The White House

Office of the First Lady

For Immediate Release
February 24, 2011

Remarks by the First Lady at Motown Music Series Student Workshop

State Dining Room

1:35 P.M. EST

MRS. OBAMA:  Well, isn’t this exciting? 

AUDIENCE:  Yes!

MRS. OBAMA:  Oh, my goodness.  Well, hello, everyone.  It is great to have you all here today.  This is really good.

Let me start by recognizing the three or four gentlemen who have joined me on stage:  our dear friend, John Legend, who has just been amazing in so many ways; Mr. Smokey Robinson, who needs no introduction, who has been such a dear friend -- (applause); Mr. Berry Gordy, who -- (applause) -- just is; and Mr. Bob Santelli from the Grammy Museum, who’s going to get us started.  (Applause.) 

Thank you.  Thank you all so much.  It means so much to us.  I know it means so much to all these students to have you here to spend this kind of quality time.  This doesn’t happen often, you do realize that.

Not only getting these gentlemen on the stage together, but the fact that you all have this kind of access, and you’re sitting where, in the White House -- (laughter) -- that's something else.

But of course I want to thank all of you, all the students, for coming out today.  I’m excited because you all are coming from all over the country, from schools all over the country, and of course from my hometown, Chicago.  (Cheering.)  We’ve got some of my neighborhood schools.  We’ve got DuSable and Kenwood and Hyde Park -- I’m not going to go into it because I’m going to leave out a few, but we are so excited to have you all here.

And I also understand that you’re going to get to stay a little bit and see some of the performance, as well.  So hopefully this is an exciting visit to Washington for you.  It is a thrill for us to have you here.

When we moved in this -- to this house a couple years ago, we wanted to open these doors as wide as we could, especially for young people like you.  And this music series is one of the ways that we’re doing that.  We have held workshops for all different types of music:  classical, country, we’ve done some jazz, we’ve done some Broadway, we’ve even done some music from the Civil Rights movement.  We did that last February for Black History Month.  It was a wonderful event.  And we did something for modern dance.  So we’re starting to move into other genres, as well.

We do all this because we believe that “the People’s House” shouldn’t be just a nickname.  We believe that Prime Ministers and VIPs shouldn’t be the only ones who feel comfortable walking through these doors.  We feel that everyone should feel like they belong here, sitting right here in the State Dining Room.  

And I hope you realize through this experience that no one here is any different than you all are, whether that’s Smokey Robinson or John Legend or me or my husband, because we are all reflected in you.  We see ourselves in you.  I say that all the time when I am talking to young people.  We were all sitting where you were at some point in time, if you can believe that.  We were teenagers once.  (Laughter.)  Not so funny.  We were!  (Laughter.) 

We went to some of the same high schools that you all did.  We went to schools like you.  We carried around backpacks.  We didn't have computers and iPods, but, you know, we talked to each other on the phone every now and then.  We had to dial with the rotary dial -- (laughter) -- but things were a little different. 

But we liked to hang out with our friends.  We were into music.  You know, I even used to know what the latest dances were and taught my brother.  I don't know that now. 

But we had homework to do.  And sometimes our parents embarrassed us, like we now embarrass our children.  And growing up, we all had our own dreams.  And that's what today is about.  It’s about the dreams of kids who grew up knowing that they had a song to sing, and that everyone will want to hear that song. 

And it all started with Mr. Gordy in 1960.  He was a young man in Detroit with a great idea.  He wanted to be one of the very first African Americans to own a record label.  So he got an $800 loan from his family -- they owe you big time, right? -- (laughter) -- and started recording music out of his apartment.

And soon he bought a house to record from, and it became home to some of the most popular musicians in the country:  Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Temptations, the Supremes, the Jackson Five, The Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight and the Supremes.  Gladys Knight will be here soon, as well.  And one of my personal favorites -- I say this all the time -- who?  Who’s my favorite?  Stevie Wonder, yes, indeed.

And as Motown rose, so did the forces of change in this country.  During that time, it was the time of King and Kennedy, it was a time of marches and rallies and groundbreaking civil rights laws.  And Motown’s music was so much more than just a soundtrack.  It was a heartbeat. 

As one of the members of The Four Tops once said, "Back in the '60s, when we weren't allowed to go certain places, our music crept into people's homes ... into their living rooms, their kitchens, their cars."

Motown helped pave the way for people in this country to look at one another a little differently, because something changed when little girls all across the country saw Diana Ross on the Ed Sullivan Show.  It was a change that happened.  Something changed when teenagers turned up the volume on the Temptations song, no matter where they lived, in Birmingham or Boston, in Detroit or Denver. 

Motown made music for all people, no matter what you looked like, no matter where you came from.  And that is why we are so proud, my husband and I, to share Motown’s story as we continue to celebrate Black History Month.  See, the people that we’re going to be talking about, that we’re going to hear from, that we’re going to listen to -- the songs, the music -- these are true trailblazers, because as you know, there wouldn’t be an Usher if there wasn’t a Smokey Robinson.  You know, there wouldn’t be an Alicia Keys without a Gladys Knight. 

But the thing that I want you all to remember is that nobody’s name is printed on the Billboard Top 10 at birth.  Nobody is born into this.  Neither Mr. Gordy nor Smokey Robinson were born into greatness or wealth.  Diana Ross grew up in a housing project.  And John Legend is the son of a seamstress and a factory worker.  And they are good people. 

But they’ve shown us that with enough hard work and a willingness to take some risks, anyone can make it.  And this isn’t just true for careers in entertainment or sports.  The Motown story is really a metaphor for life. 

So whatever your passions are –- whether it’s business, or law, or science, teaching, social services –- with dedication and focus, there is truly nothing that you all can’t do.  And if you ever doubt that, just look up on this stage for a second and remember what you can do.

     So what I’m asking you all to do now is to really take full advantage of this opportunity, because I’m going to turn the stage over to these individuals who are going to make themselves available to you.  So I want you all to ask questions.  You don't seem like a shy bunch, so -- but take full advantage.  Ask questions and find out about how they reached their dreams so that you can figure out some strategies for reaching yours.

     Don't be shy.  Ignore the cameras.  Hopefully -- I don't know if they’re leaving or not, but if they stay, just ignore them.  (Laughter.)  And make sure you get all that you can from these men. 

     And I’m going to leave because I’ve got other stuff to do, but I am so grateful to all of you for taking the time not just to be here this evening, but doing this, because this is really what it’s all about.  It’s not this evening’s performance.  It’s what's going to happen in this room right now that makes this program so special.

     So thank you all.  And I want to introduce the man who’s going to get us started, Mr. Bob Santelli, who’s the Executive Director of the Grammy Museum.  And I will see you guys doing great things, right?

     AUDIENCE:  Yes.

     MRS. OBAMA:  All right, thank you, have fun.  (Applause.) 

END

1:44 P.M. EST

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
February 23, 2011

Remarks by the President on Libya

Grand Foyer

5:07 P.M. EST

     THE PRESIDENT:  Good afternoon, everybody.  Secretary Clinton and I just concluded a meeting that focused on the ongoing situation in Libya.  Over the last few days, my national security team has been working around the clock to monitor the situation there and to coordinate with our international partners about a way forward.
 
     First, we are doing everything we can to protect American citizens.  That is my highest priority.  In Libya, we've urged our people to leave the country and the State Department is assisting those in need of support.  Meanwhile, I think all Americans should give thanks to the heroic work that's being done by our foreign service officers and the men and women serving in our embassies and consulates around the world.  They represent the very best of our country and its values.
 
     Now, throughout this period of unrest and upheaval across the region the United States has maintained a set of core principles which guide our approach.  These principles apply to the situation in Libya.  As I said last week, we strongly condemn the use of violence in Libya.
 
     The American people extend our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of all who’ve been killed and injured.  The suffering and bloodshed is outrageous and it is unacceptable. So are threats and orders to shoot peaceful protesters and further punish the people of Libya.  These actions violate international norms and every standard of common decency.  This violence must stop.
 
     The United States also strongly supports the universal rights of the Libyan people.  That includes the rights of peaceful assembly, free speech, and the ability of the Libyan people to determine their own destiny.  These are human rights.  They are not negotiable.  They must be respected in every country.  And they cannot be denied through violence or suppression.
 
     In a volatile situation like this one, it is imperative that the nations and peoples of the world speak with one voice, and that has been our focus.  Yesterday a unanimous U.N. Security Council sent a clear message that it condemns the violence in Libya, supports accountability for the perpetrators, and stands with the Libyan people.
 
     This same message, by the way, has been delivered by the European Union, the Arab League, the African Union, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and many individual nations.  North and south, east and west, voices are being raised together to oppose suppression and support the rights of the Libyan people.
 
     I’ve also asked my administration to prepare the full range of options that we have to respond to this crisis.  This includes those actions we may take and those we will coordinate with our allies and partners, or those that we’ll carry out through multilateral institutions.
 
     Like all governments, the Libyan government has a responsibility to refrain from violence, to allow humanitarian assistance to reach those in need, and to respect the rights of its people.  It must be held accountable for its failure to meet those responsibilities, and face the cost of continued violations of human rights.
 
This is not simply a concern of the United States.  The entire world is watching, and we will coordinate our assistance and accountability measures with the international community.  To that end, Secretary Clinton and I have asked Bill Burns, our Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, to make several stops in Europe and the region to intensify our consultations with allies and partners about the situation in Libya.
 
I’ve also asked Secretary Clinton to travel to Geneva on Monday, where a number of foreign ministers will convene for a session of the Human Rights Council.  There she’ll hold consultations with her counterparts on events throughout the region and continue to ensure that we join with the international community to speak with one voice to the government and the people of Libya.
 
And even as we are focused on the urgent situation in Libya, let me just say that our efforts continue to address the events taking place elsewhere, including how the international community can most effectively support the peaceful transition to democracy in both Tunisia and in Egypt.
 
