>> GROVE: Hello, everyone. We're here at the
White House today for a very unique event--
an exclusive interview with President Obama,
in which the questions come from American
people who have submitted them and chosen
them online. My name is Steve Grove and I'm
the head of news and politics at YouTube.
Mr. President, thank you for taking time to
answer these questions today.
>> OBAMA: It's my pleasure. Thank you, Steve.
Thanks for having me and thanks to YouTube
for doing this. We had a chance to do this
before I was elected and had a great time,
so I'm glad we can do it again.
>> GROVE: Great. Well, let's tell people a
little bit about how this works. Five days
ago, um, as you were delivering your State
of the Union address, we opened up our moderator
platform on YouTube where thousands of people
have been submitting and voting on both video
and text questions. Some of them, as you'll
see, were hard-hitting. Others were emotional.
Some were even funny, but all of the questions
you'll see here today were voted into the
top tier of the thousands of questions we
received. And none of them have been chosen
by the White House or seen by the president.
So this should be a lot of fun. Mr. President,
let's let Layman Marcus from Silver Spring,
Maryland, kick us off. He submitted this video
to remind us of where things were a year ago.
[pause]
>> OBAMA: Let there be no doubt. Health care
reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and
it will not wait another year. [orchestral
strings]
>> GROVE: Mr. Marcus writes, "Mr. President,
I know there have been political setbacks
"to getting health care reform done. "The
40 million people who have no insurance can't
wait. Will they be able to get insurance this
year?"
>> OBAMA: It is my greatest hope that we can
get this done, not just a year from now, but
soon. We came extremely close. We now have
a bill that's come out from the House and
come out from the Senate. That's unprecedented.
And if you look at the core components of
that legislation, what you have is 30 million
people who get coverage, insurance reform,
so the people who have health insurance are
going to be able to be protected from not
being able to get it because of pre-existing
conditions or suddenly losing their health
care because, you know, the insurance company
has some fine print that they didn't read.
It makes sure that we actually start bending
the cost curve. Controlling the rise in premiums
by instituting better practices in terms of
how we reimburse doctors, how we ask hospitals
to work together. We've already invested in
electronic I.T., electronic medical records,
things that can help make the system more
efficient. So we have this enormous opportunity,
but the way the rules work in the United States
Senate, you've got to have 60 votes for everything.
After the special election in Massachusetts,
we now only have 59. We are calling on our
Republican colleagues to get behind a serious
health reform bill. One that actually provides
not only the insurance reforms for people
who do have health insurance, but also the
coverage for folks who don't. My hope is is
that they accept that invitation and that
they work with us together over the next several
weeks to get it done.
>> GROVE: You know, a lot of people that submitted
questions were sort of frustrated by the process
involved with health care. And the number
one question we got in health care came from
Mr. Anderson in Texas, who asked, "Why are
the health care meetings and procedures not
on C-SPAN as promised?" And then one of the
top questions in the government reform category
was Warren Hunter in Brooklyn, who said, "How
do you expect people "of this country to trust
you when you have repeatedly "broken promises
that were made on the campaign trail? "Most
recently, the promise to have a transparent
health care debate."
>> OBAMA: Well, I guess, first of all, I would
say that we have been certified by independent
groups as the most transparent White House
in history. It's important to understand.
We are the first White House since the founding
of the republic to list every visitor that
comes into the White House online, so that
you can look it up. People know more about
the inner workings of this White House, the
meetings we have. We've excluded lobbyists
from boards and commissions. But we also report
on any lobbyist who meets with anybody who's
part of our administration. So we've actually
followed through on a lot of the commitments
that we've made, so Warren's mistaken in terms
of how he characterized it. What is fair to
say is that as the health care process went
forward, not every single aspect of it was
on C-SPAN. Now keep in mind, most of the action
was in Congress, so every committee hearing
that was taking place-- both in the House
and the Senate-- those were all widely televised.
The only ones that were not were meetings
that I had with some of the legislative leadership
trying to get a sense from them in terms of
what it was that they were trying to do. I
think it is a fair criticism. I've acknowledged
that and that's why as we move forward, making
sure that in this last leg, these last five
yards before we get to the goal line, that
everybody understands exactly what's going
on in the health care bill, that there are
no surprises, no secrets. That's going to
be an imperative. It's going to be one of
my highest priorities.
>> GROVE: Well, you know, the central focus
of your State of the Union was obviously jobs.
