valerie jarrett:good afternoon, everyone. audience:good afternoon. valerie jarrett:i'm valerie jarrett. on behalf of president obama, iam delighted to welcome you to the white house. those of you whoare with us today, as well as those who arelistening around the country and will be participating online. we are so excited tohave you all with us.
we are particularly excitedto be a part of the open for questions event. and we have with us someof your favorite websites, including thegrio, newsone,blackplanet, hellobeautiful, and theurbandaily. last week, as ithink everyone knows, the president addressed a jointaddress of congress where he called for the passageof the american jobs act. earlier today inthe rose garden,
the president announced thattoday he would be sending the actual bill to congress andcalling on them to pass it and pass it now. the reason why he feels a senseof urgency is all across our country, people are suffering. they want jobs andthey want them now. they want to go to work,they want to go back to work, they want to be trainedand ready for work. and they don't have the luxuryof waiting until the next
election 14 months away. they need action andthey need it now. if congress passes this bill, itwill put people back to work and it will create jobs now andit will put more money in the pockets of working americansacross our country. as you know, the unemploymentrate in the african-american community is unacceptablyhigh, over 8 -- over 16%. and the president knows thatin an action -- inaction is not an option.
that's why he made sure thatthis jobs plan will directly have a positive impact on theafrican-american community. and i'm sure that one of thetopics that we'll be discussing in the next hour will bethe american jobs act. as you know, interactive one hasinvited you to post questions to the white house officials thati'll introduce to you in a moment on issues thatyou care most about. so let me quickly introduceto you our panelists, most of whom willneed no introduction.
and then i'm going to turn itover to jenn -- to jeff johnson from thegrio who isgoing to jump right in, introduce the rest of thepanel and get to the questions. so starting near and dear tomy heart, ambassador ron kirk, who has promised he's goingto behave this afternoon. please welcome our u.s. traderepresentative, ron kirk. (applause) we also have maria johns, whois the deputy administrator of the u.s. smallbusiness administration,
who's done terrific workwith small businesses all across our country. welcome, maria. melody barnes, who is thedirector of the white house council on domestic policy,with whom i have the pleasure of working each and every day. melody, welcome. jason furman, who is theprincipal deputy director for the national economic counciland had as much to do as anyone
on our economic team in puttingtogether this very important american jobs act. jason, welcome to you. and shortly, i'd like toannounce we'll be also joined by the secretary of the u.s.department of housing and urban development, shaun donovan,and he will just slip right in and hit the groundrunning when he arrives. and so without any further ado,jeff, may i turn it over to you? jeff johnson:you absolutely may.
valerie jarrett:thank you. jeff johnson:thank you so much. valerie jarrett:and i'll be back at theend to wrap things up. jeff johnson:very quickly, it's an honorand privilege to be here. the journalists that are alsohere with me are smokey fontaine from newsone, carlo vahl[phonetic] and jerry barrow. and i'm going to allow them tointroduce their agencies more directly as they asktheir first question. i want to get right into thisas we talked about the fact that
i'm sure the jobs billwould be brought up. one of our grio readersasked very simply, what can i do tohelp this bill pass? anyone. melody barnes:okay. well, great. well, first of all, thank youall for having us here today. and i think the president saidit extremely well when he spoke to congress last week. he said that he would begoing around the country,
he was in my hometown of richmond, virginia just last week,will be in ohio tomorrow, talking to americans andencouraging them to speak up, to become engaged, to listen tothe elements that are part of this jobs bill, recognizing thatthey will affect their friends, their neighbors, theirsons, their daughters, and encourage action, because wehave to have congress pass this bill immediately. the president has sent theamerican jobs act to congress.
he has spoken with leaders, bothin the house and the senate. and what we need is immediatemovement so that we will be in a position to save or createmillions of jobs that are desperately needed, particularlyin the african-american community, becauseas valerie said, we have over 16%unemployment there. ambassador kirk:jeff, can i just add,let me put on my -- okay, forget this ambassador part. i used to be themayor of dallas.
one -- first of all,let me thank you all, because it was because of manyof you all's agitation, frankly, in highlighting the ridiculouslyunacceptable levels of unemployment in our communitythat i think we had the wind to move forward withthis president's bill. but one, as you reach outto our elected officials, i would just encourage youto not put any constraints on yourselves. i think you can assume mostof the members of congress who
represent our communitiesget this and embrace it. i would encourage you to justmake sure your advocacy goes to every member of congressirrespective of what party they're in or whothey represent, and demand that they do thecommon sense things that the president has given congress achance to do to help put america back to work. secretary donovan:i would just jump in andsay on a particular level, we have to make sure that theinitiatives that the president
laid out are seen as not onlybeing able to help communities that have been hardest hit, takeafrican-american communities and the way they've been devastatedby the foreclosure crisis, but to show the broad benefitsof acting to make sure that we're making a differencein those communities. the president proposed aproject rebuild that would target $15 billion tocommunities that have been hardest hitby foreclosures. it would put 200,000people back to work,
particularly constructionworkers based in those local communities. but we have to recognize, thisisn't just about the homes that have been foreclosed on. it isn't just aboutafrican-american neighborhoods. this is about the nationalhousing market and everybody has a stake here. if you live next door to ahome that's been foreclosed on, your home, even if you madeevery payment on your mortgage,
goes down $10,000 invalue that very day. everybody has a stakein these efforts. and we have to show that byputting the communities back to work that have been hardest hit,the entire housing economy and the entire broader economyis going to benefit. deputy secretary johns:and i'll just brieflyadd that at the sba, we want to continue the workthat started actually day one with the obama administration insupporting small businesses and their ability to create thejobs that our country needs.
the american jobs act is acritical piece of legislation. and i also thank you forbeing here and add my voice to ambassador kirk said, thankyou for the feedback that got this job -- this americanjobs act package built and put before congress. but this is not the first timethe president has turned his attention to small businesses. his attendance on small businessgrowth and job development was from day one.
