♪ ♪ welcome to "our world with black enterprise." i'm mike lamont hill. this week we go inside the white house with our all-access interview with one of the president's senior advisers. plus, where do african-americans stand in washington? that's what's going on in our world, starting now. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ as white house senior adviser and longtime friend to president obama, valerie jaret

has the inside scoop on the president's strategy for the next two years. we went to washington, d.c., for this exclusive interview. ♪ ♪ ♪ thank you so much for spending some time with us. >> my pleasure. >> it's no secret that in the last year and a half the obama administration has taken a few hits. >> it's been challenging. it has been challenging times in which he is the president, that's true. >> absolutely. in 2010, the midterm elections democrats took a big hit -- >> schlacking to use his words. >> losing the house and losing leverage in the senate and so forth. how do you make sense of that kind of a loss? >> well, look. . the fact of the matter is our country has been through an extremely devastating economic time and there wasn't a family in our country that wasn't touched by the recession, worst recession in our life time and that's the circumstance in which the president walked into office and he had to deal with the hand

he was dealt and he took it on, head-on and he did everything within his power and working with congress to bring the economy back from the brink of disaster and put our country on a better course. we are now on a better course. we've had 12 consecutive months of private sector job growth. the unemployment rate is much too high. our work is not done. the president announced a couple of weeks ago he'll have a new council focusing on jobs and competitiveness. it will be joined by jeff immelt from ge, and our goal was to make sure that we're working with the private sector to create jobs right here in america. so we've come out of a terrible patch. it was very challenging, as you said, and he keeps focusing on what's important and what's important is the american people. he tries to focus every day. what can we do to make our country stronger? what can we do to keep it safe and what can we do to create jobs? >> what are the criticisms of the president? is it while he's working aggressively to reduce

unemployment and to create jobs and so forth, nothing has been targeted to african-american voters and to the african-american community at large. >> if you look at major domestic policy initiatives that the president took on when he came into office. they have a disproportionately positive impact in the black community. health care, there are plenty of people who aren't insured. that people can have check-ups and not have to pay for them because so many people avoid going in for just routine exams that could help them avoid, you know, near-death diseases if they simply have those check-ups. so if you think about those initiatives and if you think about the recovery act that was designed again to provide a safety net, a tax relief for 95% of working families, when we were able to pass the tax package and that didn't just have unemployment insurance. it had a payroll tax credit and

a child tax credit and an earned income tax credit and something very important to low-wage workers predominantly in the african-american community and the tax code that would allow parents for college. something would be continued in his budget, but if you look at the issues that the president took on they were designed to bring our economy back from the brink. many of them did have a disproportionately positive impact in the african-american community and just this week the president announced start-up america as a great initiative to get a partnership with the private and the public sector designed to help support entrepreneurs so that they can start new businesses and grow and there's a special fund, $1 billion set aside in low income communities and that is something that's targeted to the african-american community. i think that you can see from the kinds of programs that he's initiate side he wants government for those who need it

most. in most places people in the african-american community. i guess, who raised to the top and all of the initiatives that secretary duncan has put in place and the best way to bring the black community out of help that were neglected long before this last recession and let's face it, many communities around our country, black people have been suffering for a long time. >> it's not new for us. >> this is not new for us. what is the best tool that we can offer to bring ourselves out of poverty, education. that's really the road to the future. we have got to get our young people excited about learning. there's nothing wrong with our children. it's the adults who need some work. his emphasis in getting people to go into teaching again and he mentioned the state of the union. getting people to go into that field, he has a new initiative trying to get african-american noone go into teaching and there are terrific role models for our children. we want to see something

wonderful and who they can look up to and who can inspire them and get excited to do well. if you look at our entire agenda, certainly, it benefits the african-american community. >> i'm glad you mentioned the state of the union as well and it pamarked an interesting mome. the president comes up very unscathed. he's confident and has a vision for america and he articulates these five points because they'll talk around innovation and education, building and reform. >> thank you. >> i want to talk about this first idea of innovation more, though because it seems to be at the top of the president's agenda right now, and it seems also that we're speaking back to folks who say he's not thinking of business, that he's not thinking of the country's long-term future. how does innovation play against people on the right who are attacking him on this issue. >> i'm glad you started with

innovation because part of what makes america so extraordinary is ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit on our creativity when everything from the light bulb to the internet. this is what we do in america. we innovate. we create and what government has to do is make that easy for business. whether it's providing tax credit for research and development or investing in clean energy, what the president has said is the long-term sustainable growth and health is dependent upon the private sector. we spent money to help jumpstart the economy. in the long term it's the private sector that has to step up and to make it easy for them to do. companies today can choose between investing in the united states and investing anywhere in the world. we want them to choose here, and i think the president's message was all about winning the future and he's optimistic because he believes in his country and he believes so strongly in the american people and part of what we do best in this country is innovate. >> thank you so much for