     So let me be clear.  The change that is taking place across the region is being driven by the people of the region.  This change doesn’t represent the work of the United States or any foreign power.  It represents the aspirations of people who are seeking a better life.
 
As one Libyan said, “We just want to be able to live like human beings.”  We just want to be able to live like human beings.  It is the most basic of aspirations that is driving this change.  And throughout this time of transition, the United States will continue to stand up for freedom, stand up for justice, and stand up for the dignity of all people.
 
     Thank you very much.

END
5:14 P.M. EST

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
February 22, 2011

Remarks by the President at Closing Session of Winning the Future Forum on Small Business in Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland State University

Cleveland, Ohio

2:00 P.M. EST

     THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you.  Please, everybody have a seat.  Well, we just completed a wonderful session with many of you, and let me thank you again for your participation.

I want to acknowledge a couple of people I didn’t have a chance to mention at the front end.  First of all, the mayor of Cleveland, Frank Johnson -- Frank Jackson is here.  Please give him a big round of applause.  (Applause.)  And a wonderful member of Congress, Marcia Fudge is in the house.  Where’s Marcia?  (Applause.)  She was here.  As well as a great member of Congress Steve LaTourette.  Where’s Steve?  Is Steve here?  All right.  (Applause.)

Now, as I may have mentioned, I’ve been here before.  This is the third time I’ve visited Cleveland State University.  And every time I come back here, I get more and more excited about what’s happening.  Each time I come here, you’ve done more to retool and reinvent yourself.  And that’s something that the entire city is doing right now.  It’s reinventing itself. 

During one of the sessions, somebody asked, why come to Cleveland?  And I said, not only are big things happening here but they’re emblematic of what’s happening all across the Midwest and all across the country.  This is a city that was founded on manufacturing, like a lot of cities in the Midwest.  And as the economy changed, a lot of people wrote off Cleveland as a shell of its former self.  But you, all of you in the audience, you knew differently.  You’ve been working to reinvent the Rust Belt as the Tech Belt.  So you’ve got fiber optics cables that now run beneath Cleveland’s streets like the railroads and highways of the 21st century, drawing new businesses to open their doors downtown.  Your universities, your hospitals, entrepreneurs, businesses have all teamed up to get biotechnology and clean energy from imagination to reality, and as a consequence, you’ve made Cleveland an emerging global leader in both fields.

You’re positioning yourselves to attract the jobs, the businesses and the industries of tomorrow.  And that’s what I’ve been spending the past few months talking about -– how America is going to win the future.  How are we going to reinvent ourselves?

We’re still an outstanding manufacturer.  One of the things that I think there’s a misconception about -- and I mentioned this during one of the sessions -- is that somehow our manufacturing days are past.  That’s not true.  We’re still one of the dominant manufacturers in the world.  The challenge, the difference is, is that what used to take 1,000 people to manufacture might now take 100 or 10 because of increases in productivity.

And so it’s not good enough just to rely on the old industries.  We’ve also got to invent new ones, and that’s what you’re doing here.  Over the last several months, I’ve visited with organizations like the Chamber of Commerce.  I’ve traveled to large companies -- just recently I went to Intel because it’s doubling down on America, it’s investing in new plants and equipment and amazing facilities.  And those large companies, those large institutions are important to our success.  But the truth is, when it comes to our economy, it’s our small businesses that pack the biggest punch, especially when it comes to employment, which is obviously one of the biggest challenges that we faced coming out of this Great Recession that we had.

Entrepreneurs like each of the ones who are here today create two out of every three new jobs in this country, so you’re the cornerstones of the community.  You’re the sources of pride for working families.  When the bet concerns America, you’ve always gone all in.  You’ve taken risks on behalf of America.

And that’s why we convened this Winning the Future Forum on Small Businesses -- to hear from you, to gain your counsel, to talk about how America can help you succeed so that you can keep helping America succeed.

Now, for those who just joined us, we’ve spent the day in breakout sessions talking about five areas of obstacle and opportunity for America’s small businesses:  entrepreneurship, how you convert your ideas into companies; capital, and how we can increase it so that you have access to capital, to develop those ideas; workforce development, so we can make sure America has the best trained workers in the world and that that’s done locally, and tailored for the businesses of tomorrow; exports and the obstacles you face to selling your goods and services around the world; and finally, clean energy, and what opportunities you see in a 21st-century clean energy economy.

We had a terrific discussion.  The groups that I participated in were remarkable and had great ideas.  I know the members of the Cabinet had fun, which is why we’re going to do it again.  And over the next several months, what we’re going to be doing is teaming up with mayors and governors and small business owners to host a series of these jobs forums across the country.

And as Steve Case, a successful entrepreneur several times over, came and participated in our discussion on fostering entrepreneurship, I’m pleased to announce that he’s agreed to join my jobs council as we work to create jobs and grow the economy and keep America moving forward.

I should mention just a couple of things that we heard during some of these breakout sessions.  Obviously there was a lot of emphasis on capital.  And we talked about the SBA programs, the Treasury programs that are in place some people may not be aware of that are making a huge difference in providing financing to a lot of startups and a lot of small businesses across the country.

But we also heard from you about some important ideas.  For example, right now we’re already giving a tax break, zero percent on capital gains for investors who invest in small businesses.  But a few of you said that that works well.  What we could also really use is some tax credits for angel investors because that early financing oftentimes may be what makes or breaks a company.

We talked about the fact that people were encouraged by the investments we’re making in clean energy, but one of the most important things we heard could be done -- and this is something that Steve is going to be taking up with his Startup America -- is creating networking opportunities in particular fields and in particular clusters because oftentimes it’s the contacts that you make in that networking process that may open up job opportunities.  And you know what?  That doesn’t cost the U.S. Treasury anything to set up but may make all the difference in terms of success.

     When it comes to workforce development, one of the most important things that we’ve all learned is how important it is to get businesses in early with the universities and the community colleges -- a hugely under-utilized resource -- to develop the actual training program so that young people have confidence if they go through this training program, they’ve got a job; businesses have confidence that if they hire these young people who went through the training program, they are trained for those jobs.

     And one of the things that we really enjoyed hearing about was the local efforts of organizations like JumpStart and NorTech, as well as institutions like Cleveland State in helping to pull all these various elements together.  And that’s part of the reason we were able to identify some of the most innovative businessmen and women in northeast Ohio.

For those of you who aren’t aware, JumpStart has worked to help more than 3,000 local businesses lift off and pull together the resources required to keep them aloft in what they call an “entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

NorTech is building regional innovation clusters, small business incubators made up of universities and suppliers and manufacturers and more –- basically a self-contained supply chain that covers everything from attracting that initial capital to shipping that final product.  And this cluster concept is so important.  We’re all familiar with clusters like Silicon Valley.  When you get a group of people together, and industries together, and institutions like universities together around particular industries, then the synergies that develop from all those different facets coming together can make the whole the greater than the sum of its parts.

Right here at Cleveland State, you’ve got a dedicated office that works to help move your research and discoveries from your local labs to your local businesses, and that’s making you a local economic development engine that taps into one of America’s greatest assets, and that’s our entrepreneurial spirit.

And recently we started a new series on the White House website in which my advisors ask for advice from the public, and we gave it a catchy name called Advise the Advisors.  And last week, we asked business owners like you to advise us on what drives you, what helps you, but also what holds you back.  What are the barriers you’re experiencing that we might be able to help knock down?

So we want to hear about your successes and your failures, and what you learned along the way.  So businessmen and women from across the country weighed in.  And I know that my staff read every single submission because I told them to read every single submission.  (Laughter.)

And one woman in Columbus summed up the entrepreneurial spirit pretty well.  She said, “As young as eight years old, I can remember having business ideas, and I was one of those go-getters out there with a lemonade stand, and babysitter clubs and worked as a tutor.  I am truly an entrepreneur at heart.  It’s not easy to give up a good job for the unknown, but I realize that’s what must be done in order to realize my dreams.”

     And so many of you have had that same feeling.  You’re willing to take the risk to realize your dreams, and through that you realize America’s dreams.

It’s not easy to jump into the unknown.  But each of the business owners here today has done it, whether they’re in advanced biotechnology or just making really good barbecue.  (Laughter.)

Just a couple examples of folks who are here:  Dr. Albert Green, the CEO of Kent Displays.  Is Albert here?  Where is he?  There he is, Doc.  (Applause.)  His company is a product of one of NorTech’s clusters -– the Flex Matters Cluster.  And that cluster is working to make Cleveland the global epicenter for the development and manufacturing of flexible electronics –- the printing of electronic devices on materials that can bend and flex, like clothing and tablets and medical implants.  And we gave them a boost with a contract from the Small Business Administration so they can counsel the small businesses that spring from this cluster on things like patents and exporting, and getting these revolutionary products to market faster.

Kent State University is an integral part of the Flex Matters cluster.  And one of the first spinoffs from their Liquid Crystal Institute was Albert’s company.  Kent Displays researches, develops and manufactures flexible liquid crystal displays from a state-of-the-art production line in Kent, and it’s the first of its kind in the world.  So Dr. Green says, “We’re turning the tables, manufacturing a high-tech product right here in Ohio and selling it in the United States and selling it abroad.”  So he almost doubled his staff last year, and wants to keep his manufacturing base right here in Ohio.  But to keep up with global competition, he’s got to be able to invest in new technology, and he’s got to draw on a highly skilled local workforce, and he’s got to sell his products around the world easily.  So he participated today in the exports session today with Gary Locke, our Secretary of Commerce, and he also joined a trade mission to India.  And everywhere they went people were asking:  Are your products made in America?  The world wants American goods.  And my administration is going to go to bat for America’s businesses around the world.  You should know that.  (Applause.)

