By Khalida Sarwari, Melissa McRobbie and Saul Sugarman
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.
“This format and this company is, I think, an ideal means for us to be able to carry on this conversation,” Obama said.
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.
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.
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.
“We can do all those things while still bringing down the deficit medium term,” he said.
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.
As he walked down the stairs from the plane, the president smiled and waved at the crowd of dozens of people who were invited to attend the landing. He stopped for several minutes to shake hands and chat briefly with some of them.
Giulia Guzzardi, a San Francisco resident whose family is from Italy, was very happy to shake the president’s hand.
“He was so nice. I said, ‘Buongiorno!’ and he was so quick and said, ‘Buongiorno!’ back to me,” she said.
Obama then walked to the waiting Marine One and boarded the helicopter, which took off at 1:20 p.m. for Palo Alto.
The helicopter landed on a soccer field located at the northern edge of Stanford University at about 1:40 p.m.
From there, the president traveled in a limousine surrounded by a motorcade on Page Mill Road toward Facebook headquarters.
Police shut down Page Mill Road between El Camino Real and the Interstate Highway 280 on-ramp during Obama’s trip, Lt. Sandra Brown said.
The segment of road was reopened at about 2 p.m., Brown said. Police closed it again for about 20 minutes at 3:05 p.m. when the president left.
Tonight, he will appear at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at the Nob Hill Masonic Center where he will speak at 8:30 p.m.
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.