Weekly Address: President Obama – The American Spirit of Innovation

March 5, 2016 JanF Featured Posts, From the White House 5

The President’s Weekly Address post is also an Open News Thread. Feel free to share other news stories in the comments.

From the White House – Weekly Address

In this week’s address, the President discussed his upcoming visit to the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, where he will participate in a conversation about civic engagement in the 21st century and how we can use technology to tackle our toughest challenges. The President noted that we’ve made significant progress over the past few years in using creative ideas and technology to improve the lives of Americans, recruiting some of the sharpest minds to re-imagine outdated systems and better deliver services. That’s why the President is going to South by Southwest – to build on that progress and ask some of our most creative thinkers and entrepreneurs from across the country to help us continue to solve problems and update our government to the standards of the 21st century.

Transcript: Weekly Address: The American Spirit of Innovation

Remarks of President Barack Obama as Delivered
Weekly Address, The White House, March 5, 2016

Hi, everybody. One of the things that makes America so strong is our spirit of innovation. Our drive to invent and harness new technologies to tackle our greatest challenges. It’s how we won the race to invent the lightbulb and the Internet; it’s why we were first to the Moon and Mars. It’s why I keep models of American inventions like the telegraph in the Oval Office. It’s a daily reminder of the genius that’s embedded in our DNA; the way we’ve always shaped the future through our ideas and discoveries.

That’s truer than ever today, with the constant stream of new apps and tools and data that are still changing the way we live – from getting a ride to paying our bills to developing smarter ways to combat climate change.

That’s why, next week, I’ll travel to Austin, Texas, to visit South by Southwest. It’s an annual gathering of some of our most creative thinkers, coders, makers, and entrepreneurs from across the country. And while I’m there, I’m going to ask everyone for ideas and technologies that can help update our government and our democracy to be as modern and dynamic as America itself.

This has been a goal of mine since before I was President. On my campaign in 2008, we saw how technology could bring people together and help them engage as citizens in their own communities. So when I came to the White House, I wanted apply that experience to the federal government. It hasn’t always been easy. And we’ve had some bumps along the way.

But we’ve also made good progress. Over the past few years, for example, we’ve done something that government never has. We asked some of the sharpest minds from companies in Silicon Valley and across the country to come help us modernize the federal government for the way we live today. And they came ready to serve, tackling some of our biggest challenges – like high-tech special ops units.

These teams are partnering with the government’s existing policy and technical experts to re-imagine the way we do business and deliver services that work better and cost less. Already, we’ve made it easier for students to find the college that’s right for them. For immigrants to track the green card and naturalization process online. For veterans to access their medical records. And yes, after an initial false start, we’ve made it much easier for tens of millions of Americans to compare and buy health insurance and the peace of mind that goes with it.

That’s what this is all about – making sure our government of the people and by the people works better for the people in the 21st century. It’s about Americans working together to make a real difference in people’s lives. Because the easiest thing to do is to blame government for our problems. Some people have made a career out of that. But our founders trusted us with the keys to this system of self-government because it’s the best tool we’ve got to settle our differences and solve our collective challenges. And it’s only as good as we make it.

That’s why I’m going to Austin and South by Southwest – to keep asking everyone from all walks of life, working inside or outside of government, to help us make this democracy even stronger. And I hope you join us.

Thanks everybody, have a great weekend.

Bolding added.

~

5 Comments

  1. The president received news of the improving economy and shared his reaction:

    Transcript:

    PRESIDENT OBAMA: This morning, we learned that the U.S. economy had created 242,000 jobs last month. That’s two months in a row at the unemployment rate of below 5 percent. And over the past three months, our workforce has grown by 1.5 million people. That is progress.

    Overall, America’s business has now created new jobs for 72 straight months, six straight years of job creation — 14.3 million new jobs. In fact, our businesses have created jobs every single month since I signed that job-killing Obamacare bill. (Laughter.) […]

    … the numbers, the facts don’t lie. And I think it’s useful, given that there seems to be an alternative reality out there from some of the political folks that America is down in the dumps. It’s not. America is pretty darn great right now, and making strides right now. […]

    Republicans in Congress are, sadly, trying to cut some of the investments that could spur additional growth. They are blocking things like an increase in the minimum wage, or more robust investment in jobs training, infrastructure, education that can continue to lift up wages and incomes — an area, by the way, where we are not seeing the same kinds of pace that we want to see, and where, if we’re working together, we could be making a difference.

    That’s what we should be debating. That’s the debate that is worthy of the American people. Not fantasy. Not name-calling. Not trying to talk down the American economy, but looking at the facts, understanding that we’ve made extraordinary progress in job growth; how can we continue to advance that, how can we make sure that people are successful in climbing the ladder of wage and income growth over the coming years; how do we make sure that we make this economy grow even faster. […]

    The notion that we would reverse the very policies that helped dig us out of a recession, reinstitute those that got us into a hole — plans that are being currently proposed by Republicans in Congress and by some of the candidates for President — that’s not the conversation we should be having. That’s not the direction America should take. And I’m looking forward to very forcefully making clear that what we have done has made a difference, and that there’s a huge gap between the rhetoric that’s going on out there and the reality of success that we’re seeing in America’s economy, even as we acknowledge that there’s more work that can be done to make sure that everybody is benefitting from that success.

