Obama touts higher taxes for wealthy, job creation at Silicon Valley town hall

(Page 2 of 2)

Obama offers encouragement to job seekers

An unemployed woman asking President Obama a question at the town hall. (Steven Luo / CALIFORNIA BEAT)

Many of the questioners were unemployed or had been laid off during the recession, and the President had kind words for them, telling many that they had the tools needed to succeed.

“Your challenge is not you,” he told a North Carolina resident, saying the depressed state of the global economy was to blame for high unemployment. Obama acknowledged that economists’ optimistic predictions of growth this year have not come to pass, blaming factors such as the revolutions in the Middle East causing increases in energy prices and the Eurozone’s difficulty in resolving sovereign debt crises for derailing the recovery.

“My job [...] is to speed up the recovery,” Obama said, urging Congress to act on his proposals, which he said “a significant majority” of Americans support. “We’re going through a very tough time,” but the United States has seen “tougher times” before, he said.

Obama pushes math and science education

As has become routine during visits to Silicon Valley, the President urged schools, teachers, and parents to focus on math and science education.

America’s prosperity in the 1960s was built on an advantage in education, but the rest of the world has “caught up” and is now surpassing the United States, Obama warned.

The country needs “great teachers in front of every classroom,” Obama said, arguing for more funding to attract and train teachers, and more private-sector involvment to encourage children to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

But Obama had a message for parents as well. “There is a cultural component,” he said, and said that parents have the ultimate responsibility to keep their kids on track and motivated to learn.

West Coast swing to raise millions for reelection campaign

The forum capped off a short visit by Obama to Silicon Valley that included two private Sunday night fundraisers, one at the Woodside home of Symantec Chairman John Thompson and another a $38,500 per plate event at the Atherton home of Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg.

The President left Moffett Field at 12:20 p.m. to continue his fundraising in Southern California, where he is expected to attend two events in Hollywood and another in San Diego.

House Republicans and Sandberg, meanwhile, will hold their own town hall at Facebook this afternoon beginning at 3 p.m.

The Beat News Service contributed reporting. Contact Beat Political Director Steven Luo at sluo@californiabeat.org.