House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan offered an interesting take on the President’s leadership on dealing with our long-term debt and deficits the recent deficit reduction negotiations in today’s Wall Street Journal. Below are a few of Congressman Ryan’s claims along with our responses.

Claim: The President has failed to put forward a plan to tackle our long term debt and deficits.

• Since the beginning of the current debate on the debt ceiling, the President has led with a comprehensive plan for deficit reduction.
   
• In April, the President released a fiscal framework for $4 trillion in deficit reduction, which described the President’s plans for closing tax loopholes and for responsible reforms of Medicare and Medicaid so they are strengthened for future generations. 
   
• Beginning less than a week after he announced this Framework, the President led four separate efforts to negotiate a compromise on the debt limit – talks with Vice President Joe Biden, meetings with all eight Congressional leaders from both parties, and two rounds of negotiations directly with Speaker Boehner.
   
• Throughout this process, the Administration put forward specific policy proposals with the goal of reaching an agreement on a $4 trillion package – an agreement which Speaker Boehner ultimately walked away from.

Before meeting with his Cabinet today to discuss rebuilding the economy and putting Americans back to work, President Obama spoke about the impact Congressional inaction is having on our country's bottom line. The President addressed the stalemate over extending the Federal Aviation Administration's authority, which is leaving an estimated 70,000 construction and related workers and 4,000 FAA employees out of work:

A good example of how undone work here in Washington can have an adverse impact on that economy is what’s going on with the Federal Aviation Administration.  And I’m going to be hearing from Ray LaHood about the situation that is looming as a consequence of Congress not acting.  Some of you may be aware of the fact that the FAA routinely gets its authorities extended through Congress; it’s happened 20 times since 2007.  This time, Congress has decided to play some politics with it.  And as a consequence, they left town without getting this extension done. 

Here is what this means -- thousands of FAA workers being furloughed, including safety inspectors.  It also means projects all across the country involving tens of thousands of construction workers being suspended, because Congress didn’t get its work done.  And that means folks who are on construction sites, doing work and bringing home a paycheck, now potentially find themselves going home without one, and important projects all across the country are left undone.

At the Department of Veterans Affairs, Secretary Shinseki often talks about the tyranny of distance – the distance that often separates Veterans from care at their nearest VA medical facilities. For about 3.3 million Vets, or 41 percent of the total enrolled in VA’s health care system, distance is more than a challenge. Distance can mean rural Veterans don’t have access to the care and services they’ve earned. 

Secretary Shinseki made it clear – this summer, he wanted to hear from Veterans in the hardest to reach places. “I know from previous experience that sitting in Washington with a 2,000-mile screwdriver trying to fine tune things at the local level never works,” he said. So, we hit the road to learn firsthand.

From the plains of North Dakota and Montana to the isolated island of Guam, Veterans from rural areas talked with Secretary Shinseki about what’s working and what the department can do better. To many Veterans, it was clear VA has shifted its approach to be more accessible. But we also quickly learned that standard definitions like “urban, rural, and highly rural” may not be exact enough.  Often, “remote, extreme rural, and inaccessible” is more accurate. 

The “inaccessible” category would definitely include Kwigillingok, Alaska, or Kwig, located in the far reaches of Central Yup’ik near the Bering Sea.  On Memorial Day, Secretary Shinseki visited Kwig to meet and honor living members of the Alaska Territorial Guard, who served bravely during World War II.  No roads lead to Kwig, so the trip wasn’t easy.  We hopped on a flight in Anchorage, and connected in the small town of Bethel – about 1,000 miles roundtrip. When we finally landed on the dirt landing strip in Kwig, villagers on all-terrain vehicles appeared from all over to give us rides to the village center. 