And a lot of people wrote in asking for some
clarity around some of your plans for small
businesses. I'm going to play you two video
questions in a row. [pause]
>> Good evening, President Obama. One year
ago today, my wife and I were both let go
from our jobs in corporate America within
48 hours of each other. We've since started
a small business and we employ a couple of
people around us. What is being done to free
up funding and encourage the growth of other
small businesses that have such a tremendous
impact on our economy? Thank you.
>> Colin Callahan, Costa Mesa, California.
Mr. President, how exactly are you planning
on helping small businesses grow and prosper
besides simply providing tax breaks?
>> OBAMA: Well, let me start with some specific
issues that confront every small business
all across the country. And it's absolutely
true that if we can get small businesses back
on their feet, then that's going to go a long
way towards bringing the unemployment rate
down, 'cause that's the fastest generator
of jobs across the country. Number one, small
businesses really are still struggling with
financing. You hear stories everywhere you
go that even profitable, successful businesses
are having trouble getting financing, because
banks frankly just don't want to take the
risk. After having taken way too many risks
before, now they're taking no risks and small
businesses are punished for that. So we've
expanded the SBA loan-- the Small Business
Administration loan-- portfolio by about 70%.
We've been waiving guarantees and fees trying
to streamline the process just to get more
capital into the hands of small businesses.
That's point number one. Point number two
then are the tax breaks that were alluded
to. It is important to see if we can give
more incentives to small business. So, for
example, we're just eliminating capital gains
for small businesses, which is particularly
important. If you've got a startup, ten years
from now, you may end up being successful
with your small business, but suddenly you've
got to pay taxes on it. If you can take that
money, instead of paying Uncle Sam, reinvest
it in your business, you can grow it further.
So we think that that's the kind of strategy
that makes a lot of sense. We want to also
make sure that we're providing tax credits
for hiring of small business-- small businesses
that are hiring new employees. And so we've
got a whole range of proposals there. Now
in addition to the tax credits, in addition
to the financing, one of the other things
that frankly small businesses need is just
a economic environment that is growing. And
one of the things we're very proud of is the
fact that we had a 6% contraction of the economy
at the beginning of last year. This past quarter,
we had a 6% increase in the growth of the
economy. That 12% swing offers greater opportunities
for small businesses to prosper and thrive.
Last point I'd make. One of the biggest burdens
on small businesses is health care costs.
And probably nobody benefits more from our
health care proposals than small businesses,
because what we're doing is we're saying that
not only will you get tax credits to buy health
insurance, but we're also going to let you
pool, buy into a big exchange, so that you
have the same purchasing power as a big company
like Ford or, you know-- Google is able to
negotiate with insurance companies and get
a good deal. Well, now small businesses, by
pooling together in this exchange, are going
to have that same leverage. That will help
lower their costs and for a lot of small businesses,
it's not just a matter of giving health insurance
to your employees. It's also just being able
to buy health insurance for yourself. That
will cut down on small business costs and
they'll be able to, again, invest more in
their business.
>> GROVE: You know, a lot of Americans saw
what happened on Wall Street this past year
and they wrote in saying, "When are we going
to get our bailout?" Here is Frederick from
Florida, who submitted the number one video
question in the financial reform category.
>> Mr. President, my name is Frederick from
South Florida. I have a question about your
HAMP program and why the banks are reluctant
to modify loans for homeowners who can afford
to stay in their homes. Now the taxpayers
bailed them out. They refuse to help us out.
And I would like to know what say you, Mr.
President?
>> OBAMA: Well, look, this is something that
we've been dealing with since the beginning
of this financial crisis. We set up a program
for loan modification that so far about 4
million people have taken advantage of across
the country. You've got about 800,000 people
who have gotten loan modifications that are
saving them an average of $550. And so these
are not insignificant savings. We've been
able to get that done. The problem is is the
number of people whose mortgages are underwater--
where they actually have home value that's
now less than their mortgage-- is a lot bigger
than that. And, you know, you saw declining
values all across the country. So the amount
of money that we've been able to get into
this program has not met the entire need.
We're now pushing the banks as hard as we
can to make sure that not only do they do
the most with the resources that we've been
giving them, but that they also do a much
better job of customer service with people
who are coming to them. I get letters all
the time of people who have gone through all
kinds of hoops, filled out forms. The bank
doesn't call them back. Or after they've gone
through a trial period, the bank says, "Well,
you know, we now think we shouldn't give you
a home modification." What we're trying to
do is to increase transparency and force all
the banks to tell us, "Exactly what are you
doing with your customers "who want to stay
in their homes, "can afford to pay a mortgage,
but need something a little bit more limited?"
