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Narrator: Special presidential train has
just rolled into track one.
Narrator: It is a very great honor
to present your President.
President Reagan: I ha a most pleasant time
meeting the people of the United States.
I talked to all these people and a great many
people have talked to me.
And I'm very glad of having a chance
to meet you face to face.
♪♪(music playing)♪♪
Steve Grow: Hello everybody, I'm Steve Grow
from our Google team here out in Mountain View,
California and it's my pleasure to welcome
you to the first ever presidential hangout road
trip with President Obama.
Mr. President we're going to be taking you
on a virtual whistle-stop tour today across the country,
hopping into three different Google Plus
hangouts with groups of Americans who have
questions for you.
I should tell our viewers at home that neither
you nor any members of your staff know which questions
are going to be asked today.
Our team here at Google chose these participants
from amongst thousands of questions
that were submitted online.
Mr. President, it's become a great annual tradition
for you to speak to your fellow Americans on Google
Plus and YouTube after your State of the Union
speech, welcome back and thanks for joining us.
President Obama: Well it's great
to see you Steve, thank you so much for helping
to set this up.
Steve Grow: Well we're excited.
Let's get right to it.
We're actually going to start in the western part
of the country today
as we begin our journey across America.
And here in the west we're joined by Art Hernandez,
a data tech in Tempe, Arizona; Steve Hamilton,
a documentary film producer in Santa Clara,
California; and Sheila Chung Hagan,
who works for the public utilities commission
of San Francisco.
Sheila, let's start with you.
Sheila Chung Hagan: Happy late New Year
Mr. President --
President Obama: Thank you so much.
Sheila Chung Hagan: You called 2014 a year
of action, where you'll work with Congress when it's
possible and you'll use your executive authority
when Congress fails to take action.
You've asked Congress to pass a comprehensive
immigration reform with a clear path to citizenship
and yet legislators continue at an impasse.
You have used your executive authority in the
past to help the dreamers, young people who were
brought to this country as children,
and so I'm wondering will you use your executive authority
to halt deportations, which have been ripping
families apart until Congress passes
a comprehensive immigration reform?
President Obama: Wel Sheila, it's great
to talk to you and thanks for the question.
I think this is one area where I am modestly
optimistic about Congress acting this year.
And part of that optimism is that it's so obviously
the right thing to do.
Comprehensive immigration reform has gained support
from all walks of American life;
you have law enforcement, you have clergy member including
evangelicals that are traditionally strong
supporters of the Republican Party,
you've obviously got immigration activists and communities,
but you also have businesses who recognize
that this would be terrifically important for
economic growth short-term and long-term,
would actually cut our deficits by a trillion dollars.
So the arguments are compelling,
we saw a bipartisan bill pass through the Senate last
year and Speaker Boehner announced a couple of --
actually yesterday, that he has principles for
immigration reform that are moving
in the direction of the principles that
I have laid out from the time that I first
ran for this office.
There are still some differences and obviously
the devil is in the details, but it is my firm
belief that we can get immigration
reform done this year.
And I don't want to presuppose that we can't,
obviously if at some point we see that
it's not getting done, I'm going to look at all options
to make sure that we have a rational,
smart system of immigration, but I'm going to do everything
I can in these coming months to see if we can get this over
the finish line.
And I think we actually can get it done.
One last point I want to make, and that is that
in any scenario we're going to have stronger border
security, in any scenario we're going to improve
the legal immigration system so that families
can be unified fast, that you don't have this massive
bureaucracy, these back logs,
where folks may wait for decades to be reunited.
In any scenario, we're going to be making sure
that employers aren't taking advantage of
undocumented workers, and that we can enforce that.
I believe in any scenario, we should also make sure
that at the end of the day, people are able
to become citizens because we don't want a situation
in which we've got two categories of people
in this country, folks who are full-fledged citizens
and folks who are not.
This is something where there's going to be some
differences between the Senate approach,
which does have a clear path to citizenships and what
we've seen so far out of the House Republicans.
But the point I made yesterday is that I want
to engage, I don't want to prejudge and presuppose
that we can't close some of those gaps.
I'm going to keep on fighting as hard as I can
and remain, as I said, modestly optimistic.
