Liveblogging the Obama Town Hall in Fort Myers
February 10, 2009 at 11:00 am by Wayne GarciaYes, it’s late notice my friends, but I will be in front of the TV at 12 noon to report and comment on what I hear from President Barack Obama as he tries to rescue his economic stimulus package from the clutches of tax-and-spend liberals in the House and tax-breaks-for-the-wealthy conservatives in the House and Senate. Please join me if you have nothing else going on. Post a comment below. Also let me know if you want something fact-checked.
1:08: Final question: A crazy religious kid gets to ask the last one. Julio is a community college student, at the same job Mickey D’s for 4.5 years. How can folks stuck in low-paying jobs like mine get better benefits? Obama: Your hard work should be a source of pride for you. And you’ll get the tax breaks we are talking about, the payroll tax offset. We will reform health care system so you can get health care coverage. What are you studying, Obama asks the hyper young man what he is studying. (Wants to major in communications, wants to be a broadcaster or disc jockey.)
Fox News: “All right, Julio. He’s King for the day.”
1:04: Ninth question: I can’t figure out what the hell this rambling question is about, but it seems to be something related to transportation. If the Town Hall hadn’t jumped the shark before, it did right now.
1:00: Eighth question, from a retired high school teacher: You said the American public must be patient, and we are notoriously impatient. How will you deal with that problem? Obama: The American people understand that this is a big and very complicated problem, and “that we’re going to have to try a bunch of different things to get this economy going.” Me and my staff will not be perfect and will make mistakes, but we will work every day on this, and we are open to every idea, Democrat or Republican, and working “as hard as we can to solve these problems. That is how I judge myself every single day.”
“I won’t lie to you;” if it turns out in four years that I have led you astray and none of this worked, you will choose somebody else as your president, he said.
12:57: Seventh question: I’ve been praying for you. We need housing urgently, and been waiting on public housing list for years. Obama: “Miss Hughes, we’re going to do everything we can to help you. I’ll have my staff talk to you after the Town Hall.”
12:55: Sixth question: zzzzzzzzzzzzz.
12:54: Obama announces, to cheers, that the Senate passed the plan. “That’s good news,” he said with little enthusiasm.
[It really looks like at this point, with some of his long, wonky answers that aren't real inspiring, that Obama began losing the audience, so he pumped them up with the contention that the Senate passed the plan because it knew he was coming down to Fort Myers and it didn't want to get sideways with the city. The crowd predictably cheered.]
12:52: Fifth question: What stimulus checks will we get? Obama: $1,000 for working families that would “start flowing right away.” He acknowledges that may not sound like a lot to some. Plus, targeted tax cuts for small businesses. “That’s the best way to reinvigorate the economy,” he said of middle class tax cuts.
12:46: Fourth question: What government assistance can we get beyond unemployment for those who are making too much money for welfare?
12:43: Fox News cuts away, the Senate just voted 61-37 to approve its version of the stimulus bill. Only three Republicans supported it.
12:39: Third question: In light of the fact that you’ve inherited an economic crisis, where does health care reform now fall as a priority? Obama: “Health care is the biggest component of our economy, and when it’s broken, it affects everything.” And the US spends more than everybody else in the world, and our companies are not competitive as a result in the global markets. The stimulus package gives states more money for Medicaid, he says (despite having just said before that that Medicaid and Medicare aren’t sustainable in the long run). More money for COBRA health insurance for those who have lost their jobs. The fed govt will subsidize a big part of COBRA for those out of work.
Obama then said he can use this crisis as an opportunity. He derides the paperwork that exists in the health care system, all unreadable and on paper. “It causes huge amounts of medical errors. We’ve got all this bureaucracy.” And he plugs the billions of dollars (in the House bill) in the stimulus plan that would convert medical forms and records all to digital and computerized methods.