And I'm hopeful that we're going to continue
to see more and more people take advantage
of it, but I want to be honest. Given the
magnitude of the housing problem out there,
that there are still going to be pockets of
areas where the housing values have dropped
so much that it is still going to be tough
for a lot of people and we're just going to
have to work our way through this as the economy
improves.
>> GROVE: Mr. President, let's lighten things
up for a minute. We got a lot of people just
submitting their ideas to you. Ideas for how
to make the country better. They wanted to
hear what you thought about them. Let's play
sort of a faster round of a thing we'll call
"Good Idea, Bad Idea." I'll show you an idea.
You say whether you think it's good or bad
and maybe just a few sentences about what
you think about it.
>> GROVE: First one comes from Aloha Tony
in your home state of Hawaii.
>> OBAMA: There you go.
>> GROVE: He says...
>> OBAMA: Uh... Bad idea most of the time.
There are examples where privatization makes
sense, where people can do things much more
efficiently. Um, but oftentimes, what you
see is companies want to buy those parts of
a government-run operation that are profitable,
and they don't want to do anything else. So
for example, the U.S. Postal Service, everybody
would love to have that high-end part of the
business that FedEx and UPS are already in.
Business-to-business, you make a lot of money.
But do they want to deliver that postcard
to a remote area--
>> GROVE: Mm-hmm.
>> OBAMA: Somewhere in rural America that
is a money loser? Well, the U.S. Post Office
provides universal service. Those companies
would not want to provide universal service.
So you got to make sure that you look carefully
at what privatization proposals are after.
>> GROVE: So bad idea most of the time?
>> OBAMA: Most of the time.
>> GROVE: Most of the time. Next idea, rather,
is a video.
>> My car insurance company will allow me
to take driver's ed classes to reduce my monthly
premiums. Can we do the same thing for health
insurance? Take classes in cooking, nutrition,
stress management, communication, parenting,
stopping smoking, maybe even exercise classes--
and get a reduction on our monthly premiums?
>> OBAMA: Well, I think that the idea is a
good one. And that is that if people are being
healthy, that they should be able to get some
incentives for that. And a lot of companies
are starting to do that. We probably don't
want the insurance companies, though, making
those decisions. Because insurance companies
have every incentive to take the youngest,
healthiest people and insure them-- since
they're less likely to have to pay out-- and
then leave older, sicker individuals out of
their insurance pools. So it's important in
any health care program to make sure that
the young and the healthy and the older and
the sicker are in a single pool. But what
we should encourage are individual companies
who provide incentives for wellness programs,
smoking cessation programs, they're going
to get a workout once in a while-- those things
are something that we should encourage. And
you know, the first lady, Michelle Obama,
she's really focusing right now on childhood
wellness, healthy eating, getting exercise.
That's some--a campaign that she's going to
be pushing all year long.
>> GROVE: Let's get one more idea in here.
This next one comes from J. Levers in Dover,
Delaware, who writes...
>> OBAMA: Good idea. And we want to do everything
we can to encourage clean energy. And I have
instructed the Department of Energy to make
sure that our Federal Operations are employing
the best possible clean energy technology--
alternative energy technology. And what we're
seeing is more and more companies realize
this is a win-win for them. Not only is what
their doing environmentally sound, but it
also, over the long term, saves money for
them.
>> GROVE: Great. Well, let's get back to the
questions. And I got to tell you the number
one question that came in in the jobs and
economy category had to do with the Internet,
and it came from James Earlywine of Indianapolis.
He said...
>> OBAMA: Well, I'm a big believer in that
neutrality. Uh, I campaigned on this, I continue
to be a strong supporter of it. My FCC Chairman,
Julius Genachowski, has indicated that he
shares the view that we've got to keep the
Internet open, that we don't want to create
a bunch of gateways that prevent somebody
who doesn't have a lot of money but has a
good idea from being able to start their next
Youtube, or their next Google on the Internet.
So this is something we're committed to. We're
getting pushed back, obviously, from some
of the bigger carriers, who would like be
able to charge more fees and extract more
money from wealthier customers. But we think
that runs counter to the whole spirit of openness
that has made the Internet such a powerful
engine for not only economic growth, but also
for the generation of ideas and creativity.