spending some time with "our world with black enterprise." >> my pleasure. thank you for inviting me on. >> politics in the black community. where do we stand? >> think he's doing a great job now because he's compromising with republicans and that's what it's going to take to create a better black america. ♪ y this. ♪ it's that chocolate ♪ it's that whipped cream ♪ it's that caramel, and espresso you mix in ♪ ♪ i must be, i must be, i must be, i must be ♪ ♪ i must be dreamin' [ male announcer ] for the first time at mcdonald's -- your two favorite flavors together. new mccafé caramel mocha. well? what do you guys think? perfect. [ male announcer ] the simple joy of sweet harmony. ♪ ba da ba ba ba c

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static economy crippling the nation, how will the president's agenda help the black community? joining me to discuss this the reverend al sharpton, founder of the national action network and former presidential candidate. angela mcgowan, fox news political analyst and jeff johnson, msnbc political commentator. we are two years into the obama presidency. some people he's doing a great job, and other people are saying we're worse than we've ever been. angela, what do you think? >> think he's doing a great job now because he's compromising with the republicans and that's what it will take to create a better black america. for our democracy to truly work you have to compromise and work together and under nancy pelosi and harry reid we did not see that. >> there's a misnomer to that because while there was not the kind of communication and interaction that could have gotten some things done, they got some pretty substantial legislation passed. >> their legislation passed. >> but we're talking about what did obama do for people of color, and at the end of the day there was legislation passed that ultimately benefited people of color. >> are we better off today?

that's what his question is? are we better off today? >> we're not better off today than we were under bush. in the first two years we got health care, and we were able to bring the economy back from the brink. let's remember, now, when george bush left we didn't know if the country was going to economically rebound. that's black america and black colleges. there are a lot of things that have happened. would we like to see more? absolutely, but compare bush to obama in terms of blacks is to me a non-starter. >> bush put forth an effort to put more money to small businesses. let me put it to you this we, he put more money into small businesses. >> not true. not true. how can you say the man that caused the crash in the banks and insurance companies brought in more businesses? are you kidding? the whole country almost went out of business. >> hold on a second. 2006 nancy pelosi and harry reid

took over the house and the senate. so the crash of the banks and the crash of the economy went through a -- >> tax cuts for the wealthy. >> then why did obama -- why did obama just extend the bush tax cuts? >> because of the compromise. let's talk about the compromise for a minute. is president obama compromising because he's had a change of heart and realizes that he needs private business or is this a political move that he has to do to sustain his presidency? >> may i say the political move to sustain his presidency. when you have congressman nadler who is a democrat and congressman israel when you have congressmen calling for the bush tax cuts to help the economy then that is true compromise as well. it just wasn't obama calling to extend the bush tax cuts. in his campaign promise he said he would not. you each have progressives that went against him for extending them. >> you had democrats calling for

obama. >> the problem is the democrats who could have had the vote on a lot of these policies in summer of '10 didn't want the vote because they wanted to straight believe after the midterm elections. >> right. >> we got past the midterm leches in november and 2 million people were about to lose their insurance in terms of the unemployment benefits and their social security and they had the president, obama between a rock and a hard place. he either compromised the republicans to save those 2 million people with social security and unemployment or he's blamed for putting 2 million people out in the name through the commitment -- >> who is the they that put obama between a rock and a hard place. >> the democrats. i was talking about that, some of the democrats did that which is why they had to stand up and take the weight for what they did. they put him in that position. >> part of what this speaks to is the difference between running for president and actually being president. every president experiences, there's a gap between governing and running.

the president two years in has changed gears a bit. >> the american dream has never been about standing pat. it has required each generation to sacrifice and struggle and meet the demand of a new age. now it's our turn. we know what it takes to compete for the jobs and industries of our time. we need to out-innovate and out-educate the rest of the world. >> he launched a new platform and these are the things i'll do for a remainder of the period. >> any time you talk about wing the future that's a good thing. the question is how do you win the future? the president laid out a number of areas that he wants it to happen, the devil is always in the details and so the question will be one and what does the budget look like? because the budgets will determine are we going to be successful or not? there's no navigating around that and that is going to be where the real fight is and where the rubber meets the road.

>> we'll talk about the state of the union and we'll talk about what will happen in two more years. stay right there. we'll be back in a bit. >> and what real innovation is is getting out -- out of the way where we're waiting on superman. >> right. right. >> for one person with the golden answer to come and fix every situation. it does not work.

