get them passed through both the House and the Senate and would allow me to sign them into law.  And today I urge Democrats and Republicans in the Senate to find common ground on a plan that can get support -- that can get support from both parties in the House –- a plan that I can sign by Tuesday. 

Now, keep in mind, this is not a situation where the two parties are miles apart.  We’re in rough agreement about how much spending can be cut responsibly as a first step toward reducing our deficit.  We agree on a process where the next step is a debate in the coming months on tax reform and entitlement reform –- and I’m ready and willing to have that debate.  And if we need to put in place some kind of enforcement mechanism to hold us all accountable for making these reforms, I’ll support that too if it’s done in a smart and balanced way.   

So there are plenty of ways out of this mess.  But we are almost out of time.  We need to reach a compromise by Tuesday so that our country will have the ability to pay its bills on time, as we always have -- bills that include monthly Social Security checks, veterans’ benefits and the government contracts we’ve signed with thousands of businesses.  Keep in mind, if we don’t do that, if we don’t come to an agreement, we could lose our country’s AAA credit rating, not because we didn’t have the capacity to pay our bills -- we do -- but because we didn’t have a AAA political system to match our AAA credit rating.

And make no mistake -– for those who say they oppose tax increases on anyone, a lower credit rating would result potentially in a tax increase on everyone in the form of higher interest rates on their mortgages, their car loans, their credit cards.  And that’s inexcusable.

There are a lot of crises in the world that we can’t always predict or avoid -– hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, terrorist attacks.  This isn’t one of those crises.  The power to solve this is in our hands.  And on a day when we’ve been reminded how fragile the economy already is, this is one burden we can lift ourselves.   We can end it with a simple vote –- a vote that Democrats and Republicans have been taking for decades, a vote that the leaders in Congress have taken for decades.

It’s not a vote that allows Congress to spend more money.  Raising the debt ceiling simply gives our country the ability to pay the bills that Congress has already racked up.  I want to emphasize that.  The debt ceiling does not determine how much more money we can spend, it simply authorizes us to pay the bills we already have racked up.  It gives the United States of America the ability to keep its word. 

Now, on Monday night, I asked the American people to make their voice heard in this debate, and the response was overwhelming.  So please, to all the American people, keep it up.  If you want to see a bipartisan compromise -– a bill that can pass both houses of Congress and that I can sign -- let your members of Congress know.  Make a phone call.  Send an email.  Tweet.  Keep the pressure on Washington, and we can get past this.

And for my part, our administration will be continuing to work with Democrats and Republicans all weekend long until we find a solution.  The time for putting party first is over.  The time for compromise on behalf of the American people is now.  And I am confident that we can solve this problem.  I’m confident that we will solve this problem.  For all the intrigue and all the drama that’s taking place on Capitol Hill right now, I’m confident that common sense and cooler heads will prevail.

But as I said earlier, we are now running out of time.  It’s important for everybody to step up and show the leadership that the American people expect.

Thank you. 

END
10:42 A.M. EDT

Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/07/29/remarks-president-status-debt-ceiling-negotiations

arnold schwarzenegger quotes arnold schwarzenegger hight arnold schwarzenegger hieght arnold schwarzenegger height

Huntsman praises House for debt vote, dings rivals (AP)

AP - Presidential contender Jon Huntsman is praising his Republican Party's House members who hours earlier passed a hike to the nation's debt limit and says he alone among the White House field supported the plan.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110730/ap_on_el_ge/us_debt_showdown_huntsman

obama barack speech obama family email obama obama email

Vets with PTSD, government reach settlement (AP)

AP - More than a thousand Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder would be given lifetime disability retirement benefits such as military health insurance under the terms of a settlement reached between the government and the veterans.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/usmilitary/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110729/ap_on_re_us/us_veterans_lawsuit

politic news ndtv news canada news the latest news

Latest developments in debt ceiling standoff (AP)

AP - Congress has until Aug. 2 to raise the federal borrowing limit or the government will run out of money and possibly default on its debt. House Republicans say they won't raise the debt limit without equal spending cuts. President Barack Obama and Democrats have insisted that higher revenues must be included.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110729/ap_on_go_co/us_debt_showdown_daily_summary

new news sports cnn

Background on President Obama?s Address at NCLR Annual Conference Luncheon

Release Time: 
For Immediate Release

President Obama will address the largest nationalLatino civil rights and advocacy organization in America at their Annual Conference luncheon on Monday July 25th in Washington, DC. More than 25,000 participants are expected at NCLR’s Annual Conference and Latino Family Expo from July 23rd through 26th. In his remarks, the President will address what it will take to make sure that America remains a place where opportunity is open to all who work for it, and how the American family will only be as strong as our growing Hispanic community. The President’s keynote address comes just two weeks after the White House hosted a Hispanic Policy Conference that brought together 160 community leaders and local elected officials from 25 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia with more than 100 White House and Cabinet officials for an in-depth series of interactive workshops and substantive conversations on the Administration’s efforts as they relate to the Hispanic community.NCLR will stream the President’s remarks live at http://www.livestream.com/nclrannualconference at 12:30 PM ET.