and at the sba, as we saw theresults of the recovery act that put $30 billion in thehands of small businesses, that spurred part of therecovery from the greatest economic down turn sincethe great depression. but the fact of the matteris, recovery has been very, very uneven. and that our community, theafrican-american community, has suffered toa greater degree. and at the sba, that has ledus to create some very targeted
initiatives to focus on bringingback the economies in the african-american communitiesaround the country. and the importance of theamerican jobs act is that it ties to that work andallows us as an agency to further those efforts. jerry barrow:good afternoon. jerry barrow fromtheurbandaily.com. one of our readers,nea lee, writes in, as a college student witha medical condition and an
expected familycontribution of zero, i can see a doctor but can'tafford to purchase what they prescribe for me. are there plans to help collegestudents with an efc of zero to free or discounted medicine? melody barnes:well, one thingthat i would say, depending on the circumstancessurrounding this particular young woman, a recent-- just this year, in fact just last month, weannounced additional -- an
additional component ofthe affordable care act. and that's preventativecare for women. we have also been focused ontrying to bring down the cost of prescription drugs inmany different ways for all americans, particularly lookingat the effect that is imposed upon seniors. but in the case of thisyoung woman, i'm assuming, i'm given the factthat she's in college, that she's younger than that,preventative care that's
available, making sure thatthose who are in college have access to -- have accessto insurance and medical care there. but also through the communityhealth centers that are available, that was abig part of what we did in affordable care act. so there are a number ofdifferent ways in addition to the existing programs thatwe have, medicaid, for example, to make sure that people haveaccess to health care that they
very, very desperately need. but i think, particularly ifshe's looking in the area of preventative care, what we'vedone for the first time is make sure that women, who have neverhad preventative care targeted specifically towards them, havethe kinds of services that they need, services thatare extremely costly, that if they don'thave access to, can lead to extendedhospital stays, can lead to more expensivehealth care procedures,
have access to thesekinds of services. and we're making sure thatthat's available to college students, as well. again, not knowingher circumstances. but also making insuranceavailable to college students and those up to age 26 who canstay on their parents' insurance is another way that we're makingsure that people are getting the kind of -- young americans aregetting the kind of coverage that they need.
smokey fontaine:smokey fontaine, newsone.com. so often so many of thetraditional kind of job initiatives and programsdon't well serve the african-american community. one of our readers writesin, what out of the box quote-unquote methods for jobcreation is the administration taking, and are there any newideas in the american jobs act? jason furman:maybe i'll take the firstshot at that and i think that's a very good question.
now, to some degree, you dowant to take things that work. you have, for example, highwayconstruction and there's a formula for how that money goesout and it's easy and you put more money into it and moreof that money goes out. but then you want to do thingsto make sure that people are really getting those jobs thatyou are creating through that and we have some innovativeideas that we've worked on with melody to make sure that a lotof the communities that don't often get those types of highwayjobs have access to them,
whether it's training money,streamlining the process for contracting and really makingsure those jobs are there. in the american jobs act, thepresident also has the largest reform in unemploymentinsurance in four decades. and preserves its core function,which is protecting you when you don't have a job, you paidinto it, you bought insurance, if you can't find a job,you are looking for work, you should get yourunemployment insurance. but also at the same time forpeople who want to use it in
that way, helping turn intosomething that can connect you with jobs, connectyou with employers, whether it's training,on-the-job work, sharing a job with someoneelse, if it comes down to that, and getting yourself back intothe work force more quickly, if that's what you choose to do. there's also ideas in here thatmelody could speak more to that include areas like summer jobs,subsidized jobs for folks on tanf, but then also a pot ofmoney for new innovative ideas
to see what ideas flourish, whatcomes out of it so that we can use some of the tried and truethings we've done in the past and combine them with new andinnovative approaches all at the same time bringing thebest evidence to bare so that we're learning from thisexperience and doing even better in the future. melody barnes:yeah. i mean, to pick upon what jason is saying, it's a combination of newideas and also old ideas that we know worked.
i mean, we know that when wepassed the american recovery act, that we were able to bringhundreds of thousands of people back into the work force throughour subsidized job program. we have also built thatinto the american jobs act. at the same time, we've puttogether a $5 billion pathways to work fund that includes,as jason was saying, $1.5 billion for a youth andsummer jobs program for those 16 to 24 years of age. also included in that is the $2billion subsidized jobs program.
and then another $1.5 billionfor innovative opportunities, on-the-job training, which weknow has worked extremely well. and often people who go throughthose kinds of programs end up in permanentemployment programs. so we've done that. and then thought a lot aboutthe long-term unemployed, and we know that's a significantproblem in the african-american community and in the waysthat jason mentioned, using the ui system, using theunemployment insurance system,
as a way to not only make surethat people can cover their needs, but also that peopleare getting and keeping the skills that they have that makethem and keep them relevant in the job market. so thinking about what's beeninnovative and happening around the country and also making surethat we're building in the fair labor standards and minimumwage protections that have to be there, but also thinkingabout additional ways, things that we've tried andwe've seen have worked in the
past and giving statesadditional flexibility so that we can bring and keep asmany people in the job market as we possibly can. deputy secretary johns:just briefly. i've been traveling thecountry, like jane the baptist, talking about this is thetime to start a business. and even though this isa challenging economy, it truly is a great timeto start a business. as i mentioned before, the obamaadministration has been focused
from day one on providing toolsto small business owners and would-be entrepreneursto help them. tricia kerney-willis is in theback of the room, our partner, who we've been traveling aroundthe country on summits focused on urban entrepreneurship. we have a set of summitscoming up focused on young entrepreneurs with the purposeof making sure people are aware of the tools that the sba hasand how to put those tools in your hands and get you startedon the path to small business
development and job creation. just one example i'll give you. we know, i talked earlierabout the uneven nature of the recovery and the fact that theblack community in particular is having in some areas areally tough time getting access to capital. so what we did, working withthe department of treasury, was to develop a new loanproduct from the sba for the first time where we have ourgovernment backed guarantee loan
available through nontraditionallenders like cdfis, like microloan intermediariesin the community. this is a significant change andenhancement in the sba's loan programs, because those typesof lenders are in the community, they understand thesmall business community, and are very -- very finelending partners who also provide technical assistanceand a high touch approach to the companies that theyhave in their portfolio. so there are new tools,never before available,
to people who are lookingto start a business. and we're getting a goodreaction from young people around the country andlooking to see that grow. we're working with the hbcucommunity to make sure that on our college campusesaround the country, that that spirit ofentrepreneurship is there, it's connected to the academicportfolio and also helping our young people as they're studyingtheir various disciplines, that they have a mind toward howto use that discipline and come
out of college and start a newjob -- start a new business. secretary donovan:i want to build on this idea oftaking time-tested methods that we know are reachingafrican-american communities and to build on them withnew directions, new ideas. this project rebuild that italked about is based on a neighborhood stabilizationeffort that has put $7 billion into communities that have seenhigh levels of foreclosure. we know that it has reachedafrican-american communities. the facts are that it's twiceas targeted to african-american
communities as it is tothe average neighborhood in the country. and that it's begun to helpafrican-american entrepreneurs, contractors, real estateprofessionals, get connected. but we wanted to takeit a step further. in fact, jeff and i were at-- together at a congressional black caucus jobs fair and townhall recently in ohio where this issue came up. how do we continue to putconstruction workers to work in
african-american communitiesthat have been hard hit? and so we've addeda number of things. one of the things that we heardwas that it's not just about residential properties. we have lots ofstorefronts sitting vacant in these communities. it's retail. it's also -- it may beindustrial buildings or warehouses.
