Obama Touts Jobs-Energy Link

Mar 2, 2010 — Politico

Carol E. Lee

SAVANNAH, Ga. – President Barack Obama traveled to the Deep South Tuesday to highlight a new energy initiative and urge Congress to work with him on the changes he readily acknowledged were “politically difficult.”

“This is not a Democratic idea, or a Republican idea. This is a common sense approach that will help jumpstart job creation,” Obama said of a program that incentivizes consumers to make their homes more energy efficient.

“It will have some costs on the front end –you buy a new boiler, or you get some insulation, or you get some new windows, that's going to have an initial cost,” he explained. “The same is true from a government perspective. And it’s going to be politically difficult to do some of this, but it’s what’s right to plan for our future.”

And, Obama said, it’s the same with overhauling the nation’s sprawling education and health care systems. “Each of these things are hard,” he said, picking up his change mantra. “But by taking these steps we’ll help foster the kind of broadly shared growth that will serve us in the years and the decades to come.”

The president said little else about health care, ahead of his planned announcement Wednesday of his next steps on the issue, in his 15-minute remarks at Savannah Technical College. Instead, he focused on jobs, specifically on his vision of the short-term HOMESTAR program to give consumers rebates for retrofitting their homes.

Projected by the administration to cost roughly $6 billion, the program could reach as many as 3 million households, even though many families have cut back during the economic downturn.

“The country that leads in clean energy is also going to be the country that leads in the global economy,” Obama said, linking the program to job creation and noting that many of the materials used for retrofitting are made in the United States.

“It’s very hard to ship windows from China,” he said, adding that the so-called HOMESTAR program would “create business and spur hiring up and down the economy.”

His proposal still must be approved Congress, and already the group SmarterSafer.org is lobbying to include upgrades that protect against hurricanes, earthquakes and other natural disasters.

Obama flew to Georgia, where unemployment is just above 10 percent, as part of his “White House to Main Street” tour.

It was his first trip to the state he lost in 2008 to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) since taking office. And his visit generated an unusual political dynamic.

He was joined on Air Force One by Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) and greeted on the tarmac by Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue. At the Technical College, Obama acknowledged several members of Congress from Georgia in the audience, including Reps. John Barrow, a Democrat, and Jack Kingston, a Republican.

Crowds lined the streets along his route. Some residents hoisted signs, reading “Obama 2012,” and some protesters held signs, saying “I'm not your ATM” and “No Obamacare.”

The president made several stops, starting with the Technical College, where he met business leaders who support his energy-efficiency proposal.

He toured the YouthBuild job training program, which gives students the opportunity to get their GEDs and develop construction skills. And he dropped in on a group of students who in a bricklaying workshop.

“Pay attention. No goofing off,” he warned. “Work hard now.”

Obama also visited Chatham Steel, a manufacturing plant, and Meddin Studios, a digital production facility that employs five workers and received a loan from the Small Business Administration.

“Interesting stuff,” the president said as he walked around a studio and surveyed the equipment.

“I’m sort of doing a customer satisfaction survey,” he added, speaking briefly to reporters.

He said Meddin's success is “an example of the kinds of additional capital we want to get out to small businesses” as part of the jobs package that “hopefully will be working its way through Congress.”

As reporters tried to ask more questions, Obama smiled and began to walk away.

“This wasn’t a full-blown press conference guys,” he said.

For lunch, the president stopped by Mrs. Wilkes’ Dining Room, a small downtown restaurant, for some old-fashioned Southern cooking that’s probably not what his doctor would have ordered.

Greeting patrons as he went, Obama, whose recent physical showed an increased cholesterol level, took a seat at a table loaded with plates of fried chicken, pulled pork and corn bread and bowls of baked beans, sweet potatoes, creamed corn and collard greens.

“Don't tell Michelle,” he quipped, referring to the first lady.