The White House Blog: The Vice President
Watch: Vice President Biden's Opening Remarks at Business Roundtable in Beijing
Posted by on August 19, 2011 at 2:31 PM EDTVice President Joe Biden joined Chinese Vice President Xi and business leaders from both countries at a roundtable today in Beijing to discuss the business relationship between both countries. The Vice President reflected on the changes that have taken place since his first trip to the country more than 30 years ago, when he was part of the first Senate delegation that met withDeng Xiaoping, and expressed his great optimism about what the next 30 years hold. He also addressed the “real and perceived barriers that exist in both countries that have to be dealt with” and praised the “straightforward” conversations he has had with Vice President Xi throughout this visit.
“You have legitimate concerns about access to America. And I would argue we have legitimate concerns in reverse. But the trajectory -- the trajectory of the relationship is nothing but positive, and it’s overwhelmingly in the mutual interest of both our countries. And it’s presumptuous to say this, but I think it’s in the interest of the world. It’s in the interest of the world that we increase -- increase -- the interaction between not only our business community, but our economies writ large.
Obviously, economic issues have been a particular focus of the growing cooperation between the United States and China. Our governments are committed to and working hard to promote economic growth. It’s strong. It’s sustainable, and it is balanced, fair and open. Bilateral trade and investment between the United States and China, as is pointed out, is growing rapidly in both directions. We’d like it to go even more rapidly in terms of investment in the United States because it creates jobs and it creates economic opportunities in both countries.
Watch This: Vice President Joe Biden Has Lunch at a Snack Shop in Beijing
Posted by on August 19, 2011 at 12:00 PM EDTVice President Joe Biden's stop at a local lunch spot near the Drum and Bell Tower neighborhood in Old Beijing on the first day of his official visit has all of China talking. Embassy Beijing’s post about the traditional lunch fare he ordered – pork buns, zhajiang noodles and cucumbers -- on one of the most popular Chinese microblogs, Sina, received over 6,400 retweets and 3,000 comments in less than an hour. Joining the Vice President at lunch were newly installed U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke and his wife Mona, plus Vice President’s daughter-in-law Kathleen and granddaughter Naomi, who are traveling with him through Asia.
For more information about the Vice President's trip to Asia, check out these photo galleries from day one and day two and watch his first travelogue from the road. You can follow the Vice President's trip in real time on Twitter, #VPinAsia.
Watch This: Vice President Joe Biden Talks About his Meetings in China
Posted by on August 19, 2011 at 10:56 AM EDTIn his first travelogue, sent from Beijing, Vice President Joe Biden talks about meetings with his counterpart, Vice President Xi of China, focused on how we can grow our economy and create jobs.
For more information about the Vice President's trip to Asia, check out these photo galleries from day one and day two. You can follow the Vice President's trip in real time on Twitter, #VPinAsia
VP in Asia Day One: Beijing, China
Posted by on August 18, 2011 at 10:08 PM EDTIt was a busy and productive day in Beijing for Vice President Biden – one that began and ended at the Great Hall of the People. An elaborate welcome ceremony in the Northern Hall served as the official kickoff to Vice President Biden’s visit to China. Bilateral meetings with Vice President Xi and National People’s Congress Chair Wu Bangguo followed in the Eastern and Fujian Rooms. Finally, a banquet dinner in the Western Room capped the evening, complete with a cultural performance that included traditional Chinese song and dance.
Following the official ceremony, the Vice Presidents and their delegations gathered for their first formal meeting, where Vice President Biden reiterated the economic importance of a strong U.S.-China relationship. “I’m absolutely confident that the economic stability of the world rests in no small part on the cooperation between the United States and China. …It is the key, in my view, to global economic stability,” said Vice President Biden.
But it was the Vice President’s visit to a local lunch spot near the Drum and Bell Tower neighborhood in Old Beijing that had China talking. Embassy Beijing’s post about the traditional lunch fare he ordered – pork buns, zhajiang noodles and cucumbers -- on one of the most popular Chinese microblogs, Sina, received over 6400 retweets and 3000 comments in less than an hour. Joining the Vice President at lunch were newly installed U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke and his wife Mona, as well as the Vice President’s daughter-in-law Kathleen and granddaughter Naomi who are traveling with him through Asia.