And we’ve also got -- Norma Byron is here.  Where’s Norma?  There you are, Norma.  Good to see you.  Norma is CEO of Ashlawn Energy up in Painesville, and it’s a company that provides multi-megawatt energy storage solutions using -- and I have no idea what this is -- vanadium redox fuel cells.  (Laughter.)  That’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever said out loud.  (Laughter.)  So with help of an award from the Department of Energy’s Smart Grid Program, Ashlawn is poised to manufacture a next-generation energy storage system in Painesville that will improve efficiency.  It will help families and businesses cut down on energy waste, save money and reduce dangerous carbon pollution.  And they’re also retraining local workers with the skills necessary to manufacture new components.

Now, not everything has to be high-tech.  So in 1923, the Miceli family began making fine Italian cheeses right here in Cleveland.  And Joe Miceli, where are you?  There he is back there, the CEO of Miceli Dairy Products.  Last month, Joe received a $5.5 million loan from the SBA’s 504 program, which helps small businesses expand and upgrade their equipment.  And it’s allowing Joe to break ground this summer on an expansion of their operation off Buckeye Road.  Is that right, Joe?  So that expansion won’t just add 60 workers; it’s going to double the output of ricotta cheese -- (laughter and applause) -- making this one of the tastiest investments the government has ever made.  (Laughter.)  And the second phase of expansion will include a new mozzarella and provolone factory.  So I want samples.  (Laughter.) 

So you guys are leading the way, and we know there are some things government can do to help clear the way for your success. We can make sure America remains the best place on Earth to do business by knocking down barriers that stand in the way of your growth.  That’s why we passed 17 different tax cuts for small businesses, why I proposed lowering the corporate tax rate and eliminating unnecessary regulations to help larger businesses create jobs.

     We actually talked about this in one of the sessions -- we’ve also got to get our fiscal house in order, and that’s why I’ve put forth a budget that includes a five-year spending freeze that will help reduce the deficit by $400 billion and will get annual domestic spending down to the lowest levels since Dwight Eisenhower.  I want to work with Democrats and Republicans to make even bigger dents in our deficits –- find new savings, cut excessive spending wherever it exists.

At the same time, we can’t sacrifice investments in our future.  I was just with a group of young people, and one young man who is in the sciences pointed out that he’s concerned that his professors are having more and more trouble getting grants because our R&D budgets in this country had been declining as a relative share to GDP.  We’ve decided we’ve got to increase that back up.  And that’s part of our budget -- investing in innovation.  

To facilitate your success, we’ve got to invest in cutting-edge research and technology.  We’ve also got to invest in the skills and training of our workers.  And we’ve got to invest in the next transportation and communications networks that move goods and information as fast as possible, because if we don’t, tomorrow’s businesses won’t take root here and you’ll have a harder time competing with the rest of the world.

So if we want to win the future, we’re going to have to out-innovate, out-educate, out-build, and yes, we are going to have to out-hustle the rest of the world.  And it’s stories like yours and it’s places like Cleveland that make me absolutely confident that we’re going to be able to do that.

As I said, it’s not always easy to project into the future.  Sometimes the unknown is scary.  But that hasn’t stopped any of you.  And it hasn’t stopped America.  We’ve never taken the easy route.  We’ve always done what’s hard.  We’ve been willing to take risks to do big things.  And we also get each other’s backs, just like you’re doing here in Cleveland, because we know that when it comes to America’s success, there’s no room for division between business and labor, and Democrats and Republicans.  When it comes to competing for jobs and industries, we are on one team, and that is the American team.  We will rise and fall together.  (Applause.)  I absolutely believe that.  And if we keep that in mind, there’s nothing we can’t do. 

Thank you very much, everybody.  God bless you.  God bless the United States of America.  (Applause.)

 END

2:17 P.M. EST

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
February 22, 2011

Remarks by the President in New Media Breakout Session in Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland State University

Cleveland, Ohio

  

1:33 P.M. EST

     THE PRESIDENT:  I'm sorry, did I interrupt an answer?

     MS. BERNARD:  No.  Thanks for joining. 

     MR. GOOLSBEE:  All right, the President of the United States is here.  Why don't you tell us why you're here?

     THE PRESIDENT:  Well, Cleveland I think is a great example of cities all across the country, but especially in the Midwest, who are starting to reinvent themselves.  These are typically manufacturing cities.  They were built on the auto industry, on heavy manufacturing, steel.  And as manufacturing has become much more productive, fewer workers are in manufacturing -- even though manufacturing continues to contribute a lot to the economy -- and so these regions are having to think what’s going to be the businesses of the future that end up employing more people and providing more opportunity.  And small businesses are going to be the ones that I think are going to be making the biggest impact on regions like this one -- a lot of risk-takers, a lot of entrepreneurs here.

     What we wanted to do is make sure that we listen to small businesses, hear from them, find out what kind of barriers they’re meeting -- whether it’s capital, or finding the right workforce, or how do they partner with larger companies.  And so far we've already gotten some terrific ideas.

     MR. GOOLSBEE:  He’s better at this than we are.  (Laughter.)  We got some questions for you from WhiteHouse.gov --

     THE PRESIDENT:  All right.

     MR. GOOLSBEE:  -- that we were going to shoot to you.  James in Addison, Texas:  With the virtual death of local banking, it’s next to impossible today to get bank loans for anything other than fixed assets.  For working capital, speculative funding, for others, entrepreneurs must look to save capital, family, friends, or even a first customer.  Traditional financing sources only help the more traditional forms of business.  Innovators must look elsewhere.  We're locked in this and we were wondering what your view is.

     THE PRESIDENT:  Well, one of the things we hear most frequently from small businesses is the problem of start-up capital.  Obviously a lot of small businesses do get started with the entrepreneur -- savings, family loans, credit cards.  But over the last two years it’s been especially tough for small businesses because of the credit crunch, both in the banking industry as well as the fact that folks don't have home equity loans that they could use potentially to start a business; their credit cards might have been maxed out.

     And so what we did over the last two years was try to make sure that the Small Business Administration, the SBA, filled some of this hole.  We increased the guarantees that SBA would provide to banks if they loaned -- if they made a loan to a small business.  We eliminated some of the fees that might be required. And as a consequence, volume from the Small Business Administration went up substantially.

     The other thing that we did was we increased the limits on the loans that might be provided through the SBA.  So the SBA has done a lot of good work.  The Treasury Department has also tried to make sure that they set up funds that would help to facilitate lending to small businesses.  That's especially important in part because small businesses a lot of times have trouble getting loans when their collateral has gone down, the value of their holdings have gone down.  And typically that's been real estate for a lot of small businesses.

     So we got a range of products that, through the SBA, through Treasury, are providing loans to small businesses, helping encourage small banks to get back into the business of lending again.  But we heard some good ideas here today about, for example, providing tax credits for angel investors -- that right now there have been some discussions in Congress about setting up some additional legislation that could help small businesses, and we’re going to see if we can implement it.

     MS. BERNARD:  We had a lot of questions come in about -- or comments and thoughts about preparing the next-generation workforce.  Roy in Temeculah, California, noted:  The economy develops in pockets and clusters.  Why don't we match this with our workforce development for the best results?  We all know that people have many different jobs over their lifetime, and we need to retrain where and when it’s needed -- keep it simple, buy it quickly, keep it local.  The local aspect allows easy access for the people that need the training, and it’s tailored to the local environment and conditions.

     THE PRESIDENT:  Well, the answer is in the question.  I think that question is spot on.  What you find as you travel around the country is that there’s certain regions that are starting to gain expertise in biotech, or they're starting to gain expertise in advanced battery manufacturing, or they're starting to gain expertise in a particular industry which requires a particular skill set.  And if we can get businesses to partner with local community colleges or local universities and have them help to design the training process for the jobs that already exist, it’s a win-win. 

     For the businesses, it means that all their workforce training costs are absorbed somewhere else, which is obviously good for their bottom line.

     For the students, what it means is that if you actually go through this program, you know that there’s going to be a job at the end of the day because the employers have actually helped to design the program.  And so Skills for America’s Future is a program that we’ve been trying to implement that gets those partnerships between businesses and colleges and universities. 

     The local community college is a particular asset that has been under-utilized over the last several years that we want to really ramp up.  The Department of Labor is also working with state and local governments so that they can design and tailor their own particular approach to training.

     But the key here is to recognize that for the vast majority of folks out there, you're not going to have one job or two jobs during the course of your career; you’re probably going to have six or seven different jobs.  And even mid-career, you may have to start retraining. 

And what we want to make sure of is, A, that there’s financing out there for you to retrain, which is why we increased access to student loans, eliminating some of the unwarranted subsidies that went to banks so that we could expand the Pell Grant Program; make sure that starting in 2014, if you take out student loans, that in repaying them you’ll never have to pay more than 10 percent of your income.  So we’ve expanded access to universities and colleges.

     But we also want to make sure that you're being trained for the right stuff.  And that's particularly true for your second career, for older students.  They’ve got a family, they may be working -- they can’t afford to go to school, take out loans, and then it turns out that what they were getting trained for didn’t provide an immediate job opportunity.

     MS. BERNARD:  I don’t know how your time is.  Do you have time for another thought?  I think you’ve got to go.

     THE PRESIDENT:  I’ll take one more question if you’ve got it.

     MS. BERNARD:  This is really putting me on the spot.  Let’s see what’s just come in. 

     MR. GOOLSBEE:  Nothing we have to clean up.

     MS. BERNARD:  Yes, we have a lot of comments about a lot of things coming in.

     THE PRESIDENT:  Generally speaking, though, the -- what I’ll do is just talk about what I’ve heard in some of these forums.  In addition to financing, I think the other thing that people really wanted to find out is how can they get mentored and partner with some larger businesses.  And we’re very lucky we got Steve Case here who obviously used to be with AOL.  He has agreed to be the chairman of our sort of umbrella organization that is Startup America, which is going to help to mentor and partner with would-be entrepreneurs -- get them with more mature businesses, medium-sized business, large businesses. 

