Yesterday, Vice President Biden spoke at Tel Aviv University in Israel about the partnership between the United States and Israel:

Israel’s unique relationship with the United States means that you need not bear that heavy burden alone.  Our nations’ unbreakable bond borne of common values, interwoven cultures, and mutual interests has spanned the entirety of Israel’s history.  And it’s -- it’s impervious to any shifts in either country and either country’s partisan politics.  No matter what challenges we face, this bond will endure.  As a result, generations of Israelis and Americans and American-Israelis have kept a foot in each country, enriching both our nations and peoples.  I met with some of your leading high-tech leaders earlier, prior to coming to the stage.  And they have a foot in both countries, many of them.

While these close relationships span the realm of commerce and education, medicine and technology, culture and the arts, at its core is an ironclad commitment to security -- Israel and my own country’s.  Every day, Israel faces bravely threats no country should have to endure.  No parent should their child to schools equipped with air raid sirens in the year 2010.  No government should be expected to turn a blind eye while an enemy calls for its destruction.

I am here to remind you, though I hope you will never forget, that America stands with you shoulder-to-shoulder in facing these threats.  President Obama and I represent an unbroken chain of American leaders who have understood this critical, strategic relationship.  As the President said recently, “I will never waver from ensuring Israel’s security and helping them secure themselves in what is a very hostile region."

To watch the full speech, click here.

Earlier this week, the Vice President also spoke with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at Ramallah and with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in Jerusalem.  

With only three days left until the application deadline for the President’s High School Commencement Challenge, attention on the competition is heating up. 

Earlier this week, Domestic Policy Director Melody Barnes was interviewed on BET’s 106 and Park to encourage the nation’s public high school students to tell the President why their school is the best in the country at preparing students for college and career choices. 

Help spread the word to students and schools in your community that you think deserve the commencement speaker of a lifetime – and tell them to get their applications in before the deadline on midnight on Monday, March 15th.
 

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• 41 -- that’s the number of leading economists -- including three Nobel Prize winners -- who sent a letter to President Obama and Congress yesterday urging the swift passage of comprehensive health insurance reform to curb skyrocketing health care costs. [Source]
• 41 --  is also the percentage of adults under the age of 65 who accumulated medical debt, had difficulty paying medical bills, or struggled with both during a recent one year period. [Source]

Laura Klitzka of Wisconsin is no stranger to the burden of crippling health care costs.  In September, we had a chance to visit with her at her home in Green Bay.  Here’s her story:

With comprehensive health insurance reform, we can finally control rising health care costs and bring relief to Laura and her family and the many other American families struggling to keep up with their bills.  According to these leading economists, “the health care reforms passed by the House and Senate – with recent modifications proposed by President Obama – include serious measures that will slow the growth of health care spending.”  If reform fails, they add, “the chances of reducing growth of health care spending in the future will be greatly reduced.”

Today’s number, 41, is the latest in ‘Health Reform by the Numbers,’ our online campaign to raise awareness about why the time is now for health insurance reform.  You can follow the campaign on Whitehouse.gov and social networks like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn.

If you’d like to help spread the word, share this blog post with your family, friends and online networks using the ‘Share/Bookmark’ feature below.

Previous Numbers:

• 625
• 8
• 1115

In his State of the Union address, President Obama spoke about doubling America’s exports over the next few years. Today, he discussed the first steps to meet that goal at the Export-Import Bank’s Annual Conference.

While addressing the importance of America being able to compete in the global marketplace, the President explained that every $1 billion increase in exports would support more than 6,000 jobs. To promote American exports, he announced that the administration is launching the National Export Initiative, an effort to utilize the resources of the government in support for businesses that sell goods and services abroad.  

The National Export Initiative will increase access to trade financing for businesses that want to export goods while also increasing the amount of trade-financing export-import offers to support small and medium-sized businesses. The President explained that the government hasn’t done enough to promote businesses abroad in the past, and under the National Export Initiative, the U.S. will advocate for American companies around the world. 

This is an effort I will personally lead as President.  Next week, I’ll take my second trip to the Asia Pacific – a region that will be fundamental to America’s ability to create jobs and to thrive in the 21st century.  We can’t be on the sidelines -– we have to lead, and our engagement has to extend to governments and businesses and peoples across the Pacific.  So while I’m there, I’ll visit Indonesia and Australia, two vibrant economies and democracies that will be critical partners for the United States.  And in both countries, I’ll highlight the role that American businesses play there, and underscore how strong economic partnerships can create jobs on both sides of the Pacific while advancing both regional and global prosperity.  Going forward, I will be a strong and steady advocate for our workers and our companies abroad.

