US PRESIDENT BARACK Obama has pledged to help an unemployed engineer find a job during an online video chat with the American public last night.
Obama took part in a Google + video ‘hangout’ where he answered questions posted on YouTube and by text, responding to a handful of some 133,000 queries that were posted.
The White House billed the event as “the first online conversation to happen at the White House in real time — ever” as he answered questioned mostly concerning the economy – a key issue in the forthcoming election.
He also confirmed for what is thought to be the first time that the US carries out drone strikes in Pakistan, a rare public acknowledgement of the controversial air strikes.
One participant, Jennifer Weddel, a mother from Texas, asked the president why the country was continuing to give visas to foreign workers when her husband- an engineer – has been out of a job for the past three years.
Obama insisted that visas were only issueed to people with skills that were needed and said there was huge demand for engineers in the US, adding: “If you send me your husband’s resume I’d be interested in finding out exactly what’s happening right there because the word we’re getting is that somebody in that kind of hi-tech field, that kind of engineer, should be able to find something right away.”
Weddel promised to take the president up on his offer. Watch:
YouTube: GOPICYMI
Obama also confirmed for the first time that unmanned drones regularly strike suspected militnats in the tribal areas of Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan.
In what was a rare public acknowledgement of the drone operations, Obama said they were a “targeted focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists”:
YouTube: TheDailyConversation
Obama repeated his previously aired concerns about the two bills going through the US House of Representatives and Senate that are aimed at cracking down at online piracy.
He also addressed the issue of how much the US spends on foreign aid when it was stated by one questioner that money was being sent “to Pakistan and other countries that “give money to terrorism”.
“We only spend about 1 per cent of our budget on foreign aid but it pays off in a lot of ways because if we are contributing to improving an economy in a country,” he said.
The president also took a question from himself, sort of. Watch:
YouTube: CNNInternational
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