From the Barack Obama twitter feed:
From OFA Director Mitch Stewart:
If we don't pass health reform, millions of Americans will be trapped in a broken status quo, unable to pay their bills or see a doctor when they need one.More and more employers will drop coverage for employees. And Medicare and Medicaid will blow a hole through our budget.There's too much at stake not to get this done. That's why, as of this morning, OFA supporters have made 849,856 calls to Congress in support of health reform since August.And that's why today, with the Senate locked in last-minute negotiations, our goal is to hit one million calls.Can you help? Please call your senators now and help "ring in reform." This holiday season, millions of Americans will go without desperately needed care simply because they can't afford insurance.But insurance lobbyists are desperate to pull apart the bill and derail reform, so your voice is needed now.Just call your senators' offices, then tell the staffers who answer where you live -- so that they know you are a constituent -- and that you support reform.Click here to make sure you call is counted in the race to a million.Thanks for standing up,MitchMitch StewartDirectorOrganizing for America
If we don't pass health reform, millions of Americans will be trapped in a broken status quo, unable to pay their bills or see a doctor when they need one.More and more employers will drop coverage for employees. And Medicare and Medicaid will blow a hole through our budget.There's too much at stake not to get this done. That's why, as of this morning, OFA supporters have made 849,856 calls to Congress in support of health reform since August.And that's why today, with the Senate locked in last-minute negotiations, our goal is to hit one million calls.Can you help? Please call your senators now and help "ring in reform."
This holiday season, millions of Americans will go without desperately needed care simply because they can't afford insurance.But insurance lobbyists are desperate to pull apart the bill and derail reform, so your voice is needed now.Just call your senators' offices, then tell the staffers who answer where you live -- so that they know you are a constituent -- and that you support reform.Click here to make sure you call is counted in the race to a million.Thanks for standing up,MitchMitch StewartDirectorOrganizing for America
Earlier today President Obama hosted what he described as a "very productive" meeting with Democratic Senators on the final stages of health care reform. Following the meeting, the President spoke briefly to the press on the current state of the debate:
There are still some differences that have to be worked on. This was not a roll call. This was a broad-based discussion about how we move forward. But whatever differences remain, there is broad consensus around reforms that will finally, number one, protect every American from the worst practices in the health insurance industry. No longer will these companies be able to deny you coverage if you have a preexisting illness or condition. No longer will they be able to drop you from coverage when you get sick. No longer will you have to pay unlimited amounts out of your own pocket for the treatments that you need. We are all in agreement on those reforms.We agree on reforms that will finally reduce the costs of health care. Families will save on their premiums; businesses that will see their costs rise if we do nothing will save money now and in the future. This plan will strengthen Medicare and extend the life of that program. And because it gets rid of the waste and inefficiencies in our health care system, this will be the largest deficit reduction plan in over a decade....These aren't small changes. These are big changes. They represent the most significant reform of our health care system since the passage of Medicare. They will save money. They will save families money; they will save businesses money; and they will save government money. And they're going to save lives. That's why this reform is supported by groups like the AARP who represents most of America's seniors. That's why this reform has to pass on our watch.Now, let's be clear. The final bill won't include everything that everybody wants. No bill can do that. But what I told my former colleagues today is that we simply cannot allow differences over individual elements of this plan to prevent us from meeting our responsibility to solve a longstanding and urgent problem for the American people. They are waiting for us to act. They are counting on us to show leadership. And I don't intend to let them down, and neither do the people standing next to me. There's too much at stake for families who can't pay their medical bills, or see a doctor when they need to, or get the treatment they need. The stakes are enormous for them....So there are still disagreements that have to be ironed out. There is still work to be done in the next few days... [But] I am absolutely confident that if the American people know what's in this bill and if the Senate knows what's in this bill that this is going to pass, because it's right for America. And I'm feeling cautiously optimistic that we can get this done and start rolling up our sleeves and getting to work improving the lives of the American people.
Read the President's full remarks . . .
President Obama sat down for an interview with 60 Minutes recently, which airs tonight. The President discusses his plans for Afghanistan, the economy, jobs and financial reglatory reform. In a preview of the interview, CBS News reports:
President Obama is irked by the idea that bankers at companies that the U.S. government propped up with loans and policy only months ago will still get massive annual bonuses...."I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street," Obama says.