so we've expanded this effort toinclude up to 30% of the funding that can go to commercial orindustrial properties or retail properties as well. another thing that weheard is that, well, it's great to long term beable to fix up these homes, put people back to work. but there's also ashort-term problem here. our communities can't affordto cut the grass today because local budgets havebeen hit so hard.
we can't afford to keep up theseproperties while we're waiting for the renovationto take place. so we're allowing up to 10% ofthis funding and project rebuild to put folks to work immediatelymaintaining these properties while we're getting tothe longer term work of rebuilding those homes. we're also bringingin new partners, nonprofit partners like theurban league and others, that are able to bring newskills, new relationships.
we're not just givingout formula dollars. about 10 billion of themoney would go in formula to local governments. but an additional 5 billionwould be competitive, open to nonprofits, andcommunity based for-profits, that could bring adifferent perspective, different relationships and adifferent ability to work on these in african-american communities. so three new ideas that havecome out of town halls and other
things that we've done aroundthe country to really take this to the next level inafrican-american communities. karla ovalle:this is karla fromhellobeautiful.com and blackplanet. and diane goodman, ahellobeautiful reader asks, what would it take toget manufacturing jobs back in the u.s.? with so many jobsbeing moved off shore, what has the manufacturingsector largely been written off,
is there a plan to make americaattractive to manufacturers in the long term? jason furman:happy to take the first shot,unless, ambassador, you want to? that is, that'sa great question. and manufacturing isreally the backbone of the american economy. it's critical ineverything we do. and one of the encouragingthings is it's been enormously hard hit over the last decade.
it's come back a little bitfaster than some of the other sectors of the economy, butnowhere nearly as quickly as we need. there are severalthings that we can do. number one is the market's goingto pick what the best areas are. but there's certain places wherethe government can play a really key role in identifyinginnovative new areas and making sure we're supportingand nurturing them. and green jobs is oneof those important ones.
you want to make sure thatyou're not just using renewable electricity, for example, butthat the united states is also doing more to produce thewind turbines that are used to produce that electricity. rather than importing them all. so green jobs. electric batteries hasbeen a real success story. it's obviously going to be oneof the critical technologies in the future, as electricvehicles and hybrid vehicles.
a couple of years ago the unitedstates was making barely any of the batteries. now we're on track to makinga quarter of them and that's because of the types ofinvestments we made in the recovery act. trade, ambassador kirk willspeak to, is critical to this. the president's goal of doublingexports over the next five years is very importantto manufacturing. and finally, i would justcite the tax code as a whole.
you want one that makesamerica's businesses as competitive as possible andthat's why the president is pushing forward with areform of the corporate tax code right now. manufacturers actuallypay higher taxes than financial companies. and that's what we want. we want manufacturers herein america on one hand. then on the other hand weactually go out and penalize
them when it comes to our taxcode, and that's something, and example of something that wecould rectify through corporate tax reform. ambassador kirk:as counter intuitive as itmight seem for many americans, having a smart thoughtfulbalance trade policy can be a real aid to usmaintaining and expanding our manufacturing base. in the interest of time,my website is ustr.gov, and all of you may not befamiliar with all of the
work of what we do. but i would encourageyou to visit it. one thing president obamachallenged us to do when i took over this office was morehonestly address what he thought was some of the legitimateconcerns people had had about our trade policy. so i've spent the last 18 monthsgoing from pittsburgh to detroit to maine to los angeles. and what gave me heartwas even in detroit,
people understood how criticalit is that america goes out and compete for these 95% ofthe world's consumers who live somewhere else. we get it. they were horriblyfrustrated, though, that they felt like the unitedstates had frankly dropped the ball in terms of fightingand defending the rights of america's workers and exporters. so that was an easything we could fix.
and one of the things we'vedone is we have been much more aggressive in using theenforcement tools we have to protect our workersand manufacturers. one example, we had a tool thatwe could use against china for just flooding our market withproducts that china agreed to when we admitted them to theworld trade organization. seven different occasions,american industry had petitioned the u.s. government for help. the case was heard byan independent agency.
seven different cases, theyrecommended we take action. no other president ever usedthis tool until president obama. we did it in a case thatwas brought by the united steelworkers, relative tocheap chinese tires flooding the market. i won't take youthrough all of it. we used that authority. other media beat us to deathand said we were just protecting unions, we were goingto spark a trade war,
we didn't do anyof those things. the short answer, we were ableto sustain an industry that was losing jobs. and the cooper tire company,who did not support us, just announced they're going tobuild a new tire manufacturing plant in eitherindiana or cleveland. we can be much smarter about ourtrade policy so that it sustains our manufacturing. but our manufacturingexports are up.
we are selling more ofwhat we make, what we grow, what we innovate in thiscountry, around the world. but i want to remind you, oneelement, this american jobs act, is just one element of thepresident's strategy to get us back to work. the longer term strategy,which he harps on all the time, is that we have to out-educate,out-innovate and out-build the rest of the world. and so we're going to win bycontinuing to come up with the
innovative, creative products,whether it's in the green sector or other, and then sell thoseto these new consumers in asia, africa, india and therest of the world. deputy secretary johns:if i could just add briefly. this administration, theobama administration, has created the most seamlessprocess for small businesses to get involved in exportingthan ever before. we're working with ambassadorkirk and working with the department of commerce,department of state,
all of the federal agencieswho are in the exporting space. we're working together under theumbrella of the trade promotion coordinating council, the sbachairs the small working group component of that council,and we're working in a true partnership, where the sba isinvolved in preparing companies that are new to exporting andthen handing those companies off to the department of commerceto help those companies enter new markets. so, again, this is anotheropportunity where small business
creation, it's a good timebecause exporting is a great business development opportunityfor small businesses as well. melody barnes:and i'd just like to addsomething to that that may not seem intuitive but is critical. ambassador kirk was talkingabout out-innovating and out-building therest of the world. to do that, we have toout-educate the rest of the world. and i talk to anynumber of ceos.
