Pat Dollard

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Bloomberg: President Barack Obama marked his 100th day in office by telling Americans that “we’ve begun the work of remaking America.”

The president, speaking at a town hall meeting in the St. Louis suburb of Arnold, Missouri, said that while the U.S. still faces challenges in recovering from a recession, the country is making progress.

“We have begun to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off,” Obama said. “I’m pleased with the progress we’ve made, but I’m not satisfied. I’m confident in the future, but I’m not content with the present.”

Obama said he wants Congress to approve legislation revamping U.S. financial regulation by the end of this year, expressed hope for a potential auto deal to save Chrysler LLC from bankruptcy and reiterated a pledge to cut the budget deficit in half during his first term.

Over the next 100 days the president will be dealing with a host of thorny issues, including getting his proposals on the budget, health and energy pushed through Congress and dealing with the war in Afghanistan. The Democratic majorities in the House and Senate and continued high approval ratings give him a strong hand.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted April 23-26 found 61 percent of Americans approve the way Obama is handling his job. The poll of 1,005 adults has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. A New York Times/CBS News poll taken April 22-26 gave him a 68 percent approval rating.

Simultaneous Initiatives

The support has helped him press ahead with simultaneous initiatives on health care, energy and national security.

“The priorities that we’ve acted on are the things we said we would do during the campaign,” Obama said. “It’s not like anybody should be surprised.”

Answering questions from the audience, Obama repeated his stance that subjecting higher incomes to the Social Security payroll tax is the “best idea” for protecting the government retirement insurance system’s financial health. Making the wealthy “pay a little more payroll tax” is preferable to cutting Social Security benefits or raising the retirement age, Obama said.

The tax currently is applied to all income up to $102,000 a year. Obama proposed subjecting income above $250,000 to the tax — though at a lower rate — to keep the system solvent.

Chrysler Negotiations

On automakers, Obama endorsed a merger of Chrysler and Fiat SpA. The combination may help Chrysler make “fuel-efficient, clean-energy cars that’ll meet the needs of future markets,” Obama said. Chrysler is negotiating with lenders on a plan to cut its debt, a step needed to form the alliance.

Obama said environmental measures, such as his plan for a cap on carbon emissions, don’t require a choice between jobs and protecting the planet. “There’s a balance that can be struck, and the key principle is sustainability,” he said.

The 100-day milestone only represents the “beginning of another long journey” with many challenges ahead, Obama said.

“I’m not a miracle worker,” Obama said. “We’ve got a lot of tough choices and hard decisions and hard work ahead of us.”

As Obama marked his 100th day, the Commerce Department said the U.S. economy capped its worst six-month slump in more than 50 years, with gross domestic product dropping at a 6.1 percent annual pace during the first quarter of 2009. GDP contracted at a 6.3 percent rate during the last three months of 2008. The latest decline reflected a record slide in inventories and further declines in housing.

Not Surprising

Today’s GDP report is “not altogether surprising,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, saying it “demonstrates a pretty severe contraction in our economy over the course of the first three months of the year.”

The government also reported that consumer spending increased, which Gibbs described as “generally a very good economic statistic” that provides “some glimmers of hope.”

Since taking office Jan. 20, the 44th president has pushed for changes in U.S. economic, social and defense policies and reversed many of those put in place by his predecessor, Republican George W. Bush.

Obama has signed an order to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, enacted a law to make it easier for employees to sue for pay discrimination, extended health coverage to 4 million uninsured children, overturned restrictions on federal funding of stem cell-research and won passage of a $787 billion economic stimulus bill designed to revive an economy in recession.

Target Date

Obama has set Aug. 31, 2010, as the target for ending the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, assigned 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan, and called in Prague for steps to eliminate nuclear weapons. He declared in Turkey that America is “not at war with Islam,” and lifted restrictions on Cuban-Americans sending money to Cuba.

The president forced out General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner and replaced him with Fritz Henderson, and demanded changes at GM and Chrysler as a condition for further government aid.

The president got a political gift yesterday when Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter changed his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat, strengthening Obama’s hand in the Senate and boosting his agenda on health care, energy, education and the budget.

After the town-hall meeting, the president was scheduled to return to Washington for a press conference at 8 p.m. local time, his third prime-time White House appearance.