Saturday

President Barack Obama Weekly Address July 28, 2012 (Video/Transcript)


Remarks of President Barack Obama
The Weekly Address
The White House
July 28, 2012
This week, the Senate passed a plan that I proposed a few weeks ago to protect middle class Americans and virtually every small business owner from getting hit with a big tax hike next year – a tax hike of $2,200 for the typical family.
Now it comes down to this: If 218 Members of the House vote the right way, 98% of American families and 97% of small business owners will have the certainty of knowing that that their income taxes will not go up next year.
That certainty means something to a middle class family who’s already stretched the budget as far as it can go.  It means something to a small business owner who’s trying to plan ahead.  That’s security at a time when folks could use some.
And here’s the thing: everyone in Washington says they agree on this.  Everyone says they agree that we should extend the tax cuts for the middle class.  When Democrats and Republicans agree on something, it should be pretty easy to get it done. 
But right now, that’s not the case.  Instead of doing what’s right for middle class families and small business owners, Republicans in Congress are holding these tax cuts hostage until we extend tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
You see, Republicans in Congress and their nominee for President believe that the best way to create prosperity in America is to let it trickle down from the top.  They believe that if our country spends trillions more on tax cuts for the wealthy, we’ll somehow create jobs – even if we have to pay for it by gutting things like education and training and by raising middle-class taxes.
They’re wrong.  And I know they’re wrong because we already tried it that way for most of the last decade.  It didn’t work.  We’re still paying for trillions of dollars in tax cuts that benefitted the wealthiest Americans more than anyone else; tax cuts that didn’t lead to the middle class jobs or higher wages we were promised and that helped take us from record surpluses to record deficits.
We can’t afford more top-down economics.  What we need are policies that will grow and strengthen the middle class; that will help create jobs, make education and training more affordable, and encourage businesses to start up and stay right here in the United States.
That’s why I’ve cut middle-class taxes every year that I’ve been President – by $3,600 for the typical family.  That’s why I’ve cut taxes for small businesses eighteen times.  And that’s why I’m calling on 218 Members of the House to do their job and not raise taxes on the middle class.
As soon as they pass that bill, I’ll sign it right away.  And in the meantime, I’m going to keep fighting for an economy where we’re not just putting folks back to work, but making sure that work pays off – an economy where every American, no matter who you are, what you look like, or where you come from, can have the confidence that if you work hard, you can get ahead.
Thanks, and have a great weekend.

Tuesday

President Barack Obama Weekly Address July 22, 2012 (Video/Transcript)

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address

The White House

July 21, 2012
As many of you know, early on Friday, at least twelve people were killed when a gunman opened fire at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.  Dozens more are being treated for injuries at local hospitals.  Some of the victims are being treated at a children’s hospital.
We are still gathering all the facts about what happened, but we do know that the police have one suspect in custody.  And the federal government stands ready to do everything necessary to bring whoever’s responsible for this heinous crime to justice.  We will take every step possible to ensure the safety of all our people.  And we will stand by our neighbors in Colorado during this extraordinarily difficult time.
Even as we come to learn how this happened and who’s responsible, we may never understand what leads anyone to terrorize their fellow human beings.  Such evil is senseless – beyond reason.  But while we will never know fully what causes someone to take the life of another, we do know what makes that life worth living.
The people we lost in Aurora loved, and were loved.  They were mothers and fathers; husbands and wives; sisters and brothers; sons and daughters; friends and neighbors.  They had hopes for the future and dreams that were not yet fulfilled.  And if there’s anything to take away from this tragedy, it’s a reminder that life is fragile.  Our time here is limited and it is precious.  And what matters in the end are not the small and trivial things which often consume our lives.  It’s how we choose to treat one another, and love one another.  It’s what we do on a daily basis to give our lives meaning and to give our lives purpose.  That’s what matters.  That’s why we’re here.
I’m sure many of you who are parents had the same reaction I did when you first heard this news: what if it had been my daughters at the theater, doing what young children enjoy doing every day?  Michelle and I will be fortunate enough to hug our girls a little tighter this weekend, as I’m sure you will do with your children.  But for those parents who may not be so fortunate, we need to embrace them and let them know we will be there for them as a nation.
This weekend I hope everyone takes some time for prayer and reflection – for the victims of this terrible tragedy, for the people who knew them and loved them, for those who are still struggling to recover, and for all the victims of the less publicized acts of violence that plague our communities on a daily basis.  Let us keep all these Americans in our prayers.  And to the people of Aurora, may the Lord bring you comfort and healing in the hard days to come.