and what they say to me is, wheni think about my work force, when i think about wherei'm going to site my office, where i'm going to put my plant,i think about the communities, the states, the neighborhoodsthat are going to surround those facilities and how welleducated is the work force. and we can't afford in thisperiod of climbing out of a recession to let oureducation system continue to slide backward. and not only in our overallpolicies that the president has
been talking about for the lastcouple of years have we been focused on education, butembedded in this bill, in the american jobs act, arecritical elements to do that. we know that about 280,000education jobs are on the chopping block in we don'tdo something about it. and the president has includedmoney here, $30 billion, to make sure that we can createand save those kinds of jobs. starting with earlyeducators all the way through k through 12.
and similarly, we've got to makesure that we're modernizing our school facilities. you know, we were in milwaukee,i was in milwaukee with secretary duncan on friday. the average age of aneducation facility in milwaukee is 70 years old. the average age nationallyis 40 years old. you can't educate children forthe 21st century when they're in facilities that werebuilt for the last century.
so this bill includes money tomake sure that we're not doing new building, but that weare updating, you know, things like asbestos abatementjust to make sure our kids stay healthy, but also we're addingthose science and technology labs so that as we're updatingour curriculum and we're focusing on science andmath and engineering, they can actually go in the lab,they can go into their science classes and other kindsof classes and get those hands on experiences.
so this bill, that's kind ofthe thematic for this build, it's building on the thingsthat we're talking about, the things that we think arecritical to grow our economy overall, not to mentioncreating and saving jobs. ambassador kirk:can i just add one more note,because melody reminded -- i think, and karla, thisgoes to your point, what else are we doing. the president alsoappointed a jobs council, some of the biggestceos across the board.
and one of the things theyfound, and i think immediately, i mean, they've identified like200,000 jobs in manufacturing right now that are goingunfilled because we don't have the skills in mathand sciences to fill that. so they're working withcommunity colleges and others and undercuttinga lot of this, again, for our communityparticularly, is education. and you know, i joke with peopleall the time that the best thing about my job, i'm in india,africa, asia, all the time.
and when i was a kidgrowing up, you know, and you all aren't asold as i am, my parents, when they put something beforeus and we didn't like it, would always say, boy, eat yourso-and-so, children in africa, china, you fill in thecountry, are starving. well, let me tell younow, they may be hungry, but they're readingwhile they're starving. and i don't goanywhere in the world, i don't go anywhere inafrica, india, asia,
i don't meet a young personwho's not polylingual. i mean, these kids speaktheir native dialect, they all speak english,they speak french. i mean, you get my point. we really have to get backto making sure our kids, first of all, stay in school,but particularly begin to get the language skills that they'regoing to have to have to compete in a global economy. and that goes to the core of our-- our manufacturing industry in
america is not theold heavy industry. this is a veryadvanced, you know, innovative -- i would challengeany of you to go visit today's steel mill. it looks nothing likewhat you may think. it is the most high techindustry you could imagine. so there are jobs there. but to sustain them, in additionto making sure they have the level playing field, we need tomake sure we have the skills to
take advantage of them. jeff johnson:ambassador kirk alluded to someof the tools available to the president to makesome decisions. and one of the grioreaders, jay petals, says when george bush was inoffice he accomplished some of what he wanted viaexecutive order. what can president obamado via this method? for instance, could he haveavoided some of the challenges the administration is facingby using his executive powers?
and if so, why didn't he? melody barnes:well, i'll start out by saying,we think, and, you know, jason and i see each otherin meetings every single day, and we're in meetings with ourother colleagues and often with the president, and we thinkabout the range of tools that are available. there are certain things thatwe can only do legislatively, and those -- in those areaswhere we're able to move aggressively usingadministrative authority,
using executive order, usingpresidential memoranda, we've done so. and the president alluded to itwhen he spoke on last thursday before congress, things that hehas charged this administration with doing to try and advancethe cause of job creation. and, in fact,making jobs easier. i think one of the things goingto the work that maria is doing so expertly is thinkingabout one stop shopping for our businesses.
i mean, many of you out thereare probably business owners. you know, i, you know, live withand work with and have friends who are business owners. and trying to navigate what canoften be the maze of the federal government can be reallydifficult to figure out how do you access theresources available to you. we're thinking abouthow to make that much, much easier and gomuch more aggressively. you know, one of the thingsthat secretary donovan has been
actively involved in, and thepresident also mentioned in his speech with regard to housing,and what we can do on our own to try and improvethe housing market, try and lift the burdenthat exists on so many, particularly in theafrican-american and latino communities, using our executiveand administrative authorities. so make no mistake about it. we are thinking every dayabout what tools we have available to us.
jason furman:let me just -- secretary donovan:oh, sorry, jason, let me justjump in and follow up melody's point there, because i thinkit's incredibly important. i bet a lot of people,even in this audience, don't know that two out of everythree african-americans who bought a home last yearused fha financing. two out of three. that's not legislative. that's an authority we haveat hud that the president has
focused on making sure in a timewhen it's almost impossible for many people who are eminentlyqualified to be homeowners to get a loan right now. fha continues to bevery focused on serving african-american communities. what the president announcedlast week is that he is pushing us, using executiveauthority, to go even further. to make sure, because we havemillions of families that are under water in theirmortgages right now.
even though we've got the lowestinterest rates in the last 50 years, you can get a 30-yearfixed rate loan for almost 4%. many people, because they owemore on their homes than their homes are worth, and thisis particularly true in african-american communitieswhere the housing crisis hit so hard, you can'ttake advantage of it. that would be likea more than $2,000 a year tax cut to thosefamilies just if they could refinance their mortgages.