12:35: Second question: Lenders won’t even talk about modifying your mortgage unless you are in default. What can we do to change that? Obama: Geithner announced a plan earlier today, more oversight and transparency, cutting exec compensation. Geithner also pointed out we need “direct relief to homeowners.” Making an announcement in the next couple of weeks about the “overall housing strategy” and didn’t want to announced today and have it lost in larger financial bailout announcement. Obama acknowledges that some folks had no business buying a home, but wants to help those people who are underwater in their mortgage because of falling housing values and job losses. The bank’s only going to get 40 cents on the dollar in foreclosure, so both sides can give a little bit and both win and raise property values.
A couple of wrinkles to accomplish mortgage reform, Obama continues: Wall Street bundled and sliced these mortgages up among many investors, which makes altering the deals tough.
12:32: First question: a community college employee asks how much focus is in the stimulus plan on higher ed and vocational training. Obama touts school construction money for K-12 and higher ed, plus the $2,500 tuition tax break, improvements to science labs and vocational training classrooms.
12:28: And now the meeting starts to get lively, part-revival, part-Florida idiots who will yell out anything to get their 15 seconds of fame.
12:27: “I’m not here to tell you this plan is perfect. It was produced in Washington.” Lots of laughter. Then his money line on this subject: “Doing nothing is not an option. You didn’t send me to Washington to do nothing. The time for talk is over.”
12:24: The pitch includes “Middle class tax relief for 6.9 million in Florida”, a $1,000 tax break, and $2,500 for college tuition.
12:19: “Change” makes its first appearance.
12:18: Obama now tells America that he has heard its stories of pain and that “I would not forget.” He tells Fort Myers he is there to keep his promise. He again mentions an economic crisis that “we have inherited.” (Fact is that we (all of us) caused it, right? I mean, some foreign nation didn’t impose this on us, did they?)
12:15: “You’ve seen a change in the economic conditions of your community,” Obama tells the Fort Myers crowd. Ya think??
12:12: Obama has shout-outs for CFO Alex Sink, and a bunch of Democratic congressmen, including Rep. Kathy Castor of Tampa. And a big muah for Charlie Crist, for “being on the front lines” of the battle every day. The President said: “When the town is burning, you don’t check party labels. everybody needs to grab a hose, and that is what Charlie Crist is doing here today.”
12:09: Gov. Charlie Crist stands next to Obama as the crowd chants, “Yes we can! Yes we can!” Crist starts: “Mr President, welcome to Fort Myers, Florida. Just a couple of points I wanted to make to you, Mr. President. Our budget is in balance in Florida. We’ve had to cut $7 billion over the past two years.” Without raising taxes, he plugged.
Crist continued: “It’s important that we pass the stimulus package. It’s important that we do so to help education, to help our infrastructure, and to help health care …” Crist then added: “And we need to do it in a bipartisan way.”
12:07 pm: Here’s Obama, as the crowd’s digital phones and cameras come out in force.
12:06 pm: Still waiting on the president while the 24-hour nets dissect Geithner’s revamped TARP plan. Not hearing much good.
11:56 am: Florida Sen. Bill Nelson on Fox News right now, talking about the Geithner Plan. On the stimulus bill: “It takes 60 votes to get anything done, and we’ve got 61.” He thinks that by the vote, they may get even more Republicans to cross the aisle.
11:53 am: Is Roger Simon of Politico right? Does Obama have to scare us and comfort us at the same time?
Barack Obama has a tough act to pull off. He must simultaneously petrify people and also restore their confidence. He must scare us to death and calm our fears.
He must convince the nation that the times are so dire we must carry out his bold plans immediately, and then he must persuade us to be patient and give his plans time to work.
Obama gave two shows Monday: a matinee in Elkhart, Ind., and an evening performance in Washington. He was calm and forceful at both. He made one joke at his town meeting in Elkhart about drinking beer and one joke at his news conference in Washington about how much Joe Biden talks (always good for a laugh).
11:47 am: As we wait for Obama, let’s look at this graph of job losses in this recession and the two previous. Ouch. We’re the green line today. (h/t to Billy Townsend)