You can never be completely optimistic when
you're talking about Washington because
we have some history of stuff not getting done in this town
as opposed to getting done.
But I'm going to be pushing very hard
in the next few months to see if we can get this
over the finish line.
Steve Grow: Let's go to Steve in Santa Clara
next Mr. President.
Steve Hamilton: Thank you Mr. President.
First of all, I want to say it's an honor
to speak with you sir --
President Obama: Thank you.
Steve Hamilton: Thank you for taking
the time to do this.
My question to you is last year I filmed
a documentary about Chernobyl in Ukraine and
while I was there I made a lot of really good friends
and right now, those friends are living under
what could be considered Soviet-type rules with
freedoms and such, not like a free democracy like
they're supposed to be.
What's our countries stance on these protests
that are going on there, the Euromaidan protests
and what does the administration plan
to do to assist the protesters in Kiev?
President Obama: Wel we have been actively
engaged in what's been happening in the Ukraine.
Not only has our embassy and our folks
who are over there been talking to the opposition
as well as the government, but folks like Vice President Biden
have spoken directly to President Yanukovych about
our belief that number one, rules that restrict
protests and free speech are ultimately
counterproductive and we are very much against.
Number two, that there has to be a way to restructure
the Ukrainian government in a way that allows
the voices of the opposition and those folks on the
streets to be heard in preparation for some sort
of democratic process that creates a government
with greater legitimacy and unity.
And that's going to be challenging but we're
trying to help on the negotiations on that.
Number three, over the long term, part of what's
happened here is that the people of Ukraine clearly
are looking to Europe and the West as a partner
in a more free, more free-market-based economy,
obviously they also have strong historic ties
to Russia as well as a lot of commercial relationships
with Russia, and those don't need
to be sacrificed.
But what I think the people of Ukraine
do not want to see, and this is evidenced by what happened
on the streets, is a situation where behind
closed doors, their aspirations for a more
free society and one that's integrated with
Europe more closely, that that's foreclosed.
And you know, I think this is just one more example
of what we've seen around the world.
It's very hard for countries to engage
in old-style politics that doesn't take into account
the genuine hopes and aspirations of ordinary
people because with the Internet and smartphones
and Google and technology and information,
people want to be part of determining
their own destiny.
And you can't bottle up information in the same
way that you used to.
Hopefully those in power in Ukraine
are going to recognize that and
we can get this resolved peacefully.
I'm also worried about the violence but --
Steve Hamilton: Absolutely.
President Obama: -- as I said, we're engaging
on a daily basis with the Ukrainian government
to make sure that we get a positive outcome there.
Steve Hamilton: Excellent, thank you.
Steve Grow: Let's go to Art in Tempe.
Art Hernandez: Hi Mr. President --
President Obama: How are you Art?
Art Hernandez: Thank you for the opportunity
to speak with you today, I really appreciate it.
I have two daughters who currently live on the
East Coast, and as you might expect,
I can't afford to visit them as frequently as I'd like to.
So the only opportunity that we get to spend time
together is through the Internet on video chats,
such as this one.
My question today has to do with net neutrality
and the recent U.S.
Court of Appeals ruling almost disregarding
the rules of a fair and neutral Internet.
I'm curious to know if you support net neutrality
and how you think -- how you feel about the court's
decision and how that decision
will impact the U.S.
economy and the Internet as we currently know it.
President Obama: Well first of all Art,
let me just say that's a nice Marley poster
you've got behind you.
Art Hernandez: (laughs) Thank you.
President Obama: I think I might have had
that one in high school.
Art Hernandez: (laughs)
President Obama: The -- you know, it's something
that I've cared deeply about ever since I ran for
office, in part because my own campaign
was empowered by a free and open Internet.
And the ability for citizens all across this
country to engage and create and find new ways
and new tools to mobilize themselves, a lot of that
couldn't have been done if there were a bunch
of commercial barriers and roadblocks.
And so I've been a strong supporter
of net neutrality.
The new commissioner of the FCC, Tom Wheeler, who
I appointed, I know is a strong supporter
of net neutrality.