so he announced that we're goingto be working with fannie mae and freddie mac and fha at hudto make sure that we open up refinancing to those families. and guess what? that's good not onlyfor the homeowners, it's not only goodfor those communities, it's also good for fanniemae and freddie mac, because they get saferloans out of it as well, and that helps the taxpayer.
so that's an example of thekind of thing that we're doing, that the president has said useevery authority at your means to make sure we're pushing it. smokey fontaine:just to that point, i'm sorry. what other tangible signs do yousee or account communities see of the recovery for, say, anonbeliever who is living in an urban area who issurviving, struggling, what can they see if they'resomewhat cynical to say i don't feel the recovery, i don'tsee the president's policies
helping me enough. what other tangiblethings can they look for? secretary donovan:well, look, and the presidenthas said this himself, we're not there yet. we haven't gone far enough. we have today, as we sit here,40% fewer families are going into foreclosures thanthey were a year ago. that's progress. but it's stilltoo many families.
that's why we have to do more. this neighborhood stabilizationeffort that i talked about, we now have data that shows that75% of those communities where we've invested neighborhoodstabilization funds, have lower vacancy ratesthan surrounding communities. two-thirds of thoseneighborhoods have, their house priceshave done better than surrounding communities. so there is real evidence.
but we're not done. we've got to go farther. we've got to help get to a pointnot just where we've stabilized the market in those communities,but where we're actually seeing a real recovery. where we startbuilding wealth again, start building the strengthof those neighborhoods. and that's -- as thepresident said last week, he's going to fight, he'snot going to stop until
we get there. and congress has to do its job. to get people back to work,congress has got to get and that's absolutely critical. deputy secretary johns:if i could add on to that point. absolutely wehaven't done enough, and that's what allof this work is about. but one other point that i thinkis an important indicator that we're moving in theright direction,
the sba has responsibilityfor reporting on the federal government's smallbusiness contracting. as many of you probably know,the federal government has a goal of doing 23% oftheir contracting with small businesses. after a 10-year slide, thelast two years have been the strongest two-year growth in thesmall business contracting area, and the sba just put out thescore card for fiscal year '10, and we hit 22.7% smallbusiness contracts with the
federal government. now, we won't be satisfieduntil we're at 23% and beyond, but that 22.7 is the strongestnumber that we've -- that we've seen in many years. valerie jarrett is chairinga task force tasked by the president to work with thesecretaries and deputy secretaries across the federalgovernment to hold them accountable for what they'redoing in terms of their small business contracting goals.
bebe hidalgo [phonetic]is in the room as well, and she's working very closelywith the sba and the other agencies on that front. so i think that's anotherindicator that, no, we're not nearlywhere we need to be, but we're making progress. ambassador kirk:can i just add,because it drives -- sometimes we are so brilliantwe overlook the obvious, but we were talkingabout manufacturing.
and since we got beat upfor it, last time i checked, general motors and chryslerare alive and well and going. and we sort of takethat for granted. that didn't have to be the casewere it not singularly for this president taking on congress,there's no more iconic industry representing the americanmanufacturing industry, no industry in which we are moreheavily invested as employees, as suppliers who feed into theford/general motors pipeline. and if you talk to any of thesteel manufacturers again,
they will tell you if we hadallowed the american automobile industry to die, you wouldn'thave a steel industry. so i mean, i think weassume everybody knows, but not only are general motorsand chrysler doing well, they are adding capacity,they've paid back much of what we borrowed, and the samething on the tar programs. i just think that bears noting. melody barnes:and i would -- i would add to that, becausethere -- it goes as a given,
everyone up here from theadministration would say we have to do more. but let's not forget thethings that i think sometimes we've pocketed. and to ambassador kirk'spoint, we've said, oh, yeah, that's happened, and we've movedon, but they didn't have to be. health care reform -- historic;millions and millions and millions of low-income peopleand african-americans are already benefiting from thehealth care reform bill that
this president fought for andsigned into law over almost insurmountable odds. education reform -- the biggesthigher education reform bill passed since the gi bill. we're talking about $68 billionthat was reinvested into our higher education system, a lotof it going to minority serving institutions, hbcus andothers, community colleges, $40 billion goinginto pell grants, so that's money for low-incomestudents who wouldn't have
access to college or communitycollege that now have that kind of access. billions of dollars literallygoing into our early head start and head start program to makesure that low-income toddlers and children who often enterkindergarten with a 60-point deficit have a better start andare able to enter kindergarten with some kind of opportunity. promise neighborhoods,choice neighborhoods, we're talking about some of themost innovative programs to make
sure that we have wrap-around,holistic services focused on housing and education forlow-income people often in urban areas. strong cities,strong communities, another innovative program donein partnership with secretary donovan and others to make surethat we're looking at our urban centers, those that have a planbut haven't been able to get over the finish line --we're talking about detroit, we're talking about new orleans,we're talking about fresno,
we're talking aboutchester, pennsylvania, the list goes on from there --to make sure that we're working with local communities based ontheir plans to get them over the finish lines. expanding earnedincome tax credit, the child tax credit, in waysthat help low-income families. i can go on and on and on. not enough, but significant,significant investments by this president to make sure thatwe're serving low-income
americans in urban america inthe way that it needs to be served and supported, because weneed all hands on deck if this economy is going to succeed. jerry barrow:i have a collectivequestion from our interns at theurbandaily. the college -- the federal workstudy program is invaluable to all of them. it was to me when iwas an undergraduate. but the work that they findthemselves doing isn't always
relevant to theircourse of study. and what they're finding nowwith their internships is that the schools are requiring themto register for a course for the internship in orderto get credit, which means essentially they arepaying for their internship. is it possible to expand federalwork study programs so that students can be paid to workin corporations that are more relevant to their course ofstudy and would give them more experience once they graduate?
melody barnes:that's an interesting question. i would have to lookinto that specific issue. i don't know the answer offthe top of my head to that. i can tell you that the workthat we've been doing has been very focused on aligning whatthe experience students are getting in school with the kindsof jobs that are going to be available when they finish,whether it's a certification program at a two-yearinstitution or getting that degree from a two-yearcommunity college or a
four-year institution. what the president said is -- iremember -- he said, you know, melody, this may seem obvious,but when a person finishes getting a certificate orgraduating from school, there should be a job on theother end of that experience. obvious, but notalways the case. so we've been working verycreatively and in innovative ways to try and put money inthe community college system to encourage innovative curriculum.