Sunday

Tax and Spend

Fareed Zakaria 
 published by the TIME Magazine

The most troubling aspect of June's job numbers--only 80,000 jobs were created last month--is that they are part of a new normal. Over the past two decades, U.S. economic recoveries have tended to be slow and jobless. In every recession from 1945 to 1990, jobs came back to prerecession levels six months after the economy returned to its prerecession level. But after the recession of the early 1990s, jobs came back 15 months later--though then employment grew vigorously. After the slowdown of the early 2000s, jobs took 39 months to come back. And this time, it may take about 60 months--five years!--for employment to return to prerecession levels, according to an analysis by McKinsey.

What happened? Over the past quarter-century, two large forces have swept the world: globalization and the information revolution. They have produced economic growth and innovation that has lifted tens of millions of people out of poverty in countries like China and India. They have helped make American businesses bigger, more global and more productive. They have given us consumer goods and services that were unimaginable at cheap prices. But these forces make it much easier to produce economic growth by using machines or workers in lower-wage countries. Hiring high-wage workers--that is, workers in Western countries--becomes a last resort.

While one can't disagree with the data, there is furious disagreement over everything else. On one side are those--mostly liberals--who say the economy is suffering from insufficient demand. That is, people and businesses are not buying things, and the only cure is for the government to step in, spend money and create demand.
On the other side, conservatives argue that the problem is not weak demand but obstacles on the supply side. Businesses and people would spend, this argument goes, if they were in an environment that encouraged them to do so. That means lowering taxes and reducing regulations.

In general, I accept the notion that a country needs to have a structure of taxes and incentives that reward growth. But what, specifically, would help? U.S. tax rates are relatively low, compared with what they were in the past or with those of other rich countries. Regulations haven't changed much in the past few years, so that can't explain the current slowdown. The crucial question is, rhetoric aside, What specific changes on the supply side would make a difference?

One of America's best businessmen has an answer. Fred Smith, the founder of Federal Express, argues that the key to job growth is stimulating private spending on capital goods and services. "There is only one statistic that is almost 100% correlated with job creation," he says, "and it is private investment in equipment and software." But what makes companies spend on equipment and software? More orders from customers or a better climate for business? The two are related. Sometimes businesses will simply create products, which then creates demand. Nobody asked for the iPad; Apple just created it. But most of the time, businesses hire workers once they see that customers are ordering their products again.


Smith argues that businesses could be given many more incentives to invest and create products. "Our tax code favors the financial sector, speculation and leverage at the expense of the capital-intensive or the industrial sector," he says. Smith advocates lowering U.S. corporate tax rates, which are the second highest in the industrialized world. The corporate tax brings in only 8% of federal tax revenue anyway, Smith points out. He also calls for a "territorial tax system," which would tax only domestic, rather than worldwide, income, bringing U.S. practice in line with most other rich countries'. And Smith supports more incentives for businesses to spend on equipment and software. Right now, because of tax and other policies, Smith notes, "if you have a dollar to invest, you are better off investing that dollar someplace other than the United States."
These are all good ideas--and the Obama Administration has acted on many of them already. (In fact, both Obama and Romney favor reducing the corporate tax rate.)


