Today I was invited to the White House to discuss the upcoming State Of The Union speech at the White House with Valerie Jarrett, Senior Adviser to President Barack Obama. It is clear that the White House thinks that this will be a very important speech.
The theme of the speech will be “Winning For The Future” and will focus on creating jobs for the future. By the talk, it seems clear that the White House is committed to curb spending. What the White House is refusing to cut is education and programs that bring innovation or our integral to infrastructure.
Jarrett also said that the White House would be willing to cooperate with the Tea Party in cutting military spending siting the accomplishments made during the lame duck congress session.
Another major issue that will be touched on is keeping America competitive in the world market. Jarrett stressed how important it is for America to invest in both education and innovation siting the USA’s history of creating capital off innovation “from the lightbulb, to the internet.”
While most of the policies discussed by Jarrett involved keeping America competitive in the future, the majority of the other African-American journalists were concerned mostly with the high rate of African-American unemployment, a problem in the present.
Jarrett talked about the attempts from the White House to promote African American role models in the State Of The Union including Xerox CEO Ursula Rucker and Brandon Ford, a 16-year-old from Philadelphia who won a prize for developing a hybrid car.
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