Census numbers recently confirmed that the Hispanic population in America has reached 50 million. Additionally, 1 in 5 students in America’s K-12 schools are Hispanic, so the success of our nation and the success of the Hispanic community are one and the same. The White House recently issued a report, “Winning the Future: President Obama’s Agenda and the Hispanic Community,” which can be found on whitehouse.gov/hispanic.

Inaddition to the President’s speech, other Administration officials are also participating in the three day conference, including Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack who joined local, state and community partners at the National Council of La Raza Annual Conference on Sunday July 24th to discuss federal efforts to combat hunger and poor nutrition in the Hispanic community through USDA’s nutrition assistance programs.  Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar addressed the opening dinner of the Annual Conference’s youth leaders summit.

Other Administration officials who participated in events, panels and workshops at NCLR’s Annual Conference included:

  • Alejandro Mayorkas, Director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Department of Homeland Security
  • Cecilia Munoz, Director, White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs
  • Ana Harvey, Director, SBA Office of Women’s Business Ownership
  • Bruce Friedman, Senior Policy Advisor, Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Department of Homeland Security
  • Jennifer Sultan, Acting  Special Policy Counsel, Office of Special Counsel for Immigration related Unfair Employment Practices, Department of Justice
  • Mariela Melero, Chief of the Office of Public Engagement, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Department of Homeland Security
  • Sharon Yandian, Early Language Specialist, Office of Head Start, Administration for Children and families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
  • Tom Perez, Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division, US Department of Justice
  • Dr. Gabriela Lemus, Director, Office of Public Engagement, U.S. Department of Labor
  • Francisco Sanchez, Undersecretary of Commerce, U.S. Department of Commerce
  • Dr. Garth Graham, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Minority Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
  • Lisa Pino, Deputy Administrator, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
  • Rebecca Cokley, White House Office of Presidential Personnel
  • Richard Katskee, Deputy Director of the Program Legal Group, Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education
  • Cindy Mann, Deputy Director and Administrator, Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
  • Helen Morrison, Deputy Benefits Counsel, U.S. Department of the Treasury
  • Joel Ario, Director, Office of Health Insurance Exchanges, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Other Conferences

Administration officials have also participated at other Hispanic conferences throughout the summer. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar delivered a keynote speech at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials’ (NALEO) 28th Annual Conference in June in San Antonio, Texas, and other officials participated in forums and panel discussions at the conference including Margo Schlanger, Director of the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the Department of Homeland Security; Juan Sepulveda, Director of the White House Initiative for Educational Excellence for Hispanics; Stephanie Valencia, Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement; and Elmy Bermejo, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs for the Department of Labor.

Also in June, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius participated in the League of United Latin American Citizens’s (LULAC) annual National Convention and Exposition in Cincinnati.  Alejandro Mayorkas, Director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Tom Perrelli, Associate Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice were among the speakers at roundtable discussions and seminars at that convention.

Commencement Addresses at Hispanic-Serving Institutions

The President and Administration officials also traveled across the country this year to speak at commencement ceremonies at Hispanic-Serving Institutions, colleges and universities that have at least a 25% Hispanic student enrollment. The President introduced the American Graduation Initiative, a historic initiative to strengthen our nation’s community colleges where many Hispanic students earn their first college degree or receive job training to increase their skills, and called for five million additional graduates by 2020. The President’s goal cannot be met without improving educational attainment among Hispanic students. The Health Care and Education Reconcilliation Act the President signed into law also invested more than $1 billion in Hispanic Serving Institutions over the next decade. More than half of America’s Hispanic undergraduates atted a Hispanic-Serving Institution. The commencement speeches included:

  • President Obama at Miami Dade College, Miami, FL, March 13, 2011
  • Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius at the University of Texas, San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, May 6, 2011
  • U.S. Treasurer Rosie Rios at Bergen Community College, Paramus, NJ, May 19, 2011
  • Assistant Secretary of the Navy Juan Garcia at Cal State Long Beach, Long Beach, CA, May 25, 2011
  • Deputy Assistant Secretary Frank Chong at Morton College, Chicago, IL, May 20, 2011
  • Stephanie Valencia, Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, at Merced College, Merced, CA, May 27, 2011
  • Juan Sepulveda, Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, at St. Philip's College, San Antonio, TX, May 6, 2011
  • Juan Sepulveda, Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, July 9, 2011
  • Ray Rivera, Director of External and Intergovernmental Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior, at Dona Ana Community College, Las Cruces, NM, May 6, 2011
  • Steve Robinson, Special Advisor to Secretary Duncan, U.S. Department of Education, University of Texas-Pan American, Edinburg, TX, May 14, 2011

For more infomation on these events and to learn more about the Administration’s engagement with the Hispanic community,  please visit www.whitehouse.gov/hispanic.

Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/07/25/background-president-obama-s-address-nclr-annual-conference-luncheon

arnold schwarzenegger filmography arnold schwarzenegger governator photos of arnold schwarzenegger schwarzeneggers