You know, we live under a system in which,
when a court rules, we have to respect that ruling
initially but the FCC I know and Tom Wheeler are
looking at all the options at their disposal,
potential appeals, potential rulemaking,
a variety of tools that they may have in order
to continue to vindicate the notion
of a free and open Internet.
Yeah, I think you can feel confident that this
administration will continue to support that.
There are going to be a lot of technical issues
about how best we can get to that and I know that
they're still evaluating the court opinion.
The one good piece of news coming out of this court
opinion was the court did confirm that the
FCC can regulate this space, they have authority.
And the question now is how do they use that
authority if the old systems and rulings
that they had in place were not effective in preserving
net neutrality, did they have other tools that
would stand up to court
scrutiny that accomplishes the same goals.
And you can expect that even though
the FCC is independent, once I make the appointment,
I can't meddle in the decision making there.
Based on my conversations with Tom Wheeler before he
was appointed, I'm pretty confident --
and they've said already that they're going
to be exploring how they can continue to uphold the --
you know what makes the Internet so special.
Art Hernandez: Thank you.
Steve Grow: Mr. President, we're going
to say goodbye to our friends here in the West.
Goodbye everybody.
President Obama: See you guys.
Art Hernandez: Bye Mr. President.
Sheila Chung Hagan: Bye Mr. President.
Steve Hamilton: Bye Mr. President.
President Obama: It was great to talk to you.
Thanks.
Steve Grow: We're going to move onto the next
section of our road trip today, it's in the middle
of the country.
And you'll see as we hop into a new hangout that
we're in the central part of the United States.
I should tell you that here in the heartland --
and like most of the country, the number one
most searched issue on Google is the economy.
And that outpaces searches for all other issues,
so actually really going to just put a focus on the
economy for this part of our conversation.
And to help us do that, we are joined
today by Curtis Angel,
a student at Southwestern Christian University
who lives in Aubrey, Texas --
President Obama: Hey Curt.
Steve Grow: Leatress Fullerton, a social worker
in Kalamazoo, Michigan and finally
Darnell Summers, a fry cook at a fast food
restaurant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Let's start with you Darnell.
Darnell Summers: Good afternoon Mr. President,
my name is Darnell Summers.
I'm 57 years old and I work
in the fast food industry.
I have been on strike four times,
I'm only making $7.25 an hour.
I've been on strike four times in association with
Wisconsin's jobs now to try to get an increase
in wages and fast food union with no prevail.
My question to you is what can you and Congress
do to help people as myself in this situation survive?
Because we're $7.25 and we were broken down
to part-time to avoid paying health insurance.
We can't survive, it's not living.
President Obama: Well Darnell, I agree with you.
And on Tuesday at my State of the Union I talked
about this, we've got to make sure that the economy
is growing and creating jobs, we've got to make
sure that folks have the skills to get those jobs.
But we also got to make sure that work pays and
the minimum wage in this country has not gone
up in a very long time.
It's actually worth about 20 percent less than
when Ronald Reagan came into office in 1980.
And I think the one thing Americans agree on is that
if you work full-time in this country,
you should not be in poverty
when you're raising your families.
So here's what I've done myself through executive
action, I intend to make sure that anybody who
is doing federal business, anybody who is a federal
contractor, that their federally funded employees
are governed by a minimum wage, $10.10 an hour.
Beyond that, I am working to encourage states,
governors, mayors, state legislators
to raise their own minimum wage.
And since I made this call for a higher minimum wage
a year ago, you've seen already five states that
have increased their minimum wage,
a number of cities have moved forward on a living wage
initiative of the sort that you're talking about
in your hometown, in your home state.
So I'm going to continue to try to support those
coalitions, saying it's the right thing to do.
Obviously the way to reach millions of people would
be for Congress to pass a new federal minimum
wage law and so far at least we have not seen support from
Republicans in Congress for such a move,
but I'm hoping as we keep on making the arguments
out there they come to recognize that it's the
right thing to do.
The day after the State of the Union address,
I went and visited Costco, a company that is hugely
profitable, does huge business, is a favorite
of the stock market, but their starting salary
for entry-level cashier is $11.50 an hour.