After President Obama spoke about a compromise to reduce the deficit and avert default, Jason Furman, Principal Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, was available on Twitter for Office Hours to answer questions on what the deal means for Americans and its impact on the economy. Tweeps around the country submitted questions with the hashtag #WHChat and Jason responded from the White House Twitter account, sometimes with a Twoosh (a Tweet with exactly 140 characters. A Tweet-swoosh, if you will). See the full Q&A below, or on Storify. 

If you missed today's Office Hours, Brian Deese, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, will be @WhiteHouse tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. EDT to answer more questions. Use #WHChat to ask a question and share your feedback on Office Hours and the online program with #WHWeb.

During White House Office Hours, Principal Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Jason Furman answers questions live from White House Twitter followers. August 2, 2011. (by Thomas Miller)

This afternoon, Congress approved a compromise to reduce the deficit and avert a default that would have devastated the economy. Speaking from the Rose Garden,  President Obama thanked the American people for reaching out to their elected officials during the debate, and stressed that this compromise guarantees more than $2 trillion in deficit reduction, and will ensure that as a nation we live within our means, while still making key investments in things that lead to new jobs, like education and research.

The President noted that this is just the first step, and that both parties must work together on a larger plan for the long-term health of our economy:

And since you can’t close the deficit with just spending cuts, we’ll need a balanced approach where everything is on the table.  Yes, that means making some adjustments to protect health care programs like Medicare so they’re there for future generations. It also means reforming our tax code so that the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations pay their fair share. And it means getting rid of taxpayer subsidies to oil and gas companies, and tax loopholes that help billionaires pay a lower tax rate than teachers and nurses. 

I’ve said it before; I will say it again: We can’t balance the budget on the backs of the very people who have borne the biggest brunt of this recession.  We can’t make it tougher for young people to go to college, or ask seniors to pay more for health care, or ask scientists to give up on promising medical research because we couldn’t close a tax shelter for the most fortunate among us.  Everyone is going to have to chip in.  It’s only fair.  That’s the principle I’ll be fighting for during the next phase of this process.   

The United States has a long, rich history of welcoming innovative entrepreneurs and skilled workers into our country.  These men and women fuel our nation’s economy by creating jobs, and promoting new technologies and ideas. Today, I joined Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and outlined a series of new policy, operational, and outreach efforts that will help fuel the nation’s economy and stimulate investment by making it easier for high-skill immigrants to start and grow companies and create jobs here in the United States.

Encouraging the kinds of streamlining measures USCIS is taking today has been one key focus of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness because they help ensure that America can continue to out-innovate and out-compete the world in a global economy.

As part of the Administration’s comprehensive effort to attract and retain high-skill entrepreneurs, USCIS announced today that it will:

• Clarify that immigrant entrepreneurs may obtain an employment-based second preference (EB-2) immigrant visa if they satisfy the existing requirements, and also may qualify for a National Interested Waiver under the EB-2 immigrant visa category if they can demonstrate that their business endeavors will be in the interest of the United States;
• Expand the Premium Processing Service to immigrant petitions for multinational executives and managers;
• Clarify when a sole employee-entrepreneur can establish a valid employer-employee relationship for the purposes of qualifying for an H-1B non-immigrant visa;
• Implement fundamental enhancements to streamline the EB-5 process based directly on stakeholder feedback;
• Launch new engagement opportunities to seek input and feedback on how to address the unique circumstances of entrepreneurs, new businesses and startup companies.

Today, I am also launching Conversations with the Director, a new series of small group meetings I will hold to discuss immigration issues important to communities around the country. The first meeting will focus on economic development and the EB-5 investor program.

For more information on USCIS and its programs, please visit www.uscis.gov or follow us on Twitter (@uscis), YouTube (/uscis) and the USCIS blog The Beacon. To read the Department of Homeland Security press release, click here.

We're just one week in to White House "Office Hours," a question and answer session with Administration officials on Twitter, submitted using the hashtag #WHChat. Today, Brian Deese, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, was back to answer your questions on the bipartisan debt deal anounced by President Obama last night. Have a look at a transcript of today's Office Hours below, or on Storify.