Because a lot of times what they need is financing, but sometimes what they need is mentoring, networking.  They need to -- if you’re in the high-tech space, the most important thing for you is to potentially get in front of a Steve Case or a Steve Jobs or a Mark Zuckerberg or others and get a sense of what it is that is happening in your industry, who are the players there.  And so that’s another opportunity through a public/private partnership -- doesn’t cost money, but it can potentially provide opportunities.

     MR. GOOLSBEE:  And we did hear from a number of people who they’re in a later part of their career and they said, look, we still want to be productive; How can we help out?  How can we teach the next generation?  It fits with your theme there.

     THE PRESIDENT:  Absolutely. 

So bottom line is that small businesses create two out of every three jobs in America.  We’re here in Cleveland to make sure that we’re highlighting all the tools that are available right now to increase opportunities for small businesses -- tax credits if you’re providing health care to your workers; tax credits if you’re interested in investing in a small business.  Right now you get zero capital gains on those investments.  

There are a whole range of tools that we’re trying to bring to bear to make sure that we continue to be the most dynamic economy in the world.  And I’m sure that Austan and Sarah will be interested, monitoring our website to get even better ideas as time comes up, and let’s make sure people know what the website is.  It is --

     MS. BERNARD:  Whitehouse.gov.

     THE PRESIDENT:  Whitehouse.gov. 

All right.  Thank you, guys.

     MS. BERNARD:  Thank you.

 END

1:43 P.M. EST

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
February 22, 2011

Remarks by the President at Entrepreneurship Breakout Session in Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland State University

Cleveland, Ohio

11:58 A.M. EST

     MS. MILLS:  So, Mr. President, we were just talking about you and how much you love doing this and how much you enjoy hearing from the small businesses.  And raise your hand who is a small business in here.

     THE PRESIDENT:  There you go.

     MS. MILLS:  Okay, there you go.  And I thought you might want to meet Al, from Bubba’s BBQ.

     THE PRESIDENT:  I just gave you a plug.  (Laughter.) 

     MS. MILLS:  He says he’s still shaking, you know.

     THE PRESIDENT:  Where are the samples?  (Laughter.)

     MR. BAKER:  Well, I brought pictures, but --

     THE PRESIDENT:  Pictures?  (Laughter.) 

     MR. BAKER:  Mr. President, I spent 13 years in the NFL, and I’ve never been shaken until today.  (Laughter.)

     MS. MILLS:  There you go.

     THE PRESIDENT:  Well, the -- listen, everybody, welcome.  And it’s great to see you.  As I just mentioned when we were all together, the goal here really is to hear from you.  And I just want to emphasize in this panel the whole issue of entrepreneurship and why it’s so important.

     The truth is, is that large companies are critically important to our economy.  They export.  They employ thousands of people.  And they also provide contracts to small businesses.  So there’s a little bit of an artificial separation sometimes -- if large businesses are doing well, then small businesses also have an opportunity for great success. 

     But here’s the unique thing about small businesses.  Small businesses that grow into medium-sized and large businesses, that’s the key to the future, because it’s the new products, it’s the new services, things that nobody else thought of before that are going to help absorb all the talented Americans out there who are looking for careers, and the large companies, there’s only going to be so much additional employment that they add, partly because they’re getting more and more efficient.

     So what we want to figure out is how can we help you succeed.  Now, many of you are already succeeding, so you can help us understand what it takes to help others succeed.  The most important ingredients, obviously, are your work ethic, your -- you initially have an idea, you’re willing to take risks, you’re willing to try to talk your family into going along with it, you’re willing to hustle and scrape to get the financing, to market, to expand sales.  We understand that you are the most important ingredient to success.

     But there are a number of things that continually come up when it comes to what we’re hearing in small businesses:  problems with access to capital, problems with being able to connect with consumers and markets when you don’t have a lot -- a big infrastructure and a lot of capital that you can expend; problems in terms of finding the right employees.

     So the goal here is to really get a sense of what you think are the things that we could be most helpful in ensuring your success and the success of other small businesses in the future.

     And as I said, we’re very lucky to have Steve Case here, who is somebody who grew a small business to a large business and was at the cutting edge of the technological revolution that we’ve seen over the last 20 years that has changed everything.  And he is going to be working as our chairman for public/private partnership that tries to continue to encourage additional entrepreneurship.

     So, with that, I’m just going to -- I’m going to spend most of my time listening.  I will turn it over to you, Karen, or Steve, or others.

     MS. MILLS:  Well, we have a few small businesses, and I want to just ask Philip, maybe he’ll -- I’m going to cold call a few people -- makes the smallest microwave oven in the world.

     THE PRESIDENT:  Is that right?

     MS. MILLS:  So you think we can’t make microwaves here.  That’s pretty innovative, huh?

     THE PRESIDENT:  How big is it?

     MR. DAVIS:  It’s 0.73 cubic feet, 10.5 inches wide, 10 inches deep and about a foot high.  It has a handle.  You can carry it around.  People put it on their boats and campers, dorm rooms and bedrooms.  And we made microwave technology portable.  And that’s -- in terms of innovation, the Chinese are great at manufacturing, but never before had anyone broken the one cubic foot barrier, so I had an idea back in 2004, and in 2007 made my first trip to China, with no money down convinced them to make the prototype, and then we had a chance to get into the sales in Sharper Image, then last year went on Amazon.com, and now we’re selling it directly off of our own website.

     THE PRESIDENT:  That’s outstanding.

     MR. DAVIS:  Thank you very much, Mr. President.

     THE PRESIDENT:  So, at this point, how many microwaves are you selling?

     MR. DAVIS:  We’ve sold -- since it’s been on the market, we’ve sold over 5,000.

     THE PRESIDENT:  Outstanding.

MR. DAVIS:  So we’re hoping this year that this will be our breakthrough year.  It’s been an exciting ride for us.  But one of the things that we find challenging is, for example, access to capital, because we have a lot of demand for our product in Europe.  We get emails all the time from France and Spain and Germany asking for the iWavecube --

     MS. MILLS:  Export it.

     MR. DAVIS:  Yes, we could export it.  But the challenge is, we don’t have the capital to make the run because it’s a different voltage system, it’s 220 versus 120 here.  And so we need money in order to grow into the European market, but the European Union is 500 million people compared to 300 million here in the U.S.  So that little bit of capital would help us grow.

     And my recommendation to you, Mr. President, would be that if you could figure out a way to change the tax policy so that when people invest in small businesses, perhaps the capital gains on an investment would perhaps be not taxed.  Let’s say if you put in $10,000 or $20,000, if you doubled your investment the first $20,000 would be --

     THE PRESIDENT:  Now, I don’t want to interrupt you, but that is such a good idea that we actually implemented it last year. 

MR. DAVIS:  Did not hear about it.

THE PRESIDENT:  You did not hear about it?  Karen, do you want to talk a little bit about --

MS. MILLS:  Well, in fact, in the set of tax cuts that the President enacted -- the 17 tax cuts -- I want to make sure you all, when you do your taxes, make sure you ask about the 17 tax cuts because it’s money back in your pocket.  One of them is if you invest in a small business, certain criteria, you don’t pay capital gains.  You don’t pay capital gains. 

THE PRESIDENT:  You see there?  Now, this was not a setup.  (Laughter.) 

MS. MILLS:  No, this was not a setup. 

THE PRESIDENT:  I just want to --

MS. MILLS:  I was going to say you did that one already.  It was his promise.

THE PRESIDENT:  No, no, we reduced capital gains to zero for investments in small business.

MR. DAVIS:  Then that word needs to get out because I think that helps the investor make the decisions of where to allocate his capital.  But that’s a great step in helping entrepreneurs gain access to capital.

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, we’ll make sure that Karen gets everybody the information.  Now, what we’re going to do is, I’m sure, distribute information on all these tax credits that are available as part of the follow-up to this conversation.  But congratulations on the success.

MR. DAVIS:  Thank you very much, Mr. President.

MS. MILLS:  Now, Ariane has a construction company.  I like this because it’s a woman-led construction company.

MS. KIRKPATRICK:  I have a company, AKA Construction Management Team.  And actually we started off with a franchise and we actually had the opportunity to (inaudible) when you became President --

THE PRESIDENT:  Nice.

MS. KIRKPATRICK:  And we did such a good job that we got more jobs, more opportunities.  And I was asked if I would be interested in doing a project at the Cleveland Museum of Art, where I took lessons every Saturday.  So I was proud to be part of it, but you had to be a union company.  Being a minority female, I was scared to make that jump and my affiliations with the organization of President’s Council -- I talked to many of my mentors in that organization and I studied it and I prayed on it for approximately about six, seven months before I made that leap.  And I finally did.  And it’s actually been the best decision I’ve made.

I’ve only been in business for almost two years now.  I’ve done it with no capital, no access, just with the pennies and dimes and nickels I have in my pocket.  And I’ve been able to carry a payroll.  I’ve been able to pay my union bills, insurance, everything on time.  But I’m stressed because I have no access to capital.

You talked about being a risk-taker.  I’ve always been a risk-taker, but I never was a smart risk-taker.  So I’ve had some credit issues.  So I’ve had some barriers, some personal barriers that I’ve had to overcome to get to the next level.  So those more so are some of my problems, on how do I overcome those personal barriers, being a risk-taker -- wanting to be an entrepreneur, wanting to be a part of that future and win -- how do I win with those barriers that I have.