    Me too!!

  2. The president spoke in Milwaukee on Thursday celebrating the success of the Affordable Care Act:

    Transcript: Remarks by the President on the Healthy Communities Challenge

    In the six years since I signed the Affordable Care Act into law, millions of people have bought affordable health insurance — and many of those bought it for the first time. Last summer we learned that, for the first time ever, America’s uninsured rate has fallen below 10 percent. (Applause.) This is the lowest rate of uninsured that we’ve seen since we started keeping these records.

    But we know that there are millions more who are eligible for coverage but haven’t gotten it yet. And that’s understandable. When you’re going about your day-to-day life — going to work, taking care of your kids — you’re not paying attention to enrollment deadlines. A lot of people still don’t know that most consumers can get covered for less than $100 a month — less than your cell phone bill or your cable bill. And obviously, there’s been a lot of political noise surrounding the Affordable Care Act, so people haven’t always known what’s true and what’s not.

    So here’s what we did. We started a competition between 20 communities across America — from Philadelphia to Long Beach, from Atlanta to Denver — to see which city could get more of its uninsured neighbors to get covered. […]

    Milwaukee came out on top. You get bragging rights this year. (Applause.)

  3. In the News: Alabama dead-enders finally done …

    The Alabama Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the right to same-sex marriage, dismissing a challenge by conservative religious groups that opposed such unions.

    In a one-sentence order, the high court turned aside a lawsuit by the Alabama Citizens Action Program and the Alabama Policy Institute questioning the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that effectively allowed same-sex unions.

    “It is ordered that all pending motions and petitions are dismissed,” the court said in ending the legal battle.

    There are still some counties not issuing marriage licenses to any couples and a move afoot to protect probate judges from having to perform same-sex marriages but they no longer have state law on their side.

  4. In the News: Decriminalizing homelessness in Indianapolis, encouraged by good government federal initiatives …

    When homeless people cluster and set up stable tent camps, most American cities eventually send garbage men, cops, and social workers to tear the camps down, kick out the occupants, and even destroy their belongings. But in Indianapolis, such encampments are now protected from the sudden, destructive approach that so many other cities use to break up unsightly homeless communities.

    Such camps are now shielded there by a bill passed in February on an overwhelming 23-2 vote. City officials must give a full 15 days’ notice to residents of any planned dismantling of a camp, a far longer lead time than is typical in such efforts. The city is never allowed to destroy residents’ personal property, as is common when local leaders opt for a crackdown. And the city can’t tear down a camp at all unless there are enough open housing units and sufficient resources for social services organizations to immediately absorb all its residents — a provision that can be suspended if Indianapolis declares a homelessness emergency.

    Here is the federal initiative put in place last September that helped prod Indianapolis into doing the right thing:

    After arguing last month that local ordinances criminalizing people for being homeless are unconstitutional, the Obama administration will now tie federal funding to whether municipalities are cracking down on criminalization measures.

    Every year, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) gives out $1.9 billion in grants to local Continuums of Care, public-private partnerships that tackle homelessness in a specific area. These grants are doled out in a competitive process whereby applicants must fill out a lengthy questionnaire about how they plan to use the money, as well as their current policies.

    Last week, though, HUD announced that it would begin asking applicants to describe the steps they are taking to reduce the criminalization of homelessness. Ordinances that criminalize homelessness, also known as “anti-vagrancy” or “quality of life” laws, include making it illegal to sit down on a sidewalk, ask passersby for spare change, or sleep in a public place. Applicants for the federal money will have to show they are engaging with local policymakers or law enforcement about criminalization policies, as well as implementing new community plans to ensure homelessness is not criminalized. Failing to combat such ordinances will hurt a Continuum of Care’s chances of winning new funds.

  5. Thank you so much, Jan! Technology is absolutely great when it works properly, as we all know. :)

    Things in this country have improved and will continue to do so. I get so sick of Rethug remarks and commercials about “the deficit” (which Dubya ran up for his war of choice) and how terrible things are right now. They’re not terrible at all for overfed, rich, ugly white guys.

    The development in large part responsible for homelessness was “deinstitutionalization.” They turned people out of mental hospitals and of course the unfortunate people had nowhere to go. A civilized country would not allow this. In Washington, DC, there’s a program called “Housing First,” which affirms that the homeless first need a stable, secure environment in which to live. After that, other problems can be treated. Not sure how far along the road this new approach is, but I do hope it’s working. Muriel Bowser, the DC mayor, swears to end homelessness by 2017.

    Thanks for providing these inspirational posts! It’s so nice to get good news for a change, instead of the latest trumpets from the newspooper.

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