Check your local listings for time and channel.
Addisu Demissie, National Political Director for Organizing for America, sat down to give a quick update on the progress towards health reform and the work supporters have done so far to get us to where we are today:
This year, when you're writing holiday cards to your friends and loved ones, there are two more people who need to hear from you: your Senators . With the Senate deep in final negotiations -- and a compromise just introduced that increases choice and drives costs down -- your senators need to understand how urgent reform really is. So we've come up with a unique way for you to get the message across -- by sending your senators a card with your holiday wish for the season. Send a holiday card to your senators, telling them that your wish this season is for them to pass health insurance reform. Since the full Senate began debating reform just over two weeks ago, approximately 224,000 Americans have lost their health insurance, while spiraling costs have forced countless more into bankruptcy or foreclosure. That's a big number -- it's as many people as live in a city like Baton Rouge, and more than live in Reno. This crisis affects everyone in our community. It could be a father down the street who now won't be able to pay for care when his son breaks his leg playing soccer, or a daughter who must watch helplessly as her newly-uninsured mother gets a breast cancer diagnosis she can't afford to treat. Every day brings thousands more stories of heartbreak and struggle that just shouldn't be in a nation as blessed as ours. So please take a moment to cut through the noise in D.C. with your simple holiday wish: affordable, quality health care for every American family. Send your holiday card for health reform today. Thanks, Mitch Mitch Stewart Director Organizing for America
This year, when you're writing holiday cards to your friends and loved ones, there are two more people who need to hear from you: your Senators . With the Senate deep in final negotiations -- and a compromise just introduced that increases choice and drives costs down -- your senators need to understand how urgent reform really is. So we've come up with a unique way for you to get the message across -- by sending your senators a card with your holiday wish for the season. Send a holiday card to your senators, telling them that your wish this season is for them to pass health insurance reform.
"Somewhere today, in the here and now, in the world as it is, a soldier sees he's outgunned, but stands firm to keep the peace. Somewhere today, in this world, a young protestor awaits the brutality of her government, but has the courage to march on. Somewhere today, a mother facing punishing poverty still takes the time to teach her child, scrapes together what few coins she has to send that child to school -- because she believes that a cruel world still has a place for that child's dreams. Let us live by their example." -- President Obama
President Obama traveled to Oslo, Norway, to accept the Nobel Peace Prize this morning. In his speech, he described the Nobel Peace Prize as "an award that speaks to our highest aspirations," proof that, "our actions matter, and can bend history in the direction of justice." But the President also acknowledged that, even as he receives this prize, he is the Commander-in-Chief of the military of a nation in the midst of two wars:
One of these wars is winding down. The other is a conflict that America did not seek; one in which we are joined by 42 other countries -- including Norway -- in an effort to defend ourselves and all nations from further attacks.Still, we are at war, and I'm responsible for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle in a distant land. Some will kill, and some will be killed. And so I come here with an acute sense of the costs of armed conflict -- filled with difficult questions about the relationship between war and peace, and our effort to replace one with the other....I do not bring with me today a definitive solution to the problems of war. What I do know is that meeting these challenges will require the same vision, hard work, and persistence of those men and women who acted so boldly decades ago. And it will require us to think in new ways about the notions of just war and the imperatives of a just peace.We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth: We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations -- acting individually or in concert -- will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified.I make this statement mindful of what Martin Luther King Jr. said in this same ceremony years ago: "Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones." As someone who stands here as a direct consequence of Dr. King's life work, I am living testimony to the moral force of non-violence. I know there's nothing weak -- nothing passive -- nothing na-- in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King.But as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation, I cannot be guided by their examples alone. I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism -- it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.
Despite these harsh realities, President Obama concluded with a call to "reach for the world that ought to be."
We can acknowledge that oppression will always be with us, and still strive for justice. We can admit the intractability of depravation, and still strive for dignity. Clear-eyed, we can understand that there will be war, and still strive for peace. We can do that -- for that is the story of human progress; that's the hope of all the world; and at this moment of challenge, that must be our work here on Earth.
Read the full remarks . . .