THE PRESIDENT:  Good.  Well, this access to capital issue is going to, I suspect, keep on coming up.  Obviously one of the key things that we’ve done -- and I’ll talk about this in another panel that I’ll be joining -- is both through the SBA, where we expanded the loan guarantee program, increased the size of loans that could be taken out and reduced fees, that is providing a lot of capital, particularly at a time when small businesses were getting hammered during this past two years of recession.

But through Treasury we’re also doing a range of programs, including, by the way, assisting state governments in their own programs so that they can start providing lending and counseling closer to the ground.

MS. MILLS:  We’ve got some new platforms -- our community advantage program that’s designed exactly for your issue.  So I’ll talk about that, actually, later in the program.

But I want to get a couple other guys in here.  Joe, talk about your --

MR. LOPEZ:  Mr. President, thank you and welcome to Cleveland.  I’m an entrepreneur.  I’ve had one company since 1989 -- it’s New Era Builders, a general contractor; and started another business called Sierra Metals.  We just changed the name to Aster Elements.  We’re fortunate enough to follow the trend in the country where there’s a lot of construction -- and that was in Las Vegas and that was City Center.  And at one time that was $9 billion worth of construction.

We followed the pendulum, did a lot of work.  Now we’re back, but we’ve always been focused in Northeast Ohio.  My biggest challenge right now, and I think the challenge for a lot of, also, entrepreneurs, is not the working capital but when we have contracts that are good contracts with viable entities, whether they’re banks or law firms or such like that, we still have to wait the 90 days plus --

     THE PRESIDENT:  To get paid.

     MR. LOPEZ:  -- to get paid.  Mr. President, when it costs us, whether it’s $30,000 or $50,000 or $100,000 a week in payroll and we’re waiting nine or 10 weeks later to get paid, and the margin is so small, we can’t grow, although we have the right deliverables and the right skill sets and the right talent to a point that we want to grow the business and have other investors, European investors, that we want to carry their products and to do -- go national.

     So we have a problem with that of how to make the working capital regular -- always on an incoming basis versus waiting for the 90-day payday.  Because the 90-day payday just puts you out for another four weeks and then you have to do it again and again.  Those are issues that I think most of the fabricators here, or manufacturers, or even construction personnel have issues with.  That’s one problem.

     I think the other problem is that being a contractor we’re very successful through the SBA program, through the SBA office here -- very successful and we did very well with that.  Some of the issues that I have with that, or I think most people, is that same thing -- the government takes their time, you’re making payroll, putting your process through the --

     THE PRESIDENT:  Processing for a loan?

     MR. LOPEZ:  Not for the loan, just for --

     THE PRESIDENT:  Or for the contracts?

     MR. LOPEZ:  For the contracts.

     THE PRESIDENT:  So if you’ve gotten a government contract.

     MR. LOPEZ:  If you’ve got a government contract sometimes it takes you 60 days to get paid.  And we know the government is good for it.  (Laughter.)

     THE PRESIDENT:  Well, let me say this.  In a Cabinet meeting that we just recently had, I instructed Karen to work with all of our agencies to make sure that we are cutting back on the amount of time that it takes for vendors to get paid to the government, at least at the federal level.  So that’s where I’ve got some control.

     Steve, maybe you -- I don’t know, maybe you have some suggestions in terms of in the private sector, obviously, if you’re a small company you may be at a disadvantage working with a large company, and their attitude is if the contract says you got to be paid in 90 days, we’re going to hold on to that money until the 90th day.  And I don’t know whether that’s just a discrepancy in bargaining power that makes it hard for small businesses in that situation.  But this is something that obviously I’ve heard.  On the government level we can start doing something about it; in the private sector, Steve, you might have some better ideas on it.

 

     MR. CASE:  I don’t really have better ideas.  I think you’re right that once it’s set up, whatever the precedence, whether it’s 60 days or 90 days, it’s pretty hard to move and people generally assume they’re not going to pay until they need to, with the exception being to the extent you’ve really been able to differentiate and people really believe you’re an essential part of their value chain.  Sometimes there’s a little bit more flexibility, but generally people are trying to hold their money as long as possible.

     But I’m really here just to listen and also to celebrate everything you’ve done.  It really -- I view entrepreneurs as our great American heroes who really create the products and services that drive the economy and create the jobs and preserve our national competitiveness.  I’m really here more as a cheerleader and a listener to understand your stories and your needs.

PARTICIPANT:  Mr. President, is there a way that you could pledge some of those contracts that are viable, that are solid contracts to get working capital?

     MS. MILLS:  Absolutely.  That’s something that we do quite a bit of in bank lending and in SBA lending.  So those are some of the avenues that we can talk about in order to make sure there’s more working capital.  I hear all the time that working capital for growth is as hard to get as any other kind of capital.  And we’re doing a very good job right now on real estate lending and on equipment capital, and we’re working hard on working capital as well.

     One of the things, though -- I want to underline what the President said about what he said to everyone in the Cabinet about small business contracting.  He has told all of us around the table that the small business contracting programs are a real big priority, and that we know that gives oxygen into your revenue lines.  And we also know that it’s good for the agencies because they get the most innovative entrepreneurs working for them.  And usually the CEO is right there at the table helping them out. 

So this is something that everybody across the administration under the President’s leadership is pushing forward on, and I hope that lots of you work with us at the SBA to get qualified to bid on these contracts because I there’s going to be a really good positive momentum in government contracting for small business going forward.  And they’re going to pay on time.

THE PRESIDENT:  Anybody else?  Jeff?

     MR. WADSWORTH:  I come from a slightly different background and I have a big organization, but we spin out small companies.  We have our own venture fund because we’re fortunate enough to have a major invention that created money and we created a venture fund; we have adults running it because it’s hard to run your own fund.

     One of the big assets in this country in the investment the government makes in its national laboratories.  Now, I just wanted to let you know we’re working closely with Secretary Chu to try and remove those barriers.  This 90-day thing comes up there.  We believe the contractors for those laboratories could take that risk and -- because we need and we hear constantly from industry that we have to move at the speed of business.  And there’s a massive investment there that is untapped in my mind, and that we need to make it easier for businesses to work.

     THE PRESIDENT:  Okay.  And Steve Chu is already talking to you about it 

 END

12:14 P.M. EST

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
February 22, 2011

Remarks by the President at Access to Capital and Tax Breaks Breakout Session in Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland State University

Cleveland, Ohio

12:36 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I’m not going to make any long remarks in the opening; just to say that since Tim and I moved to Washington, I think our biggest priorities have always been to make sure that we stabilized the capital markets and made sure that they’re working for businesses large and small.

I think Tim did extraordinary work in our first two years to make sure that the capital markets sort of regained some sense of normalcy.  But what we’re well aware of is that if you’re a big company, it’s very easy to borrow right now, and you can borrow very cheaply.  If you’re a medium-sized company, you may be doing okay.  If you’re a small business, capital is still tough -- partly, as I understand it, because one of the key ways that small businesses were able to get loans was because it had some sort of assets that they could offer up as collateral.  And if those asset values have declined, that makes it that much more difficult.  And small community banks that were the source of a lot of lending for small businesses are still working their way through some problems.  Many of them were involved in the real estate market one way or another, and that creates difficulties, as well.

So we know we still have some challenges.  I assume that Tim has already described to you what we’re doing both on the SBA side and at Treasury to try to loosen up capital for entrepreneurs and business people like yourselves.  But with that, we’re interested in finding out in more detail where you think we can be most helpful.

With that, Tim?

END

12:39 P.M. EST

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
February 22, 2011

Remarks by the President at Opening Session of Winning the Future Forum on Small Business in Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio

11:38 A.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you, everybody.  Thank you so much.  Thank you very much.  Please, everybody have a seat.  It is wonderful to be here, and I just want to say thank you for our hosts at KSU for -- or CSU, rather, excuse me -- for their hospitality.  This is the second time I’ve had a chance to be here, and always enjoy interacting both with the team here as well as the surrounding community.
 
I want to make some quick introductions, because we’ve got some special guests.  Our SBA administrator Karen Mills is here.  There she is.  (Applause.)  Members of my Cabinet -- Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner.  (Applause.)  Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke.  (Applause.)  Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis.  (Applause.)  Secretary of Energy Steve Chu.  (Applause.)  We have Mr. Austan Goolsbee, who is our chairman of the Economic Council.  (Applause.)  And my director of the National Economic Council Gene Sperling is here as well.  (Applause.)
 
And I want to say a special thank you to Steve Case, who is not only an extraordinary entrepreneur and business leader, but is also -- has agreed to chair the Startup America partnership, which is a public/private partnership to help move the entrepreneurship agenda forward.  So thank you so much, Steve, for your presence here today.  (Applause.)
 
It is wonderful to be back in Ohio, and we’re going to do something a little different today.  I did not come to Cleveland to talk.  Instead I came here to listen.  I’ve spent the last month since the State of the Union sharing my vision for an America that remains the best place on Earth to do business; an America that competes aggressively for every job and every industry that’s out there; an America that wins the future.
 
Part of that means making sure that government lives within its means, just like you do.  And that’s why I’ve designed a budget that freezes spending for five years and will help reduce the deficit by $400 billion over the next decade to the lowest level since Dwight Eisenhower was President, because by cutting back on what we don’t need, we can invest in the future.  We can invest in the things that are critical to our long-term success -- in innovation, so that America stays on the cutting edge; in education, so businesses have access to the skilled workers that they need; in upgrading our transportation and information networks, so companies can move goods and services quickly and cheaply.
 
So winning the future involves out-educating, out-innovating, out-building, out-hustling everybody else, and it’s entrepreneurs like you who will help America do just that.
 
     Obviously the big companies generally get most of the attention in our economy, and the success of large companies is critical to the success of medium and small businesses as well.   But it’s small businesses like yours that help drive America’s economic growth and create two out of every three new jobs.
 