If you missed this session, check out the schedule for upcoming chances to join. Follow us at @WhiteHouse for the latest updates and use the hashtag  #WHWeb  to share your  feedback and ideas on how we can improve Office Hours and our online program.

During White House Office Hours, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Brian Deese answers questions from the public on the bipartisan debt deal through Twitter. August 1, 2011. (Photo by Deanne Chen)

The budget deal sets the stage for balanced deficit reduction.  It immediately makes a down payment on deficit reduction of more than $900 billion by limiting discretionary spending and sets up a new Joint Congressional Committee charged with recommending $1.5 trillion in additional deficit reduction by the end of the year.  As the President has said, that deficit reduction should be balanced and cut tax loopholes and expenditures just like it cuts traditional spending.

There are now reports that this Joint Committee won’t be able to raise revenue at all because of the way the budget deal is drafted.  That is simply wrong. 

The Joint Committee is tasked with deficit reduction, and the Committee can reduce the deficit by cutting spending and getting rid of tax loopholes and expenditures.  Everything is on the table, as it should be.

First, the Committee can consider getting rid of tax expenditures like subsidies for oil and gas companies or corporate jet owners. These types of tax changes have been a major part of the recent deficit reduction conversation and would be a smart part of an overall balanced plan. No one on any side can dispute that the Joint Committee could consider them.

Second, the Committee can consider the kind of revenue raising tax reform that has broad and growing bipartisan support.

The argument against this second claim is based on a misrepresentation of what is called “the baseline.”  The “baseline” is what deficit reduction is measured against.  Reports have suggested that the Committee would have to use a “current law” baseline—a baseline that assumes that all of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire along with relief from the Alternative Minimum tax.  That would mean that any tax reform effort that raised less revenue than allowing all those tax cuts to expire would be scored as increasing the deficit. Even conservative Republican proposals for “revenue neutral” tax reform would be scored under this approach as increasing the deficit by more than $3 trillion.  

However the claim that the Committee is required to follow this approach is simply false.

The Budget legislation specifically calls for deficit reduction – not simply spending cuts – and does not anywhere require the Committee to work off a current law baseline.  Nor does it preclude the Committee from requesting CBO estimates based on alternative baselines and using those estimates for purposes of the certifying the deficit reduction achieved in the Committee. 

In fact, Congressional requests to CBO to score proposals off different baselines happen as a matter of course. For example, at the request of members of Congress, CBO scored the deal being considered today using two different baselines. Or, to take another example—Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Budget Committee, requested that CBO score his budget “Roadmap” against an “alternative fiscal scenario,” which assumed extension of the tax cuts described above.  As CBO said in response to Chairman Ryan: “As you requested, the analysis in this letter compares the Roadmap with the alternative fiscal scenario.” Relative to that baseline, tax reform—like that proposed by the bipartisan Fiscal Commission and Gang of Six—would reduce the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars.

The bottom line is that the Joint Committee can reduce the deficit through tax reform and eliminating tax expenditures just like it can cut spending. What it ultimately does is up to the members of that Committee. We hope that they seize this an opportunity to come together and build on the down-payment in this deal to put the Nation on a sustainable fiscal course in a balanced way that cuts spending in the tax code as well in the rest of the budget.  The President believes that is possible and looks forward to working with both parties to accomplish this.

Gene Sperling is Director of the National Economic Council and Assistant to the President for Economic Policy

Six months ago, we joined together at the White House in a room packed full of entrepreneurs, to celebrate the launch of Startup America.  In President Obama’s words, “Startup America [is] a national campaign to help win the future by knocking down barriers in the path of men and women in every corner of this country hoping to take a chance, follow a dream, and start a business.” 

Throughout this Administration, we understand that young companies are responsible for virtually all new job growth across the U.S., and we are committed to accelerating entrepreneurial success.  So what has the Obama Administration accomplished over the past 180 days since launching the Startup America initiative?