also thinking about the workthat we're doing k through 12, college and career ready. a lot of opportunities thatwe've seen and tried to highlight connecting the kthrough 12 experience to college or community college, to a workexperience for our students. so that certainly has been ourtheory and our philosophy. i would have to look intothat more specifically. jeff johnson:we have a question from twittercoming from the audience. speaker:good afternoon, panelists, goodafternoon, audience members.
so we have a questionfrom twitter. is the president willing to takea scalpel approach on the jobs bill with the gop or isit an all-or-nothing deal? jason furman:why don't i take thefirst shot at that? the president views thisas a comprehensive plan, and that's why he's askedcongress to pass it. we just heard answers to someof the previous questions, the president has been doing hisjob for the last several years, he's done everything hecan administratively.
but if you want to preventhundreds of thousands of teachers from being laid off,there's nothing he can do by himself. congress needs to passthe american jobs act. if you want 35,000schools modernized, nothing the president can do onhis own that would make that happen, congress needs topass the american jobs act. you want to prevent 1.4million african-americans from exhausting their unemploymentinsurance benefits,
he can't do that, congress needsto pass the american jobs act. and you look at it and it goeson and on and it fits together. you have businesses gettingmore of an incentive to hire. by itself, that'snot going to work, it's only going to work ifyou're doing other things to help create more jobs. it's only going to help ifyou're giving consumers more purchasing power bygiving them tax cuts. if you're helping stabilize thehousing economy that secretary
donovan was talking about. if you're helping the familiesmost seriously impacted by the recession, which melodyhas been talking about. and it all fits together, andthat's why the president has really been going out andemphasizing that congress should be passing theamerican jobs act, which is something hesent to them today. speaker:and we're now going to moveinto some audience questions. anyone have someaudience questions?
audience member:i'm bernadette tolson, and iam with the black women for obama for change. and we have a question. president obama's wonderful jobplan will give companies badly needed payroll tax cuts. however, early responses frombusinesses reported in the new york times indicate thecompanies might take the payroll tax cut benefits, butmight not hire the people. we, the black womenfor obama for change,
respectfully suggest that thewhite house launch a national jobs pool to ask companies topledge to hire x number of jobs of people -- i mean x number ofpeople for jobs in exchange for the payroll tax benefit. the pledges would be posted on apublic website and everyone can see who is pledging to hirethe unemployed and who is not. now, let's take it alittle step further. the companies who pledge to hirethe people in exchange for the president's payroll tax cutwould be rewarded in the media,
and by positive public responsesin their home communities. this would create businessesgood will for the companies that pledge to hire. jason furman:well, that's a very interestingidea, and i thank you for it, and we'll certainlytake a look at it. because part of what you wantto do is make sure that you're putting something into the law,and then the people are out there taking advantage of it. one thing that that new yorktimes story you alluded to
missed was the answer tothe previous question. we view this as a package. if all you did was givecompanies an incentive to hire, but you weren't helping createjobs in the construction industry, if teacherswere still being laid off, if families didn't have enoughmoney to make ends meet, business are going tohave a hard time hiring. on the other hand, if you'redoing all those other steps at the same time that you'regiving business an incentive,
you can actually get a virtuouscycle going where it's -- the economy is strengthening,they're hiring, they're hiring people, so theeconomy is strengthening. and that's exactly what we'retrying to kick start and really welcome all ideas andsuggestions about how to do so. so thank you. audience member:thank you all for taking thetime to talk to us today. i'm erica williams fromcitizen engagement lab. and when i talk to folksabout the american jobs act,
the most common two questionsi get are, number one, what took so long,and number two, is this big enoughand bold enough? so i guess the way i'll phrasethat to you is what is the political and economic analysisright now that makes this the right time for the bill that wethink it will actually pass and that this will be effective? jason furman:well, the president has beenfocused on jobs since day one in this administration.
the recovery act was the largestjobs package ever passed in american history. and it was only the firstof many efforts on jobs. it's certainly the case thatover the course of this spring, we were very focused onour fiscal situation, and that's in part because wewere dealing with the congress that was, frankly, playinga lot of games and a lot of brinksmanship. and had the united statesdefaulted on its debt,
that would have beenterrible for the economy, and they forced that to take farmore attention than it should have to deal with it. the president throughout, wewere at the same time were working on that, working on allthese jobs ideas and waiting for the best possible time tohave the maximum impact in announcing them. so we might have been able todo this a month ago in august, but congress was all gone, theyweren't going to be back for a
month, by the time they gotback, memories would have faded. so at that pointwe decided we -- the president decided hewanted to wait, do it the day, day after that thecongress got back, and go straight into the fallfocusing on this day after day. so we're not new to this issue,we've been doing it a lot. there were certainly severalmonths there when we were forced in a situation where we had toput all of our effort into the -- into the deficit.
and those are both problems,but there's a reason why the president gave an address to thejoint session of congress on jobs, focusing on jobs, and areason why that's the first piece of legislation he'ssending up this fall is the deputy secretary johns:if i could add a brief point. jason mentionedthe recovery act, but i also don't want folks toforget that the president also signed the most comprehensivelaw to support the growth of small businesses in ourcountry in over a decade,
and that's the small businessjobs act that he just signed the end of last year. and that -- that new lawhad over 60 provisions that addressed access to capital,access to counseling and training for small businesses,more support for small businesses inexporting, et cetera. and when -- in our economy, overhalf of the folks working today work for a small business, andtwo out of every three new jobs in the private sector arecreated by small business.
the president knew coming in thedoor that his administration had to do something boldfor small business, and the small business jobs actwas an extraordinary piece of legislation in that regard. jeff johnson:at this point, we don't haveenough time for more questions. valerie jarrett is goingto be coming to close us, but there is one more question. at least one person from all ofour outlets has talked about very succinctly and, infact, quite inspirited way,
that they believe that thisadministration in many cases has been too conciliatory toits political opposition. and in many cases given alevel of respect that has not been returned. do you all in anyway, shape or form, believe that thissentiment has any validity, and moving forward will we beginto see any variation in the administration's approachto its opposition? secretary donovan:well, let's just remember: whenmelody barnes went through that
list of what thispresident has done, there isn't a president inhistory that's had a longer list of accomplishments intwo and a half years. so i will tell you thispresident fights when he needs to fight, when his back was upagainst the wall and he was the last person believing that thehealth care bill was going to get passed, he foughtand he got it passed. when he's needed to work hand inhand and put out an olive branch to get things done,he's done that.