     You’re the anchors of our Main Streets, small businesses built by folks who live and work in the community and look out for one another that end up determining success or failure of cities and towns.  They’re the cornerstones of America’s promise, the idea that if you’ve got a dream and you’ve got the work ethic to see it through, you can succeed.  And when our small businesses do well, then America does well.
 
That’s why we convened this Winning the Future Forum for Small Business.  Along with Cleveland State and local organizations like JumpStart and NorTech, we looked for entrepreneurs here in Northeast Ohio who live to out-hustle, to out-innovate everybody else -– in manufacturing and construction, in clean energy and biotech, in retail, in restaurants -– including the owner of Bubba’s BBQ, who I imagine will be one of the more popular participants today.
 
We’re here to hear from you directly.  We want your stories -– your successes, your failures, what barriers you’re seeing out there to expand, what you’ve learned along the way.  What would make it easier for you to grow?  What would make it easier for you to create new jobs?  How can America help you succeed so that you can help America succeed?
 
So we’ve pulled together five panels for discussion that will be moderated by various members of my administration -– panels on inspiring entrepreneurship, on accessing capital, on training workers with the new skills they need for the job, on accelerating a clean energy economy, and on growing our exports so that the rest of the world buys the products that we make here in the United States of America.  And we’ll have a special sixth session, where I’ll join Austan Goolsbee, the chairman of my Council of Economic Advisers, as he takes questions and suggestions from Americans live on WhiteHouse.gov and on Facebook.
 
So I’m going to be sitting in on some of the other panels -- to make sure that my staff is doing their work.  And then we’re going to come back here and I’ll try to sum up what I’ve heard.
 
So, again, I am very grateful for all of you being here.  This is a working session, not a photo op, so I expect all of you will express your opinions clearly; you won’t hold anything back. And I’m looking forward to hearing from you and then trying to make sure that we’re a good partner in helping you implement the great ideas that you have.
 
Thank you very much, everybody.  (Applause.)

END
11:46 A.M. EST

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
February 18, 2011

Remarks by the President on Winning the Future in Hillsboro, Oregon

Intel Corporation

Hillsboro, Oregon

11:53 A.M. PST

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you so much.  Thank you, everybody.  Thank you.  Everybody, please have a seat.

Thank you so much.  I am thrilled to be here.  I want to, first of all, thank Paul for that introduction, and I want to thank Paul for agreeing to be part of our administration’s new Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.  I look forward to our continuing conversations when we meet next week.

I also want to acknowledge a wonderful governor, Governor Kitzhaber, who is here.  Thank you so much for all the work that you’re doing.  (Applause.)  And the mayor of Hillsboro, Jerry Willey, thank you for the great work that you do.  (Applause.)

And I want to thank everybody here at Intel for hosting us here today.  We just had an amazing tour.  One of my staff, he said, it’s like magic.  (Laughter.)  He did, that’s what he said.  (Laughter.)  

I had a chance to see everything from an electron microscope to the inside of your microprocessor facility, the clean room.  And I have to say, for all the gadgets you’ve got here, what actually most impressed me were the students and the science projects that I just had a chance to see.  It gave them a chance to talk about things like quantum ternary algorithms -- (laughter) -- and it gave me a chance to nod my head and pretend that I understood what they were talking about.  (Laughter and applause.)

So that was the high school guys.  Then we went over to -- (laughter) -- seriously.  Then we went over to meet some seventh graders, six girls, and it was wonderful -- all girls -- who had started a science program after school that involved Legos.  So I’m thinking, now this is more my speed.  (Laughter.)  I used to build some pretty mean Lego towers when I was a kid.  (Laughter.)  I thought I could participate -- only these students used their Legos to build models -- to build robots that were programmable to model brains that could repair broken bones.  So I guess that’s different than towers.  (Laughter.)  It’s not as good.  (Laughter.)  The towers.  (Laughter.)   

So I couldn’t be prouder of these students and all the work that they’ve done.  And in my State of the Union address, I said that it’s not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but also the winner of science fairs.  And since the Packers beat my Bears -- (laughter) -- I’m reserving all my celebrating for the winners of the service fairs this year -- the science fairs.  They deserve applause.  (Applause.)  They deserve our applause and our praise, and they make me optimistic about America’s future, just as visiting this facility makes me optimistic about America’s future.

I’m so proud of everybody here at Intel, not only because of what you do for these students or this community, because -- but because of what you do for the country.  A few weeks ago, I went to the Chamber of Commerce and I talked about the responsibility that American businesses have to create jobs and invest in this country.  And there are few major companies that take this responsibility as seriously as Intel.

In 1968, Intel started as one of Silicon Valley’s first start-ups.  And as you grew in leaps and bounds in the ‘80s and the ‘90s, you experienced the competitive pressures of globalization -- the changes in technology that made it cheaper for many computer companies to start hiring and manufacturing overseas.  And over the years, you’ve done some of this yourself.  And yet, by and large, Intel has placed its bets on America.

As Paul just mentioned, three-fourths of your manufacturing still happens right here in the United States.  This year you’ll hire another 4,000 American workers.  You’ll create good construction jobs upgrading your facilities and building new plants in Arizona and right here in Oregon.

And this kind of commitment has always been part of Intel’s philosophy.  The founder of this company, the legendary Andy Grove, has said that he’s always felt two obligations.  One obligation is to your shareholders.  But the other obligation is to America, because a lot of what Intel has achieved has been made possible, in Andy’s words, “by a climate of democracy, an economic climate, and investment climate provided by our domicile, the United States.”   

Intel is possible because of the incredible capacity of America to reinvent itself and to allow people to live out their dreams.  And so the question we have to ask ourselves now is, how do we maintain this climate that Andy Grove was talking about?  How do we make sure that more companies like Intel invest here, manufacture here, hire here?

In a world that is more competitive than ever before, it’s our job to make sure that America is the best place on Earth to do business.  Now, part of that requires knocking down barriers that stand in the way of a company’s growth, which is why I’ve proposed lowering the corporate tax rate and eliminating unnecessary regulations.  It also requires getting our fiscal house in order, which is why I’ve proposed a five-year spending freeze that will reduce the deficit by $400 billion.  That's a freeze that will bring our annual domestic spending to its lowest share of the economy since Eisenhower was President.

Now, to really get our deficit under control we’re going to have to do more.  And I want to work with both parties to find additional savings and get rid of excessive spending wherever it exists, whether it’s defense spending or health care spending or spending in the tax code, in the form of loopholes.

But even as we have to live within our means, we can’t sacrifice investments in our future.  If we want the next technological breakthrough that leads to the next Intel to happen here in the United States -- not in China or not in Germany, but here in the United States -- then we have to invest in America’s research and technology; in the work of our scientists and our engineers.

If we want companies like yours to be able to move goods and information quickly and cheaply, we’ve got to invest in communication and transportation networks, like new roads and bridges, high-speed rail, high-speed internet.

If we want to make sure Intel doesn’t have to look overseas for skilled, trained workers, then we’ve got to invest in our people -- in our schools, in our colleges, in our children.

Basically, if we want to win the future, America has to out-build, and out-innovate, and out-educate and out-hustle the rest of the world.  That's what we’ve got to do.  (Applause.)  

So today I want to focus on one component of that, and that is education.  That's what I want to talk about today.

Over the next 10 years, nearly half of all new jobs will require education that goes beyond a high school degree.  Times have changed.  It used to be if you were willing to work hard, you could go to a factory and you might be able to get a job that lasts 20 years, provide good benefits, provide decent salary.  These days those jobs are far and few between.  Many of the jobs that are going to exist in the future, that exist now -- like the ones here at Intel -- require proficiency in math and science.

And yet today as many as a quarter of our students aren’t even finishing high school.  The quality of our math and science education lags behind many other nations.  As we just heard Paul say, companies like Intel struggle to hire American workers who have the skills that fit their needs.

So we can’t win the future if we lose the race to educate our children.  Can’t do it.  In today’s economy, the quality of a nation’s education is one of the biggest predictors of a nation’s success.  It is what will determine whether the American Dream survives.  And so it’s the responsibility of all of us to get this right:  parents, teachers, students, workers, business and government.  We’re all going to have to focus on this like a laser.

And over the past two years, my administration’s guiding philosophy has been that when it comes to reforming our schools, Washington shouldn’t try to dictate all the answers.  What we should be doing is rewarding and replicating the success of schools that have figured out a way to raise their standards and improve student performance.

And so here’s what we did.  Instead of pouring federal money into a system that wasn’t working, we launched a competition.  We called it Race to the Top.  To all 50 states we said if you show us reforms that will lead to real results, we’ll show you the money.

Race to the Top has turned out to be the most meaningful reform of our public schools in a generation.  For less than 1 percent of what we spend on education each year, it has led over 40 states -- 40 -- to raise their standards for teaching and for learning.  And these standards weren't developed in Washington -- they were developed by Republican and Democratic governors throughout the country.

Because we know that, other than parents, perhaps the biggest impact on a child’s success comes from the man or woman who’s sitting or who is standing in front of the classroom, we've also focused a lot on teaching, on teachers.  We want to make teaching an honored profession in our society.  We want to reward good teachers.  We want to stop making excuses for bad teachers.  And over the next 10 years, with so many baby boomers retiring from our classrooms, we want to prepare 100,000 new teachers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math -- fields that will give the students the skills they need for the jobs that exist in places like Intel.

To ensure that higher education is within the reach of every American, we extended -- we put an end to unwarranted taxpayer subsidies that used to go to banks, and we put the savings towards making college more affordable for millions of students.  And this year, we want to make permanent our tuition tax credit, which is worth $10,000 for four years of college.

And finally, to make sure anyone can get trained and prepared for whatever career they pursue, we want to revitalize America’s community colleges.  Not everybody needs to go to a four-year college.  And so we’ve launched a nationwide initiative to connect graduates that need a job with businesses that need their skills.