>> GROVE: But you know, to get good jobs,
I think many Americans realize they need a
higher education. But college tuition costs
are so high. Here is a video question from
Saginaw, Michigan.
>> Dear President Obama, as a college student
who has 14 credits and three part-time jobs,
I'm just wondering what are your plans for--
plans to lower college tuition costs? Um...
You know, I know we're in a struggling economy
right now, but if any-- any little bit that
you can help and would be appreciative. Thank
you. God bless. Bye.
>> OBAMA: Well, John's right that college
tuition costs are just crushing on a lot of
folks. And this is something I remember from
my own experience 'cause Michelle and I--
we had college loans we kept on paying off
for a decade after we had graduated from law
school. We've already done a huge amount to
increase Pell Grants, to help increase the
accessibility of college loans and grants
at the college level, but we want to do more.
And so we've put forward an initiative that
is being debated in Congress, and we hope
to get passed this year. Where if you have
student loans, that you will not have to pay
more than 10% of your income on those loans,
that after 20 years they'll be forgiven, and
if you've gone into public service, they'll
be forgiven after ten years. That would provide
a huge amount of relief for people. We still
need to expand more the Pell Grant program.
Make it both accessible to more people and
raise the amount of tuition. In order to pay
for this, the best part of this is we can
actually figure out how to pay for it. Because
right now, you've got a lot of banks and financial
service companies who are still middlemen
in the federally-guaranteed loan programs.
And if we can cut those middlemen out, then
you've got several billion dollars that you
can invest in the programs that I just described.
This is something that I've made a top priority.
I want us to once again have the highest college
graduation rates of any country in the world
by 2020. We can get that done, but this is
legislation that needs to pass. And the last
point I would make... Colleges and universities,
also, though, have to figure out how can they
cut their costs? 'Cause even if we're putting
more and more loans in-- more and more money
for loans-- if the inflation in higher education
keeps on skyrocketing over time, it's still
going to gobble up all that extra money and
we'll be right back where we started. So we've
got to show more restraint at the college
and university level, in terms of ever-escalating
costs.
>> GROVER: Well, let's back up a bit just
from the specifics of education policy and
ask a more fundamental question, which comes
from Sean in Ohio.
>> Mr. President, what do you want public
education to help students become? Should
they be good workers? Innovative thinkers?
Something else? As a math teacher, I want
to know what you think it means to be an educated
person.
>> OBAMA: Well... I think obviously, there's
a huge economic component to being well-educated.
Uh, we know that if you've got a college education,
you are going to make multiples of what you
would make as a high school graduate, much
less a high school dropout, over the course
of a lifetime. But it's absolutely true that
a high-quality education is not just a matter
of being a good worker. It's also a matter
of being a good citizen. It's also a matter
of being able to think critically, evaluate
the world around you, make sure that you can
process all of the information that's coming
at us in a way that helps you make decisions
about your own life, but also helps you participate
in the life of the country. And you know,
I'm a big believer that the most important
thing that a kid can learn in school is how
to learn and how to think. If Malia and Sasha,
my two daughters, are asking questions, know
how to poke holes in an argument, know how
to make an argument themselves, know how to
evaluate a complicated bunch of data, then
I figure that they're going to be okay regardless
of the career path that they're in. And I
think that that requires more than just rote
learning. Although, you know, it certainly
requires good habits, and discipline, and
school. It also requires that in the classroom
they're getting the kind of creative teaching
that's so important. And that's why our administration's
initiated something called Race to the Top.
Where my Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan,
has helped to design a competition among states
so that they can foster the kinds of excellence
and learning everywhere-- not just in some
schools, not just in some states-- but in
every school, in every state. If states want
money, we're going to reward excellence. And
if--And we will show them you know, what has
been proven to work in terms of encouraging
the kind of critical thinking that all of
our children need.
>> GROVER: Mr. President, the number two category
after jobs and economy that people submitted
to was national security and foreign policy.
>> OBAMA: Mm-hmm.
>> GROVER: And the number one question came
from Concerned Conservative in Georgia, who
asked about your plans for the War on Terror.
And then Sean from Pennsylvania followed it
up with...