Over the past week, much of the health reform debate in the Senate has centered around Medicare -- from proposed savings and reforms, to the possibility of allowing more Americans to "buy in" to the program at an earlier age. Yesterday, the White House released a video message from Vice President Joe Biden, in which he discussed the Democratic Party's history of fighting for Medicare, from it's inception under Lyndon Johnson to the present day.
"It's kind of an irony now, that all those who are the successors of the people who opposed the creation of Medicare, who have tried for years to let it whiter on the vine, are now saying to you that they are going to protect it....After all these years of defending Medicare, I'm not about to do anything to weaken it, to reduce your benefits, or to hurt the integrity of the Medicare Trust Fund."
Earlier today, President Obama sent the following message to OFA supporters:
As we head into the final stretch on health reform, big insurance company lobbyists and their partisan allies hope that their relentless attacks and millions of dollars can intimidate us into accepting the status quo.So I have a message for them, from all of us: Not this time. We have come too far. We will not turn back. We will not back down.But do not doubt -- the opponents of reform will not rest. So I need you, the members of Organizing for America, to fight alongside me.We must continue to build out our campaign -- to spread the facts on the air and on the ground, and to bring in more volunteers and train them to join the fight. I urgently need your help to keep Organizing for America's 50-state movement for reform going strong.Please donate $5 or whatever you can afford today:https://donate.barackobama.com/FinalStretchLet's win this together,President Barack Obama
This morning, President Obama spoke at the Brookings Institution to announce a set of broad new proposals to spur job growth. The President explained that steps the administration has taken so far have reduced the expected cost of the TARP program by more than $200 billion, providing additional resources that will now be put towards job creation and deficit reduction.In his remarks, the President explained:
Even as the Recovery Act has created jobs and spurred growth, we have not let up in our efforts to take every responsible action to get the economy growing and America working... Partly as a result of these and other steps, we’re in a very different place today than we were a year ago. We can safely say that we are no longer facing the potential collapse of our financial system and we’ve avoided the depression many feared. Our economy is growing for the first time in a year – and the swing from contraction to expansion since the beginning of the year is the largest in nearly three decades. ...But our work is far from done. For even though we have reduced the deluge of job losses to a relative trickle, we are not yet creating jobs at a pace to help all those families who have been swept up in the flood. There are more than seven million fewer Americans with jobs today than when this recession began. That’s a staggering figure and one that reflects not only the depths of the hole from which we must ascend, but also a continuing human tragedy. And it speaks to an urgent need to accelerate job growth in the short term while laying a new foundation for lasting economic growth.
President Obama then outlined three broad steps to accelerate job growth:
First, we’re proposing a series of steps to help small businesses grow and hire new staff. Over the past fifteen years, small businesses have created roughly 65 percent of all new jobs in America. These are companies formed around kitchen tables in family meetings, formed when an entrepreneur takes a chance on a dream, formed when a worker decides its time she became her own boss. These are also companies that drive innovation, producing thirteen times more patents per employee than large companies... That’s why it is so important that we help small business struggling to open, or stay open, during these difficult times. Building on the tax cuts in the Recovery Act, we’re proposing a complete elimination of capital gains taxes on small business investment along with an extension of write-offs to encourage small businesses to expand in the coming year. And I believe it’s worthwhile to create a tax incentive to encourage small businesses to add and keep employees and I’m going to work with Congress to pass one....Second, we’re proposing a boost in investment in the nation’s infrastructure beyond what was included in the Recovery Act, to continue modernizing our transportation and communications networks. These are needed public works that engage private sector companies, spurring hiring across the country. Already, more than 10,000 of these projects have been funded through the Recovery Act... Even so, there are many more worthy projects than there were dollars to fund them. ...Third, I’m calling on Congress to consider a new program to provide incentives for consumers who retrofit their homes to become more energy efficient, which we know creates jobs, saves money for families, and reduces the pollution that threatens our environment. And I’m proposing that we expand select Recovery Act initiatives to promote energy efficiency and clean energy jobs which have proven particularly popular and effective. It’s a positive sign that many of these programs drew so many applicants for funding that a lot of strong proposals – proposals that will leverage private capital and create jobs quickly – did not make the cut. With additional resources, in areas like advanced manufacturing of wind turbines and solar panels, for instance, we can help turn good ideas into good private-sector jobs.Finally, as we are moving forward in these areas, we should also extend the relief in the Recovery Act, including emergency assistance to seniors, unemployment insurance benefits, COBRA, and relief to states and localities to prevent layoffs. This will help folks weathering these storms while boosting consumer spending and promoting jobs.