The fact that they're paying their employees
a decent wage and benefits, that's not detracting from
their good business practices, in fact
employees, they don't turn over as much because
they're getting paid well
and being treated well, with respect.
They're more productive, they're not as stressed,
they don't have problems because they can't get
their car fixed and get to work on time.
And so they I think point in the direction of where
all businesses need to go.
And I'm also talking to companies encouraging
them, do it on your own, raise wages for your
workers, you'll have better workers,
more productive workers, you'll have workers who are loyal
to you and ultimately that will be good
for your business.
And it will be good for all businesses because
if folks have a little more money in their pockets,
that means they've got more money
to spend everywhere.
Steve Grow: Lets go to Leatress
next in Kalamazoo.
Leatress Fullerton: Hello President Obama.
President Obama: Hi.
Leatress Fullerton: Hi.
I just wanted to give you a little background about
myself, I am the third oldest
of six girls raised by a single mother living in poverty.
I was the first in my family to graduate from
college, the first of my siblings
to graduate from high school.
I have a Masters degree from Western Michigan University,
I'm a parent of two beautiful children,
and I am blind.
Even though I graduated at the top of my class
with a Masters degree, I was out of work, actively looking
for employment for three years post graduation
before I was offered by first part-time
job in the field of social work.
My question to you is, what is your plan
for inclusion for persons with disabilities
in the workforce?
President Obama: Well Leatress, first of all
I couldn't be prouder of you and everything
that you've accomplished.
Leatress Fullerton: Well thank you, sir.
President Obama: You're welcome.
And I know your mom must be really proud of you.
Leatress Fullerton: My mom is, yes.
President Obama: And all your siblings
and your children.
It is absolutely true that folks with disabilities
have a higher unemployment rate.
And we've got to break down more barriers
for them, so that they can use all the skills and talents
that they've got, that somebody like you has.
And not have assumptions about what
you can and cannot do, preventing you from contributing
to your society and supporting your family.
The good news is that more and more employers
are becoming aware of this.
First of all, the federal government,
we have really made a big push with all of our agencies to say,
what more can we do to actively recruit
and employ persons with disabilities?
And we have just some tremendous folks in the
federal workforce who are doing you know, top of the
line work every single day.
And we've been steadily able to increase the
numbers of persons with disabilities
who are employed.
But what I'm also doing is working with employers.
For example, today I met with groups of employers
who have pledged to do more to hire the long-term
unemployed, folks who have typically been unemployed
for more than six months, and 18 months, 24 months.
Oftentimes they have trouble getting through
the door because the fact that they haven't been
employed for a long time, means they get screened
out and they don't get called back as often.
But one of the employers who was there mentioned
the enormous work he's doing actively recruiting
persons with disabilities.
And he's got a distribution center
as part of this larger corporation, where up to
50 percent of his employees have some sort
of disability.
And what he said in this meeting was, is that this
distribution center is actually 20 percent
efficient than any of the other distribution centers
that they have, which just goes to show
that if you give people a chance, they'll perform.
And the key for us is to make sure that we're
getting every single employer out there
to, in their hiring practices, in their interviewing
practices, in their recruiting practices,
that they are being real intentional about,
what can we do to reach out to more people
with disabilities.
Obviously if somebody is flat out discriminated
against, they can bring suit but you know,
if you're out of work it's hard for you to prove that
you've been discriminated against, hiring lawyers,
all that stuff it's not going
to help you right away.
Instead what we want to do is to convince companies
that this is good for their business,
it's the smart thing to do.
And a lot more business are starting
to realize that.
Steve Grow: Mr. President, we're a little
tight for time so why don't we head
on down to Texas and hear from Curtis.
Curtis Angel: Thanks Mr. President.
President Obama: Curtis, good to see you.
Curtis Angel: Corporations receive tax
rebates on the huge CEO bonuses paid each year
but many of their employees receive food stamp
subsidies because they don't earn a livable wage.
How do we remove the burden placed on the
working taxpayers for these subsidies and hold
high profit corporations, such as Walmart
and McDonalds, responsible for the subsidies that their
own employees receive and hold them accountable
for not paying their workers a livable wage?
President Obama: Well Curtis, obviously one
thing we can do right away is, as I said,
just raise the minimum wage.
