Marking his first 100 days in office, President Barack Obama tackled citizens’ questions at a town hall meeting in St. Louis. While President Obama acknowledged the nation’s grim economic situation, he expressed confidence in his administration’s stimulus package, budget proposal and other recovery plans. The audience asked questions on issues ranging from health insurance to education. One high school student asked how the president would protect social security for future generations of Americans. President Obama also addressed criticism that he has been trying to fix too many of the nation’s problems at once. “Now, maybe they’re not accustomed to this, but there’s no mystery to what we’ve done. The priorities that we’ve acted upon were the things that we said we’d do during the campaign,” he said.
Quotes
“What we face long term, the biggest problem we have, is that Medicare and Medicaid, health care costs are skyrocketing, and at the same time as the population is getting older, which means we’re using more health care. You combine those two things and, if we aren’t careful, health care will consume so much of our budget that ultimately we won’t be able to do anything else.” — President Barack Obama “A lot of the threats that we’re going to be facing — whether it’s international terrorism, cyberterrorism, nuclear proliferation, pandemic, climate change — a lot of these issues, they cross borders. So it’s not like we can just draw a moat around America and say, I’m sorry, you know, don’t bother us. Keep your problems outside.” — President Barack Obama
Warm Up Questions
1. Name some of American’s most pressing problems right now.
2. How do you think President Obama has performed in his first 100 days?
Discussion Questions
1. How did this video affect your opinion of President Obama?
2. What should be President Obama’s number one priority right now?
3. If you had the opportunity to ask President Obama a question at the town hall meeting, what would you ask him?
Additional Resources