President Obama at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, July 24
Archive for July 24th, 2013
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Jul
13
Chat Away
24
Jul
13
News Of The Day
President Obama at Knox College, July 24
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Today’s speeches:
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Pete Souza: Pres Obama aboard Air Force One w Sen. Claire McCaskill
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Forward to about 1 hour, 14 to see the speech
5:20 ET: President Obama delivers remarks at the University of Central Missouri
Also at:
White House Live * C-Span * CBS
Text of the President’s Knox College speech:
Eight years ago, I came here to deliver the commencement address for the Class of 2005. Things were a little different back then. I didn’t have any gray hair, for example. Or a motorcade. I didn’t even have a teleprompter. It was my first big speech as your newest senator, and I spent my time talking about what a changing economy was doing to the middle class – and what we, as a country, needed to do to give every American a chance to get ahead in the 21st century.
You see, I’d just spent a year traveling this state and listening to your stories – of proud Maytag workers losing their jobs when their plant moved down to Mexico; of teachers whose salaries weren’t keeping up with the rising cost of groceries; of young people who had the drive but not the money to afford a college education.
They were the stories of families who worked hard and believed in the American Dream, but felt that the odds were increasingly stacked against them. And they were right.
In the period after World War II, a growing middle class was the engine of our prosperity. Whether you owned a company, swept its floors, or worked anywhere in between, this country offered you a basic bargain – a sense that your hard work would be rewarded with fair wages and benefits, the chance to buy a home, to save for retirement, and above all, to hand down a better life for your kids.
But over time, that engine began to stall. That bargain began to fray. Technology made some jobs obsolete. Global competition sent others overseas. It became harder for unions to fight for the middle class. Washington doled out bigger tax cuts to the rich and smaller minimum wage increases for the working poor. The link between higher productivity and people’s wages and salaries was severed – the income of the top 1 percent nearly quadrupled from 1979 to 2007, while the typical family’s barely budged.
Towards the end of those three decades, a housing bubble, credit cards and a churning financial sector kept the economy artificially juiced up. But by the time I took office in 2009, the bubble had burst, costing millions of Americans their jobs, their homes and their savings. The decades-long erosion of middle-class security was laid bare for all to see and feel.
Today, five years after the start of that Great Recession, America has fought its way back.
Continue reading ‘‘The past is a bucket of ashes … there is only an ocean of tomorrows’’
12:55 ET: President Obama delivers remarks at Knox College
White House Live * C-Span * CBS
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Later:
5:20 ET: Delivers remarks at the University of Central Missouri
24
Jul
13
Rise and Shine
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All times Eastern:
10:0: The President departs the White House
12:10: Arrives Galesburg, Illinois
12:55: Delivers remarks at Knox College
3:50: Departs Galesburg en route Warrensburg, Missouri
4:40: Arrives Warrensburg
5:20: Delivers remarks at the University of Central Missouri
6:15: Departs Warrensburg
8:15: Arrives Joint Base Andrews
8:30: Arrives the White House
Detailed schedule here
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President Obama talks with Director of Speechwriting Cody Keenan in the Oval Office, July 23 (Photo by Pete Souza)
Yahoo: President Barack Obama’s speech on economic policy Wednesday will be the first in an ambitious series of six addresses laying out a sweeping vision for America’s future. The philosophy at the core of the campaign will be familiar, but there will be “aggressive new ideas.”
That’s according to Cody Keenan, the speechwriter in charge of crafting what may be Obama’s most far-reaching second-term effort to get Americans to sign on to his plans.
… Obama’s six speeches will cover education, housing, retirement security, health care, poverty and jobs, Keenan said…
“In the weeks ahead — especially when it comes to college costs, which is something he’s obsessed with — we’ll have some aggressive new ideas,” said Keenan.
More here
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Time: Why Obama Keeps Going Back to One Small Illinois College
…. Knox has a special place in the President’s heart and in American history. “It’s the place where I gave my first big speech after I had been elected to the U.S. Senate,” Obama said at a recent event in Washington. Wednesday marks his third visit – once as a Senate candidate, once as a Senator and now as commander-in-chief – adding to a long history of presidents and political figures who have left a mark on the college.
Founded in 1837 by religious missionaries who opposed slavery, Knox College was, from its beginning, a progressive institution that welcomed women and people of color. In 1858, the college was the site of the fifth of seven Lincoln-Douglas debates, where Abraham Lincoln, challenging incumbent Senator Stephan A. Douglas, debated the nature and future of slavery.
More here
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BREAKING: U.S. sales of new homes jump to 497,000, most in 5 years and a sign of steady improvement in housing. -MM
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 24, 2013
BOOM: NEW HOME SALES JUMP 8.3% TO 497,000 (Est. +1.7% http://t.co/nqsg3g7W2n
— Business Insider (@businessinsider) July 24, 2013
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Headline of the week?
Leaders of the Republican Party are still predicting that Obamacare will be a disaster, one that will wreak havoc on American health care. Most of their allies in the media say the same thing. But a small group of conservative intellectuals has been warning that the law might not be so apocalyptical — that, with full implementation about to begin, wholesale repeal may no longer be possible…
… Once Americans can take advantage of the law’s benefits — once more low-income people become eligible for Medicaid, and once more low- and middle-income people start to get subsidies that will help them buy private insurance — taking those benefits away will be nearly impossible, particularly since Republicans still haven’t proposed an alternative that would come close to providing the same level of security.
More here
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Michael Tomasky: Don’t Repeal Any Laws, Repeal John Boehner
The speaker says Republicans should be judged on how many laws they repeal. This is unprecedented, irresponsible, and terrifying. …
It would be impossible to name the craziest thing said by a Republican so far this year….
New entrants arrive constantly and the competition is feral. And yet paradoxically they don’t even shock anymore. But one recent Republican remark should arrest you and deserves your contemplation: John Boehner’s statement on Face the Nation Sunday that he and his House Republicans “ought to be judged on how many laws we repeal.”
It’s not an outrageous statement in the Obama-wants-to-impose-Sharia vein, but in its way it’s more disturbing. The Republican Party now sees dysfunction as not just an unfortunate consequence of a set of historical factors, something that they might work every now and again to correct. Now, the Republican Party sees dysfunction as its mission.
More here
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They continue to be the greatest threat to the US economy. House G.O.P. Sets New Offensive on Obama Goals http://t.co/gUlowMqJuG
— David Plouffe (@davidplouffe) July 24, 2013
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Read Steve Benen on King here and Ed Kilgore here
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GOP Latino Outreach! | Steve King: For Every Valedictorian DREAMer, 100 Are ‘Hauling 75 Pounds Of Marijuana’ http://t.co/EQG3lruEuW #TMFRH
— Imani ABL (@AngryBlackLady) July 23, 2013
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La OpiniĂłn: Cruel and Indecent
Family values are a pillar of traditional Republican discourse. But as soon as it comes time to address immigration issues, all of their emphasis on family unity goes out the window, replaced by advocacy for division.
This is the logical conclusion that follows from the KIDS Act, being developed by the House of Representatives. While this House bill would legalize the status of minors brought to the United States without papers by their parents, it would be the only measure the lower house would approve to regularize the status of anyone undocumented, unlike the Senate bill that initially aspired to benefit 11 million people.
The bill’s sponsor, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, speaking in favor of the measure, stated that this is a matter of “decency and compassion”…..
More here
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24
Jul
13
Night Owl Chat – Mayer Hawthorne
Ladies and gentlemen, I present the blue-eyed soul of Mayer Hawthorne.
Green-eyed Love
No Strings
The Obama Diary 
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