Public Congress

At the close of an address on health reform to Congress, President Obama reminds people: “I will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it’s better politics to kill this plan, than to improve it.”

“If you misrepresent what’s in this plan, we will call you out,” he adds. “And I will not accept the status quo as a solution. Not this time. Not now.”

He also talks about a letter he received from late Senator Ted Kennedy that was written in May, but delivered to Obama after Kennedy’s death. In the letter, Ted called health reform “unfinished business” but was confident that “this is the year” that it would pass.

Obama also remarked on when it is necessary fo government to step in.

Duration : 0:9:36

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March 23, 1992 http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FChristopher-Hitchens%2Fe%2FB000APSKR0%3Fqid%3D1278211708%26sr%3D1-2-ent&tag=doc06-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325

Barbara Levy Boxer (born November 11, 1940) is the junior United States Senator from California and a member of the Democratic Party. Boxer was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992, becoming the second female Jewish U.S. senator, after Sen. Dianne Feinstein. She was reelected in 1998 and in 2004 for a term ending in January 2011.

With the convening of the 110th Congress, Boxer became the first female chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee and, following the resignation of Sen. Tim Johnson (D-South Dakota) from the post, she was also chosen as chair of the Select Committee on Ethics. This made her the only senator to preside over two committees simultaneously. She holds the record for the most popular votes in a statewide contested election in California, having received 6,955,728 votes in her 2004 re-election over former Republican Secretary of State Bill Jones.

She currently holds the position of Chief Deputy Whip of the Democratic Majority.

On August 17 at the Republican convention in New Orleans, Louisiana, George H. W. Bush called on Quayle to be his running mate in the 1988 United States presidential election. The choice immediately became controversial. Press coverage of the convention was dominated with questions about “the three Quayle problems”, in the phrase of H. Brent Bozell, executive director of the Media Research Center, a conservative group that monitors television coverage. The questions involved his military service, a golf trip to Florida with Paula Parkinson, and whether he had enough experience to be President. Quayle seemed at times rattled and at other times uncertain or evasive as he tried to handle the questions. Delegates to the convention generally blamed television and newspapers for the focus on Quayle’s problems, but Bush’s staff said they thought Quayle had mishandled the questions about his military record, leaving questions dangling. Although Republicans were trailing by up to 15 points in public opinion polls taken before the convention, they received a significant boost that put them in the lead, which they did not relinquish for the rest of the campaign.

Duration : 0:10:23

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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report, from http://voaspecialenglish.com | http://facebook.com/voalearningenglish

President Obama turned his attention to financial reform after his victory in March on health care.

On April fourteenth he met with congressional leaders from both parties at the White House.

He said there are some areas on which Democrats and Republicans can agree. “If theres one lesson that weve learned,” he said,

“it’s that [an] unfettered market where people are taking huge risks and expecting taxpayers to bail them out when things go sour is simply not acceptable.”

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner wrote in the Washington Post that the deep financial crisis is close to the end. But he said the nation must not forget the near-collapse of the banking system in two thousand eight without fixing the causes.

He told the American Society of News Editors in Washington that no one is arguing against new financial protections. The debate now,
he said, involves how to design a system that lets big financial companies fail without harming the economy.

In December, the House of Representatives passed the
Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. That bill would create a new consumer financial protection agency. It would also increase investor protections and let shareholders vote on the pay of top company officials.
And it would create a group to identify and regulate companies that are so big, their failure could threaten the economy.

Republicans opposed the bill. That was also true in March when the Senate Banking Committee approved its own version. That bill would not create an independent consumer agency, but instead a new office at the Federal Reserve, the central bank.

Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said the bill would make future bailouts
more likely, not less likely.

Both measures in Congress call for
a system to supervise derivatives. These contracts are used for different purposes, including investment and protecting against loss. The largely unregulated market in derivatives is estimated at
six hundred trillion dollars.

Government rescues of banks considered “too big to fail”
angered the public and helped fuel a conservative movement.
The Tea Party also opposes the new health care law and argues for lower taxes and less government.

On April fifteenth they protested to mark Tax Day, when Americans have to pay any federal taxes they owe.

And that’s the VOA Special English Economics Report.

(Adapted from a radio program broadcast 16Apr2010)

Duration : 0:4:1

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WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Obama told Congress on Wednesday that while he is not the first president to take up the cause of health care reform, “I am determined to be the last.” – 09-09-09 –

Pre President Obama is delivering an address to a joint session of Congress to present the most detailed description of his idea of health reform.