The initiative will begin coordinated efforts to promote new markets and opportunities for American exporters, and ensure that the companies have free and fair access to those markets.

The President also announced that the administration is working on a proposal to reform the Export Control System for high-tech industries in order to strengthen national security. The steps to reform the system include creating a more efficient process for companies to get their products to the market, and removing unnecessary obstacles to export to companies with dual-national and third-country-national employees.

He explained that these efforts will help to double exports, open new markets, and level the playing field for American businesses and American workers.

In times like these, questions have always arisen about whether or not America’s best days are behind us.  That’s standard fare.  It happens every so often.  There have always been naysayers and skeptics.  There were always those who’ve waxed fatalistic, fearing that we lacked the capacity to adapt, to succeed – at times even to survive – in a changing world.

But what makes America great, what continues to make America the envy of our competitors, what makes this a place where people come not just to invest but to start lives and businesses and families, is something that has been inexorable and enduring, especially in times of great challenge and great change.  It’s that spirit of adventurousness and entrepreneurship that has for generations turned wild-eyed tinkerers into world-changing entrepreneurs; that led us westward and skyward; that led to roads and railways cutting through wilderness, and ships and planes and fiber optic lines carrying American goods and services around the world.  It’s the spirit that has advanced America’s leadership in the world and held aloft the American Dream for generations.

President Barack Obama addresses the Export-Import Bank’s annual conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C., March 11, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

In August 2009, I performed at the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington, DC in celebration of Afghan Independence Day.  At that event, I met Mr. Tim Nusraty, an Afghan-American who now works at the National Security Council at the White House.  Many months later, Mr. Nusraty recommended me to perform at the White House on March 8, 2010 for International Women’s Day.  When I learned that I was selected to perform, it was the second happiest day of my life.  The first was the day I met President Barack Obama and his beautiful wife First Lady Michelle Obama.  I have to say that meeting the President, the First Lady, and performing at the White House was surreal.  I never thought in a million years that this dream would come true.

As an Afghan girl born in Kabul, Afghanistan and raised in Vancouver, Canada, I have made it my duty to fight for women’s rights and to promote education in Afghanistan.  I decided that more than anything else, music would be the best way to do this.  It was a long-term goal, and it involved a lot of time, dedication, and hard work, not to mention the many obstacles I would have to face to get there.  I had never sung professionally in my life, and decided to start from scratch at the BC Conservatory of Music.  Today, my lyrics are heard by millions of people throughout Afghanistan and the region.

The song that I sang at the White House on March 8th was composed by my father and me to remember the young Afghan girls who were doused with acid in Kandahar City last year for going to school.  The lyrics to the song are very powerful.  Below is the translation to the lyrics of the Afghan song:

Afghan Girl

I'm a girl, I am an Afghan girl
I'm the daughter of the land of braves
Don't break my wings, let me fly
Don't break my crown, let me think
I want to be as free as a gazelle
I love my homeland just as Malali did
Sing my songs just like a nightingale in the gardens
Express myself the same as Zainab, Nazo, and Mehri in poetry
Don't break my wings, let me fly
Don't break my crown, let me think
I've a smile on my face like a flower
And live in open green fields
My heart is filled with love for my homeland
I'll sing songs and poems for my land

Words can’t describe what I felt when I was standing in the East Room performing at the White House. I was so grateful.  I now believe that dreams can come true and goals can be reached.  My mother was with me during the performance and was more than lucky to sit next to the First Lady.  Halfway through my performance I noticed Mrs. Obama holding my mother’s hand and I was so happy I almost forgot my lyrics.  The First Lady is such an inspiration to women around the world, and I am thankful we have such an amazing role model.

Later that day after my performance, I was approached by Afghan media, and they all told me in great excitement that I had made history in Afghanistan and that never in the history of Afghanistan had there been a performance at the White House by an Afghan artist.  Even the Afghan journalists who interviewed me became very emotional.  I didn’t realize the impact my performance at the White House would have on my Afghan people.  Recently I was offered to host my own show on 1TV in Kabul, Afghanistan.  This show focuses on family matters, women’s issues, and the treatment of children. I jumped at the opportunity and moved back to Kabul.  1TV is the platform for me to spread awareness for the women of Afghanistan.

Thank you President Obama and Madame First Lady for this amazing opportunity. I would also like to thank Afghan Ambassador Jawad, Ms. Columbia Barrosse, and Mr. Nusraty.