That would help lift the incomes of a lot of folks.
The other thing is we could close some of these
tax loopholes out there that aren't really very
productive and use some of those unproductive tax
breaks to help fund, for example, an expansion
of the earned income tax credit,
which is a wonderful tool that we've been able to use,
millions of people use it.
In fact, half of all parents at some point used
the earned income tax credit, so that they have
more money in their pockets and keep more
money out of their paychecks and are able
to support their families more effectively.
The problem right now is the earned income tax
credit doesn't apply to folks who don't have kids.
And there's some Republicans as well
as Democrats who say this is a dumb idea, first of all
it's not giving incentives for a lot of single folks
to work they way it would
if the EITC applied to them.
And it's also particularly tough for young men who
are just starting off in the workplace and often
times aren't making a lot of income and they may
have a child who they're not paying child support
for and they're not with the mom because they don't
feel like they're making enough money or there
might be disincentives for them to go ahead
and get married.
So you're seeing an interesting coalition
in Democrats and Republicans who might be willing
to expand it, but you'd have to pay for it,
it would cost money.
And one way to pay for it would be to close some
of these corporate loopholes that are out there that
aren't really helping anybody.
Curtis Angel: Until we close those loopholes,
could we not take those deductions that circumvent
the cap and the 162 and distribute those
to the agencies that pay for the subsidies for these
companies, what's left over, give back to the
company because nowhere in our constitution
of our founding forefathers, are corporations given
provisions for greater or equal rights
than living and breathing human citizens.
President Obama: Well unfortunately the Supreme
Courts been disagreeing with you on some things
lately, that's the reason why the Citizens United
opinion, for example, got applied -- at lot of court
rulings lately have
treated corporations as person --
Curtis Angel: Exactly.
President Obama: -- when it comes
to various rights.
That takes us probably into a whole new set
of conversations that I expect Steve doesn't want
me to wade into, but thank you Curtis
for the great question.
Curtis Angel: Thank you.
Steve Grow: All right, thanks Mr. President.
We have one final hang out for you today
in the East coast over where you are.
Before we head over there, let's say good-bye to our
friends in the middle of the country here.
President Obama: See you guys.
Leatress Fullerton: Bye President Obama.
Curtis Angel: Bye.
Steve Grow: Bye everybody.
Mr. President, we head over to the East Coast for
our final hangout of the day.
We're really pleased to be joined by three
new participants here.
First we have Rob Page, who works in the solar
energy industry in Portland, Maine;
Reham Ozman, a program assistant at a nonprofit
in Washington, D.C.; and finally Rebecca Stewart,
a proud mother of two in Covington, Kentucky.
Rebecca, let's start with you.
Rebecca Stewart: Thanks, my question
regards Obamacare, which I think probably
has a general consensus right now that
the roll out perhaps was premature.
I'm probably not the only one who has had really
a panicked experience lately trying to figure
out if my 10-year-old son can continue with
his specialist or not.
I know that I cannot keep my plan, which I liked,
but as I'm trying to decide what to do going
forward, I've spent weeks with days on the phone
getting confidently delivered
wrong answers, conflicting information.
And it's becoming quite obvious to me that
a lot of agencies, almost everyone that I've talked
to is having a lot of trouble figuring
out the new rules.
So I'm afraid that perhaps average Americans
who haven't had the time or ability to do the legwork
that I've been able to do are perhaps going
to be blindsided by this.
And I'm wondering, my question for you
is what are you doing to fix this or simplify what seems
to be such a complicated process.
President Obama: Well Rebecca,
first of all it sounds like you were in the individual market,
so you already had some sort of insurance plan.
And so your concern is in terms of this transition,
how does it effect you and your kids.
And what I'll do first right away is make sure
that somebody out of here, this White House
calls you directly.
And I promise you, not only will they
be confident but it will be the right answer.
Rebecca Stewart: Than you, I need that.
President Obama: But more generally,
what we've been able to do -- and you don't have
to *** foot around, the roll out was a problem because
the website wasn't working properly.
I will say that in all these big programs,
whether it was the prescription drug plan
or Medicare, every time this happens,
this is a big country with a lot of complications and millions
of people involved, there are going
to be some glitches involved.
