A one-on-one interview with President Obama by Cleveland's own Robyn Simone of Radio One's 93.1 WZAK FM in Cleveland, Ohio's R&B, classic and soul leader in Black radio, Obama urges early voting, talks about Romney's anti-middle class tax cut proposal, Obamacare, foreclosures, medicaid and medicare, and gun violence following the killings this year at Chardon High School in Chardon, Ohio
From the Metro Desk of Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper (www.clevelandurbannews.com) (A one-on-one interview with President Barack Obama undertaken by Robyn Simone of Radio One's 93.1 WZAK FM Radio Station in Cleveland during a campaign visit by the president to Cleveland to urge Ohioans to vote, and to vote early). CLICK HERE ON THIS LINK TO FIND YOUR VOTING LOCATION IN OHIO
CLEVELAND,Ohio-Ohio is a key
battleground state on the road to the White House and President Barack Obama, through the Obama for America Campaign , gave Cleveland, OH its respect as
he acknowledged the majority Black city's number one R&B, classic and soul leader by giving Radio One's WZAK 93.1 FM radio personality Robyn Simone an exclusive one-on-one interview. (Editor's note: Read the one-on-one interview below this brief synopsis).
America's first Black president is reaching out to urban radio stations
all over the country and courting the Black vote, just as he did in 2008. And during the interview with Simone, which aired on WZAK, Obama talks about medicare and medicaid, foreclosures, and efforts by Mitt Romney and the Republicans to cut taxes for the rich on the backs of the middle class and the poor. The president also discusses Obamacare, and he speaks on gun violence in response to the shootings earlier this year by T.J. Lane in the Chardon High School cafeteria, shootings in the Chardon, OH. community that left three students dead and several people injured.
The assistant program director and mid-day radio personality for WZAK who has been burning up the radio airwaves since 1998, Simone has made waves as a true leader and professional in her field. Her herein one-on-one interview with President Obama reminds the Black community, particularly in urban cities in the pivotal state of Ohio such as Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo, Akron, Youngstown and East Cleveland, of the importance of voting, and voting early.
The following interview was transcribed by Cleveland Urban News. Com Reporter Johnette Jernigan from a previously aired radio segment audio with the permission of Simone and Radio One's 93.1 WZAK FM.
INTERVIEW
The following interview was transcribed by Cleveland Urban News. Com Reporter Johnette Jernigan from a previously aired radio segment audio with the permission of Simone and Radio One's 93.1 WZAK FM.
INTERVIEW
Robyn Simone of Radio One's 93.1 WZAK FM Radio in Cleveland: We’re trying
to get this thing together here.
United States of America President Barack Obama: I know that’s right.
Simone: We've got to vote! This election is so crucial.
What do
we lose if we don’t vote?
Obama: Let me describe just what the choice is here.
Mr.
Romney’s main economic agenda is returning to basically what we
tried under
Bush. He’s just going to do more of
it. Not only is he
going to redo the Bush tax cuts,
he’s going to do more of it. He’s
proposing a $5 trillion tax cut most of
which goes to wealthy
Americans. The
average tax cut for folks making more than $3
million a year would be
$250,000.00 a year. We just saw
a study that said the only way you can pay for that is for
middle class families
to pay an average of an extra $2,000 a
year.
Simone: Wow, we can’t
afford that?
Obama: I know you can’t. This is a pocketbook issue for middle
class
families. This does not even include all the cuts he’s
[Romney] proposed in education like
the community colleges, and
the work we’re doing for job training to the housing
assistance
and programs that obviously that are necessary to help Cleveland
rebuild. [Whether it is] rebuilding roads and bridges that can put
people back to work, summer jobs
programs, you name it, he’s
[Romney] looking to cut all that and he’s talking about [attacking]
medicare and slashing medicaid.
Simone: What about foreclosures, because still in Ohio they are at
some families have been helped, but there are
a lot of families that
are still struggling with foreclosures.
Obama: The housing market is
slowly beginning to improve. We
have been really pushing Congress to pass a
bill that would allow
every homeowner to refinance at historically low rates, and that
would save the average family about $3,000 a year, which
obviously
would be good for the economy as a whole because
people would then have more
money to spend.
Simone: We've got to talk about gun violence because a lot of
people are concerned here in Northeast Ohio, which is going
through a tragedy in the Chardon, Ohio community, and now the
place?
Obama: Well, I think what we
need to do is pull everybody
together, including
law enforcement, faith based communities and
elected officials, and just have a
discussion generally about how
we reduce violence. There is no reason why we
should not be
strengthening background checks and making sure we don’t have
AK7's and automatic rifles on the streets.
But part of it has to do with what kind of mental health services
that are being made
available in poor communities, including in
African American and Latino communities. These communities are
often underfunded when
it comes to mental health. It’s important
for us to have positive situations inside of schools so everything
we’re doing on school reform is important. The more we give
young people positive paths
to move forward where they can see
where their lives are going, the less likely
they are to engage in
destructive violent behavior, so that has to be a
priority.
Simone: On Obamacare, how did you feel
when [the U.S. Supreme Court upheld The Affordable Care Act earlier this year]?
Obama: What was
satisfying was knowing that 30 million
people who don’t have health insurance are
going to be able to get
it, and if you already have health insurance the
insurance
companies won’t be able to jerk you around in the same ways
they've done in the past. People are going to get free preventive
care and young people
will be able to stay on their parents plans
until they are 26 years old. All those things, and knowing how
many families I've met that would be impacted by it, makes all
this worthwhile.
Simone: The platform you
started with hope and change, what is
going to be the platform theme for the
next four years cause I
already know you are going to win this thing?
Obama: It’s still about hope
and change, its still about believing
in America and believing in American
workers and American
manufacturing American energy cause we have the best tools
to
beat any nation. We have the best
workers, the best
entrepreneurs. We have all the ingredients for us to compete,
we
just have to solve some of our political problems in Washington.
That’s why people turning out to vote this time out is so
important. So if you are listening here
today, take the time, get
registered, make sure you’re vote especially you young
people out
there, you have no excuse.
The whole thing will take you 15
minutes and you will have the
satisfaction of knowing that you are
making the country better.
To follow Robyn Simone at Radio One's 93.1 WZAK FM
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