Strengthening U.S.-China Relations through Sports
Posted by on August 17, 2011 at 1:48 PM EDT
Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke greet the Georgetown Mens basketball team in their locker room before an expo game against China, in Beijing, China, August 17, 2011. August 17, 2011. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)
Shortly after arriving in Beijing, Vice President Biden joined Georgetown men's basketball fans at the Olympic Sports Center to cheer on the Hoyas in an exhibition game against the Shanxi Zhongyu Brave Dragons -- a member of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA).
The team's two-week visit to China reflects an ongoing push to expand people-to-people exchanges between our two countries, as well as an effort to strengthen the U.S.-China relationship through sport.
#VPinAsia on Twitter
Posted by on August 16, 2011 at 3:00 PM EDTEarlier today, Vice President Biden departed for Beijing, China, the first stop on a nine-day swing through Asia that also includes visits to Mongolia and Japan. While this may be his first visit to Asia as Vice President, as a Senator, Vice President Biden traveled extensively throughout Asia, including to China in 1979 as part of the first Senate delegation to the country after normalization.
This time, the Vice President is visiting China at the invitation of Vice President Xi Jinping – the first of the planned reciprocal visits between the Vice Presidents announced by President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao during his state visit to Washington earlier this year. One of the primary purposes of the trip is to get to know Vice President Xi. Bottom line – this visit is an investment in the future of the U.S-China relationship.
Our partners at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and the five consulates around China are also using the Vice President’s visit as an opportunity to share American culture and values with Chinese netizens by microblogging and blogging about the trip in Chinese. Their followers on the two largest microblog sites in China – Sina and QQ – number over 1 million. Posts about the Office of the Vice President, interesting facts about Vice President Biden, his upcoming trip to Chengdu, Dr. Biden’s recent call for famine aid to Africa, and Peace Corps Volunteers in Sichuan have generated thousands of positive comments and retweets from Chinese netizens.
Famine in Somalia: The Lives We Can Save
Posted by on August 12, 2011 at 9:41 AM EDTThis week, Dr. Jill Biden visited Kenya with Senator Bill Frist, USAID Administrator Raj Shah, Assistant Secretary of State Eric Schwartz, and Special Assistant to the President Gayle Smith to bring attention to the humanitarian crisis as thousands of Somalis flee famine and seek refuge in Kenya and Ethiopia. Courtney O’Donnell, Communications Director to Dr. Jill Biden, also traveled with Dr. Biden and visited the world's largest refugee camp. The camp was originally built for 90,000 people, but now has more than 420,000 Somalis who have traveled there seeking aid. Upon her return, Courtney shared her experience with More.com:
In the weeks prior to our trip, Dr. Biden had seen the news reports and the images from the region and wanted to find a way to help. So the goal of our trip was a simple one - to try to bring attention to this famine and the need for aid, and to tell the stories of the people we met. As Communications Director, my role is to find ways to make more people aware of this need and get the message across to as many people as possible.
While our government and others around the world have acted to support the region, there is an urgent need for individuals to act. The pace of the famine is relentless, and without additional assistance, hundreds of thousands of children could die of starvation and disease in the coming months.
Already more than 29,000 children under the age of five have died in the past three months in the region. In an interview with More.com, Courtney reflected on how the trip impacted her as a mother:
Vice President Biden Talks to State and Local Officials
Posted by on August 3, 2011 at 7:39 PM EDTThis afternoon, Vice President Joe Biden joined over 440 state, local, tribal and territorial officials on a call to talk about the debt ceiling deal signed by President Obama on August 2 and the Administration's ongoing economic priorities.
Vice President Biden thanked the many state and local officials who spoke out during the debate for a balanced, bipartisan approach to the debt negotiations. He talked about the tough budget choices that state and local officials make every day, and discussed the President's insistence that costs not be passed on to state and local governments that can ill afford more budget cuts during these times. He also highlighted the significance of preserving funding for infrastructure, education and innovation to help grow the economy and create jobs.
Following the Vice President, Jason Furman of the National Economic Council took questions from local officials on the call. These city and county leaders echoed the President’s remarks yesterday that now, with the debt ceiling raised and calamity averted, the conversation urgently needs to turn to job creation. Officials from North Carolina to Pennsylvania to Utah thanked the Administration for their efforts to stimulate job growth and encouraged federal officials to continue to push for programs that create jobs in states and cities.
As always, we appreciated the chance to speak with a large group of state and local elected officials. And while it was great to hear from many officials on the call, we did not get a chance to answer everyone’s questions, so we encourage you to send your questions about the debt deal, the President’s commitment to helping state and local governments, the Administration's jobs agenda, and other topics to iga@who.eop.gov. We’ll feature responses to your questions in upcoming blog posts.