What we have done is, first
of all the website's working, healthcare.gov.
The first place for folks to look to see whether
they qualify for a tax credit, whether they can
get cheaper insurance through these exchanges
is to go to healthcare.gov, where you do not have
to wait anymore.
And generally speaking, for the majority
of people, certainly if you don't have health
insurance, this will be a good deal for you,
if you already have health insurance,
for the majority of folks like you who do Rebecca,
typically your prices will be lower or comparable and you will
have better health insurance because the
insurance companies won't be able to drop you when
you need it most, there aren't going
to be lifetime limits.
So that suddenly you find yourself with a huge bill
at the end, and you may qualify for tax credits.
If after you look at that, it appears that you still
are going to have a tough time or if you have
a particular specialist and you haven't found that
specialist in the network of the exchange that's
offered in Kentucky, then we are looking at rules
to make sure that somebody who is actively being
treated, for example, can remain with their
specialist for the duration
of their treatment.
And that's what I'll try to provide
more information about.
For people who are generally watching
who have you know, very specific questions like
this Rebecca, we have set up help lines and what
I would suggest is that everybody
who is listening, if you have a particular question around
this that is not answerable
over the Internet through healthcare.gov,
call up one of the call centers.
And in the case of the state of Kentucky,
they've got a pretty good operation there,
call up them and find out what exactly you're problem
is and hopefully you'll get a good answer.
But you Rebecca, since you're talking to the
President directly will get a --
I guarantee you, a firm answer by the end of the day.
Rebecca Stewart: Yes, and I have called --
Steve Grow: All right, Mr. President we're going
to go to Reham over in Washington, D.C. just
given how much time we have left.
Thanks Rebecca.
Reham, let's hear from you.
Reham Ozman: President Obama, surveillance
is an issue that's really important
for me and I'm really glad that you mentioned
it in your State of the Union address.
In the speech that you gave a couple weeks ago,
you stated that you are making certain reforms
to NSA programs to ensure our privacy
and our civil liberties.
From the NYPD spying on Muslim communities
to revelations of the NSA's surveillance program,
a culture of distrust and suspicion has developed
among Americans toward government
and law enforcement.
So what are you doing to regain the trust
of the American people?
President Obama: Well Reham, even before the
State of the Union I gave a pretty comprehensive
speech about the NSA.
I'm pretty sure it can be found on Google.
So pull it up and -- because
I won't be able to go onto all the details here that
I did in that speech.
But here's what it comes down to: first of all the
NSA and our entire intelligence community,
by law is prohibited from
engaging in surveillance of U.S.
persons or people in the United States,
even if they're non-citizens, without a court order.
That's always been true, that continues to be true.
The second thing that people really
got concerned about was the collection
of all these telephone calls that were made into one single
database that the United States
government was holding.
It was only being accessed when you had evidence
of reasonable suspicion that you had a phone number
associated with a terrorist network and you
wanted to find out who else was being called.
And generally that doesn't effect the overwhelming
majority of the American people, but folks, I think
legitimately, raised concern, if all those
numbers and all those phone calls are being held
in one place, isn't that potentially subject
to abuse down the road?
And I announced that we would reform that program
so that the U.S. government
wasn't holding this data, while still
being able to chase down leads when
we have a potential terrorist attack.
And in the next 60 days we are going to get a report
back from the NSA and the FBI about how we do that.
In the meantime, that database will not be able
to be queried without a judicial approval,
just like any other warrant.
More broadly though, we also have surveillance
outside this country and what I've done
in an unprecedented way is say, we've got to protect the
privacy rights not just to people here
in the United States but everywhere.
And if you're an ordinary person, wherever you live,
you should have some assurance that all you're
information is not somehow being gathered
and sifted through.
And we are -- we've set up rules to do that.
But trying to find this right balance is difficult
and the one thing I will say, though, Reham is,
as somebody who cares deeply about not only our
constitution and privacy rights but is very proud
of our tradition that all persons are treated
equally under the law,
including Muslim Americans.