nobody expected him to get abill at the end of the lame duck session that would put millionsof people back to work. he got it. and i will tell you thepresident that you saw last week in a fighting spirit, fed upwith congress not acting, and he's going to standup and fight to put people so to me, this is a presidentwho does what he needs to do to get the job done. and every step along the way,i know valerie likes to say,
nobody had ever made moneybetting against barack obama. and i will tell you that this isa president who is going to keep fighting, but hiseyes are on the prize. he is focused on getting thingsdone, not about the theatrics, not about the politics,but on getting things done. ambassador kirk:and i think it'sinstructive to remind people, at least for those of us thathave been involved with this president since this wholenotion of him occupying this office was a dream, and i justenjoyed the fact that every step
of the campaign i have alwaysbeen asked these questions about barack obama; ishe tough enough? but i remind people to somedegree, we're all of who we are, and the same president yousaw last week was the same president, if you rememberbefore we took office and we had the first news ofthe financial crisis, and one of the other candidatessuspended his campaign and rode back to washington and wasgoing to fix everything, and everybody kept saying,where is barack obama,
until you found out that he hadconvened the best and brightest minds to make sense of whatwas going and come up with an intelligent response. and that's his mo, and he'sdone it every step of the way, he's going to continue to do it. believe me, hefeels what you feel, we can all see thingsfor what they are, but he is president becausehe is brilliant, he is calm, he is collection -- i mean, he'svery collective in his thought.
and as my mother would say,you're never going to be in a bad world when you choose to bemore gracious to someone else than they can bedisrespectful to you. and for those of us whogrew up in the south -- i didn't learn that lessonas well as president obama, by the way. (laughter) but at least my motherused to always tell me, you got a choice every day, doyou want to be meaner to them --
your goal ought to be nicer tothem than trying to be as mean as they are to you. and i will tell youat the end of the day, i think we're goingto do just fine. melody barnes:ron, ambassador kirk, i justwant to interrupt you for a second. i know all of us have thoroughlyenjoyed interacting with you and you watching this, but i wantto introduce someone now who i think is the best personto talk about these issues,
the president of the unitedstates, president barack obama. the president:hello, everybody. hello, hello, hello. thank you, everybody. everybody have a seat. thank you so much. i just said ron'squoting his mama again. for those of you whohave met his mama, i will tell you that she is-- she is wiser and funnier
than he is. i know that we're spending sometime today talking through a whole bunch of issues, and iappreciate everybody coming here, i appreciate those who areparticipating, as well as my -- members of my cabinet. everybody in this room and allof your readers care about getting folks back to work andto strengthen the economy. and so today i held up thebill, the american jobs act, that is designedto do just that.
and i'm calling on democrats andrepublicans to come together in congress and pass it right away. i know you've alreadyheard some details, but i just want to giveyou a few highlights. first, this will provide taxcuts for small businesses, not big corporations, to helpthem hire more folks and to grow their businesses. it provides an additional taxcut for everybody who hires somebody new or providessomebody a raise.
so this is going to help over100,000 african-american-owned next, it puts people back towork, including 280,000 teachers laid off by state budgetcuts, first responders, veterans coming back fromiraq and afghanistan, construction workers that canrebuild our crumbling roads and bridges and schools, 35,000public schools can be rebuilt according to this plan. and these projects will bechosen based on impact and need, not based onearmarks or politics.
it expands job opportunitiesfor hundreds of thousands of low-income youth and adultsthrough a pathways back to work fund that supports summer andyear-round jobs for youth, innovative new job trainingprograms to connect low-income workers to jobs more quickly andsuccessful programs to encourage employers to bring ondisadvantaged workers. number three, it helpsout of work americans, including the 1.4african-american folks and their families who are out of work byextending unemployment benefits
to help support them and theirfamilies while they're looking for work, and it also reformsthe training programs that are available so that they buildreal skills and connect to jobs, and that will particularlyhelp the long-term unemployed. it bands employers fromdiscriminating against the unemployed when hiring, and itprovides a new tax credit to employers hiring workers whohave been out of the job for over six months. number four, it puts money inyour pocket and the pockets of
working and middle classamericans by cutting the payroll tax in half, including 20million african-american workers who would save, for an averagefamily, $1,500 a year. we take executive action toremove the barriers that exist in the current federalrefinancing program to help americans refinance theirmortgage at historically low rates, all that helps them stayin their homes and puts more money in their pockets. finally, this plan willnot add to the deficit,
it's fully paid through abalanced approach that says we've got to raise more revenuesfrom folks who can afford it. it also makes some modificationsto programs so that we can preserve them overthe long-term. and closing tax loopholes. and it is absolutely essentialfor everybody to understand that we can do all the things i talkabout in this bill without adding to our deficit,without adding to our debt. now, all of you are experts ononline stuff, so i won't --
i won't speak to, you know, howimportant it is that events like this get information out. one of the things that i alwaysenjoy because of this online community is that it'sa two-way conversation. so some of you may have ideasabout how we should get the word out, how we shouldframe these issues, how we should mobilize ourcommunities in order to get it passed, i'm going towant to hear from you. to our guests frominteractive one,
your ability to facilitate thissort of conversation between experts and communities in needis something that we're very interested in, so i hope that wecan continue to get more people informed and keep them activein their communities and in their government. so with that, iunderstand, melody, that i have time forat least one question. melody barnes:terrific. the president:is it going to besomebody out here?