And we've drawn lessons from Intel’s experience.  For years, Intel has recognized the value of these kinds of partnerships between schools and businesses.  This company understands that your success depends on a pipeline of skilled workers who are ready to fill high-tech jobs.

And so over the last decade, you’ve invested $50 million to support education in the state of Oregon.  You’ve started programs -- (Applause.)  That's worth applause.

You’ve started programs that get kids interested in engineering and technology as early as elementary school, like those six girls that I met.  You’ve sponsored mentoring and engineering competitions for poor and underserved high school students.  Your employees volunteer -- some of you probably here have volunteered -- as tutors in nearby schools and universities.  You’ve helped train 7,000 Oregon teachers over the last 10 years.

Your science fairs, your talent searches are some of the largest and most prestigious in the world, producing multiple Nobel Prize winners -- and I expect some of the students I met will qualify soon.  (Laughter and applause.)

And we were so grateful that Intel was one of the four companies that initially joined our administration’s nationwide campaign to boost math and science education here in America, as part of a new organization called “Change the Equation.”

So you guys have been pretty busy here at Intel.  (Laughter.)  You’ve given countless students the chance to succeed, and for that you should be very proud.  But you’re not just a good corporate role model.  You’re a corporation who understands that investing in education is also a good business model.  It’s good for the bottom line.

A lot of your employees were engineering undergraduates at Oregon State or Portland State, right?  (Applause.)  How many Beavers here, by the way?  (Applause.)  You know my brother-in-law is coach there.  (Laughter and applause.)  Just wanted to -- just wanted to point that out.  They’re a young team, but they're on the move.  (Laughter.)

But here’s what we know.  If you can spark a student’s interest in math or science who would have otherwise dropped out, you might not just change a child’s life; you may nurture the talent that one day discovers the breakthrough that changes this industry forever.

In fact, before I came here, I read a story about a young University of Oregon graduate.  His name is Nabil Mistkawi, and he joined Intel as an engineer in 1993.  After working with so many other employees who had doctorate degrees, Nabil decided to go back to school and get his PhD in chemistry at Portland State University.  And thanks to Intel, he was able to pay for his degree and keep his full-time job.

During that time, Intel was trying to find a faster, more efficient way to process their microchips, but nobody could figure it out.  And they asked at least eight other companies and research labs for help.  Some said it couldn’t be done.  Others worked on it for nearly a year with no success.  And so they asked Nabil if he wanted to give it a shot.

Within three days -- three days -- he came up with a solution that is now saving this company millions of dollars a year.  And I will not embarrass myself by trying to explain what his answer was -- (laughter) -- and most of you probably know how it works anyway.  (Laughter.)  The point is, an investment in education paid off in a big way -- for Nabil, for Intel, for the millions of workers and consumers who benefited from that discovery.

So for all the daunting statistics about our educational failings as a nation, for all the naysayers predicting America’s decline -- you’ve been hearing them lately -- stories like this give me hope.  Stories like these give me confidence that America will win the future.  We know what works.  We know how to succeed.  We know how to do big things.  And all across this nation -- in places just like one -- we have students and teachers, local leaders and companies, who are working together to make it happen.

When it comes to competing with other nations for the jobs and industries of the future, we are all on the same team -- the American team.  And if we start rowing in the same direction, I promise you, there is nothing that we cannot achieve.  That’s what you’re proving here at Intel.  That’s what you’re proving in the schools and colleges of this state.  That’s what America will prove in the months and years ahead.

Thank you, guys.  God bless you.  (Applause.)

END
12:11 P.M. PST

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
February 18, 2011

Press Gaggle by Press Secretary Jay Carney aboard Air Force One en route Portland, Oregon

Aboard Air Force One En Route Portland, Oregon

9:34 A.M. PST

      MR. CARNEY:  I’m going to try to do this relatively fast so that nobody gets hurt in landing here.  To begin, I want to read you a statement by the President on violence in Bahrain, Libya, and Yemen:

      “I am deeply concerned by reports of violence in Bahrain, Libya, and Yemen.  The United States condemns the use of violence by governments against peaceful protesters in those countries and wherever else it may occur.  We express our condolences to the families and friends of those who have been killed during the demonstrations.  Wherever they are, people have certain universal rights, including the right to peaceful assembly.  The United States urges the governments of Bahrain, Libya, and Yemen to show restraint in responding to peaceful protests and to respect the rights of their people.”

      That’s the end of the statement.  If you -- what I will do now, and we can come back to questions, if you want me to do the week ahead -- is that helpful to everyone, or do you want to --

      Q    Can we just --

      MR. CARNEY:  Just go right into questions, sure.

      Q    What kind of briefings is the President getting on the situation in the Middle East?

      MR. CARNEY:  He’s getting regular briefings.  Obviously he has a national security aide with him, and he also has for several weeks now as this -- these events in the Middle East have been unfolding, he tasked his national security staff to provide even more regular updates on the situation.  They now come to him obviously in his morning PDB but also in midday updates and end-of-day updates, every day.  So that obviously continues today.

      Q    What’s the impact of the Bahrain situation on the U.S. fleet that’s based there?

      MR. CARNEY:  I refer you to the Department of Defense on that, but specifically I think what we want to focus on here is the President’s deep concern about the use of violence against peaceful protesters in Bahrain, Libya, and Yemen.  And we are expressing that message directly to the government of Bahrain -- in response to your question.  And these are universal rights that need to be recognized.  And as you can see, we -- that position holds whether it’s Bahrain, Libya, Yemen, Egypt -- to all countries in the region.

      Q    Staying a little bit with the uprising, there’s one in Africa now, in Djibouti, where the U.S. has the only military base in Africa.  Is there any concern there about possible loss of the military base, or is there any concern on the part of the U.S. government?

      MR. CARNEY:  I don't have anything on that for you.  You’d have to go to the Department of Defense or the Department of State.

      Q    Has he spoken to the leaders of those four countries?

      MR. CARNEY:  I'm sorry?

      Q    You named four countries.  Has he spoken to the leaders of any or all of those --

      MR. CARNEY:  He has made no calls to foreign leaders since we last spoke.

      Q    Jay, Egypt has given permission to the Iranians to send those warships through the Suez Canal.  Does the United States have any position on that?

      MR. CARNEY:  We're monitoring that, obviously, but we also would say that Iran does not have a great track record for responsible behavior in the region, which is always a concern to us.  But beyond that, I don't have a comment.

      Q    Jay, on Wisconsin, is the President keeping up with what’s going on there?  Speaker Boehner today said the President should tell OFA to stand down.

      MR. CARNEY:  I want to make clear that -- something about what -- the President’s comments in the radio -- the television interview he gave the other day.  There are two points he made.  One is that he is very understanding of the need for state governments, governors, state legislatures to reduce spending, to be -- to make tough choices, to be fiscally responsible.  He’s doing that at the federal level and he understands that states need to do that at the state level.

      But he also feels very strongly that we need not to make this an assault on the collective bargaining rights of workers in a given state.  Public service workers need to make sacrifices just like everyone else, but there’s a distinction here that he sees.  And I just want to make sure that people see that he was very clear about his recognition that states need to deal with their budgets just like the federal government needs to deal with its budget.

      Q    Do you expect the President to weigh in on this activity in some of the other states -- Ohio or Indiana?

      MR. CARNEY:  I have no scheduling announcement to make, or I have no information that he would do that.

      Q    The Post suggested this morning the White House had a role in stoking the protests in Madison.

      MR. CARNEY:  The President made a comment in a television interview.  That's the only role that I see that we've had.

      Q    What about Organizing For America?

      MR. CARNEY:  I’d refer you to the DNC for comment on that.

      Q    Does the President support federal funding for Planned Parenthood?

      MR. CARNEY:  I'm sorry?

      Q    Does the President support federal funding for Planned Parenthood?

      MR. CARNEY:  There’s a longstanding history of funding for Title 10 by HHS, and on the history of that program and the funding of that program and what it does, I'd refer you to HHS.

      Q    The Intel CEO -- the announcement that was made this morning -- back in September he was pretty critical of the administration, on stimulus and what not.  We know that he was part of -- one of the CEOs in December at the Blair House, then he was at the state dinner last month.  What has changed for him that he’s going to now partner up with the President when he was so critical just six months ago?

      MR. CARNEY:  I think that's a good question.  The Intel CEO has also been very supportive of the President’s agenda on infrastructure, on research and development.  But more broadly, I think the point of the Jobs and Competiveness Council is to foster ideas for job growth and competitiveness.

      And he wants to hear from -- the President wants to hear from a lot of different voices, and private business is clearly essential to the agenda the President has for creating jobs and enhancing our competiveness around the globe.  So the point is not to collect people who agree with him on every issue and every policy decision he’s made, but to create an environment -- a council that -- where ideas, good ideas can be generated for going forward on job-creation.

      Q    Was the President’s statement released on the ground?  I’m just wondering.

      MR. CARNEY:  It is -- this is happening now, as we say.

      Q    Jay, other countries have frozen the assets of Hosni Mubarak and his lieutenants that are -- assets in their countries.  Are we doing the same thing?

      MR. CARNEY:  I don't have anything for you on that.  I don't know.  I would refer you -- I would refer you to State.  I don't have anything.

      Q    Jay, is there going to be any news in the President’s speech today -- any more news?

      MR. CARNEY:  As you know, the purpose of the event is to highlight the innovation agenda the President is pushing, and also education.  Intel has been very strong on -- in its own programs.  I think -- I hope we have paper for you on the investments they’ve made in enhancing the teaching of science, technology, engineering and math because it’s so vital to the future economic growth in these key industries for our country.

      I think he will speak a lot about that, and I don't want to steal his thunder.  All right?  Okay, thanks, guys.

      Q    Are you going to do a week ahead?  Are you still going to do that?

      MR. CARNEY:  You guys want a week ahead?  I have that.  Here we go.