I've got to tell you that pretty much uniformly in
every single interaction that I've had with law
enforcement and the intelligence community,
they are very mindful that any kind of discriminatory
actions are going to be dealt with severely.
We don't have a lot of patience for that.
Look, is it true that there are terrorist cells
that are operating in Muslim countries?
Absolutely.
But what I think everybody in my administration at
least understands, is that our best defense against
extremists is a strong Muslim community working
with us and not being viewed with suspicion.
And that's the attitude, I think, that pervades this
administration and will continue
to pervade this administration as long as I am president.
Reham Ozman: Thank you Mr. President.
Steve Grow: Mr. President we have time
for -- thanks Reham.
We have time for a quick final question
from Rob in Portland, Rob.
Rob Page: Hello Mr. President, this is about
the coolest thing ever.
I've been given the chance to ask you one question
and out of a million that
I'd love to ask you over a beer somewhere, when I thought
about it I kept coming back to this same article
that I read awhile ago about how presidents age
extremely -- just a lot faster than any other
person in the world ages.
You know they show pictures of people --
the presidents before their term and the end of their
term and some of them, even just four year terms,
they end up looking 20 years old.
And you my friend are looking particularly
distinguished, I mean that in the nicest
way possible, but in all fairness you've earned
every gray hair you've got on your head,
I have to say by far.
But you're expected to be super human when
in reality you are nothing but human, and so my
question is very simple.
From one man to another, from a father to another,
an American to another just like you are,
how are you?
How is life treating you?
How -- you know, are you happy?
You know is this -- is everything
good with you, man?
President Obama: That's a great question Rob.
You know we should have that beer because I think
it'd be -- this might take a longer answer,
but you know I am pretty happy, I've got to tell you.
And the main reason is because I got this amazing
wife and two unbelievably terrific daughters
who are growing up a little too fast and I don't see them
as much as like because they're always hanging
out with their friends these days.
That keeps my life in perspective.
You know, a great family, we're healthy,
obviously I can support that family and they're doing fine
and that's where I start.
That's my baseline.
And I have dinner with them every night
at 6:30 during the week and I catch up with them.
And for all the challenges that I'm dealing with,
that's always home base.
But the other reason I'm pretty good is that this
is an extraordinary privilege, this job.
It is really hard and it's long hours
and there are a lot of things flying at you all the time,
but every single day I wake up and I have the
possibility, the opportunity of making
things a little bit better for somebody out there.
Maybe it's --
Rob Page: We all appreciate that.
President Obama: Maybe making sure somebody
has health care who didn't have it before,
maybe it's making sure that, you know, a small business
gets a loan, maybe it's helping to get a school
institute an early education program so that
kids are getting a better start.
And you know it's a big government, it's an ocean
liner so sometimes the changes you want don't
happen as fast as you'd like.
You know sometimes the government will screw
up and since the buck stops with me, you know I have
to look there and say, well how'd we screw that
thing up and we've got to go in and fix it.
And that can be frustrating when you've
got effectively 2 million people who are working
for you, at any given time somebody may be screwing
up out of a couple million folks.
But every single day though you just realize
that it's pretty lucky to be able to serve the
American people this way.
And they're -- when I travel outside
of Washington, or when I have a chance to have a chat
like this, I'm just reminded of how many
wonderful people there are in this country.
And as I said at the State of the Union, the economy
is improving, things are getting better,
we are well positioned, better positioned than
any country on early to make this 21st century
an American century.
For me to be a part of that,
that's a pretty good deal.
And my wife at least still thinks I'm pretty cute,
even with the gray hair.
Rob Page: (laughs)
President Obama: I just want you to know.
Rob Page: You're looking great man,
you definitely are.
President Obama: I appreciate it.
All right man.
Rob Page: Thanks very much.
President Obama: Thank you Rob.
Steve Grow: I think that's all the time
we have today Mr. President.
Thanks a lot for joining us on behalf
of all of us here at Google and YouTube and of course everybody
who joined us today.
This has been a lot of fun, we'd love
to do it again with you real soon.
Take care.
President Obama: Steve, I had a great time.
Thank you everybody.
Reham Ozman: Thanks Mr. President.
Rebecca Stewart: Bye, bye, thank you.
President Obama: See you guys.