Read the President's full remarks, as prepared for delivery . . .
President Obama will deliver a speech at the Brookings Institution today, in which he is expected to announce new proposals to accelerate job growth. The speech is scheduled to begin at 11:15 A.M. Eastern, and can be viewed live at WhiteHouse.gov/live.
The Senate concluded its first full week of debate on the health reform bill yesterday -- a busy week that saw lawmakers working through the weekend. In addition to debate, voting began on the first of almost one hundred potential amendments that have been offered up so far. Early amendments covered a range of issues, from preventive care to home health benefits, as well as a proposal by Republicans that would have effectively ended the debate and sent the bill back to committee.
The Democrats.org blog has a post up recapping some of the early action.
With the Senate preparing to enter its second full week of debate on health reform legislation, President Obama made a visit to Capitol Hill today to urge Senate Democrats to seize this moment and answer the call of history. The New York Times reported:
President Obama exhorted Senate Democrats on Sunday to put aside their fierce policy differences and to make history by passing landmark health care legislation.Making a rare Sunday visit to the Capitol as Republicans and Democrats spent the weekend clashing over the health care bill on the Senate floor, Mr. Obama urged the Democrats in a private meeting “to finish the job” and warned that the “most costly outcome for all is a failure to finish,” according to officials in the room.“His message was very simple,” said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the assistant majority leader. “He reminded us why we are here. He reminded us why we run for office. And he reminded us how many people are counting on us to come through.”Mr. Durbin added: “He urged us to get the job done and said he is ready to help us.”
Talking Points Memo added:
A number of senators suggested Obama's remarks provided the party and the legislation with much-needed momentum."I think it helped, more than significantly," said Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT)."I can tell you, it would be very hard to have listened to the president's presentation and not have been persuaded of the historic importance of what's being discussed here," said Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND). "It was a powerful speech."
The Labor Department released its monthly employment survey today, and though the U.S. lost 11,000 jobs in November, that number was nearly 115,000 fewer than was forecast. The overall unemployment rate decreased, and the report found that nearly 160,000 fewer jobs had been lost over the last two months than had been previously thought. The New York Times called this "the strongest employment report since the recession began nearly two years ago."
Speaking at an event in Allentown, Pennsylvania today, President Obama explained:
This is good news, just in time for the season of hope. But I want to keep this in perspective. We still have a long way to go. I still consider one job lost one job too many. And as I said yesterday at a jobs conference in Washington, good trends don't pay the rent. We need to grow jobs and get America back to work as quickly as we can.The journey from here will not be without setbacks or struggle. There will be more bumps in the road. But the direction is clear. When you think about how this year began, today’s report is a welcome sign that there are better days ahead.
This is good news, just in time for the season of hope. But I want to keep this in perspective. We still have a long way to go. I still consider one job lost one job too many. And as I said yesterday at a jobs conference in Washington, good trends don't pay the rent. We need to grow jobs and get America back to work as quickly as we can.
The journey from here will not be without setbacks or struggle. There will be more bumps in the road. But the direction is clear. When you think about how this year began, today’s report is a welcome sign that there are better days ahead.
Following yesterday's White House Forum on Jobs and Growth, the President is scheduled to speak next Tuesday about the proposals he will be sending to Congress to help jumpstart private sector hiring and get Americans back to work.
The Hill:
President Barack Obama backed a push for job creation measures despite long-term concerns about the deficit at a White House jobs summit Thursday. One day ahead of an unemployment report expected to show the jobless rate still in double digits, Obama called on business executives, labor leaders and economic experts who attended the summit to deliver a message to politicians skeptical of more spending. The president argued that the immediate concern for lawmakers should be over unemployment, not curtailing spending and other measures that were aimed at rebuilding the economy. Obama is expected to press for more action on the employment front when he visits Allentown, Pa., for a jobs event Friday and gives a speech on the economy at the Brookings Institution on Tuesday…The White House billed Thursday's "Forum on Jobs & Economic Growth" as a chance for the president to solicit ideas to include in the coming jobs bill. Obama voiced support for a number of ideas, including increased credit for small businesses and fiscal aid for state and local governments… "So we've got about as difficult a economic play as is possible, which is to press the accelerator in terms of job growth, but then know when to apply the brakes in the out years and do that credibly," he said…
President Barack Obama backed a push for job creation measures despite long-term concerns about the deficit at a White House jobs summit Thursday.