      On Monday, the President has no public events scheduled.

      On Tuesday, the President and members of his Cabinet will travel to Cleveland, Ohio, where the White House will convene a “Winning the Future” forum on small business, in association with Cleveland State University and Northeast Ohio economic development organizations JumpStart and NorTech.

      In his State of the Union address, President Obama spoke of the need to out-innovate -- sorry, out-innovate, out-educate and out-build our competitors in order to sustain our leadership and secure prosperity for all Americans.  The forum will be an opportunity for the President and his economic team to hear directly from small business owners and leaders about their ideas for how America can continue to grow the economy, put Americans back to work, and win the future.

      On Wednesday the President will attend meetings at the White House.

      On Thursday the President will hold a meeting with the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness at the White House, the aforementioned council.  In the evening the President and the Vice -- and the First Lady -- sorry -- will invite music legends and contemporary major artists to the White House on Thursday -- well, as I said -- for the Motown Sound in performance at the White House, a concert celebrating Black History Month and the legacy of Motown records.

      On Friday the President will attend meetings at the White House.

      That is your week ahead.

      Q    Thank you.

      MR. CARNEY:  All right.  Thanks, guys.

          END               9:45 A.M. PST

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
February 16, 2011

Remarks by the President on America's Great Outdoors Initiative

5:05 P.M. EST

     THE PRESIDENT:  Well, welcome to the White House, everybody. It is great to have you here.  What better place to hold our Great Outdoors event than right here, inside the East Room.  (Laughter.)  We thought it might be a little chilly for some of you.  Not the folks from Montana.  (Laughter.)  Now, while an indoor celebration of the great outdoors may seem strange, it is worth noting that the White House is actually inside a 82-acre national park –- including an area once found to have the “densest squirrel population known to science.”  (Laughter.)  This is true.  So we’ve got that going for us.  (Laughter.)
 
I want to thank Sally for the terrific introduction.  I asked her if she brought me any gear.  She said that Secret Service wouldn't let her -- otherwise she would have.  (Laughter.)
 
I also want to make a couple of acknowledgements -- people who have worked so hard on this initiative, and I want to make sure that they get all the credit in the world:  my great Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, is here.  (Applause.)  My outstanding Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack.  (Applause.)  Tom is still recovering from the Super Bowl -- big Steelers fan. (Laughter.)  Went down to the game, all that stuff.  Had the towel.  (Laughter.)
 
Administrator of the EPA, Lisa Jackson.  (Applause.)  Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Nancy Sutley.  (Applause.)  Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, Jo Ellen Darcy.  (Applause.)  And somebody I am just thrilled to have here because this is my model for public service and just not only a great former senator but also just a class act and a wonderful gentleman, who I have not seen in a while -- John Warner of the great Commonwealth of Virginia.  (Applause.)  Best to you, John.  Thank you.
 
We also have -- in addition to Sally, I want to make sure that everybody knows who’s standing behind me here -- Dusty Crary, who’s a rancher from Rocky Mt. Front Advisory Committee -- Dusty.  (Applause.)  Sam Solomon, the president and CEO of the Coleman Company.  (Applause.)  John Tomke, president Sporting Conservation Council, Ducks Unlimited.  (Applause.)  Troy Uentillie, Navaho Nation member and the Sherman BIE School.  (Applause.)  And Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers.  (Applause.)
 
All these folks have just done a lot of work to make this day possible.
 
Now, in 1786, Thomas Jefferson described the view from Monticello:  “How sublime to look down into the workhouse of nature,” he wrote.  “To see her clouds, hail, snow, rain, thunder, all fabricated at our feet.”  To most Americans at the time, Jefferson’s experience was a familiar one.  The vast majority of the continent was wilderness.  No matter where you lived, you didn’t have to travel far to find acres of open fields and unspoiled forests.
 
But in the years that followed, Americans began to push westward.  Cities sprang up along riverbanks and railroad tracks. The nation grew so fast that by 1890, the census director announced that he could no longer identify an American “frontier.”  And yet, in the midst of so much expansion, so much growth, so much progress, there were a few individuals who had the foresight to protect our most precious national treasures -– even in our most trying times.
 
So at the height of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln agreed to set aside more than 60 square miles of land in the Yosemite Valley -– land he had never seen -– on the condition that it be preserved for public use.  Teddy Roosevelt, of course, our greatest conservation President, wrote that “there is nothing more practical in the end than the preservation of beauty.”  Even FDR, in the midst of the Great Depression, enabled the National Park Service to protect America’s most iconic landmarks –- from Mount Rushmore to the Statue of Liberty.  So conservation became not only important to America, but it became one of our greatest exports, as America’s beauty shone as a beacon to the world.  And other countries started adopting conservation measures because of the example that we had set.
 
Protecting this legacy has been the responsibility of all who serve this country.  But behind that action, the action that’s been taken here in Washington, there’s also the story of ordinary Americans who devoted their lives to protecting the land that they loved.
 
That’s what Horace Kephart and George Masa did.  This is a wonderful story.  Two men, they met in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina -- each had moved there to start a new life.  Horrified that their beloved wilderness was being clear-cut at a rate of 60 acres a day, Horace and George worked with other members of the community to get the land set aside.  The only catch was that they had to raise $10 million to foot the bill.
 
But far from being discouraged, they helped rally one of the poorest areas in the country to the cause.  A local high school donated the proceeds from a junior class play.  Preachers held “Smokey Mountain Sunday” services and encouraged their congregations to donate.  Local businesses chipped in.  And students from every grade in the city of Asheville -– which was still segregated at the time –- made a contribution.
 
So stories like these remind us what citizenship is all about.  And by the way, last year Michelle and I, we were able to walk some of the trails near Asheville and benefit from the foresight of people that had come before us.  Our daughters, our sons were able to enjoy what not only Teddy Roosevelt did but what ordinary folks did all across the country.  It embodies that uniquely American idea that each of us has an equal share in the land around us, and an equal responsibility to protect it.
 
And it’s not just the iconic mountains and parks that we protect.  It’s the forests where generations of families have hiked and picnicked and connected with nature.  It’s the park down the street where kids play after school.  It’s the farmland that’s been in the family longer than anybody can remember.  It’s the rivers where we fish, it’s the forests where we hunt.
 
These days, our lives are only getting more complicated, more busy, and we’re glued to our phones and our computers for hours on end.  I have to -- Michelle and I, we're constantly having to monitor our kids, get outside.  Turn off the TV.  Put away the Skype.  (Laughter.)
 
Cars and buses shuttle us from one place to another.  We see our kids spending more and more time on the couch.  For a lot of folks, it’s easy to go days without stepping on a single blade of grass.
 
At times like these, we have to ask ourselves:  What can we do to break free from the routine and reconnect with the world around us?  What can we do to get our kids off the couch and out the door?  And by the way, because I’m a smart husband, I, here, want to point out all the great things that Michelle is doing with the “Let’s Move” initiative to help kids stay active and healthy.  (Applause.)
 
Today, our open spaces are more precious than ever -– and it’s more important than ever that we come together to protect them for the next generation.
 
So, in my first months of office I signed a public lands bill -- that many of you worked on -- that designated two million acres of wilderness, over 1,000 miles of wild and scenic rivers and three national parks.  (Applause.)  I'm very proud of that.  And some of the members of Congress who worked with us on that are here today, and we're very proud of them.
 
But at a time when America’s open spaces are controlled by a patchwork of groups, from government to land trusts to private citizens, it’s clear that conservation in the 21st century is going to take more than just what we can do here in Washington.  Just like the story of the Great Smoky Mountains, meeting the new test of environmental stewardship means finding the best ideas at the grassroots level.  It means helping states, communities and non-profits protect their own resources.  And it means figuring out how the federal government can be a better partner in those efforts.
 
And that’s why, last year, we launched the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative.  Over the last 10 months, members of my administration have held more than 50 listening sessions with over 10,000 people -– from hunters and fishermen to tribal leaders and young people.  And together, we’ve laid the foundation for a smarter, more community-driven environmental strategy.
 
To make it easier for families to spend time outside no matter where they live, we’re going to work with cities and states to build and improve urban parks and waterways, and make it easier to access public lands.
 
To encourage young people to put down the remote or the video games and get outside, we’re going to establish a new Conservation Service Corps so they can build a lifelong relationship with their natural heritage.  And this is something I know Ken cares deeply about.  (Applause.)
                   
To help set aside land for conservation and to promote recreation, we’re proposing to fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund, for only the third time in our history.  (Applause.)  And we’re intending to pay for it with existing oil and gas revenues, because our attitude is if you take something out of the Earth, you have a responsibility to give a little bit back to the Earth.  (Applause.)
 
So these are the right steps to take for our environment.  But they’re also the right steps to take for our country.  They help spur the economy.  They create jobs by putting more Americans back to work in tourism and recreation.  They help inspire a new generation of scientists to learn how the world works.  They help Americans stay healthier by making it easier to spend time outside.  And they’ll help carry forth our legacy as a people who don’t just make decisions based on short-term gains of any one group but on what’s best for the entire nation in the long run.     
 
So working together to protect the environment we share, lifting up the best ideas wherever we find them, preserving the great outdoors for our children and for their children -- that’s our responsibility.
 
The great Rachel Carson once wrote that “The real wealth of the nation lies in the resources of the Earth -— soil, water, forests, minerals, wildlife... Their administration is not properly, and cannot be, a matter of politics.”  Something more than politics.  That was the call echoed by Jefferson and Lincoln and Roosevelt.  It’s the call that has driven generations of Americans to do their part to protect a small slice of the planet.  And it’s the call that we answer today.  
 
So I’m grateful to all of you for the great work that you’ve already done.  Keep it up.  Thank you.  God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.  (Applause.)

END
5:19 P.M. EST