Mozhdah Jamalzadah is an Afghan singer, entertainer and model from Kabul, Afghanistan

In recent weeks, you’ve probably heard a lot about WellPoint, the big insurance company that reported earning $2.7 billion in one quarter, and then promptly raised rates on some customers in California by up to 39 percent. Those aren’t the only big increases WellPoint has attempted to implement. In 2009, the company sought a 24 percent increase for its customers in Connecticut, and it’s asked to raise rates by 23 percent in Maine this year.

This pattern appears to be working for WellPoint. Recently, a major Wall Street analysis found that WellPoint would be a “primary beneficiary” if reform fails.

So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that WellPoint officials are doing everything they can to stop reform. WellPoint is a part of the coalition that has financed millions of dollars television ads against reform. And they are continuing to spread misinformation about what will happen when we make comprehensive reform a reality.

The latest attack came from WellPoint’s CFO, who addressed a group of investors and wrongly claimed that reform would increase costs and drive up premiums. Nothing could be further from the truth. 

What WellPoint may not want you to know is that reform will shift power from insurance companies and into the hands of consumers. It will lower your premiums, not increase them, according to the nonpartisan congressional budget office. The CBO has examined reform and determined that customers who buy their health insurance on the individual market would pay 14 to 20 percent less for the same levels of coverage that they received before. If you get insurance through your job, CBO found that your premiums would likely decrease. In fact, the Business Roundtable recently issued a study that found that reform could reduce costs by as much as $3,000 per employee.

Reform will also create a new marketplace where Americans can purchase affordable, quality health benefits. And Americans buying in the new marketplaces will be eligible for tax credits that can reduce their premiums by up to 60 percent.

The criticism from WellPoint also ignores the many provisions in reform that will bring down the cost of health care. The health policy experts and economists who have looked at this bill have said we are doing everything possible to reduce health care costs.  Some of the steps we’re taking include:

• Pilot programs for bundling payments and paying for episodes of care rather than each individual service.
• Creating accountable care organizations where providers co-ordinate your care;
• Streamlining administrative costs by reducing paperwork burden and standardizing forms.
• Bringing more people into the insurance pool and reducing the “hidden tax” that insured individuals pay to cover the cost of caring for the uninsured.

These are just a few of the provisions in reform that will bring premiums down for consumers. And we know what will happen if these provisions and health reform are not enacted. Premiums will rise, companies like WellPoint will thrive and families will suffer. Health insurance reform will lower your costs and give you more control over your health care:  that is why the insurance companies are spending millions of dollars trying to stop it.

Dan Pfeiffer is White House Communications Director 

I just returned from a productive trip to the West Coast, where I met with technology innovators from the private sector and state and local governments to hear their ideas about how the Federal Government can leverage the power of technology to deliver better results for the American people. As I’ve said before, the Federal Government does not have a monopoly on the best ideas, and in order to truly change business as usual here in Washington --  we’ve got to look beyond the Beltway.

The Obama Administration is committed to making the Federal Government work better for the American people.  Closing the technology gap between the private and public sectors is essential to delivering the best results possible.  That is why I returned to the West Coast to continue to meet with leaders who have taken innovative steps and implemented bold strategies to drive progress and productivity.

The power of raw data to provide consumers with relevant information and inform their decisions is already being realized. For example, as I was heading to the airport, I used “FlyOnTime.us” to check if my flight was on time and to see what the wait in line would be. This innovative website was created by a group of independent developers using Data.gov. 

My first stop was San Francisco, where I joined Mayor Gavin Newsom and city CIO Chris Vein for the launch of the nationwide Open311 API (Application Programming Interface) initiative, which will open up access to local government services across the country. Open311 will enable people to track the status of repairs or improvements, while also allowing them to make new requests for services. For example, I can use the same application when I am home in Washington, DC to report a broken parking meter as I would in San Francisco. I also spoke to CIOs from Boston, Chicago, DC, Los Angeles, Seattle, and San Francisco about accelerating the development of applications that the American people can use in their everyday lives.

From downtown San Francisco, it was out to Silicon Valley to meet with venture capitalists and technology innovators, including Mint.com, Mozilla, and Facebook, at IDEO Labs to discuss how government can improve how it is delivering services to the American people. We used a visual storyboard concept to capture our conversation, which you can see here.

Later that afternoon, I met with companies like Apple and Google to learn how innovation is happening in the consumer space, through new platforms such as Apple’s online App Store.

On Thursday, I travelled to the “other” Washington, where I started the day with CIOs from organizations such as Weyerhaeuser and Microsoft to hear about how they successfully manage large-scale IT projects. I also had the opportunity to look at some of the impressive investments in next generation technologies being made by companies like Microsoft and Amazon.

I then delivered a speech at the University of Washington titled “Making Government Work: Closing the Technology Gap to Deliver for the American People.” I was very encouraged by the response and was pleasantly surprised when following my speech, dozens of professors and students lined up to ask questions and continue the dialogue. 