>> OBAMA:
Well, first of all, I think it's important
to understand that we are at war against a
very specific group-- Al-Qaeda and its extremist
allies that have metastasized around the globe
that would attack us, attack our allies, attack
bases and embassies around the world, and
most--most sadly attack innocent people, regardless
of their backgrounds, regardless of their
religions. You know, Al-Qaeda is probably
the biggest killer of innocent Muslims of
any entity out there. And so that is our target,
and that is our focus. Now, they employ terrorist
tactics, but we need to be clear about who
our target is. And we have to fight them on
all fronts. We have to fight them in very
concrete ways in Afghanistan and along the
border regions of Pakistan where they are
still holed up. They have spread to places
like Yemen and Somalia, and we are working
internationally with partners to try to limit
their scope of operations and dismantle them
in those regions. But we also have to battle
them with ideas. We have to help work with
the overwhelming majority of Muslims who reject
senseless violence of this sort and to work
to provide different pathways and different
alternatives for people expressing whatever
policy differences that they may have. And
I think we haven't done as good of a job on
that front. We have to project economically
working in countries, like a Yemen that is
extraordinarily poor, to make sure that young
people there have opportunity. The same is
true in a place like Pakistan. So we want
to use all of our national power to deal with
the problem of the extremist organizations.
But part of that does involve applications
of military power, and that's why, although
it is the hardest decision that a commander-in-chief
can make, to send our troops into battle,
I thought it was very important to make sure
that we had an additional 30,000 troops in
Afghanistan to help train Afghan forces so
that they can start providing more effective
security for their own country in dealing
with the Taliban and ultimately allow us to
remove our troops but still have a secure
partner there that's not gonna be able to
use that region as a platform to attack The
United States.
>> GROVE: Well, another central issue in the
war on terror now is Guantanamo. A lot of
users wrote in about this. Oh, actually, you
know what? I think we're gonna-- That'll come
later. I think that question's actually about
Sudan, which you didn't actually address in
your State of the Union, but it was actually
the number-one voted question, and it's a
video from The Enough Project here in D.C.
>> President Obama, more than 3 million Darfuries
fear returning home because of instability.
Many fear that Sudan may be on the brink of
war. What will you do to galvanize the international
community to ensure that widespread violence
does not occur in Sudan this year?
>> OBAMA: Well, the situation in Sudan has
been heart-breaking but also extremely difficult
and something that we started working on the
day that I came into office. Our first task
was, at that time, making sure that people
who were in refugee camps in Darfur had access
to basic water, food, other necessities of
life. And this was after the Sudanese government
in Khartoum had kicked out a whole bunch of
non-governmental organizations that were providing
assistance there. We were able to get that
assistance back in to help, at least initially,
stabilize the situation. The next step in
the challenge is to broker a lasting peace
agreement between rebels who are still in
the Darfur region and this government. And
I've got a special envoy who has been very
active in trying to bring together the international
community to get that deal brokered. Part
of what makes it complicated is you also have
a conflict historically between Northern Sudan
and Southern Sudan. They finally reached an
agreement after a lot of work, but the Sudanese--
the Southern Sudanese now have an option where
they may be seeking to secede from all of
Sudan. That's another potential conflict that
could create additional millions of refugees.
And so what we are doing is trying to work
with not only the regional powers but The
United Nations and other countries that have
shown a great interest in this to see if we
can broker a series of agreements that would
stabilize the country, and then allow the
refugees who are in Darfur to start moving
back to their historic lands. Sadly, because
of the genocide that took place earlier, a
lot of those villages are now destroyed, and
so thinking about how to resettle these populations
in places that are viable economically, that
have the resources to support populations,
is a long-term development challenge that
the international community is gonna have
to support. We continue to put pressure on
the Sudanese government. If they are not cooperative
in these efforts, then it is gonna be appropriate
for us to conclude that engagement doesn't
work, and we're gonna have to apply additional
pressure on Sudan in order to achieve our
objectives. But my hope is, is that we can
broker agreements with all the parties involved
to deal with what has been an enormous human
tragedy in that region.
>> GROVE: You know, the question we missed
from the deck, but it was about Guantanamo.
And essentially he was saying, "Why is it
taking so long to close down Guantanamo?"
>> OBAMA: Well, it's pretty straightforward.
Number one, you've got a whole bunch of individuals
in Guantanamo, some of whom are very dangerous,
some of whom were low-level fighters, some
of whom the courts have determined should
never have been put there in the first place.
We've had to evaluate each of those cases,
hundreds of cases one-by-one, to determine
what these various categories are and do it
in a way that stands up to our standards of
due process and legal scrutiny. Then we've
got to figure out, if we're closing Guantanamo,
where are we gonna put them? And we have proposed
that there are a number of options on the
continental United States where you could
hold these people as trials, either in military
commissions or in Article III courts are pending.