Obama has been criticized as the health care debate has devolved into rancorous town hall meetings and a partisan split over reform plans. Obama has also faced a split in his own party over how to best go about reforming the nation’s health care system.

“Well the time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action,” Obama said. “Now is when we must bring the best ideas of both parties together, and show the American people that we can still do what we were sent here to do. Now is the time to deliver on health care.”

While much of the debate over health care has been over a government-backed public option, Obama said that’s not the only problem plaguing the system.

“Those who do have insurance have never had less security and stability than they do today,” he said of Americans who have lost their insurance when they have lost their jobs or have had their coverage dropped when they have suffered an illness.

Obama will say that there is agreement on about 80 percent of what needs to be done, “but what we have also seen in these last months is the same partisan spectacle that only hardens the disdain many Americans have toward their own government.”

“Instead of honest debate, we have seen scare tactics,” he will say.

Obama was tweaking his pivotal health care address right up until the last, top aides said. He worked on the speech late into Tuesday night in the White House residence, bringing a new draft for his staff to work through Wednesday morning, they said. He even took a first draft of the speech to Camp David this weekend. sident Obama tells Congress the “time for bickering is over” as he presents the most detailed description yet of his ideas for health reform to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night. “The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action,” Obama will say, according to excerpts of the speech released by the White House – Sept. 9, 2009

Duration : 0:10:32

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President Obama says during an address on health reform to Congress that death panels are “a lie,” abortions would not be funded under the plan, and illegal immigrants would not benefit, to which an audience member – identified as Rep. Joe Wilson – shouted back, “Lie!”

He also comments that he does not want to put insurance companies out of business. “I just want to hold them accountable.”

Duration : 0:4:47

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In a ruling sometimes characterized as protecting “corporate free speech,” the US Supreme Court held this month that “the Government may not suppress political speech on the basis of the speaker’s corporate identity” in the case of Citizens United vs the Federal Elections Commission and my support for the free speech rights involved found me in some strange company while this landmark legal decision caused some other people to change their minds or to consider changing their policies, as I show in this video.

You can find the full text of all the opinions in Citizens United vs the Federal Elections Commission online at http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-205.pdf

The clips I use in this video from ABC’s “This Week” come from the program broadcast on January 24, 2010, and the full segment from which I took the clip of South Carolina’s Republican Senator Jim Demint is available online at http://abcnews.go.com/video/video?id=9648277

The clips I use in this video of Sam Donaldson and George Will are also from that broadcast of ABC’s “This Week” and come from the full segment available online at http://abcnews.go.com/video/video?id=9648509

The clip I use of “The Daily Show” comes from the January 25, 2010, segment available online at http://tinyurl.com/SupremeCorp

The clips I use of Lawrence Lessig come from his YouTube video titled “Lessig on Supreme Court Campaign Finance Decision: Change Congress Video” available on his ChangeYourCongress YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87YOBDzxwj4

The clip I use of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address comes from the public domain video available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1PWQtCDaYY

The image I use of the email from Lawrence Lessig is also available on his website at http://change-congress.org

And, finally, the image I use of the New York Sun’s article titled “ACLU May Reverse Course On Campaign Finance Limits After Supreme Court Ruling,” comes from the page at http://www.nysun.com/national/aclu-may-reverse-course-on-campaign-finance/86899/

Duration : 0:9:48

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IN FULL: President Obama spoke before Congress in his first State of the Union address.

Duration : 1:9:20

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A Republican House member shouted “You lie” during President Obama’s health care speech to Congress on Wednesday, and members of both parties condemned the heckling. South Carolina Democratic Party chair says Wilson “embarrassed” state. The outburst came when Obama denied that proposed health care legislation would provide free health coverage for illegal immigrants. Immediately, Wilson shouted, “You lie!” . The outburst caused Obama to stop and look toward the heckler. “That’s not true,” the president responded. Behind him, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared shocked and turned toward the outburst as Vice President Joe Biden looked down and shook his head. Loud boos echoed through the chamber immediately after the outburst.

While it was the most attention-getting, Wilson’s shout wasn’t the only demonstration of displeasure made by Republicans during the speech.

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, wore a sign around his neck that said, “WHAT BILL?” And when Obama asked Republicans to share their health reform ideas with him, a small group raised up a stack of papers above their heads.
After the speech, Republican Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate defeated by Obama last year, called Wilson’s outburst “totally disrespectful” and said he should apologize.

