I spent 2 years getting the government to handle my health care...

Quite frankly, I'm exhausted – I'm exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now. I have been told that I voted for a man who said [he] was going to change things in a meaningful way for the middle class. I'm one of those people and I'm waiting, sir. I'm waiting. I don't feel it yet. And I thought while it wouldn't be in great measure, I'd feel it in some small measure. I have two children in private school and the financial recession has taken an enormous toll on my family. My husband and I have joked for years that we thought we were well beyond the hot dogs and beans era of our lives, but, quite frankly, it's starting to knock on our door and ring true that that might be where we're headed again, and, quite frankly, Mr. President, I need you to answer this honestly. Is this my new reality?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: First of all, I think you describe exactly what is the bedrock of America. A veteran who is working for veterans, somebody who is a CFO, and I am sure knows how to manage their money, has made good decisions. I'm not saying once in a while you don't want to get a new pair of shoes.

[LAUGHTER]

So the life you describe, one of responsibility, looking after your family, contributing back to your community, that's what we want to reward.

Now, as I said before, times are tough for everybody right now. So I understand your frustration. But I would just -- when you say there are things that you would like to see happen or you're hoping to see happen that haven't happened yet, let me give you a couple of examples. I, right now, have two children -- sounds like you've got kids as well.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Two girls.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Two girls. You're going to be thinking about college soon.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Next year.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Part of what we did over the last year and a half is make sure that billions of dollars that were going to subsidize financial service industries under the federal student loan programs are now going to be going directly to students so that millions more students are going to be able to get loans and grants and similar scholarships to go to college.

Now that's going to have an impact on a whole bunch of kids out there, including maybe yours.

If you have a credit card, which I assume you do.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: No.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: See, now you're showing how responsible you are. But if you have a mortgage or a credit card or any kind of financial dealings out there, as a consequence of the changes we made, the credit card companies can't increase your interest rate without notifying you and they can't increase your interest rate on your previous balances. In terms of getting a mortgage, you can't have a mortgage broker steer you to a mortgage that ultimately is going to cost you more money because maybe they're getting a financial incentive to do so. Those things are now against the law.

So there are a whole host of protections in there.

You are a parent who has children. If your child, heaven forbid, had a pre-existing condition, before I took office you were out of luck in terms of being able to get health insurance for that child.

Now insurance companies have to give you health insurance for that child. And by the way, that health insurance company can't drop you if you get sick.

So there are a whole host of things that we've put in place that do make your life better. But, the bottom line is, if your 401(k) is still down substantially from where it was a while back, if you haven't seen a raise in a long time, if your home value went down, depending on where you live, all those things still make you feel like, gosh, I'm treading water.

And so my goal here is not to try to convince you that everything's where it needs to be. It's not. That's why I ran for president. But what I am saying is that we're moving in the right direction. And if we are able to keep our eye on our long-term goal, which is making sure that every family out there, if they're middle class, that they can, you know, pay their bills, have the security of health insurance, retire with dignity and respect, send their kids to college, if they're not yet in the middle class, but there are ladders there to get into the middle class if people work hard, get an education and apply their selves, that's our goal, that's the America we believe in, and I believe we are on track to do that.

Funny how not one part of his response offered a solution that would help fix the economy. 

It's about the econmy stupid!!!

-Dennis-

Quote:


I have a dumb question.  More Rhetorical than anything else, I suppose.   The President of the United States is surrounded by a bevy of advisors, senior staff, etc.  Why aren't they telling him his behavior is inappropriate???  Especially the giggleing part.

"The tea party movement has therefore sought to stay free of the Republican head. It's the GOP establishment that has attempted to wrap itself around the tea parties." ~David Paul Kuhn

I'm getting sick of you lumping in the Tea Party MOVEMENT with the religious right and the GOP.

... and throwing overboard their cargo of tea?  I'm sure that doesn't count as cleaning up!