melody barnes:i'll turn it to jeff. jeff johnson:yes, i definitelythink it should be. if we can have someone-- where is our mic? okay, yeah, if we have aquestion from the audience, that would be fantastic. thank you. audience member:thank you, mr. president. i'm michael taff [phonetic]from atlanta, georgia. i just had one --
the president:sorry about yourfalcons yesterday. audience member:let's keep it ona positive note. the president:i'm sorry, who -- whowere they playing again? audience member:just keep it on a positive note. the president:was that the chicagobears that he was playing? audience member:we'll see you againin the playoffs. i have one question. i've read through the act, andi think it's an outstanding document that puts fortha lot of new things,
things that have been done inthe past that should get passed. but one thing that i did not seeand i don't quite know how it would affect entrepreneurs isany type of investment for venture capital,private equity firms, i think it makes an assumptionthat businesses aren't hiring people because there's afinancial incentive that they are not getting, and that ifthey give them a financial incentive that they'll hire. and i think lots of businessesare very pleased not to be
hiring, they like the margins,they like the increased productivity of thepeople they have. so what about new business, newopportunity through private equity venture capital? some of the things that arebeing done by the sba through the cdfis and things like that,are they going to be tied back to this so that there'sgoing to be an investment? the president:well, look, i think thisis a great question. not everything that we're doingto promote jobs and economic
growth are containedin the bill, because some things we are goingto try to do administratively as opposed to trying toget it through congress. but if you listen tothe speech on thursday, i specifically addressed thisissue and said that we're working with the jobs councilthat i set up as well as all the agencies to figure out how canwe remove some of the barriers to start-up companiescapitalizing themselves, you know, how can we work withthe sba and others to make sure
that somebody whose got a goodidea is able to raise money and implement. and so we're going to have awhole series of things that we're doing to help smallbusinesses precisely in the ways that you're talking about. we just don't think that we neednecessarily new authority from congress in orderto get that done. so understand this jobsbill is not exhaustive, there are a whole range ofthings that we're going to
be doing. what this describes is what weneed congress to do in order for us to be effective. but there's some things wecan do administratively. for example, the federalgovernment is a major purchaser, you know, we have taken a lot ofsteps over the last couple of years and we're going tocontinue to take more steps so that small businesses have theability to access contracts with the federal government.
right now it's very difficult todo because typically the size of these contracts are so big,they're all bundled and packaged and it gives a huge advantageto somebody who can come in and they've got the bonding capacityand all the ability to fill out every form and meet everyfederal requirement. you know, a, we want to givetechnical assistance to folks so that they can have access. number two, can we break upsome of these contracts so that they're smaller so thatsmall businesses can apply.
and number three, just somethingthat i may have mentioned in -- i think i mentioned inthe speech on thursday, can we speed up paymentsto federal vendors? you know, if you arelockheed martin, you know, you're getting paid over -- onlyafter 30 days, it's no big deal. you know, if you're a smallbusiness who's, you know, contracting with hud, you know,getting paid in 15 days instead of 30 days might make all thedifference in the world in terms of you being able to growyour business more rapidly.
so we're going to be doing awhole bunch of stuff that's not in the bill. but the bill has to pass inorder for us to achieve the kinds of scale that arenecessary to start bringing our unemployment rate downin a significant way. that was such a goodquestion, i'll take one more. speaker:president obama, we havea question from one of our twitter users. currently, 10% of u.s. workersare employed by nonprofits.
what in your jobs billis going to spur more nonprofit job growth? the president:well, first of all, thebiggest loss that we've seen in employment over the last two anda half years has been in state and local government. and so the reason weemphasize teachers, first responders in particular,is because that's where the job losses have been most prominent. we've actually created jobs inthe private sector to the tune
of about 2 million overthe last 17, 18 months. but they've been offset byfolks being laid off, teachers, first responders at state andlocal governments that are really feeling pinched. in the non-for-profit sector,obviously things have been tighter during thecourse of this recession, that means theirfund-raising has suffered, and in some cases they've hadto lay off workers as well. i think our goal here is to makesure that this administration
continues to support smart,non-for-profits that are partnering withthe private sector, but also government in order toachieve the kinds of goals that we've set forourselves as a country. so, for example, you know, whenwe have said that we want to do more on earlychildhood education, a lot of that is not government. you know, if we'rebudgeting for that, that is giving non-for-profitorganizations the capacity then
to be providers in that space. when we talk about onthe health care front, we were able to preserve abig investment in community health centers. a lot of those arenon-for-profits. so our budget hasbeen reflective of -- in recognizing thatnon-for-profits are a critical component of deliveringimportant services, building capacity in ourcommunities all across
the country. one thing that is very specificin this jobs plan, for example, is neighborhood stabilization. i don't know if seanhas talked about this. you know, there are a wholebunch of communities all across the country, and some thecommunities where you guys come from, if you're from clevelandor detroit or other places where you got entire neighborhoodsfull of foreclosed homes. what can we do toturn that around?
you know, can we rehab some ofthose buildings to make them rental properties? in some cases do you just clearthose buildings out and create open spaces and parks andrecreation facilities for kids? and so in this plan is aneighborhood stabilization expansion, and a lot of thatwork would end up being carried out by non-for-profitsas opposed to directly by the government. all right?
okay, everybody, so i wantyou guys to pump this up. now, look, we are in acritical juncture here. i've been fighting for two and ahalf years to get through this economic storm, andwe have stabilized, but we've stabilized at anunemployment rate that is too high and too many peopleare still hurting. for us to take that nextstep requires us to do more. and this job -- thisjobs act can deliver. there's going to be enormousresistance, and right now,
our politics makes it tougherto get things done here in washington, unless the voices ofthe american people are heard. so i need people to be out therepromoting this and pushing this and making sure that everybodyunderstands the details of what this would mean so thatone of two things happen: either congress gets it done, orif congress doesn't get it done, people know exactlywhat's holding it up, and we're able to continue toapply pressure so that we can actually do what'sright for the country.
see ya. valerie jarrett:well, that was a nicesurprise, wasn't it? when the president heardyou were here, he said, another important audience forme to go and deliver my message to, because as he said, he'sgoing to take his message all across the country, and you allrepresent such a huge part of our country that needs to hearthis message and hear it today. so we want to thank youagain for coming today. we want to thank interactive onefor creating and working with us
on this forum. as the president said, wecan't do this without you, we want your help, wewant your engagement, we want your terrific questions,we want your suggestions. again, as he said, it's soimportant that we get this act passed, but this is --this is the beginning, we have to keep goingeach and every day, and we're always looking for newand fresh and exciting ideas, and we encourage you to not justinteract with us here when we
have a big audience, but tofeel welcomed to contact us individually wheneveryou have a great idea, whenever you havea great question. and then we ask you to do onething and that is communicate back out to your networks,because that's how america should work, it shouldbe an interaction, it should be an engagement,and we are here to serve you, and so help us help you. thank you very much, everybody.
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