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President Obama Uses ‘N’ Word In Podcast About Racism
President And Top Democrat
President Barack Obama used the n- word during an interview released Monday to make a point that there's still plenty of room for America to combat racism.
"Racism, we are not cured of it. And it's not just a matter of it not being polite to say nigger in public," President Obama said in an in- terview for the podcast "WTF with Marc Maron."
"That's not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It's not just a matter of overt discrimination. Societies don't, overnight, completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior."
The jarring comment comes as the nation is engaged in a debate over the role of race after a white supremacist killed nine African- Americans last week in a historically Black church in Charleston. They also reflect a growing willingness for the President to dis- cuss race during the final years of his presi- dency.
Mr. Obama said there has been progress on race relations over the decades, citing his own experience as a young man who was born to a white mother and an African father.
"I always tell young people, in particular, do not say that nothing has changed when it comes to race in America, unless you've lived through being a Black man in the 1950s or ‘60s or ‘70s. It is incontrovertible that race re- lations have improved significantly during my lifetime and yours," President Obama said.
But he added that "the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination" exists in institu- tions and casts "a long shadow and that's still part of our DNA that's passed on."
The White House released a statement say- ing that this is not the first time the President has used the N-word. "Truth is he uses the term about a dozen times in Dreams from my Father," White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz said.
After She Helped Derail Bill
President Obama and Marc Maron during his recent podcast interview.
President echoed comments in the imme- diate aftermath of last week's shooting, saying he's had to make speeches about a "devastat- ing loss" too often.
"It's not enough just to feel bad. There are actions that could be taken to make events like this less likely. One of those actions we could take would be to enhance some basic common sense gun safety laws," Pres. Obama said.
Pres. Obama lamented Congress's lack of action on gun control and said "Unfortu- nately, the grip of the NRA on Congress is ex- tremely strong. I don't foresee any legislative action being taken in this Congress."
He also weighed in on a critical case that is currently before the Supreme Court, where opponents of the Affordable Care Act are ask- ing whether the law authorizes tax subsidies for 6.4 million Americans who have already received help to afford health coverage.
"First of all I'm confident we'll win, because the law is clearly on our side.”
He added that if the nation's highest court were to rule in favor of the ACA's opponents, "five to six million people could lose their healthcare."
SAN FRANCISCO — Days after Representative Nancy Pelosi helped derail one of President Obama’s most important legislative priori- ties, the two shared a stage, a solarium and some tight smiles on Friday as they spoke to the nation’s mayors and then at an exclusive fundraiser.
At a meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors in the afternoon, Mr. Obama offered a brief com- pliment of Ms. Pelosi as an “outstanding” public servant. But at a fundraiser Friday night, he was more expan- sive, saying he could not have achieved anything in Congress without one impor- tant partner in the House.
“Nancy Pelosi has been that partner,” he said.
Ms. Pelosi, Democrat of California, was thoroughly complimentary in her re- marks about Mr. Obama at both events, saying at the mayors’ meeting that the president’s “middle-class economics have produced re- sults,” including substantial reductions in unemploy- ment, increases in private employment and a soaring stock market.
Pres. Obama and Cong. Nancy Pelosi .
delivered a very different speech on the House floor, an impassioned plea against a worker-assistance bill that was considered crucial to Mr. Obama’s hopes of completing negotiations on a 12-nation trade deal with Pa- cific countries. Democrats have long supported such aid for workers displaced by global trade, but Ms. Pelosi opposed it to halt legislative progress on the overall trade deal.
The President views the trade pact as vital to convinc- ing Pacific nations that the United States will serve as an effective counter to a rising China, and to persuading them that America is shifting its longtime focus from Eu- rope to Asia.
Cong. Kathy Castor,
who has consistently said she did not support the proposal, also voted against the bill.
Nancy Pelosi Share Stage
Last Friday, Ms. Pelosi
State Legislators Pass $79M Budget;
Medicaid Issue Still Looming
According to Florida Poli- tics, the State Legislators passed a nearly $79 billion budget Friday with just days to spare. Legislators had until July 1 to pass a budget or state government would have been partially shut down. They did not pass a budget during their regular session because they were divided over health care spending. That sparked a stalemate – and finger-point- ing will remain when legisla- tors return for their 2016 session.
The main problem is that state legislators this year dipped into a budget surplus and steered it to the state’s hospitals to replace dwindling federal aid that had been paid to the hospitals to treat the poor and uninsured. They only did that after the Senate and House tangled over whether to expand health care coverage to as many as 500,000 Floridi- ans in order to draw down bil- lions associated with President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul.
Federal officials capped the money at $1 billion this year and warned the amount will be pared back to $600 million in 2016. The federal govern- ment has urged Florida to ex- pand coverage, but that has been staunchly opposed by both Gov. Rick Scott and Republican leaders in the House. Scott has sued the federal government, arguing
that it was trying to coerce Florida into expanding Medi- caid; it’s not clear when the lawsuit will be resolved.
House leaders argue that instead of expanding coverage the state should overhaul health care in other ways, in- cluding removing red tape so that new hospitals can be built quicker and letting nurses pre- scribe medicines. During the June special session the House passed several health care bills but they were never consid- ered by the Senate.
But if the Senate pushes its health care coverage plan again it could lead to the two sides once again getting dead- locked.
Top House Republicans warn the expansion could put taxpayers on the hook for bil- lions of dollars and that the Obama administration may back out of its promise to pay the entire bill for the first few years and 90 percent after that. They also feared that a larger than anticipated num- ber of recipients would sign up, further increasing the fi- nancial burden on the state.
Legislators are returning to the state Capitol early next year because they moved up their session starting date to January. A big question is whether or not tensions will remain between House and Senate Republicans when they begin work on next year’s budget.
Presidential/Government News
PAGE 6 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 2015