But unfortunately, there has been a lot of
political resistance, and, you know, frankly,
some of it just politically motivated. Some
of it, people being legitimately scared about,
well, if we've got somebody who we've been
told is a terrorist in our backyard, will
that make us a target? One of the things that
we've had to try to communicate to the country
at large is that historically we've tried
a lot of terrorists in our courts, we have
them in our federal prisons, they've never
escaped, and these folks are no different.
But it's been one of those things that's been
subject to a lot of, in some cases, uh, uh...
pretty rank politics. And, you know, we've
got to work through that process because Congress
ultimately controls the purse strings in creating
new facilities. If Congress makes a decision
that they're going to try to block the opening
of a new facility, it potentially constrains
what our administration can do. And so this
is something that we've got to work through
both in Congress, but also with public opinion
so that people understand that ultimately
this is the right thing to do. By closing
Guantanamo, we can regain the moral high ground
in the battle against these terrorist organizations.
There's been no bigger propaganda weapon for
many of these extremists than pointing to
Guantanamo and saying that we don't live up
to our own ideals, and that's something that
I strongly believe we have to resist, even
if it has some costs to it and even if it's
not always the most politically popular thing
to do.
>> GROVE: You know, Mr. President, we don't
have much time left, but I want to make sure
we get to the issue of energy, the environment.
One of the rare moments where you were able
to get applause from your friends on the Republican
side of the aisle in Congress the other night
was when you mentioned nuclear energy. And
just today, your budget announced tripling
the loan guarantees for nuclear reactors.
A lot of people had questions about just how
this would work and why you did that.
>> President Obama, record numbers of young
people elected you in support of a clean energy
future. If money is tight, why do you propose
wasting billions in expensive nuclear, dirty
coal, and offshore drilling? We need to ramp
up efficiency, wind, and solar, that are all
economically sustainable and create clean
and safe jobs for our generation.
>> OBAMA: Well, you're not gonna get any argument
from me about the need to create clean energy
jobs. I think this is gonna be the driver
of our economy over the long-term. And that's
why we put in record amounts of money for
solar and wind and biodiesel and all the other
alternative clean energy sources that are
out there. In the meantime though, unfortunately,
no matter how fast we ramp up those energy
sources, we're still gonna have enormous energy
needs that will be unmet by alternative energy.
And the question then is: Where will that
come from? Nuclear energy has the advantage
of not emitting greenhouse gasses. For those
who are concerned about climate change, we
have to recognize that countries like Japan
and France and others have been much more
aggressive in their nuclear industry and much
more successful in having that a larger part
of their portfolio without incident, without
accidents. We're mindful of the concerns about
storage, of spent fuel, and concerns about
security, but we still think it's the right
thing to do if we're serious about dealing
with climate change. With respect to clean
coal technology, it is not possible at this
point to completely eliminate coal from the
menu of our energy options. And if we are
ever going to deal with climate change in
a serious way, where we know China and India
are gonna be greatly reliant on coal, we've
got to start developing clean coal technologies
that can sequester the harmful emissions,
because otherwise countries like China and
India are not gonna stop using coal. We'll
still have those same problems, but we won't
have the technology to make sure that it doesn't
harm the environment over the long-term. So
I know that there's some skepticism about
whether there is such a thing as clean coal
technology. What is true is right now that
we don't have all the technology to prevent
greenhouse gas emissions from a coal-powered--
power plants. But the technology is close,
and it makes sense for us to make that investment
now, not only because it would be good for
America, but it will also ultimately be good
international. And we can license and export
that technology in ways that help other countries
use a better form of energy that's gonna be
helpful to the climate change issue.
>> GROVE: Mr. President, I think we're out
of time, but I know a lot of people really
enjoyed the opportunity to ask questions of
you in this way and would love to do this
again with you sometime.
>> OBAMA: You know, this was terrific. And
I just want to thank everybody who submitted
questions, whether via Email or over the Internet,
and I hope we get a chance to do this on a
more regular basis, 'cause it gives me great
access to all the people out there with wonderful
ideas. Even if you didn't make your question,
even if it wasn't on this show, we appreciate
your submission, and hopefully we'll catch
you next time.
>> GROVE: Great. Thanks, Mr. President.
>> OBAMA: Thank you. Appreciate it.
