Voters Voice Concerns To Obama During Townhall Event
Monday, September 20, 2010 at 1:45PMPresident 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.”
AIDS Funding Advocates Want More From Obama
President Barack Obama’s $25 million package to fund AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAP) nationwide was helpful but not enough, say advocates of the program.
In July, the White House announced that it would distribute the funds to states in which waiting lists for HIV and AIDS treatment had developed. That figure fell far short of the $126 million that lawmakers and groups had asked for from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Though the initial investment helped some states stave off immediate crisis - the state of Iowa, for example, used its funds to eliminate its ADAP waiting list entirely - waiting lists in other states have grown since then, and some states, including Iowa, have been forced to cap enrollments. Currently, over 3,200 Americans in nine states are waiting to receive treatment.
“The president deserves credit for [the $25 million package] but it’s not enough,” says Brandon Macsata, CEO of the ADAP Advocacy Association. “The numbers back it up, the waiting lists are growing.”
Created in 1987 and then incorporated by Congress into the Ryan White Care Act three years later, ADAP has provided hundreds of thousands of low-income AIDS-stricken Americans who are ineligible for Medicaid, access to affordable drugs.
During a Democratic fundraiser in Manhattan on Wednesday night, Obama was interrupted during his speech by protestors demanding more AIDS funding. The president responded by saying his administration has increased funding, despite a tightening budget. He then added that if Republicans win back Congress this fall, “I promise you they’ll cut AIDS funding.”
Macsata, however, says that while federal funding of ADAP is technically higher now than it has been in the past, the federal share of the program’s annual budget is dwindling. Non-profit groups like his and the Community Access National Network are contributing far more to ADAP than the government these days. As a result, people are starting to take action.
“The waiting lists are the tip of the iceberg, Macsata told me. “There are hundreds of people who have been dis-enrolled [from ADAP] and are not eligible for the program anymore, and that’s why you see the protests.”
Activists lament the fact that Congress has yet to come up with the leftover $101 million that has been requested, particularly at a time when spending $1 billion causes few in Washington to bat an eye. Democrats have proposed emergency legislation, but have been unable to muster support due to concerns that their bill isn’t paid for, and a GOP-led effort in the Senate has stalled.
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), co-sponsor of a bill that would direct unobligated Recovery Act funds towards ADAP, says the White House has turned a blind eye to what it considers a relatively minor issue. The administration, says Burr, is so preoccupied with large-scale healthcare reform “that they’re willing to let some go without the products they need.”
Burr told me that he will attempt to bring his bill to the floor one more time before the Senate adjourns, but doubts whether Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will allow it to proceed.