By Khalida Sarwari
President Obama this afternoon brought his budget message to Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, where he held an online town hall meeting and fielded questions on topics ranging from health care and education to immigration and jobs.
Most of those who attended in person were Facebook employees, and Obama noted the young demographic he was addressing and the novelty of a president holding a town hall meeting online.
“More people, especially young people, are getting their information through different media,” he said. “And obviously what all of you have done together is revolutionize how people get their information, how they process information, how they’re connected with each other.”
He spoke about the nation’s massive debt and ways to reduce the deficit, including by cutting health care costs, slashing defense spending and reducing tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.
He pointed out that that income group includes people like himself and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who moderated the event and was sitting next to him.
“I’m cool with that,” Zuckerberg said.
“I know you’re OK with that,” the president replied.
He recalled that in 2000, the country not only had a balanced budget, but a surplus as well, because both political parties made it their goal to spend wisely.
“Then we went through 10 years where we forgot what had created the surplus in the first place,” the president said. “So we had a massive tax cut that wasn’t offset by cuts in spending. We had two wars that weren’t paid for. We had a huge prescription drug plan that wasn’t paid for. By the time I started in office, we had a $1 trillion annual deficit.”
He said interest payments further added to the massive debt that had accumulated, and later on the recession, which added another $1 trillion. Now, the baby boomer generation is retiring at a greater rate and placing greater demand, especially on health care costs, Obama said.
“You put that all together and we have an unsustainable situation,” he said. “So right now we face a critical time where we’re going to have to make some decisions.”
Obama aims to reduce the deficit by a cumulative $4 trillion over roughly the next decade, and said about half of that would come from cuts in spending.
“I know that sounds like a lot of money. It is, but it’s doable if we do it in a balanced way.”
He said it is possible to make spending cuts selectively without hurting key areas like education, infrastructure and technology, which he said are crucial to the nation’s future.
Obama opposed the 2012 budget plan proposed by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, which some have called radical while others have said it is bold and courageous.
He said the plan was radical in that it essentially further reduces taxes for the wealthy and for corporations, and calls for cuts from the energy, education and transportation budgets.
“I guess you could call that bold. I would call it short sighted,” Obama said.
The president spoke extensively about education, saying that the system needs money and reform.
“It’s not an ‘either-or’ proposition, it’s a ‘both-and’ proposition,” he said.
He talked about the progress of the administration’s “Race to the Top” initiative, which gives school districts an opportunity to compete for federal funding by demonstrating a plan to improve their schools.
He promoted also the importance of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math initiative, and said the improvement of education depends upon recruiting and compensating the brightest teachers, and assessing those teachers to ensure they are performing.
The president said the slow housing market is a “real drag” on the economy, putting strain especially on first-time homebuyers. He said one way the government has addressed that problem is by establishing programs where those homebuyers can renegotiate the terms of their mortgage with their lenders.
“Frankly we’ve got to understand the days where it was really easy to buy a house without any money down is probably over,” Obama said.
Obama discussed his administration’s stance on immigration policy, conceding that it is a difficult issue, and shared his ideas for reform.
He said the legal immigration system should be more efficient so that there are not huge backlogs. Most Americans approve of immigration, but also want it to be done in an orderly process, the president said.
High-skilled immigrants who come to America and study should be able to stay if they want to reinvest in the country, Obama said.
“If we have smart people who want to come here and start businesses and are Ph.D.s in math and science and computer science, why don’t we want them to stay?” Obama said, inspiring loud applause. “Those are the job generators.”
He said there should be a way for unskilled workers who are lurking in the shadows out of fear for themselves and their families to also be legalized. He added that even so, they should be punished with a fine and required to learn English and pay their dues in other ways.
The president ended the meeting by saying that there is still a lot of work to do, but that the American people would have to move forward with optimism.
“Just remember that we’ve been through tougher times before and we’ve always come out on top,” he said. “If we come together we can solve all these problems. I can’t do it all by myself.”
His message inspired Assemblywoman Nora Campos, D-San Jose, who was in the audience.
“There is so much more left to be done,” Campos said. “We as Americans need to lend our support and our voice to his agenda.”
She said Obama’s visit to Facebook was a good thing for the state.
“I think this is a great opportunity for us Californians to be part of a new wave of social networking,” Campos said.
Palo Alto Mayor Sid Espinosa was also in attendance and was equally enthusiastic about the town hall meeting.
“Too often in our country’s history government leaders have really focused on the older generation,” Espinosa said. “Obama is engaging young people; that’s why coming to Facebook was such a good idea.”
Obama spoke of the need to invest in alternative energy, which he said would both benefit the environment and help create jobs.
“I really like what he said about energy,” said Facebook employee Tim Campos, 37, of Los Altos. “He was very focused on what needs to happen over the long term.”
The president arrived at San Francisco International Airport on Air Force One exactly on schedule at 1 p.m.
Tonight, he appeared at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at the Nob Hill Masonic Center.
A group of more than 100 protesters gathered outside Palo Alto City Hall late this morning to call for protecting the nation’s social safety net while addressing its budget problems.
Another group led by the organization CODEPINK demonstrated outside Facebook headquarters beginning at 11 a.m. to protest the Obama administration’s foreign policy and funding for wars.