But if the investment produces jobs, why not also increase government investment? President Obama should announce a growth agenda that combines incentives for businesses to spend with policies that also get the government back in the business of investing--in bridges, highways, airports and other aspects of the U.S.'s aging 

infrastructure. If the goal is jobs and growth, it can't hurt to try all the best ideas, no matter where they come from.

President Barack Obama Weekly Address July 14, 2012 (Video/Transcript)



Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
The White House
July 14, 2012
Over the past couple weeks I’ve been talking with folks across the country about how we’re going to rebuild an economy where if you work hard, you and your family can get ahead.
And right now, there’s a big debate going on in Washington over two fundamentally different paths we can take as a country to do that.
One path – pushed by Republicans in Congress and their nominee for President – says that the best way to create prosperity is to let it trickle down from the top.  They believe that if we spend trillions more on tax cuts for the wealthy, it’ll somehow create jobs – even if we have to pay for it by gutting education and training and by raising middle-class taxes.
I think they’re wrong.  We already tried it that way for most of the last decade, and it didn’t work.  We’re still paying for trillions of dollars in tax cuts that benefitted the wealthiest Americans more than anyone else; tax cuts that didn’t lead to the rise in wages and middle class jobs that we were promised; and that helped take us from record surpluses to record deficits.
The last thing we need right now is more top-down economics.  What we need are policies that will grow and strengthen the middle class; that will help create jobs, make education and training more affordable, and encourage businesses to start up and stay right here in the United States.
Soon, we’ll face a choice between these two different approaches.  On January 1st, taxes are set to go up for tens of millions of Americans.  I think that would be a huge financial hit for middle-class families.  That’s why I’ve cut middle-class taxes every year that I’ve been President – by $3,600 for the typical family.  And that’s why, this week, I called on Congress to immediately stop the January 1st tax hike from hitting any American on the first $250,000 of their income.
Under my plan, 98% of American families won’t see their income taxes go up at all.  But the other 2% of Americans will have to pay a little more in taxes on anything they make over $250,000.  In other words, the wealthiest few Americans will go back to the income tax rates they were paying under Bill Clinton.  And if you remember, that was when our economy created nearly 23 million new jobs, the biggest budget surplus in history, and millionaires were doing pretty well.
The folks in Congress and on the campaign trail who oppose this plan warn that it would somehow hurt small businesses and job creators.  Well, they’re completely ignoring the facts.
Under my plan, 97% of small business owners would avoid getting hit with any income tax hike whatsoever.  In fact, I’ve cut taxes for small businesses eighteen times since I’ve been President.  And just this week, I ordered a series of new steps to help our small businesses grow and hire.
The only place we disagree is whether we keep giving tax cuts to the wealthiest 2% of Americans.  Republicans in Washington want more of those tax cuts.  With the deficit we have, I don’t think we can afford them.
But even if we disagree on the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, we all agree that no American should pay more taxes on the first $250,000 of their income.  So let’s at least agree to do what we all agree on.  That’s what compromise is all about.  Let’s not hold the vast majority of Americans and our entire economy hostage while we debate the merits of another tax cut for the wealthy.  Let’s skip the unnecessary drama, the needless delays and all the partisan posturing and let’s just do the right thing for the people who sent us here to serve.
And I’m going to keep fighting to make sure we rebuild an economy that rewards work, grows the middle class, and gives new opportunity to those trying to earn their way into the middle class.
Thanks, and have a great weekend.