One day ahead of an unemployment report expected to show the jobless rate still in double digits, Obama called on business executives, labor leaders and economic experts who attended the summit to deliver a message to politicians skeptical of more spending. The president argued that the immediate concern for lawmakers should be over unemployment, not curtailing spending and other measures that were aimed at rebuilding the economy.
Obama is expected to press for more action on the employment front when he visits Allentown, Pa., for a jobs event Friday and gives a speech on the economy at the Brookings Institution on Tuesday…
The White House billed Thursday's "Forum on Jobs & Economic Growth" as a chance for the president to solicit ideas to include in the coming jobs bill. Obama voiced support for a number of ideas, including increased credit for small businesses and fiscal aid for state and local governments…
"So we've got about as difficult a economic play as is possible, which is to press the accelerator in terms of job growth, but then know when to apply the brakes in the out years and do that credibly," he said…
New York Times editorial:
The health insurance industry frightened Americans — and gave Republicans a shrill talking point — when it declared in October that proposed reform legislation would drive up insurance costs for virtually everyone by as much as thousands of dollars a year. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office persuasively contradicted that claim this week. Undaunted, the industry issued a rebuttal report, claiming again that premiums would soar. We find this second industry report no more persuasive than the first. In its long-awaited study, the C.B.O. estimates that most Americans would pay the same or less in premiums in 2016, after reforms have kicked in, than they would pay under current law. Those who work for large employers (more than 50 workers) would, on average, see their premiums hold steady or drop by up to 3 percent per person covered. Those who work for small employers would also not see much change — anywhere from a 1 percent increase to a 2 percent reduction... ...And we have far more confidence in the C.B.O.’s expertise in evaluating a wide array of databases and in its objectivity. The chief message Americans should derive from the C.B.O.’s analysis is that tens of millions of uninsured Americans can be covered without driving up costs for everyone else.
The health insurance industry frightened Americans — and gave Republicans a shrill talking point — when it declared in October that proposed reform legislation would drive up insurance costs for virtually everyone by as much as thousands of dollars a year. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office persuasively contradicted that claim this week.
Undaunted, the industry issued a rebuttal report, claiming again that premiums would soar. We find this second industry report no more persuasive than the first.
In its long-awaited study, the C.B.O. estimates that most Americans would pay the same or less in premiums in 2016, after reforms have kicked in, than they would pay under current law. Those who work for large employers (more than 50 workers) would, on average, see their premiums hold steady or drop by up to 3 percent per person covered. Those who work for small employers would also not see much change — anywhere from a 1 percent increase to a 2 percent reduction...
...And we have far more confidence in the C.B.O.’s expertise in evaluating a wide array of databases and in its objectivity. The chief message Americans should derive from the C.B.O.’s analysis is that tens of millions of uninsured Americans can be covered without driving up costs for everyone else.
Paul Krugman, New York Times columnist:
Healthcare reform hangs in the balance. Its fate rests with a handful of “centrist” senators — senators who claim to be mainly worried about whether the proposed legislation is fiscally responsible.But if they’re really concerned with fiscal responsibility, they shouldn’t be worried about what would happen if health reform passes. They should, instead, be worried about what would happen if it doesn’t pass. For America can’t get control of its budget without controlling health care costs — and this is our last, best chance to deal with these costs in a rational way...First, the uninsured in America are, on average, relatively young and healthy; covering them wouldn’t raise overall health care costs very much.Second, the proposed health care reform links the expansion of coverage to serious cost-control measures for Medicare. Think of it as a grand bargain: coverage for (almost) everyone, tied to an effort to ensure that health care dollars are well spent.Are we talking about real savings, or just window dressing? Well, the health care economists I respect are seriously impressed by the cost-control measures in the Senate bill, which include efforts to improve incentives for cost-effective care, the use of medical research to guide doctors toward treatments that actually work, and more…The fact that we’re seeing the first really serious attempt to control health care costs as part of a bill that tries to cover the uninsured seems to confirm what would-be reformers have been saying for years: The path to cost control runs through universality. We can only tackle out-of-control costs as part of a deal that also provides Americans with the security of guaranteed health care.
