The jobless rate in America hovers at 9.1 percent. The national debt ticks upwards of $14.3 trillion and small businesses collapse daily due to costly bureaucratic regulations. The President has failed to offer a viable plan that will put America’s economy back on a path to prosperity. It is in this context that President Obama invites questions about jobs and the economy via Twitter tomorrow afternoon for the nation’s first presidential Twitter town hall.
If you ever wanted to put President Obama on the spot for these things and more, the Twitter town hall may be your opportunity. The President will sit in the East Room of the White House for a live webcast answering the selected Twitter questions in a forum moderated by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. Dorsey recently announced that Larry Summers, the President’s former economic adviser, will join the board of directors of another company he started, Square.
The handle @townhall will summarize the President’s answers, though he will not respond via Twitter to the questions. According to the New York Times: “Twitter will select the questions, using curation tools and a group of Twitter users to help identify the most popular questions raised both before and during the event. Twitter will be relying on its own search and curation features as well as a company called Mass Relevance to help find questions and topics that are most frequently mentioned.”
So using the hashtag #AskObama, you should have the opportunity to ask the President all those burning questions you have about the broken economy, especially if enough of you ask the same question. The Heritage Foundation has a few questions for the President. We’d love for you to follow suit, or tweet these. It is important that conservatives make their voices heard using #AskObama tomorrow.
1. Background: Conservatives in the House of Representatives passed a serious budget proposal with necessary reforms and responsible steps. Liberals haven’t passed—or even offered—a budget in over two years, making their concerns voiced about America’s fiscal future seem false. The President’s own budget was defeated 97–0 in the Senate.
Twitter Question: Your budget was rejected by Senate 97-0 & Dems haven’t produced budget in 700+ days. Where is your economic plan? #AskObama
2. Background: America’s unemployment rate has been near 9 percent for the majority of President Obama’s time in office. While he might have truly believed that trillions of dollars in stimulus, the time has come to admit that he was wrong.
Twitter Question: You said your stimulus plan would keep unemployment below 8%. Do you agree that was a trillion dollars wasted? #AskObama
3. Background: Countries like Greece are experiencing great financial tragedy because they failed to address their overwhelming debt issues. If the U.S. continues federal spending at the current rate, it will face the same scenario, something President Obama doesn’t want to admit. Mandatory spending has increased at more than five times the rate of discretionary spending, and America is headed for fiscal doom without a quick turnaround.
Twitter Question: You said it wasn’t a good idea to raise taxes in a recession but that is all you offer now to fix debt. Why? #AskObama
4. Background: Small business owners are suffering due to burdensome regulations and new requirements in Obamacare. IHOP franchise owner Scott Womack says that “if the health care reform law is not repealed or if the employer mandate doesn’t go away, we’re going to have to take drastic action.” As a Midwestern job creator currently employing nearly 1,000 people, Womack fears regulations like these threaten the livelihood of many employees.
Twitter Question: You’ve added more costly regulations in 2yrs than any of your predecessors, who all reviewed. When will it stop? #AskObama
5. Background: President Obama opened up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to release 30 million barrels of oil onto a market suffering from his moratorium on domestic drilling. His own Energy Information Agency estimates that as a result of the President’s moratorium, we’ll lose 90 million barrels of oil just this year.
Twitter Question: Gas prices are high. We’re losing 90m barrels of oil due to your moratorium, plus jobs. Why release 30m from SPR? #AskObama
Follow Heritage on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook to follow our questions for President Obama!
