Obama back on campaign trail.
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Obama heads to California
8 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AFP) — With a row boiling over millions of dollars in bonuses paid by crippled insurance group AIG, President Barack Obama heads west Wednesday to meet Americans caught in the economic slump.
Obama will fly to California, which voted for him in last November's election and is now battling the economic crisis beset by big budget deficits and a wave of mortgage foreclosures.
Also during the overnight trip, Obama will make an unprecedented appearance in modern times on the late night comedy show "Tonight" with comedian Jay Leno, in a bid to reach an audience not catered to by the Washington press corps.
But first, on Wednesday, the president will hold a town hall meeting with residents of the town of Costa Mesa, in southern California, on how he intends to haul the US economy out of its short-term meltdown and restore a long-term growth path, aides said.
Orange County, where Costa Mesa is located, will be a recipient of infrastructure funds from the president's 787 billion dollar stimulus plan passed through Congress to create jobs and stimulate economic demand.
Obama's spokesman Robert Gibbs said that the president would not necessarily be playing for laughs on the Tonight Show, after another campaign-style town hall meeting on Thursday.
"We don't look at this is as the process of demonstrating the president's sense of humor," Gibbs said.
"We look at it as a way of discussing the economic situation that we find ourselves in.
"Obviously California is one of the four states in the country that are experiencing double-digit unemployment. They face budget challenges -- I think all of those topics will be part of that discussion."
The focus in Washington meanwhile will be on AIG boss Edward Liddy, who will testify to furious US lawmakers about the 165 million dollars in bonuses paid out by the taxpayer-supported firm despite government objections.
Late Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a letter to the House leadership that the payments could not be legally blocked but that the government would require AIG to repay the money to get remaining bailout funds. |