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a child walks into a classroom it should be a place of high expectations and high performance, but too many schools don't meet this test. that's why instead of just pouring money into a system that's not working, we launched a competition called race to the top. to all 50 states we said if you show us the most innovative plan to improve teacher quality and student achievement, we'll show you the money. >> welcome back. i'm here with reverend al sharpton, angela mcgowan and jeff johnson. the president has said we'll outperform the entire world and part of how we're going to do that is to invest in education. angela, what do you say? >> during the bush administration they created no child left behind. unfortunately, the children have been left behind. in the district of mississippi you have kids in the ninth grade that read at third-grade level. in tennessee you have certain

schools where girls -- all of them are pregnant. our system is failing us. race to the top as the reverend said during the break has only been out there for two years and it seems to be working, but we need to cut the fat. >> been of the things, and as all of you know, i've worked with president obama and went on tour with gingrich. one of the things that makes the objective seem that the kids are being improved, we can perfect it more, but we have to get past the special interests with the kids. when you look at the fact that nationwide, black kids are four grades behind in reading and math and the city of detroit, half of the black men are dropping out of school, it's not working yet. we really need an investment there and we need to start in our own community and i absolutely agree with president obama. >> there's also got to be, and to angela's point, it can't just be the government and there have to be public/private sector

partnerships with funding innovation and pushing it in the right direction. so if local commune sxits states get to the point where they understand where innovation is about multi-level partnerships that you take some of the pressure off of the department of education and you put us in positions where certain things that have been funded traditionally can be cut. at the end of the day somebody's still got to pay the money and somebody has to make sure there's accountability and what real innovation is get out of the way where we're waiting on superman where one person with the golden sw to fix every situation, it does not work. >> i'm not waiting on superman and i'll be happy with lois lane. very quickly, one of the things that people talk about with president obama's administration is that they haven't been willing to name black folks. even when some of the policies have affected black folks in health care with housing and so forth. he hasn't had an explicitly

race-targeted agenda. >> who was the first one? that's a fair question. who is the first one? i think that we cannot -- president obama. we have never put that on any president, including william jefferson clinton. who they call the first black president. he has never had a black agenda. it's always latinos, jewish. president obama met with the head of urban league on black unemployment and other blacks say why did he come outside to address the black agenda. it was on black agenda. it is the dignity of -- >> he should address the changes that the african-american community has seen is when local activists met with leadership that brought a plan into johnson's office.

>> that's correct. >> that ultimately came to voting rights activists. >> that's a model and while there are nuances that have shifted, it's not going to be the president in red, black and green walking through communities saying milk and honey are going flow because i showed up. >> he had to do it. he had to do it. it was his time and he had to go to republicans to help him. >> they're always republican. >> he was a racist and let's just put it out there. i agree with these guys. obama has to remain mainstream. it can't be what's good for black america or latino america, it's what's good for america. >> we can't overlook this is the fact that much of the legislation that he's put forward he hasn't had to put a black label on. it's affected poor people, black people, middle class people. so we can't skip over that. >> i have to hold that thought real quick because i have to take a break. when we come back we'll wrap up.

stay right there. we'll be back with more "black enterprise." i think the republicans clearly, cannot count on the american people to have amnesia on where they brought this country. ♪ it's that chocolate ♪ it's that whipped cream ♪ it's that caramel, and espresso you mix in ♪ [ male announcer ] your two favorite flavors together. new mccafé caramel mocha. ♪ ba da ba ba ba

♪ ♪ it's that chocolate ♪ it's that whipped cream ♪ it's that caramel, and espresso you mix in ♪ [ male announcer ] your two favorite flavors together. new mccafé caramel mocha. ♪ ba da ba ba ba

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meningcal meningitis, a rare buterio disease. althials recnd vaccinatn. go to voicesofmeniitis.org. ♪ ♪ welcome back. i have a very little amount of time left, but do i want to ask, if there's one thing the president should work on in the next two years. what should it be? he's starting with jobs and the economy, there's no option. that is what his presidency will live or die on. >> the economy and jobs. >> jobs, jobs, jobs, education. that's what i'm talking about bipartisan agreement and if that happens does the president get reelected in two years? >> i think the president gets reelected. i think he gets reelected because i think he has been able to turn the corner in terms of where this country was headed, and i think the republicans clearly cannot count on the american people to have amnesia on where they brought this country.

>> angela, does he get reelected? >> if the economy is better and more jobs created and less foreclosures, he has a good chance. >> and he has your vote. if the trajectory continues where he is right now i think he'll be reelected. >> sounds good to me. thank you all for a spirited panel, al sharpton, angela mclouf lann, i hope to have you back soon. that wraps it up for "our world@black enterprise." i'm mark lamont hill. check me out on facebook or follow me on twitter. thank you for watching "black enterprise." see you next week. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com try capzasin-hp. it penetrates deep to block pain signals for hours of relief. capzasin-hp. take the pain out of arthritis.