Voters Voice Concerns To Obama During Townhall Event

President Barack Obama took some pointed questions on Monday from townhall participants clearly worried about the precarious state of the nation’s economy.

The roughly hour-long event was attended by small business owners, students, union leaders and others, some supporters of Obama, some not. It was held at the Newseum, a museum dedicated to journalism located just blocks from the White House, and was broadcasted live with no commercial interruption by the business news channel CNBC.

Though questions ranged from taxes, to China, to the rise of the Tea Party, the struggling economy was the central focus. Obama used the opportunity to take a swipe at his predecessor in office, telling participants that while recovery has been slow to develop, it will take time to reverse the effects of policies passed under the Bush administration.

“As a consequence of reckless decisions that had been made, the economy was on the verge of collapse. Those same businesses now are profitable; the financial markets are stabilized,” he said. “The only thing that we’ve said is that we’ve got to make sure that we’re not doing some of the same things that we were doing in the past that got into this mess in the first place.”

The president reiterated his desire to see Congress extend a series of tax cuts for the middle class, but said it would be “irresponsible” to continue providing relief to “millionaires and billionaires.”

“I can’t give tax cuts to the top 2 percent of Americans…and lower the deficit at the same time,” he said.

One questioner, a woman who voted for Obama in 2008, told the president she was tired of defending him, and asked whether living off “hot dogs and beans” represented her new “reality.” The president responded that everything is not “where it needs to be,” but assured her that the nation is “moving in the right direction.”

When asked by another participant whether the ‘American Dream’ was dead, the president said “Absolutely not…We are still the country that billions of people in the world look to and aspire to.”

Obama was also asked about his handling of the bank collapse, including a question from an actual Wall Street executive who said he attended Harvard with the president. Obama acknowledged that he has beaten up on some firms since he took office, but justified it by telling the audience that “folks on Main Street feel like Wall Street has beaten up on them.”

The president argued that despite his actions to boost government regulation of the financial sector, he does not begrudge companies that profit, and has been cautious not to stifle the market.

“It’s very hard to find evidence of anything we’ve done that’s designed to squash business as opposed to promote business,” he said. “What I’ve tried to do is just try to be practical.”

Newseum Dedication Ceremony honors news, journalists, and the First Amendment

The Newseum, a museum of news and journalism, held its Dedication Ceremony today. Charles Overby, chief executive officer of the Newseum, said over 8,000 people visited today for the Grand Opening, which was free for visitors. The 250,000-square-foot museum features a front wall of glass and a 74-foot high marble engraving of the First Amendment. The importance of the First Amendment was touched on by many of the guest speakers at the ceremony, referred to as the “cornerstone of democracy” by Overby.

Stephen Colbert from the Colbert Report created an opening video for the ceremony, where he suggested a name change to “Newsoleum,” since he said museums were only for things that no one uses anymore. Overby commented on Colbert’s video at the end by saying “it’s a little scary that’s where people are getting their news from.”

The Newseum is comprised of 14 exhibition galleries, exploring news history, technology, world news, and how the media covered major events. Alberto Ibarguen, the chairman of the Newseum, discussed a feature where visitors can record their own news reports based on a set of facts, and then classmates can compare and contrast their different reports and points of views. He said this was unlike most other museums, because talking is encouraged, and visitors are to make up their own mind on the facts, opinions, and alternatives provided in the Newseum.

Arthur Sulzberger, chairman of the New York Times, said though the Times was not too kind to this building, he admired the dedication it shows to the honor and the courage of journalists. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also commented on the Journalists Memorial, which she said pays tribute to the journalists who “lost their lives so we can find truth.”