David Agnew is a Deputy Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs
Cut Waste and SAVE
Posted by on July 14, 2011 at 2:17 PM EDTToday, we launched the third annual SAVE Award (Securing Americans Value and Efficiency) – a contest for federal employees to submit ideas about how to cut waste, save taxpayer dollars, and make government more effective and efficient.
Over the past two years, OMB has received more than 56,000 cost-cutting ideas through the SAVE Award from federal employees from across the country. The ideas range from stopping the overnight, express delivery of empty containers to allowing people to make appointments with their Social Security office online and ending the printing and shipping to employees across the country of thousands of Federal Register volumes that could be read online.
These ideas have made a difference. The President’s last two budgets each included approximately 20 SAVE Award ideas. Already, those submissions are saving hundreds of millions of dollars, rooting out redundancy and waste, and giving the American people a more accountable government.
Wasting taxpayer dollars is unacceptable at anytime, but particularly when we face huge budget deficits. That’s why this year’s SAVE Award is a critical part of the recently launched Campaign to Cut Waste – an Administration-wide initiative to hunt down and eliminate wasted tax dollars in every agency and department across the federal government.
The idea behind the SAVE Award is the belief that federal employees on the front lines know better than anyone where there is waste to cut and how to make government more effective and efficient. If you’re a federal employee, please take a minute and send us your idea. You will help your government, your fellow citizens, and if you win, will get to present your idea directly to the President.
Make no mistake: these ideas alone aren’t going to close the deficit of fix our fiscal situation, but they are critical to making sure that the American people can trust their government to treat every tax dollar with the same care and attention they do.
So, if you’re a member of the federal workforce, please send us your idea, and for everyone else, stay tuned as we will ask your help in picking the winner.
As Vice President Biden wrote in an Op-Ed today, “This effort involves more than just eliminating fraud and waste; it means instilling a new culture of efficiency, of responsiveness, of accountability. We're changing the way government does business. We're working to give the American people the government they expect - and deserve.”
Kenneth Baer is Senior Advisor and Associate Director for Communications and Strategic Planning at the White House Office of Management and Budget.
Calling All Federal Employees: We Need Your Help to Cut Wasteful Spending
Posted by on July 14, 2011 at 12:08 PM EDTToday, Vice President Biden sent an email announcing the launch of the 2011 SAVE Award to federal employees who participated in the SAVE Award in 2009 and 2010. The SAVE Award is a chance for federal employees from across the government to submit their ideas for efficiencies and savings as part of the annual Budget process.
The Vice President also published an op-ed in McClatchy newspapers about delivering the American taxpayers an accountable government.
If you're a federal employee, be sure to submit your ideas before July 29, 2011.
As one of the outstanding federal employees who has participated in the SAVE Award in previous years, you should be the first to know that submissions for the 2011 SAVE Award are open.
We need your help in identifying ways to cut wasteful federal spending. If you have an idea, take a few minutes right now to submit it -- and let your co-workers know about this great opportunity:
The SAVE award is a critical part of the Campaign to Cut Waste that President Obama and I announced last month. The Campaign is an Administration-wide initiative to hunt down and eliminate wasteful spending and make government work better. Our goal is efficient spending of every tax dollar, in every agency and department across the federal government.
We know that federal employees like you know the most about how government works – and in some cases, doesn’t work as efficiently as it should.
Over the past two years, federal workers have submitted more than 56,000 cost-cutting ideas to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review through the SAVE Award. The ideas you submitted through the 2009 and 2010 SAVE Awards were sent to the appropriate agency for review and dozens were included in the President’s budget proposals.
Last year’s winner, Trudy Givens, proposed that the federal government stop printing and mailing copies of the Federal Register to thousands of federal employees each day since the same information is available online. Trudy, her husband and her daughter got a chance to discuss her idea with President Obama in the Oval Office last year.
You could be this year’s winner and meet with President Obama, so make sure you visit WhiteHouse.gov/Save-Award and submit your idea before July 29, 2011.
Folks, we know that these ideas alone aren’t going to eliminate the deficit or fix our fiscal situation, but they are critical to making sure the American people can trust their government to spend their tax dollars wisely – and to make sure that we are directing resources to the investments that will create good jobs and grow the economy.
I’m looking forward to hearing your ideas.
Sincerely,
Vice President Joe Biden
P.S. Today, I published an op-ed about delivering an accountable government to the American taxpayers. You can read it here.
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