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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Obama tweets about jobs, debt

Twitter town hall includes message from Boehner

President Barack Obama tweets during a “Twitter town hall” in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Wednesday. (Associated Press)
Peter Nicholas Tribune Washington bureau

WASHINGTON – In a presidency full of firsts, President Barack Obama racked up another one: first sitting president to “tweet” live from the White House.

Obama strode to a laptop set up in the East Room on Wednesday, splayed his fingers in classic touch-type position and “tweeted” out a question: “In order to reduce the deficit, what costs would you cut and what investments would you keep? BO.”

With that, the first-ever Twitter town hall was under way. Obama sat on a high stool and fielded questions submitted via the trendiest of social media tools.

He didn’t make news, but that wasn’t really the point. As ever with the tech-obsessed White House staff, the goal was to give an online audience an unfiltered dose of Barack Obama.

The questions weren’t softballs. “Shnaps” seemed to think Obama was forsaking the free market. Then there was a question about jobs.

“After embarking on a record spending binge that’s left us deeper in debt, where are the jobs?” read the message from @johnboehner.

That would be House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Noting Boehner’s political leanings, Obama called the question “slightly skewed.” He conceded that job growth hasn’t been fast enough, but then turned it around and asked why Boehner and other lawmakers won’t pay for road, sewer and bridge projects that could put people to work right away.

With the economy sputtering, the questions centered on domestic issues. People sent in nearly 170,000 questions and comments. Obama answered 18 before reviewing the replies to his inaugural tweet.

“RenegadeNerd” asked if Obama would raise the debt ceiling on his own, bypassing Congress on the grounds that it would be unconstitutional for the U.S. not to pay its bills. That’s a strategy some Democrats want Obama to employ. As Obama pressures Congress to raise the debt ceiling, some lawmakers have advanced the argument that the whole idea of a debt ceiling may be unconstitutional.

“I don’t think we should even get to the constitutional issue,” Obama said. “Congress has a responsibility to make sure we pay our bills. We’ve always paid them in the past.”