Appearing on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” he said there was “no place for it in that setting or any other and he should apologize immediately.”

Other Republicans also criticized Wilson, along with the expected Democratic condemnation.

“It was crude and disrespectful,” said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, a top Senate Democrat. “I think the person who said it will pay a price.”

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, called on Wilson to go to the floor Thursday and apologize. She said Wilson’s comment and other GOP tactics “strike me as odd. … The minority leader has to get control of his conference.” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, told CNN affiliate WIS-TV in Columbia that he, too, was disappointed.

“The president’s combative tone did not justify a member of Congress shouting out, ‘You lie,’ ” said Graham. “Our nation’s president deserves to be treated with respect. It was an inappropriate remark, and I am glad an apology has been made.”

South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Carol Fowler took it further.

“Once again a South Carolina Republican has embarrassed our state,” Fowler’s office said in a statement that referred to S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford’s extramarital affair.

“Never has any member of Congress shown such disrespect for the president during a speech,” Fowler wrote. “One would think that as a member of the military, Joe Wilson would have more respect and patriotism than he displayed tonight. When Congressman Wilson insulted President Obama, he also insulted the American public. Joe Wilson is a poor example of a statesman and an American. He owes an apology to the president and the American people.” The Democrat hoping to unseat Wilson in next year’s midterm elections also quickly seized on the Republican’s outburst.

“Rep. Wilson’s behavior tonight exemplifies everything that is wrong in Washington,” Democrat Rob Miller said in a statement provided to CNN. “Instead of engaging in childish name-calling and disrespecting our commander-in-chief, Joe Wilson should be working towards a bipartisan solution that makes quality, affordable health care available to each and every South Carolinian.”

After the speech, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, tweeted that it was the “biggest” disappointment of the evening. “Biggest disappointmnt of evening, the total lack of respect shown by one member for the President,” she wrote. “Never acceptable to behave like a jerk.”

Duration : 0:10:53

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WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama struck a balance between grim economic reality and a more hopeful outlook on Tuesday to try to reassure worried Americans their country will emerge from crisis “stronger than before.”

Riding high in opinion polls, Obama was careful to include a sober assessment of the economic emergency in his first speech to Congress, seeking to temper expectations that his administration’s rescue efforts would yield quick fixes.

But the politician whose memoir was called “The Audacity of Hope” and who won the White House in last November’s election amid chants of “yes, we can” was also back in stride, telling recession-weary Americans to expect better days ahead.

“While our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken, though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover,” Obama said in the televised speech.

“And the United States of America will emerge stronger than before,” he told a chamber packed with lawmakers, cabinet members and invited guests.

The Democratic president also leveled a barrage of indirect criticism at his Republican predecessor George W. Bush for the country’s economic plight and bloated debt, warning that the “day of reckoning” had arrived.

Five weeks after taking office, Obama pressed the case for his economic plans while laying out a broad agenda, including a much-anticipated push for a healthcare overhaul and energy independence, to help build momentum for his young presidency.

The primetime State of the Union-style address to a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives came against a backdrop of growing anxiety across the country in the face of the worst financial meltdown in decades.

While his public support is strong, Wall Street remains skeptical of his economic remedies.

Jittery investors sent U.S. stocks to a 12-year low on Monday, but the markets rallied on Tuesday on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s assurances that the country’s troubled banks should be able to weather the downturn without being nationalized.

Trying to show he would make good on his promise of fiscal responsibility, Obama said he had identified $2 trillion in budget cuts over the next decade.

Obama, who rolls out his first budget proposal on Thursday, has vowed to halve the annual deficit by the end of his term.

Duration : 0:8:37

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Congressman Joe Wilson Calls Obama A Liar During Speech
South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson called Obama out on his lies. Pelosi, Obama, and Biden’s faces were priceless. My old Youtube channel was DELETED by Youtube last night, please SUBSCRIBE to my new one here! Fair Use Notice: This video contains some copyrighted material whose use has not been authorized by the copyright owners. We believe that this not-for-profit, educational use on the Web constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Fair Use notwithstanding we will immediately comply with any copyright owner who wants their material removed or modified, wants us to link to their web site, or wants us to add their photo. Disclaimer: The owner and operators of this web site user page do not engage in illegal activities, nor do they know any individuals who do. This web site user page is intended to inform the public about the NEW WORLD ORDER, We value all opinions. In our time online, no rebuttal has been had.
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