Healthcare reform hangs in the balance. Its fate rests with a handful of “centrist” senators — senators who claim to be mainly worried about whether the proposed legislation is fiscally responsible.
But if they’re really concerned with fiscal responsibility, they shouldn’t be worried about what would happen if health reform passes. They should, instead, be worried about what would happen if it doesn’t pass. For America can’t get control of its budget without controlling health care costs — and this is our last, best chance to deal with these costs in a rational way...
First, the uninsured in America are, on average, relatively young and healthy; covering them wouldn’t raise overall health care costs very much.
Second, the proposed health care reform links the expansion of coverage to serious cost-control measures for Medicare. Think of it as a grand bargain: coverage for (almost) everyone, tied to an effort to ensure that health care dollars are well spent.
Are we talking about real savings, or just window dressing? Well, the health care economists I respect are seriously impressed by the cost-control measures in the Senate bill, which include efforts to improve incentives for cost-effective care, the use of medical research to guide doctors toward treatments that actually work, and more…
The fact that we’re seeing the first really serious attempt to control health care costs as part of a bill that tries to cover the uninsured seems to confirm what would-be reformers have been saying for years: The path to cost control runs through universality. We can only tackle out-of-control costs as part of a deal that also provides Americans with the security of guaranteed health care.
Today's White House Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth is underway now -- you can follow along throughout the afternoon at WhiteHouse.gov/live.
UPDATED: WhiteHouse.gov is currently streaming six different breakout sessions. Follow along at:
Green Jobs: http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/innovation-agenda-and-green-jobs-future
Exports: http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/expanding-job-opportunities-american-workers-through-exports
Small Business: http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/paving-road-small-business-job-growth
Infrastructure: http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/creating-jobs-through-rebuilding-america-s-infrastructure
Business Investment: http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/encouraging-business-competitiveness-and-job-creation
Main Street Workers: http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/preparing-workers-and-strengthening-main-street
This afternoon, President Obama will host a Jobs and Economic Growth Forum at the White House, with many of the discussions and events throughout the day streamed live online at WhiteHouse.gov. The forum is an opportunity for the President and the economic team to hear from some of the leading CEOs, small business owners, labor leaders, nonprofit heads and thinkers about ideas for continuing to grow the economy and put Americans back to work.
The President is scheduled to deliver opening remarks at 1:20 P.M. Eastern. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and the Vice President will also be on hand to speak. Following the opening session, senior administration officials will host discussions on job creation and expanding the economy. WhiteHouse.gov will be providing multi-channel live streams of the breakout sessions throughout the afternoon. Here’s a brief rundown of the discussion groups:
• The Innovation Agenda and Green Jobs of the Future: A breakout group to discuss new and additional ideas for creating green jobs, including through encouraging energy efficiency and investment in renewable technologies. Moderator: Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu and Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, Carol Browner
• Paving the Road for Small Business Job Growth: A chance for small business leaders and others to discuss what additional steps would be most effective in encouraging small businesses to taking the next step in hiring. Moderator: Secretary of Treasury, Timothy Geithner and Small Business Administration Administrator, Karen Mills
• Creating Jobs through the Rebuilding of America’s Infrastructure: A breakout group focusing on the best ways to make infrastructure investment a longer term commitment to helping the economy continue on a path to recovery. Moderator: Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood and Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Peter Orszag
• Expanding Job Opportunities for American Workers Through Exports: A breakout group focusing on how we can continue to take advantage of the rebound in global trade and how to change the tide from consumption driven to export driven growth. Moderator: Director of the National Economic Council, Lawrence Summers and President and Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, Fred Hochberg
• Encouraging Business Competitiveness and Job Creation: A substantive discussion on ways to encourage businesses to invest and create jobs. Moderator: Secretary of Commerce, Gary Locke and Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, Christina Romer
• Preparing Workers and Strengthening Main Street: A session focusing on the challenges facing main street as it seeks to prosper, grow and create jobs. Moderator: Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis and Director of White House Domestic Policy Council, Melody Barnes
Watch live beginning at 1:20 P.M. Eastern at WhiteHouse.gov/live.