At the end of the day, I attended an industry awards celebration for local technology entrepreneurs, hosted by the Washington Technology Industry Association. It was great to see entrepreneurs from the “other” Washington talk to me about their ideas for helping us change the way Washington, DC works.

Vivek Kundra is U.S. Chief Information Officer
 

While discussing health insurance reform in St. Charles, Missouri today, President Obama announced new efforts to reign in waste and fraud in Medicare, Medicaid and other government programs. He explained that the administration plans to prevent wasted dollars through the use of payment recapture audits by giving auditors incentives to catch improper payments and payment errors. He called for federal agencies to launch these audits across the country, which have been successful through pilot programs.  The audits are expected to return $2 billion in taxpayer money over the next 3 years.

He also announced his support for the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act, a bipartisan bill to expand the government’s ability to perform such audits and prevent waste. The administration is working to cut programs that are not needed, increase accountability, and eliminate high-risk contracts. The President explained that by saving billions of dollars, government-run health care programs like Medicare can work better and provide better care.

On the other side of the spectrum there are those who believe that the answer is to simply unleash the insurance industry, and provide less oversight and fewer rules. And that somehow that's going to drive down prices for everybody.  This is called the “putting the foxes in charge of the hen house” approach to health care reform. So whatever state regulations were in place, we’d get rid of those and so insurance companies could basically find a state that had the worst regulations and then from there sell insurance everywhere.  And that somehow that was going to be helpful to you.  All this would do would give insurance companies more leeway to raise premiums and deny care.

So I don’t believe we should give either the government or the insurance companies more control over health care in America.  I want to give you more control over health care in America.

President Barack Obama delivers remarks on Medicaid fraud and health care reform at St. Charles High School in St. Charles, Missouri, March 10, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)

The President also explained that his health care proposal would have three core reforms: ending the worst practices of insurance companies, creating a marketplace that allows for affordable health care options, and reducing costs for families, businesses, and the government. As a result, the government would reduce the deficit by $1 trillion dollars. Businesses have also conducted a study that shows the reforms are expected to reduce premiums by as much as $3000 per employee.

So here’s the bottom line, St. Charles.  There’s no government takeover, unless you consider reining in insurance companies a government takeover -- and I think that’s the right thing to do.  There’s no cutting of Medicare benefits.  There’s just cutting out fraud and waste in Medicare to make it stronger. 

What we’re proposing is a common-sense approach to protecting you from insurance company abuses and saving you money.  That’s the proposal, and it is paid for.  And I believe that Congress owes the American people a final up or down vote on health care reform.  The time for talk is over; it’s time to vote.
 

I recently unveiled a series of magnificent murals that highlights the legacy of two of the greatest figures in U.S. Department of the Interior’s history, Secretary Harold Ickes and renowned photographer Ansel Adams. The murals represent 26 of the photos Ickes commissioned Adams to produce as part of the Department’s Mural Project of 1941.

Grand Teton, Snake River, Wyoming, National Archives no. 79-AAG-1 Ansel Adams

On display in the main hallways of the first and second floors of the main Interior building, these stunning black-and-white photos convey the beauty Adams’ saw in our Department’s diverse mission, and include: a pair of Native American children; the eruption of Old Faithful; and the intricate network of power lines at Boulder Dam.

Ickes and Adams first met in 1936, while attending a conference on the future of national and state parks.  Ickes was secretary of the Interior under President Franklin Roosevelt; Adams, a renowned photographer and president of the Sierra Club. The two immediately found a common bond in a deep love for the beauty of our nation’s land and a desire to see it conserve that land for future generations.

In fact, Adams used his photographic talent to lead a successful campaign to save the Kings River area of the Sierra Nevada and have Congress designate it as Kings Canyon National Park.

Ickes believed that the Interior building, which was completed in 1936, should be symbolic of the Department’s mission to manage and conserve our nation’s vast resources. So in 1941, he hired Adams to create a photographic mural for display in this building that reflected the Department’s mission: the beautiful land, the proper stewardship of our resources, and the people we serve.

The attack on Pearl Harbor and our nation’s entry into World War II brought the project to a halt.  The more than 200 photographs that Adams took have been stored in the National Archives, but never printed or hung as murals.

Now, with our installation of the murals, we are able to share with visitors from across the nation Ickes and Adams’ timeless vision for this Department — and how we are in the business of fulfilling that vision today.

Boulder Dam Power Units, Colorado River, Nevada / Arizona Border, National Archives no. 79-AAB-5 Ansel Adams

Ken Salazar is the Secretary of the Interior