Obama Press Conference 3-24-09

President Obama held his second Prime Time Press Conference on March 24,2009, his second Prime Time Press Conference since taking office January 20, 2009. Mr. Obama presented a brief statement about the various efforts of the Administration to heal the economic wounds left by the previous Republican Administration, they thoughtfully and politely answered inquiries from the press. Unlike the previous President Mr. Obama seems able to address questions from all segments of the 4th Estate regardless of their political leanings. In this regard Mr. Obama selects questioners from a wide range of media outlets and political persuasions throughout the conference. Most of the questioners focused on specifics and reasons of certain programs and the effect that the Administration hoped to achieve through their implementation.

Chuck Todd, from NBC, asked " Thank you, Mr. President. Some have compared this financial crisis to a war, and in times of war, past presidents have called for some form of sacrifice. Some of your programs, whether for Main Street or Wall Street, have actually cushioned the blow for those that were irresponsible during this -- during this economic period of prosperity or supposed prosperity that you were talking about.

Why, given this new era of responsibility that you’re asking for, why haven’t you asked for something specific that the public should be sacrificing to participate in this economic recovery?"

The President gave an excellent response that shows he is well aware of the suffering that is going on throughout America because of the Economic Crisis, "Well, let me -- let me take that question in a couple -- couple of phases. First of all, it’s not true that we have not asked sacrifice from people who are getting taxpayer money. We have imposed some very stiff conditions. The only problem that we’ve had so far are contracts that were put in place before we took over.
But moving forward, anybody -- any bank, for example, that is receiving capital from the taxpayers is going to have to have some very strict conditions in terms of how it pays out its executives, how it pays out dividends, how it’s reporting its lending practices. So we want to make sure that there’s some stiff conditions in place.

With respect to the American people, I think folks are sacrificing left and right. They -- you’ve got a lot of parents who are cutting back on everything to make sure that their kids can still go to college. You’ve got workers who are deciding to cut an entire day and entire day’s worth of pay so that their fellow co-workers aren’t laid off. I think that across the board people are making adjustments, large and small, to accommodate the fact that we’re in very difficult times right now.

What I’ve said here in Washington is that we’ve got to make some tough choices. We got to make some tough budgetary choices. What we can’t do, though, is sacrifice long-term growth investments that are critical to the future. And that’s why my budget focuses on health care, energy, education -- the kinds of things that can build a foundation for long-term economic growth as opposed to the fleeting prosperity that we’ve seen over the last several years. I mean, when you have an economy in which the majority of growth is coming from the financial sector -- when AIG selling a derivative is counted as an increase in the gross domedic -- domestic product, then that’s not a model for sustainable economic growth.

And what we have to do is invest in those things that will allow the American people’s capacity for ingenuity and innovation, their ability to take risks but make sure that those risks are grounded in good products and good services that they believe they can market to the rest of the country, that those models of economic growth are what we’re promoting, and that’s what I think our budget does."

Mr. Obama's response addresses the immediate and the future, while reiterating that the American People are sacrificing on a daily basis because of the catastrophic economy that was left by the Bush Administration. The implications of Mr. Todd's question are that the American People are somehow being cushioned from the economic upheaval and that it is only affecting the Corporate Wealthy, and that the People should give up more to further the rescue of the Multi-National Corporations that caused the problems. Just the opposite is true. The Corporations should be sacrificing so that the American People can continue to live a life style that Americans have worked to achieve over 200 years. For Mr. Todd to suggest that the Corporate Economy is more important that the individual lives of the American People is a perverted concept that has been fostered by the Republican Agenda since the days of Ronald Reagan. To think that a Corporation and its survival and profitability is of more importance that the individual is no less than a fascist view and a degradation of the human being.

Exactly what did Mr. Todd expect the President to say, that the American People should give up a meal a day or refrain from heating their homes or buying clothing? Mr. Todd is obviously unaware of the cutbacks and sacrificing that the American People have been enduring throughout the last 7 years while the Press and Reporters like Mr. Todd gave a free pass to the Republican Bush Administration and never questioned the damage that was being done to the growth and progression of our Nation, our Society, and our Living Standard because of the Corporatist and Military Policies of the Bush Administration. Mr. Todd should offer to sacrifice some of his six figure salary to a family that is now living in tent cities because of the financial meltdown presided over by the Bush Administration while the Press and reporters like Mr. Todd failed to question the Constitutionality of their policies.