Tuesday

Weekly Address July 7, 2012 (Video/Transcript)

Remarks of President Barack Obama
As Prepared for Delivery
Boardman, OH
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Hi, everybody.  I’m here in Ohio, where I’ve spent the past couple days talking with folks about our central challenge as a country – not just reclaiming all the jobs lost to the recession, but reclaiming the economic security that so many Americans have lost over the last decade.
Our mission isn’t just to put people back to work – it’s to rebuild an economy where that work pays; an economy in which everyone who works hard has the chance to get ahead.
For months, I’ve been pushing Congress to pass several common-sense ideas that will help us do that.  And on Friday, I signed into law a bill that will do two things for the American people.
First, it will keep thousands of construction workers on the job rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure.
Second, it will keep interest rates on federal student loans from doubling this year – which would have hit more than seven million students with about a thousand dollars more on their loan payments.
Those steps will make a real difference in the lives of millions of Americans.  But make no mistake: we’ve got more to do.
The construction industry was hit brutally hard when the housing bubble burst.  So it’s not enough to just keep construction workers on the job doing projects that were already underway.
For months, I’ve been calling on Congress to take half the money we’re no longer spending on war and use it to do some nation-building here at home.  There’s work to be done building roads and bridges and wireless networks.  And there are hundreds of thousands of construction workers ready to do it.
The same thing is true for our students.  The bill I’m about to sign is vital for millions of students and their families.  But it’s not enough to just keep their student loan rates from doubling.
For months, I’ve been calling on Congress to reform and expand the financial aid that’s offered to students.  I’ve been asking them to help us give two million Americans the opportunity to learn the skills that businesses in their area are looking for – right now – through partnerships between community colleges and employers. In America, a higher education cannot be a luxury reserved for just a privileged few.  It’s an economic necessity that every American family should be able to afford.  
Finally, I want to thank every American who took the time to sit down and write a letter, type out an e-mail, make a phone call or send a tweet hoping your voice would make a difference.  I promise you – your voice made all the difference.  And as long as I have the privilege of being your President, your voice will be heard in the White House.
Thanks and have a great weekend.

President Barack Obama Weekly Address June 30, 2012 (Video/Transcript)

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address

Colorado Springs, CO

June 30, 2012
 Hello, everybody.  I'm here in Colorado Springs, visiting some of the devastating fires that have been taking place over the last several days.  As many of you have been watching on television, entire communities are under threat. And we had a chance to tour some of the devastation that has been taking place in some of the subdivisions here.
Firefighters are working 18 hours a day, around the clock, trying to make sure that they get this blaze under control.  We've got volunteers who are out here who are making sure that these firefighters have the food and the water and all the resources that they need.  And we've been engaging in some unprecedented coordination between federal, state, and local communities to try to bring this fire under control.
And one of the things I've done here, in addition to saying thank you to these firefighters, is to let them know that all of America has their back.  One of the things that happens, whether it's a fire here in Colorado, or a tornado in Alabama or Missouri, or a flood or a hurricane in Florida, one of the things that happens here in America is when we see our fellow citizens in trouble and having difficulty, we come together as one American family, as one community.  And you see that spirit and you see that strength here in Colorado Springs, where people are working together, promising each other to rebuild.  We've got to make sure that we are there with them every step of the way, even after this fire is put out.
So for those of you who can provide some help, you should get on the online site of the American Red Cross.  They're very active in this community and you can make your contributions there.  We're going to continue to make sure that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Forest Service, our military and National Guard and all the resources that we have available at the federal level are brought to bear in fighting this fire.
But this is a good reminder of what makes us Americans.  We don't just look out for ourselves; we look out for each other.  And one of the things that I told these firefighters is that we can provide them all the resources they need, but only they provide the courage and the discipline to be able to actually fight these fires. And it's important that we appreciate what they do not just when our own communities are struck by disaster.  It's important that we remember what they do each and every single day, and that we continue to provide support to our first responders, our emergency management folks, our firefighters, our military -- everybody who helps secure our liberty and our security each and every day.
So, America, I hope you guys remember the folks during these times of need.  I know this is a little bit unusual -- we don't usually do weekly addresses like this, but I thought it was a good opportunity for us to actually focus attention on a problem that's going on here in Colorado Springs.  We never know when it might be our community that's threatened, and it's important that we're there for them.
Thank you very much.